Rating: 
Summary: Surprisingly good vehicle for Cruise
Review: Sunday, May 16, 2004 / 4 of 5 / Surprisingly good vehicle for Cruise. Tom brings a suitably tortured mein to the role as a late 1870's army captain fresh off the Indian wars of the west. Brought over to Japan to ostensibly modernize their army and remove the vestiges of the samurai caste he is quickly captured and spends the rest of the movie going through a 'Dances with Wolves' transformation into a gaijin warrior. Despite the simplistic plot, the movie is delivered with a great earnestness and sense of purpose. Watanabe is at once fierce and serene as the lead samurai, [was he a daimyo or in the service of one?]. This film hints at the beauty and depth of bushido, trying to make it understandable to the western sensibility. I have a great love for Japanese culture, history, and aesthetics; and this film managed to mix in some wonderful examples of those. While it may be decried as a star vehicle for Cruise I think one can watch and enjoy it from period piece point of view. Recommended.
Rating:
Summary: The Way of the Warrior
Review: In The Last Samurai, Tom Cruise plays a post-Civil War army captain tortured by personal demons who goes to Japan to train imperial soldiers to fight against renegade samurai. As circumstances would have it, he ends up fighting with the samurai against the imperial soldiers. In doing so, he shares with his newfound samurai brethren his definition of honor, perserverence and respect...and they in turn share their versions of these concepts with him.Being a big budget Hollywood film this movie has plenty of big fight scenes and lots of blood. But the heart of this movie comes down to the interplay between Tom Cruise's character and the samurai he has befriended. The wonderful interplay by the characters is backed up by the stark realization that, despite the two cultures (American and Japanese) being very different, they also share many things in common. If all you're looking for is big budget blood and guts there are probably better options out there. However, if you are looking for a strong story with equally strong characterizations that does a quite respectable job of illustrating the human condition -- especially the warrior condition -- then this probably a good movie for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding
Review: While no movie is perfect, and all art can be improved, this effort comes pretty close. More than an action movie, a story of personal redemption, or the saga of a nation in turmoil, it is a blending of all three. The film blends the the epic and the personal, the external and the internal in masterful fashion. No movie except Lawrence of Arabia has done it as well. Cruise does well in his role, but the finest performances come from the Japanese cast. Ken Watanabe's portrayal of the Samurai leader is timeless; an oscar-lock in the supporting category. The technical elements of the film are all impecable, but none distracts from the film. The part never obscurs the whole, the action never eclipses the drama. This is a film that must be seen, must be experienced. It takes an immediate place on my all-time list, blending the power of Braveheart with the feeling and morality of The Mission. A rare and remarkable achievement.
Rating:
Summary: Moving, evocative, and underrated - an unsung great of 2003
Review: The enduring spirit of master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa is alive and well in Edward Zwick's gorgeous, moving The Last Samurai. Wait, am I talking about a Tom Cruise movie? Why yes! And what a refreshing, vibrant, and even spiritual film this is. Through the movie's somewhat formulaic plot of the washed-up war hero with skeletons in the closet coming to learn the way of the samurai is a movie done truly in a classic Hollywood fashion. John Toll's cinematography is tear-inducingly brilliant in every frame, Hanz Zimmer's lush score proves haunting, and even Mr. Cruise creates a stunning, believable character arc as Nathan Algren, imprisoned by his samurai enemies, but eventually in love with the beauty and the legend of the art. There were elements of the film I wanted to dislike: Algren's voice-over narration that slides occasionally into cliche, the film's Hollywood ending, and a third act that begins to test patience. But Samurai is such an immensely satisfying experience (especially in its quaint, beautiful midsection where Algren comes to accept his destiny as a warrior) that those things become mere quibbles along the way. I can't say that Samurai is a masterpiece on par with even the slightest of the great samurai films, but it evokes a fondness for filmmaking to which I wish more filmmakers, like Zwick, would return more often. It's long, it's epic, it's a tear-jerker, and the battle scenes are so alive you have to blink twice. Call me a sucker for loving this beautiful, flawed movie, but try to resist it yourself. It's simply futile. GRADE: A-
Rating:
Summary: Great Movie! Full screen Disc should not exist!
Review: This move has great action, great cinematography and good acting and story. The DVD is packed with features and that's great, but a full screen version should not exist if it is not the original ratio. I accidentally grabbed the full screen version mixed in the widescreen version rack. I didn't think there were even two versions, but this is the way the studio cashes in on extra money and I was one of the many that noticed to late, with a slight tear in the plastic the DVD was rendered unreturnable. With such great movies like last samurai it is upsetting that WB runs these scams on customers. WB dose this with many of their movies when they can just put the cropped version on the same DVD like other studios, clearly it's to cash in extra money.
Rating: 
Summary: Deja Vu
Review: There is nothing bad about this movie, except it is extremely predictable, especially if you have seen 'Dances With Wolves'. It is the exact same plot, except set in Japan as opposed to the American frontier. The acting is excellent and the scenery is beautiful, but otherwise I don't see what the big deal is.
Rating:
Summary: Good Movie.
Review: American guy coes to Japan to ttain Japense soilders to fight th rebilain, but he goes to the rebliain villaige and finds out there peaceful way of living. Later, of course, he becomes a samurai. This is cool film. Really liked pretty Japanse actress, the big fight, and the fact that it is Japan( Every thing good comes from Japan). This is a cool film. You'll like it.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful and Spectacular
Review: Besides the emense amounts of gore *do to violent war scenes* it has beautiful scenery and wonderful messages of love. At first i though that this movie would be a waste of money, but i was very wrong. Even though i hate extreme violence this movie was an exception.
Rating:
Summary: almost perfect
Review: A touching story coupled with highly realistic and detailed battle scenes. If you want excitement, this movie should have
no problems whatsoever to elevate your blood pressure with all
its furious swords fights, ninja assisnation, bows vs rifles
and the spectacular showdown between two armies with thousands
of real actors(no CG used) filling the entire screen. It is
simply superb in term of visual satisfactions. As for the story itself, it is reasonably well constructed but
not without flaws. From the beginning of the film, you are led to believe that Ken Watanable is a master of war. In the final showdown, the bad guys with 4 regiments(one battalion has 210
men, according to the character played by Tom Cruise and one
regiment comprising 2 battalions)armed with rifles,machine guns
and cannons come to attack the samurai village, which is deep
in the mountain. Outnumbered and armed with swords, bow and arrow
, this supposedly wise samurai general with 500 fealess samurai,
already occupying higher ground ,decides to come down the mountain and takes on the enemy in an open field. And may I mention that the advice given to Watanable by the American captain is to "take away the advantage of gun". I know most of the movies are supposed to be watched without using your brain but I kinda hope this one is different.
11 out of 10 for visuals, 8 out 10 for acting, 5 out 10 for the
screenplay.
Rating:
Summary: It may not be history but...
Review: Comparing Samurai to Nazi's is just plain stupid! Should we compare the US army in the 1870's to Nazi's? Is this movie history? I think so. Not because of the events as depicted in the movie, but for an attempt to capture a people's values at some point of time. It was closer to bringing that viewpoint to life than even Kurosawa's epics which were influenced heavily by Shakesphere and other western themes. We forget that the stories of King Arthur are very large fabrications of the West's transition point to from the time of the ancients to middle ages, that the knights virtues in writing were pure but in reality they were brutal instead of kind. That is the point of movies, to inspire and build up our view of humanity while being careful not to extoll to heavilly the villains. Tom Cruise's redemption after massacring Indians is one point of the film. How he finds peace and honor is another. How a society of traditional values finds itself eclipsed by the modern values of greed are clearly evident themes in both modern Japan and the US (whether it is true or not is not the point). Can something in the Samurai spirit of the film be used to inspire us? Or must we only see this in films about hobbits and dwarfs (partially inspired by the horrors that Tolkein saw in WWI? Technically the sword tactics were very well done and remain one of the few films that captures kenjutsu correctly. Cruise worked his tail off to make it credible and despite the time it would really would take to do so, it was still done well. The filming in Japan was fantastic. The Meiji period where foreigners saw Japan as another China full of savages to be conquered is captured quite well. The Emperor who found himself in a position he was not prepared to handle with advisorsthat took advantage of him is also quite well captured. The leader of the Samurai was also well liked by the common people (then named a street after him shortly after he died) may not be the exact historical replica of the man but most of the Samurai following were "pissed" at loosing their swords and topknots which represented critical parts of their heritage, not about attacking Korea. So the question is...do we want a documentary or a movie to inspire us?
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