Last Samurai

Pros: Beautiful cinematography, settings, costume, martial arts, and Ken Watanabe.
Cons: The stereotypes, and why couldn't they have stuck with the original story?

I've always been interested in Japanese culture, ever since a train trip in my teens, and the only thing I had to read was a copy of Shogun, by James Clavell. The more I studied the intricaties of it, the more interested I became. True, most of my ...

Pros: Ken Watanabe
Cons: Tom Cruise was the wrong guy to cast in this...

I just want to be upfront on the following. I still haven't forgiven Tom for what he did to Nicole. To dump your wife through a divorce petition is pretty sleazy. What's even sleazier is to abandon her while she's pregnant with your child and ...

Pros: ...
Cons: ...

Reviewed by: Carl Lazarevic Genre: Action Adventure Video: 2.35:1 Anamorphic NTSC Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1 Languages: English, French Subtitles: English, French and Spanish ...

Pros: Some great acting, honor, betrayal and finding ones self.
Cons: It's not original.

Simon Graham: They say Japan was made by a sword. They say the old gods dipped a coral blade into the ocean, and when they pulled it out four perfect drops fell back into the sea, and those drops became the islands of Japan. I say, Japan was made by ...

Pros: The script, action packed, Tom Cruise, Ken Watanabe, setting and design
Cons: Ending has been done before

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been interested in Ancient Japan and the ways of the Samurai. Well, from that point on when I heard that my uncle John Logan (Gladiator, Star Trek: Nemesis, The Time Machine) was working on a movie ...

Pros: Solidly made epic cinema for Awards Season
Cons: Predictably made epic cinema for Awards season

Ed Zwick's The Last Samurai arrives in theatres with a professional serviceability that should never be confused with inspiration. The film is smart without ever being intelligent, pretty without ever being artistic and exciting without ever being ...

Pros: Watanabe, photography, Samurai
Cons: Cruise

I love Samurai. I am deeply fascinated by this ancient and beautiful system, and could watch samurai movies everyday. My friends find this odd. See, I am a pacifist, so it seems very strange that I should have such a fascination with a martial culture. ...

Pros: Lovely photography. Ken Watanabe.
Cons: Simplistic thinking. Tom Cruise.

Madame Arcati, the medium who has been recommended as being especially gifted at dealing with deceased movie stars who have returned in spiritual form, came to Chateau Maine today to meet with Norman. She's a rather odd woman with an unusual accent, ...

Pros: Everything except for the ending
Cons: The last five minutes try to derail the entire movie

OK, I'm not going to lie to you here. I was pretty disappointed with movie in general after watching Bad Boys II on Wednesday night. It was the kind of movie that makes you rethink whether you ever want to see another movie. I quickly ran out to the ...

Pros: Historical movie, fans for those who liked Gladiator, Shogun and The Lord of the Rings
Cons: Special features on DVD were missed opportunities or served to promote Tom Cruise.

In a bid to get a "Best Oscar for Acting", Tom Cruise stars as Captain Nathan Algren in The Last Samurai. Algren is a Civil War veteran who has nothing to live for, but carves out a living by displaying the might of Winchester rifles to the ...

Pros: epic battle scenes, great story, excellent choreography
Cons: too long, wish-washy conclusion

The opening scene of Edward Zwick’s “The Last Samurai” shows us a very pathetic-looking character. He’s drunk, of course, and is degraded to the point of playing a legendary war hero in a live advertising stunt to sell guns for his ...

Pros: Great action, good performances.
Cons: Predictable and unoriginal, ending weak.

You've gotta hand it to Hollywood. When it promises a movie with swords, it gives you a movie with swords. If they can do nothing else correctly, they can handle a movie with plenty of sword action just right. Case in point is the new movie The Last ...

Pros: beautiful film
Cons: don't think too hard

Forget the overblown bluster of Master and Commander or the two-years-too-late pity party for Return of the King - the real winner for last year's Best Picture should have been Tom Cruise's historical epic, The Last Samurai. ...

Pros: Rockin' battle scenes; Ken Watanabe's acting; John Toll's cinematography; Ngila Dickson's costumes
Cons: Blatant distortion of history; white guilt & redemption, again; predictable, implausible, & derivative script

No filmmaker sets out to make a bad movie or give less than his or her best effort. Even so, crappy (or at least forgettable) movies get made more often than not. Since seeing "The Last Samurai" I've been trying to get inside Ed Zwick's head and figure ...

Pros: Acting; direction; plot.
Cons: First half-hour is slow and boring.

I hate writing reviews after I haven't written one for a good six days. It's actually kinda painful. It's as if I'm out of shape or something. It's like running. Getting out there and running when you haven't done it for a few days can feel very bad. You ...