Oh no. It's one of those dying with honour movies again...

Rating: 4/10 (23 September 2004)

In fairness, if you're gonna watch a movie by Edward 'Glory' Zwick starring Tom 'overdoing it' Cruise, you shouldn't be surprised of the result 'The Last Samurai' is: a powertrip by the last combining the over the top 'dying with honour' crap from the first. And it's exactly that. It's long, it's loud, it's purposeless, meaningless and shallow: it is, really, my worst nightmare.
Not that The Last Samurai is a complete waste though: there's some good acting (although the academy award nomination for Watanabe was a bit overdone) and a couple of *decent* (mind you, not *good*) battlescenes. But nevermind the story: overblown pretentious silliness disguised rather poorly as an epic action movie.
Perhaps for the people who liked 'Gladiator' (Oh, how I hated that movie), but if I were you I'd stay away from it. 4/10.