10 Remakes That Should Never Have Happened

Foreign films are often a target for English-language remakes, and some come out of the transition successfully. The production of films like The Ring can attest to the fact that giving an American spin and Hollywood-level budgets often do result in excellent re-imaginings of these films, doing justice to their foreign counterparts.

Not so with Oldboy.

The Korean original by Park Chan-wook was a well-crafted revenge film, telling the story of a kidnapped man relentlessly pursuing the truth, at the cost of a lot of blood, and a large chunk of his own tongue.

Mixing ruthless ultra-violence, beautiful editing, and a score that seems to mourn the action it surrounds. The corridor fight is one of the most incredible pieces of choreography to watch. Oh, and there's a bit where the guy eats a live octopus, it's Jeff Goldblum's Fly levels of horrible. And there's some incest.

Clearly, fun for the whole family.

The 2013 remake by Spike Lee attempted to bring the same level of shock and awe to worldwide cinemas, but failed miserably. It didn't contain the same musical score, and the trademark action is toned down and boring in comparison. The incest is removed. It was sort of the whole plot of the original film, but it wouldn't have gone down so well with American audiences.

But without the extreme violence and outlandish plot of the Korean film, Oldboy just seems repackaged in an attempt to bring in a wider audience. Everything that made it intense and horrifying was stripped out, creating a pale imitation of the original.