60/60 Extra: The Good, The Bad, And The Weird.

I know this isn't a well-known or classic film of the genre, but it's a good transition between the previous film and the next one. This film is to the action western as, essentially, Hot Fuzz was the buddy cop/action films. Taking place in World War II-ish Manchuria, this film is a strange hybrid that almost feels steampunk, but isn't. After a man hires another to take a treasure map onto a train, he then goes and hires Park Chang-yi (Byung-hun Lee)--the Bad--to steal it back so that he'll have paid the first man but will have retained the map. Unfortunately, a bumbling train robber named Yoon Tae-goo (Kang-ho Song)--the Weird--steals the map first, not knowing what it is. In the middle of all this is a bounty hunter named Park Do-won (Woo-sung Jung)--the Good--who is out to capture and/or kill Park Chang-yi, thinking him the dastardly Finger Chopper. Their three stories continually intersect throughout the film, and eventually Yoon Tae-goo and Park Do-won travel together, following the map to its supposed treasure.

This film is f**king fantastic (and if you don't believe me, take a gander at its 7.4 on imdb and 83% on Rotten Tomatoes). The thing that threw me at first, however, was the time period. You're never given anything directly stated, so after seeing steam engines, cowboy hats, and horses, I was thrown off when motorcycles appeared. Not to mention the strange clothing, giant war hammers, more modern guns (in comparison to old west revolvers), and more. But about halfway through, I looked it up and saw it took place in the 1940s, so everything started making more sense (except maybe the clothing, but maybe that's what it was like in 1940s Manchuria).

Once you get past that little bit of confusion, everything else is superb. This movie is an action film, no doubt about it. It's almost non-stop. And outside of Kung Fu films and bent reality actioners like The Matrix, Equilibrium, Wanted, etc., it's some of the coolest action I've seen. The movie starts off with an awesome train heist and shootout and doesn't let down from there. A couple noteworthy moments include shooting a guy at a distance in the face through his sniper scope, shooting while swinging over rooftops on a rope-pulley system, facing a Japanese army between horseback and jeep/convoy, and--of course--the final showdown at the end. And more... so much more.

The movie isn't overly serious--knowing exactly what it is--but it didn't become what I most feared, either. It didn't become absurd or overly goofy like a Stephen Chow film (which are good in their own right, but it's not what I wanted here... and thankfully, I didn't get that). The film does ground itself in reality. Yes, it is pretty weird at times and the action can be over-the-top, but it never gets cartoonish or comic book-y. It has a good balance of seriousness and comedy.

The acting is superb, too. Byung-hun Lee is menacing and unrelenting as "the bad," and you wonder how anyone could ever beat him (and he looks awesome). But then you have Woo-sung Jung as "the good," who is a badass himself, able to shoot accurately from afar--making him even deadlier close up. It took me a while to get used to his looks (he's not your typical strapping hero), but his acting quickly makes up for it. Then you have the comedic Kang-ho Song as "the weird," who is more bumbling than weird. He plays the character perfectly with a sense of silliness but an air of skill, as if perhaps actually knowing exactly what he's doing after all. He leaves you questioning through most of the film if he's actually an idiot or if there's more to him than meets the eye (no, he's not a Transformer).

Just like The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, the characters switch around among their labels throughout the film. And, of course, there are other similarities besides the characters. The basic plot of the film being the three hunting for a hidden treasure in the middle of a war-torn land is straight from the aforementioned film. But it also pays homage to other westerns, such as A Fistful of Dollar, For A Few Dollars More, Once Upon a Time in the West, Duck You Sucker, and even, despite not being a western, a bit of Raiders of the Lost Ark (thank you IMDb for the list of film connections). As I said at the beginning, this film is to the action western what Hot Fuzz is to modern buddy cop/action films. It pays homage to these other films of the genre inside a sometimes serious, most times funny, over-the-top action film.

If you're a fan of Sergio Leone's work, especially the namesake film, I'd definitely recommend checking this one out. It's absolutely fantastic. Even if you're not a fan of westerns but love a good action film, totally seek this out. However, I want to say that, apparently, there are at least two versions of this film. The one on Netflix Instant Streaming is an inferior cut--from what I've read--leaving out a couple key moments near the end of the film. And speaking of, don't turn off the film once the credits start rolling. About a minute or so in, you're shown another scene (which is also where one of the essential moments is missing from, apparently, in the Netflix version). Anyway, I'll stop rambling now. If I wanted to give any negatives, it would be that at just over 2 hours, the film does feel a slight drag at the end of its second act/beginning of its third act, but that quickly goes away. So yeah, definitely check this out. The action alone is worth it.


Royale With Cheese

60/60 Review #7: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly.

There are two kinds of westerns in this world: the fast-paced actioners and the slow-burns that last for 3 damn hours. When you look at the western, this one is basically the quintessential film. For the unacquainted, the film introduces us to "the ugly," a bandit named Tuco (Eli Wallach) with very few morals; "the bad," a professional assassin named Angel Eyes (Lee Van Cleef) who never fails to complete a mission once paid; and "the good," a con artist known only as Blondie (Clint Eastwood) who captures a bounty and then frees the outlaw, only to capture and repeat the process. Blondie and Tuco are working together until things begin to derail between them. Angel Eyes is doing a job hunting down a man who has changed his name to Bill Carson. And all three venture through a Civil War-torn south to find buried treasure in a cemetery.

Like any good movie, this one can be split into three parts (but unlike most films, each part is an hour long instead of roughly 30 minutes). The first hour introduces us to the main three characters and how they interact with each other. This hour, despite its slowness, is good. The little segments introducing each character is fun, and the first 10 minutes don't even have dialogue. Still, it left me wondering if we were ever going to get to the point.

The second hour sets up the hidden treasure plot and has our characters together in an army camp. So we finally get to the point and the movie starts picking up a bit. However, whereas the first hour actually felt like a western, this hour starts giving it an overall war film feeling (which continues into the bulk of the next hour, too).

The final hour at first builds steam with a fun shoot-out and one of my favorite lines in the movie ("When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk." Just his delivery of the line is fantastic). But then the movie slams on its breaks for a mostly unnecessary bridge sequence that has Blondie and Tuco at another army camp. It wasn't a bad sequence--just unnecessary. The best part (besides the big explosion) is a very quiet moment when Blondie gives a dying soldier a puff of his cigar. It's such a fantastic moment. After the nearly 30-minute detour, we have our grand finale at the cemetery. The whole cemetery sequence is very well done, of course. Really good stuff.

The acting was solid. Clint Eastwood, who I had yet to see act well, does a really good job here. And Eli Wallach does well, too. But the true star of the film, for me anyway, was Lee Van Cleef as Angel Eyes. I wanna see this guy in other stuff. He was menacing yet somehow elegant--the best kind of villain. And his distinct look really set him apart, too.

One thing I particularly liked was how, despite being labeled in a very black and white manner, the characters weren't black and white. Blondie wasn't all that "good." Angel Eyes might have been "bad," but he did follow a code of ethics. Tuco was really the only one who didn't walk a gray area. He was selfish and did what benefited him the most--in fact, at times, he was more "bad" than even Angel Eyes.

Anyway, I'll just get into my final notes now. The film's score is wonderful (and famous--despite not having seen the film before, I knew the main theme that plays throughout). The film was basically 2/3s dubbed over in English and 1/3 actually spoken in English. I thought that would get annoying, but you really don't notice it after a while. The film's biggest flaw is really its length. I could have easily done with about an hour or so less and wouldn't have been bothered any. Things did start feeling repetitive in the last half of the movie with all the Civil War stuff, so that could have been trimmed down a lot. I don't mind long movies, but as many people have said in the past--there needs to be a reason that it's that long. Here, there's no reason it needed to be 3 hours long. The pacing was mostly fine up until that last hour.

So that's it. I refrained from being cliche and doing this in a "good, bad, ugly" format (mostly because, honestly, there wasn't anything ugly/terrible about it). Would I go out and watch this again? Probably not--at least not for a good while. But am I glad I saw it? Definitely. Anyway, keep an eye out before next Wednesday for another 60/60 Extra that will help transition from this film into the Japanese western that is coming next (it's not exactly a classic, but it's too good of a transition to pass up). As for this film, however...


A Keanu 'Whoa'