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Last Samurai, The
Warner Bros.


7.1

based on 44 reviews
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based on 161 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: R for strong violence and battle sequences

Starring Tom Cruise, Billy Connolly, Tony Goldwyn, Shin Koyamada, Timothy Spall, Ken Watanabe, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Koyuki

The paths of two warriors converge when the young Emperor of Japan, hires a Civil War veteran (Cruise) to train Japan's first modern, conscript army. As he encounters the Samurai traditions, the troubled American soldier finds himself at the center of a violent and epic struggle between two eras and two worlds, with only his sense of honor to guide him. (Warner Bros.)

GENRE(S):	Action \| Adventure \| Drama \| War
WRITTEN BY:	John Logan Marshall Herskovitz Edward Zwick
DIRECTED BY:	Edward Zwick
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: May 4, 2004 Video: May 4, 2004 Theatrical: December 5, 2003
RUNNING TIME:	144 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA / New Zealand / Japan
LANGUAGE(S):	English / Japanese

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Empire Will Lawrence

The Last Samurai is much more fun than a mere history lesson.

Time Richard Schickel

A movie that demands our surrender -- to its energy, to its bold-stroke moviemaking, to its acting (particularly by Cruise and Watanabe, who blend musing and graceful muscularity) and, above all, to its romantic vision of a lost world.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

A rousing tale that combines high adventure with emotional effectiveness. This movie works because it never loses sight of the characters no matter how epic the scope becomes.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Beautifully designed, intelligently written, acted with conviction, it's an uncommonly thoughtful epic. Its power is compromised only by an ending that sheepishly backs away from what the film is really about.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

In his first role since turning 40, Cruise displays a likable new maturity, and an unexpected willingness to look weak and foolish.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

Hugely satisfying entertainment that will attract a broad spectrum of audiences around the world. Zwick fully exploits the star power at his disposal, pairing off Cruise and Japanese star Ken Watanabe as two larger-than-life warriors.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

A handsome epic, a brave-hearted 19th-century man-saga from the director who made the period piece man-sagas ''Glory'' and ''Legends of the Fall.''

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

May fall short of its great model, "Seven Samurai" (almost all action movies do), but it's miles ahead of most of the gadget-ridden adventure epics around now.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

An almost perfect example of mainstream Hollywood filmmaking at its most expensive, well-calculated and safe: opulent production values, solid acting from its name star, distinguished performances from people surrounding him, Big Themes concerning sacrifice and honor, and a ridiculous finale full of superhuman achievements.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Cruise's undeniable star voltage makes it all palatable, and the film is gorgeous to behold and even to listen to, from the rolling green hills to the galloping horses to the "Lohengrin"-like theme music on the sound track.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Even if you think Cruise has never had a moment of doubt in his life, he makes Nathan's self-loathing palpable, and the character's regeneration has a hoarse, cautious purposefulness that's striking.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Cruise holds the center of the film with a sharply focused performance, though his bonding with the wise samurai chieftain (Ken Watanabe) is noticeably more ardent than his soggy romance with the stoic wife of a man he killed in combat.

Los Angeles Times Manohla Dargis

Taken on the level of spectacle rather than of sense, The Last Samurai affords the sort of fizzy enjoyment that can come with epic movie endeavors, including a meticulously detailed world unlike our own, an excellent supporting cast and some pulse-pounding fights.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Though serious, well-crafted and handsome, lacks most of the pungency of the epitome of the genre, "Lawrence of Arabia."

Austin Chronicle Steve Davis

What is not debatable, however, is that Cruise is an actor of limited emotional resources, one who lacks the presence required for the film’s protagonist, a character intended to inhabit more than one dimension.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Grandly overblown and deeply cornball.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

Depends on how you're feeling about Tom Cruise--as opposed to the character he's putatively playing.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

Cruise isn't horribly miscast, a la Tony Curtis in "The Son of Ali Baba" or John Wayne as Genghis Khan in "The Conqueror," but he doesn't miss by far.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

It's not just Hollywood convention that gets in the way of the story, it's the lack of depth, heft and heart at its core.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Most watchable during the majestic brutality of the battle sequences. This is not only because of the handsome staging, but also because the keywords sacrifice and honor are evoked with verve and simplicity, more so than in the "exchange of idea" chats between Algren and Katsumoto, which sound like statements being read into the Congressional Record by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

The only history that bears a real influence on The Last Samurai is the history of Hollywood moviemaking, and the unfortunate way it has of turning extraordinary stories into hopelessly ordinary ones.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

The Last Samurai is an idyll in which the savageries of existence are transcended by spiritual devotion. That’s a beautiful dream, and it gives the film a deep pleasingness, but the fullness of life and its blackest ambiguities are sacrificed.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Unwilling to offend, Zwick whitewashes a culture in which brutality and contemplative beauty were inextricably intertwined and, afraid to alienate audiences, he shies away from the story's logical downbeat conclusion, replacing it with an "ambiguous" ending that recalls, of all things, "The Road Warrior."

Slate David Edelstein

All its themes are laid out like index cards on a screenwriter's bulletin board, and each plot turn seems so inevitable that you'll think you saw this movie in a previous life. (You did.)

Film Threat Chris Barsanti

Director Edward Zwick has an ace up his sleeve, in addition to all the glorious scenery and pulse-pounding battles, and that’s Ken Watanabe.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Too many mind and the story grows tedious or absurd. No mind and the spectacle suffices.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

In The Last Samurai, the body count is almost as high as the dead-brain-cell count.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A crock - a pandering epic that's as phony as it is condescending.

USA Today Mike Clark

Never recovers from its failure to grip or engage in the early going.

USA Today Staff [Not Credited]

Never recovers from its failure to grip or engage in the early going.

Variety Todd McCarthy

As rich in period and historical background as it is deficient in fresh dramatic and thematic ideas.

The New Yorker David Denby

Zwick can’t find anything fresh in this deeply pious East-meets-West stuff. The movie comes close to dying between battle scenes. [8 December 2003, p. 139]

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

What it lacks is artistry, those small touches of personality that might have distinguished its lugubrious history lesson from a bunch of pretty pictures with captions telling the story.

Dallas Observer Bill Gallo

This is a Tom Cruise vehicle, pure and simple, and that means it's destined to be the biggest chunk of guilty white-boy wish fulfillment since Kevin Costner got down with the Sioux in "Dances With Wolves." In fact, the parallels are all but plagiaristic.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Worst of all, nothing happens that we don't see coming. Nothing. If, as Nathan seems to believe, surprise is a crucial element in any campaign, then The Last Samurai might win a battle or two for your attention but is doomed to lose the Oscar war.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Less a heart-stirring historical study than a nostalgic fantasy, built on a foundation no firmer than Cruise's superstar persona.

Newsweek David Ansen

There are pleasures to be had in the handsome, heroic The Last Samurai. But they' all on the surface.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

When the script, by Zwick, Marshall Herskovitz and John Logan, doesn't sabotage the images, and the great cinematographer John Toll turns action into poetry, The Last Samurai emerges as a haunting silent movie.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

Patently intended to be a serious exploration of a cultural encounter, but this intent withers through a lack of writers' gravity and a mass of action clichés.

Film Threat Rick Kisonak

Watanabe's charismatic performance and a couple of colorful minor characters aside, The Last Samurai has little to recommend it.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Despite its intelligent agenda, swollen heart and fabulously epic surface, amounts to a didactic banality: a white guy's politically correct lesson abroad.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

The least one can say for this costume action flick is that it hits bottom immediately.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

Cruise pedals hard through The Last Samurai, and the exertion shows. In fact, the whole picture is belabored and lumbering.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

There's some cool sword-fighting. But still, it's junk.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.1 (out of 10) based on 161 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

House gave it a1:
The weeaboo move of the decade, fo sho. Wapanese Scientologist Tom Cruise makes sure to murder Japanese chicks' husband before gettin' with her. Most Honorable movie evar!!!

xxxx xxxx gave it a9:
Although this movie, as well as almost every other, does not have an original idea, this movie is an astounding display of culture and reality. This movie has been slammed by several critics for Tom Cruise's role. My personal belief is many critics and people do not like Tom Cruise and therefore take it out on the review. While I may not be one of Tom Cruise's fans, his acting was amazing for the part.

Jack S. gave it an8:
Well this movie isn't as good as some others but doesn't deserve below a 50. The sweet sword action was crazy. The history about it was great. Tom Cruise does a great job playing a Civil War Vet. upgrading the Japanese army to the modern age. The history and action behind it was good. the fights between cannons, guns, and bayonnetes to the armor, sword fighting, and arrows was amazing. I liked this movie, a lot.

David P gave it a9:
I believe that the story that is delivered in this epic has a wide range of emotional connections and sense of Honor, Warrior, Man and Self. This movie transitions a man from inter-conflict as a result of war and shows him transforming to a spiritual understanding that sets his demons free. The result of captivity in learning ones cultural differences and acceptance as a more peaceful one for an individual is moving and irregardless of critical review, makes the film powerful. There are many lessons to learn from this film then and now. It's the best movie of its kind in modern day theatre.

Seymore B. gave it a10:
they did not have any sort of albino squirrel, YOU GUYS SUCK!!!

Jared C. gave it a6:
While it certainly is not groundbreaking or original, Edward Zwick's The Last Samurai doesn't succeed in telling a moving story in a well-crafted manner, while the film succeeds in its dull tagline that Zwick was trying to develop. Zwick's target was trying to keep the film as silent as possible. And for its 5th nomination for an Oscar, it should win for horrible producing.

Pablo E. gave it a9:
The rapport between west and east mentality is well rendered. The slow immersion and understanding of Japanese culture by Cruise is lovely.

Last Samurai, The Warner Bros.

Last Samurai, The
Warner Bros.