Routine heroic stuff...Same old stuff, different setting

Rating: 5/10 (24 January 2004)

I usually get a stomach ache of these overbudgetted and overhyped heroic epics. They often are too loud, too long and especially way too fake. Big budget-stuff with a bunch of unnecessary moral and side plots. The Last Samurai is no exception to this. It's a very pretty decorated, but empty package. Like Braveheart...like Gladiator...only this time is set in the late 18th century Japan. These movies certainly are worth wating if you enjoy breath-taking locations and terrific sound and visual effects. These aspects are ALWAYS superior to the story. The history lesson it tries to tell is loosely based on true events but to please and gain a huge audience, they're throwing in the life story of a fed up American Captain ( Tom Cruise ), a forced romance and a lot of pathetic family values and 'codes of loyalty'. I have to reckon that the battle sequences in The Last Samurai are exiting, though. There's a good amount of blood shed and the chopped off limbs are flying from one side of the screen to the other. That's the least thing you expect from an historical epic, no? It's a real shame that the story which connects these battles is so lame. What I really don't understand is that Cruise is tipped as an important Oscar candidate this year, 2003?!? I thought that he overacted terribly (like he usually does) and that his performance was nowhere near interesting. The British comedian Billy Connely does a much better job, I think. Too bad his character dies really early...The largest part of the characters in The Last Samurai are uninspired and not very believable or convincing. In general, the entire production lacks a few aspects to become as successful as Braveheart or other epics, but it certainly fits into the same category. Well made but mainstream stuff intended to make profit The occasional film fan loves this, but the more developed cinema freak is far from impressed.