Slick Action but the premise is nonsense

Rating: 4/10 (17 August 2006)

Great camera work, locals, sets and good actors wasted on fairy tale with no real link to reality. American vision of "honor" among thugs. This is a repeated theme in American westerns. The "dignity" and "honor" theme among violent thugs is exposed for what it really is in more complex films like the Godfather and Apocalypse now.
Like many of these films it pretends to have a deeper moral message, linked to extreme self discipline and Zen without any real expenditure of thought.
No need for a spoiler here, the plot is telegraphed way ahead and anyone with a trace of brainpower knows what is going to happen after about 10 minutes.
It's basically a vehicles for Tom Cruise to further his career. He's aware of what consistently sells and he's willing to deliver. Far better and cheaper films about feudal Japan have been made for TV.
What gets me is an honest film would have been very interesting. Why you would want to make a mediocre film full of clichés about such a subject is beyond me.