Nobody but nobody went to see this movie last weekend, and it’s barely still in theaters now. Why they opened an obvious Spring release during Thanksgiving, I’ll never know…there’s counter-programming and then there’s just stupidity.
What Works: It’s Spike Lee’s remake of a South Korean thriller (which I haven’t seen but is supposed to be more violent and sicker than this) in which Josh Brolin plays a guy who’s been kidnapped, locked into a fake hotel room for 20 years where he’s allowed to see news broadcasts of him being framed for the rape and murder of his ex-wife, and then is abruptly released. Who took him and why? Just as important, why did they let him go?
I’ll admit it’s a tantalizing premise, and Brolin does what he can with what is—-essentially—-an underwritten role. Brolin’s become the go-to guy for thankless roles these days (see: Gangster Squad), but he can make the absurd seem compelling simply by standing still. Michael Imperioli and Elizabeth Olsen are also always welcome.
What Doesn’t Work: Because this is based on a South Korean film, there are a couple of ridiculous fight sequences thrown in for good measure that totally took me out of the movie. Why does Brolin get into a fight with five punks on a soccer field? Why do the twenty men trying to kill him in a warehouse not simply shoot him? Could he really fight his way out with just a hammer?
These sequences aren’t just narratively off, they’re staged in such a lifeless way that they’re fairly boring to watch, as is a scene of torture…literal torture. Lee’s just not an action director. The only personal touches we get from the filmmaker are when Lee’s old racial tropes bubble to the surface (Brolin’s character establishes his despicability early on by hitting on the black wife of a black man) and a few camera tricks meant to signal disorientation, but these are minimal. When the scenes of freedom feel less interesting than a guy being trapped in a single room for twenty years, there’s a problem. Plus, Sharlto Copeley gives his most restrained performance to date…as a bat-shit crazy billionaire with an elaborate (and unfortunate) “bad guy” goatee.
What I Would Have Done Differently: Opened this movie in late January where it still would have been a flop, but it might have been less of one…at the very least, a less noticeable one.