Assigned to steal the treasure map from a man on the train, a Korean thief goes there to find out that a thieves' leader has stolen it before him does, so he does his best to restore the map, while a bounty hunter chases them to save the treasure and take the map.
With a nod and a wink to Sergio Leone, South Korean filmmaker Kim Jee-woon delivers a slam-bang western set in Manchuria after the Japanese invasion in 1931.
It isn't the film's style-over-substance approach that prevents it from being as engaging and entertaining as it desires; it's the lack of cohesiveness and discernible rhythm.
Thrill-seekers, rejoice. Here's the summer blockbuster you've been waiting for -- no, dreaming of. The Good, the Bad, the Weird is to Hollywood's puny efforts what the Large Hadron Collider is to a Hula Hoop.
A giddy mashup of Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns and Lucas and Spielberg's Indiana Jones romps, this guns-a-blazing wide-screen Korean hit offers a nuttily staged, beautifully filmed, but kind of brainless homage to old-school Hollywood.
