The Good, The Bad, The Weird

THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD (2008) - June 22, 2011
A really fun action/western about a few groups of outlaws who are all in pursuit of a buried treasure.  Director Kim Jee-woon does a really good job of making the three main characters (the titular good, bad and weird) distinctive and compelling.  The film is fairly light on plot (it's really just race from point A to point B), making it especially important that we care about these people.  But more importantly, Jee-woon does an absolutely spectacular job with the action, which is, in a word, awesome.  It's easily some of the most thrilling and well-choreographed action I've seen in a long, long time.  It's pretty clear that Jee-woon is a natural action director, with action that is kickass and exciting without resorting to the usual directorial trickery (close-ups and quick-cuts).  There are a lot of impressively long takes here, and a lot of really impressive camerawork that manages to be awesome without calling attention to itself.  This is a very, very well directed movie.  At over two hours it is perhaps a tad on the long side, but that is a very minor complaint.  ***1/2