Nice scenery, but oh my god....

Rating: 5/10 (15 July 2004)

Tom cruise acts the part of an ex-army US captain, hero from the civil war, gone drunk. He bouts on what is painful obvious cold tea and swaggers about most unbelievable. Probably never been drunk in his live!
Tom, being American is an amazing guy. First he looks down on the primitive ways of the Japanese. But after being captured by the Samurai he is redeemed, of course, when confronted by the blatantly positive painted picture of the Japanese samurai culture. No dark shades here. In a few months he learns a good word Japanese and to fight on par with the best of the samurai (who took probably most of their live to get to that level). To keep the cost down they have one bad guy in the movie, called Omura, who presents the new (and of course abject ways). He seems to be solely responsible for all that is bad and none can oppose him, as he controls the emperor, runs the railways, issues the laws and at the end commands the Japanese force opposing Cruise and friends. Quite busy little man that one, and what twisted picture of Japanese history. Finally the movie closes with a version of the charge of the light brigade or is this a Kagamusha remake? Cavalry charges Gatling guns and howitzers with the predictable results. But what an amount of lead does it take to down cruise. I think he must have received his bodyweight in bullets. Summary: bad performance for Cruise, unbelievable story and characters, bad fighting scenes. Combine this with bad graphics: look at the beginning when the ship puts in: Yokohama is computer generated and so is the army in later scenes) and bad music (strings used in the dramatic scenes!Argg).