Remake: Oldboy

Another tip for the bad idea file: /film is reporting Will Smith & Steven Speilberg plan on remaking Chan-Wook Park's Oldboy

Speilberg & Will Smith to remake Oldboy?

There is no reason to remake this movie, but Hollywood's going to do it eventually anyway. It's been in the pipeline since the original was released in the states in 2005. But Will Smith is a very odd choice for this -- I don't think he has the gritty sneer to be able to pull of the titular character. Spielberg is an odd choice as well, considering the dark tone and feel of the film. And how will the hyper-but purposeful-violence of the original translate in a senseless Hollywood version?

Who knows. Who cares. Here's the side-scrolling hammer fight sequence that made the original Oldboy famous. Go rent this flick if you haven't seen it.



Hollywood, you disappoint me.

Revisit: Love Me If You Dare

A Paramount Classics release 2003

Directed by
Yann Samuell

Writing credits
Jacky Cukier
Yann Samuell

As adults, best friends Julien (Guillaume Canet) and Sophie (Marion Cotillard) continue the odd game they started as children -- a fearless competition to outdo one another with daring and outrageous stunts. While they often act out to relieve one another's pain, their game might be a way to avoid the fact that they are truly meant for one another.



While at times wonderful to look at, Love Me If You Dare suffers from that sort of French cinematic whimsy that starts off sweet but ends in a dizzy spell. The protagonists are two of the most mean-spirited characters I've ever seen, and the events in their life represent nothing grounded in reality or truth. Rather, the film is carried along by this sort of lovesick current, a strand of illogical, emotionally driven beats. The effect makes certain scenes hard to swallow, while others seem fatastic and otherworldly. Not for the cynical or the black-hearted.