I LIKE MOVIES #12: THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect going into The Good, The Bad, The Weird. I had seen a short trailer a few months ago that seemed cartoonishly violent with a sense of humor but I didn't get a sense of what the story would be. How much of it (if any) would be a retelling of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly and would it do that movie any justice? Part of the problem was that I didn't speak Korean and the trailer had no subtitles. Then I forgot about it. I checked it out on a whim at the Kendall earlier this week.

Any comparisons of this movie to Sergio Leone's Westerns can be made quickly and then put behind the viewer. There are three main characters, each personifying a titular trait. There is a jockeying of these men towards a treasure. There is traditional Western gunslinger imagery. There is a Mexican Standoff at the end. Other than that The Good, The Bad, The Weird pretty much goes off in its own crazy directions. It's not a remake, but it does have a few moments that feel like sincere homages to Leone. Though the Western aesthetic is in place throughout much of the movie, this is its own animal.

The general premise of the movie is that Yoon Tae-goo (The Weird) is robbing a train that Park Chang-yi (The Bad) was hired to rob. Chang-yi's target was a map carried by one of the passengers. Park Do-won (The Good) also shows up to take on the bad guys. The Weird ends up with the map and everyone else wants it. The chase begins. Elaborate shootouts, cool visuals, and eclectic music ensue. The map is being sought by every gang in the area. Even the Japanese army and the Korean resistance are after it.

The movie is cluttered with action scenes. There are very few moments of isolation for any of the characters. Even when a character seems to be alone in the desert there are a dozen other people over the next dune watching him. It's OK though because it allows for more people to get shot.

The plot is straight forward and simple but a lot gets piled into it. We are constantly introduced to new characters and relationships. Then spectacular gun fights happen in between and during. This all culminates with an epic chase towards the end that includes horses, motorcycles, and an assortment of military artillery.

Don't expect anything like The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly in terms of tone or pacing. This is an all out action movie with soaring cameras and frenetic energy. Pure eye candy for action junkies. With action scene after action scene, it takes a lot for the big chase at the end to not fall upon desensitized eyes. But it delivers. It delivers so well that the standoff at the end feels almost like an afterthought. The movie doesn't really suffer because of this though, since it is all about relishing in the stylized violence anyway.

If hyper-stylized bullet storms are your cup of tea, then dust off your doilies, Barbara. I'm not really sure what that means, but I'll give The Good, The Bad, The Weird 76 bottomless refills for its revolvers out of 82. I'm going to bed.