Keeping up with the formula doesn't pay off

Rating: 4/10 (8 January 2004)

Mr. Hollywood woke up one day and realized that his ideas were running thin. He went to his book of history and decided that it was time they did a movie about the samurai. He went to work and activated the movie-making machine, and in it added all the ingredients to make a box-office smash out of the genre. So, in the movie, everything you're expecting to see about the samurai is in fact depicted, even when it makes little sense (Where the hell do those ninjas come from? Who sent them?). Thus, from it comes little effect and result, and probably the most overrated of the year to come. It is simply not genuine, only the best the money can buy. Everything about is enormous, and, as usual, Cruise is the only reason for the movie to justify its existence. Did I mention that they also payed 75 million dollars for him? Well, as expected, he has done his homework well: speaking japanese, fighting with swords, the whole works. But it's a pity that the movie he serves ends up being such a flat effort. Shamelessly ripping off its concept from "Dances With Wolves", trying to make it evolve into something with deep emotions and meanings, and creating a movie whose story is predictable from beginning until the end (the trailer only tells half of it) is a fraud, and to me is insulting. Ok so it can be entertaining. But I wasn't entertained. Only hurt, for so much has done so little. A saying in my country says that "the mountain has spawned a mouse". And this pretty much sums it up. I rest my case.