Oldboy
FilmDistrict | Release Date: November 27, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
49
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
18
Negative:
11
Watch Now
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
39
Film.comDavid EhrlichNov 26, 2013
A slumming Spike Lee is still better than most directors at the top of their game, but Oldboy isn’t just Lee’s worst movie, it’s practically his “Wicker Man”. Read full review
38
Philadelphia InquirerDavid HiltbrandNov 27, 2013
The sheer brutality of Oldboy is stunning, especially a deeply disturbing scene in which Brolin tortures Samuel L. Jackson. But this is an unrelievedly grim and hermetic experience throughout, the cinematic equivalent of blunt trauma. Read full review
38
Rolling StonePeter TraversNov 27, 2013
What's onscreen feels squeezed, truncated and curiously embalmed. It's got no kick to it. Read full review
38
New York PostLou LumenickNov 26, 2013
The feel-bad movie of the holiday season, Spike Lee’s often-repellent Americanized reimagining of Korean director Chan-Wook Park’s twisty 2004 revenge thriller Oldboy is relentlessly gruesome, self-consciously shocking and pretty much pointless. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsNov 26, 2013
The revenge in Oldboy is neither sweet nor sour; it's just drab. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineJesse CataldoNov 26, 2013
Spike Lee's version loses the one thing that really worked in the original, the sense of moral complication emerging out of the intertwined action of two men hell-bent on retribution. Read full review
30
SlateDana StevensNov 27, 2013
His (Lee) Oldboy is relentlessly unpleasant and difficult to watch, without offering audiences much moral or aesthetic payoff for its hour and 40 minutes of graphic violence and abject degradation. Oldboy is both original and uncompromising, I’ll give it that—it just doesn’t happen to be any good. Read full review
30
VarietyJustin ChangNov 26, 2013
Lee and Protosevich have made a picture that, although several shades edgier than the average Hollywood thriller, feels content to shadow its predecessor’s every move while falling short of its unhinged, balls-out delirium. Read full review
20
The TelegraphTim RobeyDec 5, 2013
Other than sniggering about what an outré stereotype they’ve served up, it’s hard to see how Lee and Copley can justify this performance, which is quite the worst of the year, and sends the whole final act of their movie straight to oblivion. Read full review
10
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekNov 26, 2013
Colorless and soulless in the extreme, it bears no one's fingerprints at all. There's no reason for this Oldboy to exist. It's so DOA, you stumble out of it wanting to eat something alive. Read full review
0
ObserverRex ReedNov 27, 2013
The longer it drags on, the sillier it gets. A preposterous narrative, illogical red herrings, trick endings, bad acting and—shazam! — Spike Lee turns into M. Night Shyamalan! Read full review
More From This Movie

49 Critic Reviews

4.4 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 71 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL