Plot Synopsis: A thief, Yoon Tae-goo (Kang-ho Song), a bounty hunter, Park Do-won (Woo-sung Jun) and an outlaw, Park Chang-yi (Byung-hun Lee) are on the hunt for a map to buried treasure. Along the way, they’re tracked by the Japanese army and Chinese bandits.
Justin Oberholtzer
“The Good, The Bad, The Weird” has a strange tone to it. It feels and plays out like a standard spaghetti western, but is filled with outrageous material. There’s one scene where Park Chang-yi kills an insect by impaling it with a knife, then shooting said knife to shove it in further. Another sequence has Park Do-won stabbing multiple men in the ass, then kicking the knife in farther for great effect. In the midst of this, you have well choreographed shootouts, such as the amazing opening showcase on a train, that would be right at home in your standard western.
What Kim Jee-Woon (who directed & co-wrote with Min-suk Kim) does brilliantly is include the aforementioned zany scenes but doesn’t convert the film into a live action cartoon. I wouldn’t say the film is grounded in reality, as the action sequences alone are too grandiose to be considered “real”, but it follows a certain guideline. One that still treats the characters as humans, not caricatures. They may have their unique quirks (especially the goofy Yoon Tae-goo), but they never feel as if they’re a rejected “Looney Tunes” character.
Let me put it to you this way. If the wacky material was taken out of the film, it would play like your standard spaghetti western. The tone embodied by the genre is present, the stellar choreography is on full display, the atmosphere is top notch and the cinematography (by Mo-gae Lee & Seung-Chul Oh) is gorgeous! All Jee-Woon does is place unique characters and zany scenarios into the mix.
This is a difficult task to pull off, but Jee-Woon does it effectively. It’s a bit rough in spots getting used to the dueling styles and that can mess with the pacing. But, the amount of fun you’ll be having in the process softens any minor blows sustained. Even if the humor falls flat for you, the stunts will leave you breathless! My favorites being the amazing train shootout and one beautifully shot scene where a long-distance snipe is made.
What works best about “The Good, The Bad, The Weird” is that it’s not a parody. The title may be lampooning Sergio Leone’s classic, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”, but Jee-Woon respects the western genre. He’s not poking fun at the genre. He’s simply having fun with the formula. In turn, the audience is having fun with it too.
Why Should You Put This In Your Queue? It’s an exhilarating& unique western with zany humor, colorful characters and amazing stunts! It’s also a gorgeous film to boot!
Why Shouldn’t You Put This In Your Queue? The tone can be off-putting at times, which in turn hurts the pacing a little.
Matt Stetler
Man, what an awesomely fun film this is. I could be content just wrapping up my review right there, but I guess I do need to fill it out a bit more than this. Maybe I’ll just repeat “Screw Flanders” over and over?
Kim Jee-Woon shows exactly why he might be one of the most exciting things to come out of South Korea in some time. This is the fourth film of his I have seen and I still have not been disappointed by his work. A Tale of Two Sisters, I Saw the Devil and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s latest The Last Stand were all good to great films, and the Good, the Bad, the Weird fits right in with those. It takes the traditional elements of the spaghetti western (camerawork, blocking of shots, music) and adds an eastern take to them which helps to separate this from those same spaghetti westerns. Rather than coming off as a remake of anything, it plays out like an homage. While not Jee-Woon’s best film (that’s I Saw the Devil), this is his most ambitious. Large action sequences are scattered throughout, and none of them disappoint. It’s clear to see why he got the job directing the Last Stand and I can’t wait to see what he does with his next project.
If you’ve watched a fair amount of Asian cinema, you’ll see some familiar faces in the acting department. Kang-ho Song (the Host, Thirst) is goofy and great as the Weird, Byung-hun Lee (I Saw the Devil, Storm Shadow in G.I. Joe) is bad-ass as the Bad and Woo-sung Jung plays a stoic and solid the Good. All three have their moments to shine and all do a great job.
There is a good balance of action and comedy throughout, but when the action does start, I was caught off guard by the violence. I don’t know why, and trust me, I’m no prude, but in the trailers I have seen for this movie, it did come across more of a sprawling action/comedy. Believe me though when I tell you, this has no negative affect on the film as a whole. From the opening train sequence to the final showdown, this is just a big, loud, fast paced action adventure. I enjoyed every bit of it, from the acting all the way to the music, which was an awesome hybrid of the spaghetti western tracks, mariachi music and music of the east. Plus, the final 40 minutes is big scale action cinema at its best and it even figures out a way to throw an unexpected twist at you. The Good, the Bad, the Weird is pure popcorn cinema, and there’s nothing wrong with that at all, especially when it is done so well.
Why you should put this in your queue? A great action adventure film with three solid performances from its three main actors. It’s big, ambitious, fast paced and it all works really well. Just a fun, fun movie.
Why you shouldn’t put this in your queue? Like Timecrimes before it, it is subtitled, and sadly that will turn people off. Also, the violence, while nothing compared to most rated R films, did catch me off guard, but ultimately it wasn’t and shouldn’t be a reason to not check this one out.