Oldboy

A revenge flick with an intriguing premise and a lame payoff, Oldboy tells the story of a man who is kidnapped and imprisoned in a hotel room for 15 years. Completely cut off from human contact, his only company is a television and the occasional drugging and beating by his unseen guards. Then, he is finally released into the world and must find out who locked him up and why. Lovely cinematography, some mediocre fight scenes and a lot of torturous violence almost save this movie from its inability to come to a satisfying end. At two hours, it’s also overly long. However, it is scheduled for a remake by an American movie studio, so maybe they’ll work out the kinks, dumb it down and add a lot of stuff that blows up or get naked. Until then, I’d give this one a pass.