Os Invencíveis

This movie is fantastic, exhilarating and fun. High dramatic art it is not.

It's a movie about a chase for treasure, and it holds onto that and never forgets. In the pursuit of creating a chase, everything is crafted carefully. The cinematography is breathtaking, with huge elaborate sets that are used to their fullest. Most of the stunts and effects are real, CGI being kept to a minimum. It is an action movie with actual action instead of pixels, a rarity in movies from the past 10 years. Stunning candy for all the senses, it gets your adrenaline pumping! As far as acting goes, it is excellent. Korean comic actor Song Kang-Ho fills the "Weird" role of Tae-Goo, pulling off a combination of humanity and quirkiness. Lee Byung-Hun is the 'bad' character, brutal and insane as gangster Chang-Yi. Filling out the main three is Jung Woo-Son as the cool, collected and more than a little arrogant bounty hunter Do-Won. While Jung is eclipsed by the other two, his character ultimately became my favorite during the climax. The supporting cast is none-too-shabby either, playing everything from military dropouts to ninjas, all well. Particularly entertaining are the leaders of a group of Manchurian gangsters, who watch insanity take place and calmly discuss it from horseback.

Now, while the acting is good...there is not a lot of it. I don't think anyone is going to try to pretend this is a character-driven piece. It could have been, maybe, but it wasn't try to be. It was trying to be fun. There is enough character development so that when the climax rolls around after two madcap hours of amazing action, you care that the characters lives are being threatened. That's...all.

But the action is extremely well done, with a heart-pounding score that makes it all the well fun. For entertainment, you aren't going to get much more well-done for this. Supremely fun, with scenes shot with people, horses, cars and real pyrotechnics in the middle of the Gobi desert (too much CGI and spectacle just becomes yawn-worthy, I often fun). So get the DVD, get some popcorn, turn the sound WAY up and prepare for a beautifully-crafted action movie. Not for a complex character-driven masterpiece.

This is a stunning visual film to watch. The cinematography is exceptional through-out the movie. The framing, the lighting and the colors are outstanding. This alone makes the movie a joy for me to see.

The problem with the film is that it lacks depth. The director uses archetypes from the Italian Westerns of the 1960s and 1970s. Some of the dialogue and action is lifted directly from Sergio Leone's "man without a name" opus. Most obviously The Good, The Bad and the Ugly; but also a heavy splattering of the others. The problem is not the reworking of Leone's work, but I do not think the director quite understands how to work subtext into his script. In fact, the director leaves far too much exposition to the end which makes the movie drag at the end of the epic battle scene (I thought this might be a cultural issue, but I do not know if it is).

Another thing that bothers me (and here comes my western sensibilities), I know stunts.... and there were horses hurt during the filming of the battle scene. The reason I say this is that I could see trip wires. So for the photography I give this film 6 points out of 10. I also suggest that the director rent some of the Ford Westerns. As good as Leone was Ford was better.

The Manchurian desert in the 1930's has become the Asian cinematic version of the American West. A number of action films have been set here but this is the first to make an outright reference to a classic western that I've seen. While taking off from Leone's "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" this film goes in it's own direction although the mix of horses, trains, motorcycles, Chinese and Western costumes and some very odd characters makes this film resemble the Mad Max films more than anything else. An extended chase scene towards the end really seems influenced by the George Miller films.

Influences aside, the ingenuity in crafting the action scenes in this film makes it a joy to watch. Photography is great. The lead actors are good and the story while a little daft is easy to follow for the most part.The music is good but nowhere near the Leone films. The violence is typical for Korean action and might be a little hard to watch at times. Long but pure fun for the most part.

This is probably the best action film I've seen in a while.

I was lucky enough to see this film in a big cinema complex in the centre of Seoul, South Korea, yesterday. It is surprisingly difficult to find big Korean releases with English subtitles, so seeing Jin-Woon Kim's new film, which i have been looking forward to for well over a year, was a pleasant experience. Unfortunately everyone in the west will have to wait a little longer...

As with all of Jin-Woon Kim's films i have very little criticism to give this film, from its fantastic and totally relentless action opening to the suspenseful ending, i was completely entertained.

The cast, as expected from three of South Korea's most most talented actors were superb with in my opinion exceptionally notable roles from Lee Byun Hun and Song Kang-Ho. Lee Byung Hyun pulls off a villain superbly and fills this role with style and terror without fault. Song Kang-Ho in my opinion is the main force of the film, pulling it along with humour and perhaps the most interesting story as the film progresses. Woo-Sung Jung plays his 'good' role well but feels like the character with least depth. The film contains fantastic make-up and costume design, notably in my eyes, Lee Byung Hun's character, who looked fantastic and the on screen presence of this smart darkly dressed character set against the sandy desert was stunning.

The cinematography in this film was superb with plenty of great flying panoramic desert shots, high octane action camera maneuvers, fast cuts and perfect editing as expected from the director of such fantastic action/thriller films.

The soundtrack is fun and reminiscent of old western films with a new, modern twist to keep things up to pace. Although the story has been noted as being weak, the film really does not offer itself as an in depth period drama in the first place. The film is exactly what it calls for... Fun, fast and funny entertainment and what you can expect from some of the finest noted stars and workforce in South Korean cinema.

Of the few Korean films i have seen , the best word to describe them all is eccentric and The Good The Bad & The Weird certainly lives up to that. This movie looks fantastic , almost epic like and you can see a lot of money was spent on the set . It really does have the feel of a western and the three main characters are all very interesting in their own right. The story is a simple one , three men ( and their cronies) are after a treasure map and they will do anything to get hold of it. The minus points of this film are that its half an hour too long and that at times it's to frenetic. Because of the constant action you get a little bombarded with it after a while. On the whole i enjoyed this film but im not too sure i would ever watch it again.