Sadly, this remake of Park Chan-wook’s revered revenger isn’t the comeback fans might’ve hoped for. If Oldboy 2.0 teaches us anything, it’s that hyper-stylised violence doesn’t come as naturally to the Brooklynite as his South Korean counterpart.

Where Park brought a deranged glee to the hammer blows and head shots, Lee’s take is notably grimmer. What’s more, there’s little in the way of outlandishness to offset the brutality. Never willing to follow its predecessor into the realms of delirium, this Oldboy becomes an onerous slog, only slightly enlivened by its twist ending.

Less sympathetic than the original’s Choi Min-sik, the anti-hero at the dark heart of Lee’s film is an alcoholic scoundrel named Joe Doucett (an exceedingly sullen Josh Brolin). Awakening from his latest bender, he finds himself trapped in a squalid room that will become his prison for the next 20 years.

Spending these decades sculpting himself into a blunt force weapon and spoiling for a fight, he goes gunning for his tormentors the moment he’s unexpectedly released. The only problem? He hasn’t a clue who they are or why they locked him away.

After striking up an unlikely alliance-with-benefits with a medical worker (Elizabeth Olsen), Joe crosses paths and then swords with baddies played by a mohawked Samuel L. Jackson and scenery-devouring Sharlto Copley, who seem to think they’re auditioning for The Spirit 2 and a Phantom Of The Paradise revival respectively.

While their over-the-top performances are problematic in their own right, they also illustrate just how low Lee has set said ‘top’ for his film, leaving it stiflingly contained when it should be unhinged.

Naturally, Lee and DOP Sean Bobbitt take a shot at recreating Park’s celebrated single-shot hallway fight, in which our protagonist takes out a legion of thugs through sheer badassery. In a lone instance of one-upmanship, Lee’s version takes the melee to another level (which is to say, a second storey)

But where such dazzle was the norm in the earlier film, it’s an isolated incident here, as conspicuous as an exit wound.

The post Oldboy (2013) review appeared first on Game News.

How I Met Your Mother star Josh Radnor’s second movie as writer/director/actor (after 2010’s Happythankyoumoreplease ) is a cute, funny indie charmer, with a twist of sadcore wit that’s just slightly too self-conscious.

Radnor plays a thirtysomething literature-lover who’s been drifting through his adult life ever since graduating in English with a history minor.

But a return to university leads to a meet-cute with 19-year-old student Zibby (Elizabeth Olsen), who triggers romance, nostalgia and his late-bloom coming-of-age.

She’s 19. He’s 35.

He’s done the maths. And Radnor’s campus romcom is full of characters who feel nudged from their niche: adults who wish they were back at uni and students who wish they were out in the world.

It’s witty and heartfelt but – perhaps a hangover from Radnor’s sitcom style – too much of the dialogue feels written down and read out rather than spur-of-the- moment spoken.

Radnor’s an easy actor to watch, mind, although not a patch on his glowing co-star.

Almost too good to be true, Olsen’s the girl that shy, bookish guys only really meet in the movies.

Elsewhere, Zac Efron can’t do much as a lazily written slacker full of equally meaningless life mantras.

But there’s a much-needed pulse of reality from reluctant retiree Richard Jenkins and Allison Janney as an English professor who’s sick of “effete, over-articulate manboys”.

Lines – and performances – like that help Radnor avoid the same inertia affecting his character.

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