The Good, the Bad, the Weird

Tweet 1 - Korean homage to Leone's epic that manages to remix spaghetti, classic westerns and wuxia.

Tweet 2 - Odd to see story cues from Ugly translated to early 20th cen. Manchuria but it was all there. 3.5 stars

Follow-up - I was oddly glad that amongst all the crazy flying around and bad guys that can't hit the broad side of a barn with 6,000 bullets, the movie did not amp up the sound of the gunshots. Handguns made a small pop, as they do, and only the shotgun had a deep boom. It grounded the madness somehow, and was just the thing this crazy movie needed to help you accept what you were seeing.

Now what amuses me is that Donna slagged Leone's Fistful, but she praised this thin-as-tissue-paper script which gave almost nothing in the way of character whatsoever. It's essentially one giant kick-ass set piece with massive, complex running gunfights from start to finish.

STOP HATING ON EASTWOOD, DONNA! It's tainting your view of an entire pantheon of classic cinema!


DONNA RESPONDS: Hey, now! It is entirely true that I don't dig on Eastwood as an actor. Never have and I doubt I ever will. However, that wasn't even close to my biggest problem with "Fistful" and you know it. I actually liked Eastwood far more in "Fistful" than I have anywhere save maybe Gran "Torino". I think you were dead right in saying it's a genre clash - I just don't seem to get westerns. "The Good, The Bad, The Weird" was only half a western, and it was the half that *wasn't* a western I liked the best. I found more character development in this film done subtly and with that textbook Asian nuance I adore than I did in "Fistful". If we were to believe this movie took place in "the real world" I would be crying about logic flaws, but this wasn't really "the real world", and it never violated it's own rules. I can't say the same about "Fistful". And, quite honestly, I thought the direction of "The Weird" outclassed Leone in "Fistful". So shoot me, but it did in my oh-so-humble opinion.

Okay, I'll get out of your post now. ;)

The Good, The Bad and The Weird at Netflix