The Last Samurai

image from lastsamurai.com

Starring: Tom Cruise, Ken Watanabe, Billy Connolly, Timothy Spall
Duration: 153 minutes
Rating: MA15+
reviewer: jei

Been waiting for a Hollywood Samurai for your whole life? Well look no further than Tom Cruise’s The Last Samurai. Its 1876 and we see drunken American army Caption Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise) takes the offer to lead the Japanese army into the modern methods of warfare, a step into turning Japan into a more advanced civilization. He then gets captured by the Samurai rebellion where he then lives with those who live with “honour” and believe me, if you know nothing about Japanese and all their honour-ness then watch this and you’ll understand why they cut their own stomachs and have those kamikaze types (like those suicide bombers at Pearl Harbour).

Although the film is 2.5 hrs long, it doesn’t really have that epic feeling like Braveheart and the Lord of the Rings. Cruise speaks Japanese in the film (whether its convincing or not I have no idea as I’m not Japanese), as well as the Japanese actors giving passable English scenes. It’s also interesting to see the leader of the “barbarous” Samurais is given a human touch where he acts with great humour in the village’s play.

A very solid movie, though it could have been polished with more dramatic cinematography and a more captivating soundtrack.

9 / 10

Watch it ‘cuz: it's about those cool sword swinging samurais!! and there's ninja's too!!