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CHICAGO – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com appears on “The Morning Mess” with Dan Baker on WBGR-FM (Monroe, Wisconsin) on March 21st, 2024, reviewing the new streaming series “Manhunt” – based on the bestseller by James L. Swanson – currently streaming on Apple TV+.
‘The Good, The Bad, The Weird’ Favors Spectacle Over Story
Submitted by BrianTT on May 6, 2010 - 11:36am
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Continue reading for Matt Fagerholm’s full “The Good, The Bad, The Weird” review.
‘The Good, The Bad, The Weird’ stars Song Kang-ho, Lee Byung-hun, Jung Woo-sung, Ryu Seung-soo, Yoon Jae-Moon and Deligeer. It was written by Kim Min-suk and Kim Ji-woon and directed by Kim Ji-woon. It opens on May 7th at the Music Box. It is not rated.
The Good The Bad The Weird.
Photo credit: IFC Films
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 Rating: 3.5/5.0 |
CHICAGO – “Any guess what’s going on?” asks Zhang Qi, the befuddled leader of the Tri-Nation gang, as he observes a nearby train erupting into utter chaos. This line earns the first big laugh in Kim Ji-woon’s breathlessly entertaining “The Good, The Bad, The Weird,” precisely because it mirrors the thoughts of audience members during the film’s delirious opening sequence.
After inventively working within the genres of horror (“A Tale of Two Sisters”) and the noir thriller (“A Bittersweet Life”), director Kim now turns his attention to the “oriental western” with technically impressive though decidedly mixed results. Kim is a major talent, and his exuberance is intoxicating, but he often gets so focused so exploring a given style that he forgets to tell a coherent story. That curtain-raising scene aboard a train is so confusingly staged and frantically edited that it’s difficult to tell who’s good, bad, etc. Like many action set-pieces in the film, it works on a visceral level more than a dramatic one, and is guaranteed to leave your adrenaline pumping but your heart unstirred.
| Read Matt Fagerholm’s full review of “The Good, The Bad, The Weird” in our reviews section. |
The plot centers on the pursuit of a treasure map in the desert of 1930s Manchuria, and combines the brooding atmosphere of Sergio Leone with the screwball energy of Stanley Kramer’s “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.” Some scenes are aggressively comic to a fault, as various deadpan gags land with a bone-crunching thud. But other scenes soar to the heights of inspired lunacy, such as when train robber Yoon Tae-goo (Song Kang-ho), aka “The Weird,” frees himself from rope restraints, and ends up running right past his captor, Park Do-won (Jung Woo-sung), aka “The Good.” When the Good asks him if he’s escaping, the Weird innocently answers with the priceless line, “No of course not. Just gave the rope a tug and it fell out. You folks shouldn’t be so careless.”
Continue reading for Matt Fagerholm’s full “The Good, The Bad, The Weird” review.
The Good The Bad The Weird.
Photo credit: IFC Films
