The story’s many advances and reversals can be hard to follow at times, but this isn’t really a movie where plot is paramount. Everything boils down to the action, and what that action means.
At its best, this pomo oater gets within chaw-spitting distance of action-flick greatness; at its worst, the movie is simply unadulterated guns-and-guts fun.
70
The Hollywood Reporter
The Hollywood Reporter
A jaunty, happy-go-lucky adventure that packs a fistful of dynamite in the spectacular showdown.
70
VarietyDerek Elley
VarietyDerek Elley
East meets West meets East again, with palate-tingling results, in The Good the Bad the Weird, a kimchi Western that draws shamelessly on its spaghetti forebears but remains utterly, bracingly Korean.
The entertaining non-stop action has the potential to give the film wide cross-over appeal and cult status.
60
EmpireDan Jolin
EmpireDan Jolin
A tangled narrative and damp-squib ending detract from an otherwise joyous Spaghetti Eastern.
40
Village Voice
Village Voice
Kim's filmmaking is generally cartoonish in a bad sense, as he squanders his set pieces, flashbacks, and other attention-getting with sometimes downright wretched staging.