DVD Review: The Good, The Bad, The Weird
The Good, The Bad, The Weird (2008)
Studio: MPI Home Video
Release Date: August 17, 2010
Directed By: Ji-woon Kim
Cast: Woo-sung Jung, Byung-hun Lee, Kang-ho Song.
Review By: Annie Riordan
1940′s Manchuria. A crazy sexy hitman (The Bad) is hired to steal a treasure map from a Japanese official aboard a train. Beating him to the punch is a spectacularly doofusy robber (The Weird), who hopes to buy a farm for himself and his beloved Granny with the treasures that the map yields. Out to collect the bounty on both of their heads is a slightly-less-sexy-than-The-Bad bounty hunter, a Korean Clint Eastwood with a quick draw and an eagle eye. With the Japanese army in hot pursuit and a horde of Manchurian bandits not far behind either, The Good, The Bad, and The Weird embark upon an endless chase through ghost markets and burning deserts whilst bullets fly and blood splatters.
This super-trippy, mega-flashy, over-the-top tribute to all things Sergio Leone never once stops to take a breath. Rated R for “non-stop violence” (according to the IMDb anyway), the entire cast of TGTBTW apparently went all Crow T. Robot and overdosed on the Vivarin, Surge, chocolate covered espresso beans and listening to Nitzer Ebb for the whole of the shoot. The result: a spastic, maniacal, speed of light-paced thrill ride which can only be duplicated in real life by taking enough microdot to paralyze a bull African elephant and riding the California Screamin’ rollercoaster 80 times in a row. It cheerfully defies all the laws of physics, sneaks in a little bit of steampunk, and recycles the 70′s wocka-chicka music remixes that Tarantino himself recycled for the Kill Bill movies. And yes, the violence is – for the most part – nonstop. Shotguns, swords, mortar shells and deep sea diving helmets; you name it, it’s here. And it all leads up to one of the most satisfyingly tense Mexican standoffs put to film since…uh, that one Leone film that had a Mexican standoff in it.
Okay, I admit it – I am NOT the world’s biggest Spaghetti Western fan. I tried to watch a few and they’re just not for me. I’m not at all intrigued by Men With No Names or high chaparral or whatever. So I think it speaks volumes that not only did I sit through all 2 hours and 10 minutes of The Good, The Bad, The Weird with unfeigned enthusiasm, but also with a huge grin on my face…and no, not just because a buff, oiled up Byung-hun Lee was just a frame away from being full frontal, either. This is grade A Spicy Kimchi Western, fun for everyone and an absolute must for Leone and Tarantino fans alike. Catch it ASAP!
