More than I bargained for

Rating: 9/10 (22 January 2006)

I didn't know much about The Last Samurai when I grabbed it from the sales bin and popped it in my DVD player at home. I was expecting something more popcorn, but instead I got well made action drama. The whole seriousness of the film really surprised me.
Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise) is man, who has lost hie belief in humanity. He's washed out soldier for hire who is hired by Omura (Masato Harada) to train Japanese troops in order to dispose a rebellious samurai Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe). One thing leads to another and soon Algren finds himself surrounded by samurais, apprehended in a small village in the mountains. Both, Algren and Katsumoto, learn a thing or two from each other, but it really is Katsumoto who changes the destiny of Algren.
There actually isn't anything spectacularly original in the movies plot, it's just one growth story among others, but the settings, actors and direction is so fantastic, that it's rather hard not to like this movie.
You can say a lot of things about Cruise as a person, but after I saw him in Eyes Wide Shut I've came into a conclusion, that he really is a great actor. I can't pinpoint any bad actor from the cast, Watanabe does great performance and Koyuki does small, but effective role as Taka, Katsumotos sister, who takes care of Algren, even tough he has killed her husband.
In all things considered The Last Samurai is among the better movies of Tom Cruise.