This is not a new adaptation of the same story, this is a bad copy of an existing movie. Most of it is literally copied from "Oldeuboi" (2003), and what was altered was changed to the worse. I suppose there would be no changes at all if there was no American puritanism. Only the sickest things were changed to adjust the movie for the western market, which is best seen in the way they mutilated ending. Spike Lee made a remake so lousy that I don't understand why Samuel L. Jackson had agreed to play in it. The only positive impression on me was left by the sweetness of Elizabeth Olsen, but no matter how much I enjoyed watching her, she failed to make me overlook how much everything else in the film was bad. I have a feeling that today too many movies rely on seduction of the male audience's by beautiful / cute / sexy girls, as well as the female part of it with the handsome actors, and on megalomaniac special effects, while the true values of the seventh art are neglected. This brings fast profits at the cinema box office, but there are fewer and fewer movies that can withstand test of time and not be forgotten as soon as something new comes out. If I had not seen the Korean version, I might have rated this bit higher, but the impression left by the original is too strong to be able to avoid comparing them throughout the whole duration of the remake. And compared to the original, the remake is really poor.
5/10
