'Oldboy' Redband Trailer Says It's Hammer Time

I’m torn, so very, very torn. On one hand, the fact that Hollywood is remaking a badass modern revenge classic like Park Chan-wook’s  “Oldboy,” which is barely a decade old, is a travesty. They’re going to water it down, take away all of the bite, give it a happy, Americanized ending. You get where this train is headed. On the other hand, this new redband trailer for Spike Lee’s version of “Oldboy” is really good.

Sure, I hate Samuel L. Jackson’s bleach-blond post-apocalyptic Mohawk, but everything else is fantastic. The cast, including Jackson, Josh Brolin, Sharlto Copley, Michael Imperioli, and Elizabeth Olsen, is great, this video is tense and brutal and violent, and you finally get a glimpse of the hammer fight. I’ve been wrestling with it, but I’m not too proud to admit that I am excited for “Oldboy.” October 25 can’t get here fast enough.

Here’s a synopsis:

An advertising executive is kidnapped and held hostage for 20 years in solitary confinement. When he is inexplicably released, he embarks on an obsessive mission to discover who orchestrated his punishment, only to find he is still trapped in a web of conspiracy and torment.