The Good, the Bad, the Weird

2008 "One map. Three villains. Winner takes all."
7.2| 2h10m| R| en| More Info
Released: 18 September 2008 Released
Producted By: Cineclick Asia
Country: South Korea
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
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The story of three Korean outlaws in 1930s Manchuria and their dealings with the Japanese army and Chinese and Russian bandits. The Good (a bounty hunter), the Bad (a hitman), and the Weird (a thief) battle the army and the bandits in a race to use a treasure map to uncover the riches of legend.

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Director

Kim Jee-woon

Production Companies

Cineclick Asia

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The Good, the Bad, the Weird Audience Reviews

Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.
Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
Jeanskynebu the audience applauded
JinRoz For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!
carbuff Wow, Hollywood has a real problem here. This is the best big budget popcorn movie I have seen in a long time. I just watched "The Expendables 2," and if you are looking for that same kind of essentially simple action-adventure, this movie is vastly better. The plot is tight, it has far superior acting (admittedly, not saying much considering Stallone and company), and the cinematography is lush and excellent. Also, I don't usually comment on soundtracks, but this one is a new classic, an outstanding modern take on that of an old- time spaghetti western. This movie starts moving at the very beginning and never lets up, yet it doesn't degenerate into total mindless blood splattering like, for instance, "The Expendables 2" did. (Watch this movie into the credits or you won't see the entire ending.) This movie is subtitled, but it has an undemanding plot, so that shouldn't deter anybody. It's basically just a very well-made Korean spaghetti western with a lot of casual violence, but with profoundly better humor than most American movies of this kind are capable of nowadays. America might be in trouble here, first Korean automobiles go from junk to quality, and now it seems like their film industry is doing a repeat. About the only thing an American should know is that this movie is grounded in the history of Asia in the period right around the WWII, when Japan aggressively expanded its empire into large parts of the region. (If you are going to be a stickler, I don't really believe that those Jeeps, which I think are post-WW II license-built copies, really belong in this movie--I doubt there really should be Jeeps of any kind at all in this movie.) If the mostly cartoonish, but occasionally more realistic, violence doesn't bother you, then just sit back and enjoy the ride this Tarantino-lite movie has to offer (I don't personally much care for Tarantino-extreme anyhow).
crococrocodopolis Let's get straight to the point: in using the title "The Good the Bad the Weird", director Kim Jee-woon is asking us to make comparisons to the Sergio Leone classic upon which it is based. I saw "The Good the Bad and the Ugly" on the big screen when it first came out, and it and Leone's other works have always been high on my list of favorites.In an unabashedly gleeful manner, Kim Jee-woon borrows heavily from Leone, in some cases shot-for-shot and scene-for-scene: the watch from "For a Few Dollars More"; the close-up shots of eyes darting back and forth in the final shoot-out from "The Good the Bad and the Ugly"; the opium den from "Once Upon a Time in America". He goes a step farther using the same font from "Once Upon a Time in the West" for the closing credits, and a score which echoes (at one point almost note-for-note) the compositions of Ennio Morricone.But where Leone succeeded in his portrayal of a gritty, dusty, rough-and-tumble Wild West, Kim Jee-woon falls short by his use of actors who are only marginally credible in their roles. Lee Byung-hung's young buffed-out sadistic psychopath pales in comparison to Lee Van Cleef's ruthless child-murdering woman-beating "bad guy" - he's simply too good-looking for us to hate him and cheer when he's finally gunned down like Karl Malden in "One Eyed Jacks" or Henry Fonda in "Once Upon a Time in the West" or Gian Maria Volante in "For a Few Dollars More". Jung Woo-Sung's youth disqualifies him as a believable seasoned crack-shot bounty-hunter. As one reviewer noted, "I had a better moustache at 13!" The redeeming quality is Song Kang-ho's "weird", who might more accurately have been called "the goofy", who pulls it off in a way that makes up for what the other two lack in gravitas.While the overly-indulgent shoot-out and chase scenes are at points excessive in gore and length, they are nonetheless not lacking in excitement and imagination, and refreshingly absent are the tawdry CGI graphics which have become ubiquitous in modern-day American films. For that alone I have to give it high marks.It's clear that Kim Jee-woon was heavily influenced by and borrowed from Leone and George Miller's "The Road Warrior" and some of Quentin Tarantino's works. Not that he is to be faulted for doing so: if it works, it works. Although it could have been just as good were it 20 minutes shorter in length, it does make for an entertaining non-stop action-adventure-chase film. But where Leone excelled, Kim Jee-woon fell short in pacing: the "non-stop-action-adventure-chase" thing only works when it doesn't become tiresome, wearing the viewer out with too-much-too-fast-too-long.Overall, I'll give it a 7 out of 10, and add that it would be a reasonable assumption that Leone himself would be entertained and flattered. I watched a 131-minute English-subtitled version on "Netflix", and will probably watch it again.After all, it isn't every day you get to see a gunfight where a deep-sea diving helmet is used as a gag device.
under-represented I don't want to compare it to "The good, the bad and the ugly" but movie's English title is asking for it. A quick summary on IMDb show similar premise. If you add some high praise from friends and good ratings; there seem to be no reason to not watch the eastern take on one of the greatest western movie.No reason, except, the movie is mostly boring and frustrating on several occasions.Let's first cover the good things. I liked the acting of the "weird" character. End.Now, many people like the action and praised it for being exciting and funny. I found it annoying because you'll soon learn that gods were always on good guys' side, so all the shooting was pointless as they won't let any harm happen to the protagonists. So much was the luck of good guys that only antagonist's guns was out of bullets.With such odds, where is the excitement? Then there was length of fight/chase scenes, they were long and repetitive like wagons of freight train. They added nothing to story or created any kind of tension,they just added to length of movie and boredom.Finally, there were some unnecessary complications.The background of Korea Independence struggle didn't helped the story, it seem to me that it was only added to mimic the backdrop of original movie. Some other spoiler worthy complications at the end were too unnecessary to care.In summary, this movie is like a bad video game with, unoriginal plot repetitive stages,bad enemy AI and forced complexity which may leave you unsatisfied.
basil-grimes Action ? Yes. Comedy ? Yes. Adventure ? Yes. A mix of all three and much more than that. In the midst of a war (reminder, of course, of The Good, The Bad, The Ugly, the truly classical western, maybe the best of them all) the three main characters have a different agenda.I will not spoil the pleasure of find for yourselves what the jackpot really is, but I must tell you that is all about getting rich, the common theme to this genre.But there is a twist. The Bad is a martial artist expert and The Ugly becomes The Weird, responsible for the comedy accents of the movie. The Good is, just as in the original, a bounty hunter, but the similarities stop here.Because the action scenes are fantastic. There are no flying ninjas nor superheroes, and all this type of scenes have more realism than the old westerns.If you are tired of clichés and want a breath of fresh air, I highly recommend you watch it.