It sounds slightly racist to say it, but I think the original "Oldboy" is less disturbing because, as westerners, we can watch it with a certain detachment or fascination.

Billy, I know we disagree (I remember your comments on WoWS) on this one, possibly in some way I'm not able to unpack or articulate. Crawling on ludes or needling feds or shouting pep talks to his minions, it all seemed like the same drumbeat of frantic sociopath and his interior monologue of screw-the-rubes. I found nothing there to sympathize with or take much interest in.

Leo is a fine actor, and he did a good job. But Jordan (who authors the source material from which the script comes) has no heart - he's a cold campaign of bullshit and self-promotion. The movie tries to make him like Henry Hill, but that doesn't fly - Henry Hill had a human being in there somewhere, he had a character arc that was about, well, character, and giving a shit about other people at some point.

WoWS left me cold because I detested every single character in it. But DiCaprio was fantastic, so much so that I wanted him to win the Best Actor Oscar. No, it's not like DiCaprio managed to find the humanity within the total prick he played. There was no redemption whatsoever, and no hint of morality. But I have to acknowledge a role that stank like hell but still managed to explode into orbit fuelled by pure acting talent.

Noah not terrible shock.

I felt a little sorry for Emma Watson who seemed to have been charged with single-handedly 'replenishing' the earth. Well not quite on her own, of course, but with the hard part.

I also wondered what a pair of lions would eat waiting for the gazelles to get their numbers back up to a level to withstand predation.

Funny to think of the "Pi" director going this direction!