THE CRITIC-AL LIST
5 STAR FAB - 1 STAR RUBBISH

The Crazies
Case 39
The Wolfman
Legion
The Lovely Bones
Black Death
Daybreakers
Avatar
The Stepfather
Ninja Assassin
The Descent: Part 2
Amer
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
The Box
2012
Disney's A Christmas Carol
The Horseman
Solomon Kane
Pandorum
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
District 9
An Education
G.I. Joe: The Rise Of The Cobra
Orphan
A Perfect Getaway
The Imaginarium Of
Doctor Parnassus
Up
Harry Potter
And The Half-Blood Prince
The Taking of Pelham 123
Transformers
The Revenge Of The Fallen
Antichrist
Terminator Salvation
Last House On The Left
Inglorious Basterds
Angels & Demons
Adventureland
Star Trek
Crank: High Voltage
Coraline
Dragonball Evolution
Let The Right One In
Drag Me To Hell
Race to Witch Mountain
Knowing
Monsters Vs. Aliens
Not Quite Hollywood
Lesbian Vampire Killers
Martyrs
The Children
Surveillance
Watchmen
The Unborn
The International
Friday The 13th
Franklyn
Push
Punisher:War Zone
The Uninvited
Amusement
The Good The Bad And
The Weird
Hush
Underworld
The RIse OF The Lycans
My Bloody Valentine
Bolt
Slumdog Millionaire

Directed by Ji-woon Kim. Staring Woo-sung Jung, Byung-hun Lee, Kang-ho Song and Ji-won Uhm. Western, Korea, 130 min. Web site

1930s Manchuria. And in the agitated political hotbed of that oriental country soon to be famous for its candidate, the Chinese, Japanese and Koreans are on the trail of a treasure map.

It might be a MacGuffin but it’s one that brings about a three-way duel between a bounty hunter (the Good), a hired killer keen on chopping off fingers (the Bad) and a scoundrel bandit (the Weird). A Kimchi stew of Sergio Leone’s Spaghetti Westerns, Samuel Bronston epics of the 60s, MAD MAX and MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD Cinerama scale action, Kim Ji-Woon (A BITTERSWEET LIFE, A TALE OF TWO SISTERS) won the Best Director prize at last year’s Sitges Fantasy Festival for his totally bonkers blockbuster. The most expensive Korean film ever made and its biggest success (THE HOST is history!) this 130-minute sprawl of outlandish spectacle, guns and poses and widescreen violence is completely without anything resembling a plot. But the thrills and spills packed into this Wild East adventure are so big, glossy and such enormous fun you won’t even notice. The opening train sequence is hugely impressive, the shantytown chase is hilarious, the ending is head scratching, but there’s cinematic ecstasy in the central set-piece where the Gobi desert becomes a colossal canvas of galloping horses, cannon shots and pure exhilarating entertainment. A sheer blast of fantastic popcorn pleasure.

Alan Jones

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