The Warrior’s Way, which came out in December of 2010,  is, at first glance a ridiculously offbeat ninja/cowboy mash-up action comedy. Things start and end violently. Scenes change at breakneck speed. We get small snatches of forcedly comic dialogue in between sweeping shots of a surrealistic landscape and the up-close badassery of the fight sequences.

The story is this: Yang, a young assassin for the Sad Flute warrior clan, is sent on a mission to kill the last of their enemy clan, a baby princess. At the moment of truth he realizes that he cannot harm such an innocent being and instead takes her in as his own. As these things invariably go, the show of mercy enrages his superior, a scowling anti-Yoda. So begins the hunt for Yang and the young princess by some of the cruelest assassins of all time – nowhere is safe and they must flee from the Far East to the Wild West.

Upon arrival at Lode, the “Paris of the West,” Yang meets Lynne, a fiery young woman with a tortured past. For some reason best known to the director, these two go into the laundry business together and the warrior learns the joys of normal life. But alas, these two hapless protagonists’ pasts are catching up.

The final half-hour of the film is a madhouse smackdown between a horde of Western ruffians headed up by a leather-faced creep, a terrifying band of ninjas lead by Yang’s old teacher ala Batman Begins, and Lode’s own lovable carnies as directed by a black dwarf named 8-Ball (“Good luck for some, bad luck for others,” he tells us) and a sharpshooter turned drunkard played by Geoffrey Rush. Somewhere, in the midst of this chaos, Yang is raising hell. The manic slow-mo, and transcendent glee of any scene with a blade is incredible to behold, and well worth a somewhat predictable plot.

Predictable is not the same as bland however, that is one thing this movie could never be accused of. From the stunning scenery and color palettes, to tight and artful fights, I rate this as one of the best action movies I have seen this month.