Joheunnom nabbeunnom isanghannom 2008

David Fear, Time Out: A slavish, supercharged riff on Sergio Leone's epic three-the-hard-way spaghetti Western, Kim Ji-woon's all-star spectacle wastes little time in lighting a fire under its unholy trinity's derrieres. Read more

Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times: If you're going to attempt an ambitious action epic, you'd better have the directorial chops to pull it off. Kim clearly doesn't. Read more

Noel Murray, AV Club: It's hard to knock any movie that opens with an eye-popping train robbery, followed by a balls-out siege, and then a super-cool heist. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Goes for shallow pop instead of narrative depth. It's a lot of fun before it wears you out, and it wears you out sooner than it should. Read more

Andrea Gronvall, Chicago Reader: 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. Read more

Robert Abele, Los Angeles Times: As vigorously staged as it all is -- sometimes confusingly, occasionally with camera-torqueing flair and impressive stuntwork -- the urge to thrill grows wearisome. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: The Good, the Bad, the Weird may owe a lot to other films, but it is always fresh and never boring. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: 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. Read more

G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle: Kimchi Westerns, anyone? Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: 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. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Imagine the sparseness of classic oaters matched with the energy of martial arts movies and you've got what Kim Jee-won has wrought. Read more

Hank Sartin, Time Out: Read more

Tom Huddlestone, Time Out: This is filmmaking as rodeo ride: bruising and ultimately pointless, but thrilling as hell while it lasts. Read more

Derek Elley, Variety: The movie raises the bar yet again for South Korean tech expertise and ambition, as well as launching the K-oater subgenre. Read more

Nicolas Rapold, 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. Read more