The Last Samurai

Warner Brothers pictures presents

Starring Tom Cruise and Ken Wanatabe

Directed by: Edward Zwick

Rating: ***** (See this movie or you are one stupid person!!!)

Plot: A Civil War hero who has become a drunk off of what he saw when Union troops went after the Indians. He is asked to come to Japan to form a new army to fight a rebellion made up of the last remaining samurai. He takes the job but is soon captured by the samurai. As they learn from him, he learns from them. He soon understands what love, truth and meaning to life is and decides to fight an army he helped to create. The best battle sequences I have seen for a while ensue, and NINJA'S. I have made this claim before and I will make it again. Any movie with ninja's in it is great!!!

Acting: A lot of people call Tom Cruise a loser or whatever. Or that he can't act. Well please go see this movie and then put your foot in your mouth. I have always loved Cruise's work but now I admire the man. I found out he co-produced this film and I think he is such a great guy. Anyway his performance is out standing. His character changes so much and you move with him every step of the way. He has such swagger and style that it is great to see him as a man down and out but has so much fire inside him that you cheer when you see him fight and win. Also I haft to say he has a comic talent to him and his emotion can ease you down as an audience member, in such an intense film. Its hard to explain but to watch Tom's character go through so many steps as a man let alone anything is amazing, well at least to me. Another thing I just was crazy about was that Tom did a lot of his own stunts and learned how to sword fight. In the movie it is very impressive and every swing of the sword you cling to your seat. I do believe this is Tom's best performance of his career, yes better than Eyes Wide Shut and Mi:2 (That was a joke). Ken Wanatabe plays Kastsumoto the samurai leader who captures Cruise during an early battle in the film. In the society we live in its hard for American audeinces to connect with characters who are not American and sometimes British. So the fact that half of the audience around me was crying in scenes where Ken was so powerful made me happy. He easily is just an amazing acting force in the film. Without him the movie might have been flat. American's are used to intense non-emotional samurai characters that are just tight lipped intense people. Ken but heart to this character, he makes you laugh and cry and his performance is note worthy for awards, but I am sure he will be ignored knowing how racist the Academy is anyway.

Directing/Writing: What an amazing story and what an amazing film. I don't think I have seen a movie this powerful in a long time. Maybe I have a little biased, since I enjoy historic pictures but I am sure many people will agree with me about how powerful this film is. The script is pure genious and has such a flow. It's an intense picture with a serious meaning with a lot of action. I mean if you thought this movie would be dull and long and boring, well consider yourself a dumb ass now. The fight scenes in this film will leave you open mouthed and going "Holly shit" or just drowling. Not only the amazing battle sequences but along with great dialogue, an amazing pace. The movie is long but it feels so short and I was amazed I did not want it to end. Now the amazing look of the film and the dialogue is what might stand out but the underlined themes is what I really loved about the film. The fact that America in those times would build armies around the world, not really for anyone's pure interest, mainly just to sell weapons. Nathan(Tom Cruise) realizes how greedy his world has become and decides to fight with people who believe in nature and rely on the fact of human strength and love. I was amazed the film was doing this. The themes of greed will corrupt all and greed creates war was amazing. Not only all of that Zwick has such a talent for what I call the perfect shot, where every scene looks perfect. Well except when they used special effects for smoke. That looked shitty, but besides that I think everything was perfect.

Overall: This is the best movie of the year with Mystic River as a close second. If you miss this movie in theatres go buy it on dvd when it comes out. You will not be disapointed. The only thing is after seeing that movie, I really want a samurai sword.