The Last Schmuckurai

Rating: 3/10 (10 January 2009)

Once I saw where this movie was going I thought 'Yay, this is all about Tom Cruise kicking some serious Samurai ass, it has to be lots of fun'.
And fun it was, nice, cheesy, campy fun. Cruise's Civil War vet character has these battleground flashbacks that make him all moody and tormented. But hey, this is no regular Joe, he is a bit of genius actually as he manages to both learn Japanese and master the art of the Samurai over the course of just one winter. Yay again for this all American wonder of a hero.
They've also thrown in some romance for good measure and a whole bunch of epic fight scenes you've seen so many times before and the obligatory moral conundrum to put some more weight behind the leading character self-righteousness.
End of story. Yawn.
A final thought on the cast. While watching this I thought Leslie Nielsen would have probably been the most appropriate lead here. But then I sobered up and realized the guy was old and his ligaments might have refused to cooperate. So upon further analysis I reached the final verdict. Adam Sandler. And Drew Barrymore as the warlord.