Although it is sad that he is often relegated to the sub-genre of animation — Spirited Away should have been in the Best Picture category — it is of note that, along with Brad Bird (The Iron Giant, The Incredibles) and others, animation post-Eisner’s Disney is being lifted from the mass-production assembly line and back into the respectable realm of auteur filmmaking.

I’ve always been a much bigger fan of Gregg Araki than I have of his films. A Gay Asian Male (as I’m sure he’s sick of being defined as), Araki has always fought to represent the marginalized.

As it stands, however, “Unleashed” serves its purpose in describing the central idea of the film. Jet Li plays Danny, a feral, warrior man-child who lives like a dog under the cruel hands of Bart (Bob Hoskins). Like a dog, he wears a collar around his neck signifying both property and obedience. When Bart removes the collar, Danny goes nuts and beats the crap out of anyone in the room.

I’ve tried to write this review of Chanwook Park’s Oldboy several times already. (You can ask my editor about how long it took me to finally hand this in.) But no matter what I talk about I can’t seem to get at the core of the movie’s appeal. I can’t seem to say exactly what I want to say.