Pretty But Dumb (Not Cruise - The Film)

Rating: 5/10 (16 May 2006)

"The Last Samurai" was on its way to a high rating when the story got ridiculously stupid the last 45 minutes, ruining the whole presentation. Too bad, because the film offers some spectacular scenery and camera-work and a somewhat plausible story which is involving....until it goes over-the-top and offensive.
Examples? Here's a half dozen: 1 - bad guys shooting from close range and never hitting good guys; 2 - a final battle scene with thousands and thousands of bad guys dying and only 499 of the good guys dying; 3 - only survivor: the good guy Tom Cruise; 4 - he's let go by the enemy; 5 - Eastern religious gets full credibility while the hero is the one, of course, who turns his back on Christianity and the U.S. Military (two evils of American Liberals); 6 - Cruise learns to speak FLUENT Japanese in a matter of months or weeks!
Too bad such a beautiful-looking film has to be so dumb and biased.