Spike Lee’s ‘Oldboy’ Remake Trailer

UK Release Date: 6th December 2013

Stars: Spike Lee (director), Josh Brolin, Elizabeth Olsen, Samuel L. Jackson, Sharlto Copley, Lance Reddick, Michael Imperioli, Max Casella.

Plot: An advertising executive is kidnapped and held hostage for 20 years in solitary confinement. When he is inexplicably released, he embarks on an obsessive mission to discover who orchestrated his punishment, only to find he is still trapped in a web of conspiracy and torment.

Remakes happen. In the past few years of cinema it’s very hard to find a film that is not a remake or a sequel or an adaptation of something. But there are some things that should be left alone. And you can’t help but think that this Korean CLASSIC should have been left alone. But apparently it needed to be remade for an audience that can not be bothered with subtitles.

Saying that though, the material seems to be in very strong hands. The trailer looks fantastic, heightening expectations and building anticipation. The cast that has been brought together is pretty strong and Spike Lee clearly knows what he is doing. There are a lot of things in the trailer that fans of the original will be glad are still here: the hammer scene, the video-game-esque fight scene.

However, the most worrying thing for me is the content change. One of the best parts of the Korean Oldboy was the theme of incest. But of course that has to be dropped because an American audience couldn’t possible be confronted with such a taboo theme in the mainstream of pop culture. This means that elements do have to be shifted somewhat largely from the original and it does become more about the revenge rather than the relationships between characters. Hopefully Oldboy does not become just a generic action film (albeit a brilliant one) but I long for it to remain as a wonderful piece of cinema, like the Korean version.

‘The Five Year Engagement’ Trailer

UK Release Date: 27th April 2012.

The Five Year Engagement is Judd Apatow’s latest production. It has been co-written by Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller who co-wrote The Muppets, with Stoller also directing this time round.

The Five Year Engagement is a romantic comedy following Tom (Jason Segel) and Violet (Emily Blunt) as their relationship becomes strained from the continued delays to their wedding once they have gotten engaged.

The trailer offers a few laughs here and there. Female audiences might find Emily Blunt’s attempts at quirky comedy to be funnier than I did but I can see that getting annoying if it continues throughout the film.

But is there really any point in going to see this film? The trailer tells you the whole story in less than three minutes. So, after this, it will be difficult for the movie to actually have any unpredictability factor about it at all.

The Woman In Black

UK Cinema Release: 10th February 2012.

Much of the hype surrounding this film up to it’s release is based around the fact that it is Daniel Radcliffe’s first big screen outing since the ending of the Harry Potter franchise, however this is not the reason I am looking forward to it.

During high school I went to see the stage version of the story and found it incredibly entertaining and very chilling to watch, it is among the scariest things I have ever witnessed. Thus, I have high hopes for the film.

The trailer does enough to get across what the movie is about and what themes it may contain. Important aspects from the story are involved in the trailer, but you will not know what they are unless you have read the book before, so it will appeal to people who know the story but there might not be enough to grab the mainstream movie viewer. The combination of chilling chimes overlapped with a small child’s poem is enough to make your spine tingle. Follow this with a VERY small glimpse of ‘the woman in black’ behind Daniel Radcliffe in the window and it definitely gets across how chilling the film will be.

I’ll certainly be going to see this when it comes out. What about you?