August 2010

The Good, The Bad and The Weird Syndicated Reviews

MCCLATCHY TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE

The Good, the Bad, the Weird (R, 2008, IFC Films) If you bemoan the slowed-to-a-trickle production of great American westerns in the 21st century, maybe you're just looking in the wrong continent. Asia established a fresh foothold in the genre with "Sukiyaki Western Django," and with "The Good, the Bad, the Weird," it's in the formative stages of what hopefully will be its own golden age.

"TGTBTW's" story is perfectly classic: There's buried treasure to be had, there's only one map marking the spot, and the race is on the grab the map first and head to the X. But one look at the roster of competing parties - a bounty hunter (Jung Woo-sung), an assassin (Lee Byung-hun), a petty thief (Song Kang-ho), a gang Chinese bandits and the Japanese army - is all one needs to glean just how crazy "TGTBTW" intends to get, and from the train robbery in the opener to a final showdown that somehow manages to be dryly funny and poignant for many of the same reasons, the movie does that assumption proud. "TGTBTW" runs long at 130 minutes, and it isn't above mixing a little self-indulgence into those minutes. But the movie's idea of indulgence likely isn't far removed from that of its intended viewership, and the mishmash of action, comedy, Old West/Steampunk technology and fearless character designing and mingling rarely, if ever, finds "TGTBTW" lacking for moment-to-moment entertainment. Provided you don't mind subtitles, it doesn't get much more fun than this. In Korean, Japanese and Mandarian with English subtitles.

Extras: Cast interviews, three behind-the-scenes features, Cannes Film Festival footage.