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^^ My bad, thought we were only talking remake adaptations. In that case, you sir, are very much correct... Original American thrillers have been piss poor recently. It is actually frustrating me that I can't think of any!
I haven't seen the original yet, but while I was at the Redbox last night I decided to pick this up. I like Josh Brolin and he reminds me of my uncle, who passed away about a year ago. Apparently everyone seems to hate this new American take on the story, but I liked it. At first I didn't think it was going to work, as they were making Joe out to be a total scumbag so quickly and early on. I mean, I already had a general idea of what the movie was going to be like so I was thinking to myself "why am I supposed to give a shit if he gets locked up for twenty years? He probably deserves it." But I learned something while watching the first couple minutes of this. If you make your character pathetic enough, we just might feel sorry for the poor bastard and want to see him change his ways. So when Joe finally does get locked up and his whole life is ripped away from him, it was heart wrenching IMO.
That was my favorite aspect of 2013's Oldboy. When Joe is released and goes on his search of who fucked him over for so long, the movie kinda lost it's punch. But I was still into it. Olsen was fantastic and has made me a fan. It was also great to see Michael Imperioli in a feature film and acting once again. I haven't really seen him in much of anything since Sopranos. Dude's awesome. I remember reading something about a really crazy twist, but I never thought it was going to be what it actually was haha. That was fucked up. I just remember being amazed by that ending. Of course like Jeff said it all was preposterous how everything lined up just perfectly for the villain, but regardless, I just thought it was a really fucked up twist/ending. What's even more disturbing about it if you look back on the film is that Joe and his daughter are really fucking like crazy, just going at it. Makes my skin crawl just thinking about it.
I liked it too... and I have seen both of them. What I liked about this one was that my gf understood everything that was going on. I thought it was just fine and exactly the same as the original, give or take... what's there not to like?
Yeah, I dug it. Brolin, Olsen, and Imperioli, were enough for me. They kept me invested.
I can understand why people fly into an outrage when their classics are being "remade" or "rebooted" or "re-imagined". The perfect example is Rob Zombie's Halloween. People went ape shit over that. Before it was made, "he's gonna ruin the franchise!" After it was made, "he's ruined the franchise!" Sorry but that franchise was ruined from 1981 onwards. I always thought it was funny that you could make a thousand shitty sequels and no one would cry foul but mention remaking the immortal classic and everyone flips. Hahah, sorry for the rant I'll try to make it short. My point is, the original will always be there. It's not like it was erased from existence once the remake was released in theaters.