O.K. I
confess. I actually liked Spike Lee’s version of Oldboy. Needless to say, it didn’t
come close to Chan-wook Park’s original
version, but on the whole, I thought it worked fairly well.
Of course, I’m
in a very small select group when I say that, and even more so considering that practically
no one saw it, since the film was a huge bust at the box office. But I have to
give credit to Spike for trying to do something different, and far from what is usually
expected from him.
So if you
missed it, since it was pretty much in and out of theaters in a week, you can finally
see it for yourself when it comes out on blu-ray DVD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
on March 4th.
Unfortunately, the DVD will not contain Spike’s original 140 minute cut, just the theatrical
105 minute version, nor will it have any commentaries on it. But it will include
some alternative and deleted scenes along with two featurettes: “The Making
of Oldboy” and “Transformation.”
And in case
you’re interested, Park’s version is available on both standard and
Blu-ray DVD as well, in case you’re curious to watch both of them and
compare.
