The Good, the Bad, the Weird

Viewed in
2010

Formats
Netflix HD streaming (Xbox 360)

Premise
A Korean steampunk western about three fighters (guess their traits) who battle for a treasure map.

Loved
The action eye candy.

Disliked
The lame writing.

Thoughts
A fun movie with lots of flair.

The best part was the complicated action sequences. I was impressed by the production value and how well director Ji-woon Kim hid the computer graphics. Very much in the vein of 300, it was full of complex action sequences in which characters and camera seamlessly leaped from set to set, shot to shot. It was rather fun seeing what kind of Asian cowboy twists they could invent in these superfluous and expensive shootouts and horse chases.

In the vein of Snatch, Kim also employed countless fancy trick shots and slick cinematography to keep the energy going during the non-action scenes. Given the whole context of the movie, it was cheesy, but still fun.

However, his attempt at creating quirky crooks with quirky dialogue a la Guy Ritchie fell flat. Perhaps it was lost in translation, but the comedy came off as trying too hard and stupid. While the three leads were distinguishable in looks and attitude, the jailbreak of colorful minor characters just created mass confusion for me. Insert "all Asians look alike" joke here.

Having so many inconsequential characters going in all these directions caused the story to suffer immensely. Not only was I confused most of the time, but it fatigued me to the point of not caring for any of the three main characters and their flashbacks. Even when I knew this was more style than substance, I was very much annoyed by the last act, of how every person in Manchuria knew where the treasure was, when very few laid their eyes on the map itself.

As the title implied, this was a tribute of Sergio Leone/Clint Eastwood's classic. Too bad it came off as amateurish imitation. The characters and performances were nowhere as memorable as The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. And watching it copy some of those famous scenes just made me miss the original even more.

If 300 and Snatch had a baby while watching The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly in Korean, this is what you get. The writing sucked and it was way too long, but I greatly enjoyed the eye candy in the form of gun fights and chase scenes. Kudos for helping me pass the time while recovering from the cold.

What I would change
Not sure.