Cruise & Ego Get To Play Swords

Rating: 4/10 (3 January 2004)

I am a fan of Cruise. He has done strong work throughout his career (including the powerful psycho in TAPS right up to the nuanced pain of JERRY MAGUIRE)but event though there IS a strong story at the core - a damaged, haunted soldier from the Indian Wars looking for something instead of a whiskey bottle or suicide or both - is quickly brushed aside for the typically hollow, beautifully photographed Hollywood "epic" - lots of shots of Cruise practicing with a stick or a sword in front of gorgeous sunsets and snow-capped Japanese mountains. It becomes so predictable and ridiculously close to Costner's immersion with the Indians in WOLVES that it becomes stale and one-note. Sweeping, yes. Some great fight scenes, yes. And the Japanese lead is wonderful. But this Zwick film becomes as tortured and ridiculous as his other bloated "historical epic", LEGENDS OF THE FALL. Not worth your hard-earned cash.