Mash-up or plain mess: Ninja in the West
The spaghetti western is revived as a ramen-noodle western with the wild, wacky The Warrior's Way, a genre mash-up that never quite achieves "so very bad it's good" status.
The spaghetti western is revived as a ramen-noodle western with the wild, wacky
The Warrior's Way,
a genre mash-up that never quite achieves "so very bad it's good" status.
It's Cowboys vs. Ninjas in this fantastical exercise in martial arts magical un-realism. But Korean swordsman Jang Gong Gun has a simmering charisma and a great hair stylist. And the thing is played for laughs, or was edited for laughs after the studio realized what writer-director Sngmoo Lee had delivered.
Jang plays an assassin who has all but wiped out a rival clan. Then a cute baby stops him in his tracks, and he saves it and flees to the West - the Old West - to hide.
He ends up in Lode, "The Paris of the West," essentially the dusty leftover sets from Book of Eli, augmented by more green-screen landscapes than 300 and Sin City put together. Our assassin ends up running - wait for it - a Chinese laundry.
The fetching Lynne, a girl with a tortured past - she literally was tortured - shows the new fellow she calls "Skinny" around Lode, which is peopled with circus folk who hope the Ferris wheel they haven't quite finished will bring the town back to life. Lynne, by the way, is played by eye candy Kate Bosworth, drawling as though she's auditioning for a dinner theater tour of Steel Magnolias.
"Dang," says she. "You're slower'n molasses in January."
But Skinny is anything but slow when he whips out his "weeping sword." Which he doesn't, because the zing of its being unsheathed will be heard by the Sad Flutes clan, who will ninja down on him like a ton of Chinese laundry when he gives away his position.
Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush, who could get another nomination for The King's Speech, is slumming here as the town drunk, and a not very amusing one at that.
What is amusing is the baby Skinny must protect. The child's reactions to fights, stunts, and simple goings-on get a laugh every time. Not nearly as funny - Danny Huston, looking more like his basset hound-faced dad John Huston with every sadistic villain he plays.
Action comedy, Asian sword-slasher pic or martial arts mystical mumbo jumbo, this warrior never quite finds his way.
The Warrior's Way *1/2 (out of four stars)
Directed by Sngmoo Lee. With Jang Gong Gun, Kate Bosworth, Geoffrey Rush, and Danny Huston. Distributed by Relativity.
Running time: 1 hour, 35 mins.
Parent's guide: R (strong, bloody violence).
Playing at: area theaters
EndText