So-so samurai

Rating: 4/10 (7 December 2003)

If you saw MASTER & COMMANDER you don't need to see this and vice versa. It purports to be about a historical culture clash and accommodation, and about honor. It's really about technology, not culture. What both movies are, are old-fashioned battle films, gussied up with modern cinema technology.
If you love Japanese samurai films, if you know the work of Kurosawa and Mifune and Nakadai and Shimura and Shintaro Katsu (Zatoichi), it will be obvious how much this movie suffers in comparison.
Tom Cruise is a technically gifted actor but there is something cold, as if his performance is predetermined and he does not react to what other actors do. The "girl," Taka, played by Koyuki, is gorgeous and makes lots of goo-goo eyes. The samurai, Katsumoto, played by Ken Watanabe, is good. But what would Mifune or Nakadai have done to make the part more meaningful?
The battle and fight scenes were excellent, though crucial blows were out of frame so it is mostly in our imagination. SEVEN SAMURAI, 1954, RAN, 1985, both Kurosawa, did them far better. I think this is below the standard writer/producers Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz set with "St. Elsewhere" and "Thirty Something." Sorry.
No horses were injured, it says at the end. Good.
OK entertainment. PIECES OF APRIL and LOVE ACTUALLY, both current, would do better. A weekly TV episode of "Boston Public" is better that this movie.