The Good, The Bad, The Weird

Impressions before seeing it
I vaguely heard about it somewhere, and then I saw a trailer on one of my other Blu-rays and it looked like fun. Also the idea of a Western movie made in the East was interesting to me.

How was it?
As the title suggests, this movie follows three characters - one good, one bad, and one who is weird - as the latter comes across a treasure map and a wild adventure begins when the three of them chase each other across the type of desert landscapes we're used to seeing in Westerns. I liked the performances here, each of the three leads bringing little character nuances to their roles. Kang-ho Song (he plays "The Weird"), was especially interesting because I had seen him before in two of Park Chan-wook's "Vengeance" movies as serious, subdued characters, and here he played a goofy, Jackie Chan-like slapstick prone character and still managed to be believable.

As I said of True Grit, the old fashioned Westerns were never meant to be deep or thought-provoking, only pure entertainment, and The Good, The Bad, The Weird follows this rule, too. It is packed with quite a lot of action, gunfights, and explosions, and supported by some good acting and a few laughs. When done right (and it was), these things can make for a great movie without needing anything more. Being from Korea was surely a factor, because this probably would have been forgettable had it been a Hollywood blockbuster.

Recommendation
Fans of Westerns will likely enjoy it, or even just fans of action. If you like more substance, you might be too pretentious for this one anyway.