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34
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36
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xx
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31
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41
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67
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54
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49
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34
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57
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xx
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65
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58
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44
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53
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37
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47
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55
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33
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93
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64
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36
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54
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93
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79
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76
Shine a Light
73
Kung Fu Panda
71
Horton Hears a Who!
69
Redbelt
67
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
65
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
64
Wanted
62
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, The
61
Stop Loss
61
Incredible Hulk, The
58
Mist, The
57
Forbidden Kingdom, The
57
Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
55
Street Kings
55
Nim's Island
55
Baby Mama
54
You Don't Mess with the Zohan
54
Get Smart
53
Sex and the City: The Movie
49
Hancock
48
National Treasure: Book of Secrets
47
Strangers, The
44
Ruins, The
41
Drillbit Taylor
37
Made of Honor
37
Shutter
37
Speed Racer
36
College Road Trip
36
What Happens in Vegas...
35
Jumper
34
Happening, The
34
10,000 B.C.
33
Superhero Movie
31
Deception
24
Love Guru, The
22
Postal
xx
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
xx
Dark Knight, The
xx
Mamma Mia!
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

83
Alexandra
80
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76
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47
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80
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59
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55
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60
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70
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49
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83
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83
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78
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52
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64
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73
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84
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79
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62
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64
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51
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57
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86
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63
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60
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55
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69
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74
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63
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34
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55
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62
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63
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38
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30
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33
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53
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52
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84
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61
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69
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72
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51
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55
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79
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71
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56
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76
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66
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70
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62
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72
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81
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56
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xx
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71
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54
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70
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72
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83
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56
Unknown Woman
86
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79
Visitor, The
62
Wackness, The
37
War, Inc.
64
Water Lilies
66
When Did You Last See Your Father?
55
Without the King
72
Woman on the Beach
64
XXY
67
Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
75
Young@Heart
86
Up the Yangtze
86
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
84
My Winnipeg
84
Edge of Heaven, The
83
Chop Shop
83
Paranoid Park
83
Alexandra
83
U2 3D
83
Chris & Don. A Love Story
82
Last Mistress, The
81
Tell No One
80
Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
80
Band's Visit, The
79
Reprise
79
Encounters at the End of the World
79
Visitor, The
78
Counterfeiters, The
76
Beauty in Trouble
76
Shotgun Stories
75
Young@Heart
74
Mongol
74
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
73
Duchess of Langeais, The
72
Woman on the Beach
72
Priceless
72
Tuya's Marriage
72
Surfwise
71
To the Limit
71
My Brother Is an Only Child
71
Roman de gare
70
Standard Operating Procedure
70
Trumbo
70
Love Songs
70
Caramel
69
Go-Getter, The
69
Operation Filmmaker
69
Jellyfish
68
Kabluey
68
Heartbeat Detector
68
Honeydripper
67
Year My Parents Went on Vacation, The
66
Son of Rambow
66
When Did You Last See Your Father?
64
Married Life
64
Dreams with Sharp Teeth
64
XXY
64
Water Lilies
64
Fall, The
63
Foot Fist Way, The
63
Gunnin for that #1 Spot
63
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
62
Stuck
62
Expired
62
Wackness, The
62
Kiss the Bride
61
OSS 117: Cairo - Nest of Spies
61
On the Rumba River
60
Fugitive Pieces
60
Brick Lane
60
Jihad for Love, A
59
Blind Mountain
57
Flawless
56
Unknown Woman
56
Then She Found Me
56
Sangre de mi sangre
55
Quid Pro Quo
55
Glass: A Portrait of Philip in Twelve Parts
55
Irina Palm
55
Bra Boys
55
Without the King
54
Tracey Fragments, The
53
Mister Lonely
52
Diminished Capacity
52
Elsa & Fred
52
Mother of Tears, The
52
My Blueberry Nights
51
Finding Amanda
51
Promotion, The
51
Savage Grace
49
Children of Huang Shi, The
47
Bella
45
Full Grown Men
38
Life Before Her Eyes, The
37
War, Inc.
34
Holding Trevor
33
Miss Conception
30
Meet Bill
29
Red Roses and Petrol
xx
Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Oldboy
Tartan USA
 |
|
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for strong violence including scenes of torture, sexuality and pervasive language
Starring
Min-sik Choi,
Ji-tae Yu,
Hye-jeong Kang,
Dae-han Ji,
Seung-Shin Lee,
Dal-su Oh,
and
Byeong-ok Kim
Oh Dae-su (Choi Min-sik) is an ordinary Seoul businessman with a wife and little daughter who, after a drunken night on the town, is locked up in a strange, private "prison." No one will tell him why he's there or who his jailer is. The imprisonment last for 15 years until one day when Dae-su finds himself unexpectedly deposited on a grass-covered high-rise roof, determined to discover the mysterious enemy who had him locked up. (Tartan Films)
| GENRE(S): |
Action
|
Foreign
|
Mystery
|
Suspense/Thriller
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Chan-wook Park
Jo-yun Hwang
Chun-hyeong Lim
Garon Tsuchiya (story)
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Chan-wook Park
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: August 23, 2005
Theatrical: March 25, 2005
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
120 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
South Korea |
| LANGUAGE(S): |
Korean (with English subtitles) |
Grand Prize of the Jury, 2004 Cannes Film Festival; Best Foreign Film, 2004 British Independent Film Awards

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
It's a movie of such jaw-dropping violence, wild improbability and dazzling style it overpowers all resistance.

100
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Oldboy is a powerful film not because of what it depicts, but because of the depths of the human heart which it strips bare.

100
New York Post
V.A. Musetto
Park's direction is flawless and Jung Jung-hoon's cinematography is stunning.

100
Portland Oregonian
M. E. Russell
Startling and amazing -- a cinematic hammer to the skull.

90
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
Anguished, beautiful and desperately alive, Oldboy is a dazzling work of pop-culture artistry.

90
Dallas Observer
Luke Y. Thompson
It's a work of art for sure, but a sadistic one. Oldboy is one of the year's best; it just isn't for everyone. If you're still interested, go for it.

90
Village Voice
Michael Atkinson
Whatever its oversteps and excesses (I do think Park ran a little amok with the computer gimcrackery), Oldboy has the bulldozing nerve and full-blooded passion of a classic.

88
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
As always with Park Chanwook, you just hold on and let him rip.

88
Premiere
Glenn Kenny
Once the picture gets into Hollywood's bloodstream, it could well prove to be as influential as John Woo's 1989 crime thriller, "The Killer."

88
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
This hunt for revenge is really a quest for self-discovery. The story, acting and brilliant directing elevate Oldboy into a human struggle to know yourself and your place in the universe, and to live with that sometimes terrible knowledge.

80
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
His film is not for the weak of stomach or heart, but it's a stunner all the same.
80
Slate
David Edelstein
Obviously, this sort of taboo-flouting imagery isn't for everyone, but Park's vision is all of a piece.

80
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
This is absolutely not a film for all tastes, but it's a masterpiece of pitiless power whose audacious, ambiguous climax strikes a note of insane romanticism as haunting as it is perverse.

80
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
The result is a powerfully visceral experience that justifies itself almost entirely on surface chops, with striking color composition and a complex sound design that elevates the story to an operatic scale.

80
Variety
Derek Elley
A wild, intensely cinematic ride into two men's burning desire to get even.

80
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
You will surely leave this movie shocked, shaken and surprisingly moved. And definitely stuck on that poor octopus.

80
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
Its magnificence is that it takes itself dead serious. It's not entertainment, but it's sure a piece of toughness.

78
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
While the climax is admittedly something of a letdown after all the build-up, it's a hopelessly, helplessly original film, all guts, no glory.

75
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
More than anything else, Oldboy recalls Alfred Hitchcock with all restraint tossed to the wind, or Hitchcock's most obsessed devotee, Brian De Palma, at his most nastily inspired.

75
San Francisco Chronicle
Walter Addiego
This nightmarish revenge drama from Korea is grueling, intense, cruel -- the very definition of extreme cinema.

75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Liam Lacey
This is a movie about draining, tenderizing and chopping up the audience emotionally.

75
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
As mysterious as it is sinister.

75
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
Regardless of how you look at Oldboy, it's unlike anything you are likely to have seen before.

70
Los Angeles Times
Carina Chocano
It says something when you come out of a film as weird and fantastical as Oldboy and feel that you've experienced something truly authentic. I just don't know what. I can't think of anything to compare it to.

67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
It's just the kind of film that you'd expect a jury led by Quentin Tarantino to choose, a bloody and brutal revenge film immersed in madness and directed with operatic intensity.

60
The New Yorker
Anthony Lane
Oldboy has the fatal air of wanting so desperately to be a cult movie that it forgets to present itself as a coherent one.

50
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Oldboy caused a love-it-or-hate-it stir at Cannes last year, and how could it not: It's an onslaught made to cause a sensation. Consider me simultaneously jolted and depressed.

50
The New York Times
Manohla Dargis
Entertaining to watch - notwithstanding the scene in which Dae-su eats a live animal - which is a good thing, because there is not much to think about here, outside of the choreographed mayhem.

50
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
Despite its director's skill at staging trash with dash, Oldboy is too long and portentous to be an enjoyable B movie. The movie's self-seriousness short-circuits its sensationalism.

40
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
There's a lot less here than meets the eye.

10
LA Weekly
Scott Foundas
Put simply, in my humble opinion, Oldboy sucks.


The average user rating for this movie is 8.5 (out of 10) based on 85 User Votes
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