Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
Metascore
67 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 31 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 22 out of 31
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 31
  3. Negative: 2 out of 31
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  1. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Bob Graham
    100
    Jim Jarmusch has come up with something strange and amazing.
  2. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    88
    Perversely funny.
  3. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    89
    It's the kind of movie you wish you had more time to absorb and could see more than once before reviewing.
  4. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    83
    The result has the dingy grace of pigeons flying across an urban wasteland.
  5. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Ernest Hardy
    90
    Laced with brilliantly knotted ideas on race, masculinity and cults of violence.
  6. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Peter Brunette
    90
    What makes the film so special is that while tickling your postmodern funnybone, it never forgets to make you care for its characters, in a welcome, and almost traditional way.
  7. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Eric Harrison
    90
    It's a nearly pitch-perfect melding of genres, influences and modes of expression--it's the first Mafia movie for the hip-hop age.
  8. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    100
    A thoroughly absorbing, even transfixing, journey to a future that may already be upon us.
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  9. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    91
    A purely cinematic experience. You've got to see it, in other words, to understand.
    All this critic's reviews

User Reviews

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User Score
8.0 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 36 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 17 out of 19
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 19
  3. Negative: 2 out of 19
  1. grandpajoe6191
    7
    Despite its B-flick movie poster, Jim Jarmusch's mash-up movie "Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai" is a surprisingly well structured samurai-gangster movie you would definitely watch when having extra time to spend.… Full Review »
  2. HankChinaski
    10
    Magnificent movie, one of Jarmush's best. And if you happen to be into Zen philosophy, hiphop music, and gangster flicks like me, you'll give it a 10 as well.… Full Review »
  3. ryancarroll88
    7
    "Ghost Dog," the story of an inner city dweller who lives by the way of the samurai soaks up its premise not in blood splatter but in level-headed absurdity and complexity, a focus that takes much more time to absorb. Still, the movie is fun in ways that you wouldn't expect - the antagonists are comprised of the worst ...mob probably ever caught on film: they are regularly shown whacking the wrong people, watching cartoons (the movies sly way of equating mob violence to cartoon violence) or falling behind on their rent. Ghost Dog, played by Forest Whitaker, is quite a character himself, trying to make sense of the world through Zen judgment and ancient ways by frequently quoting relevant passages from Hagakure, the book of the Samurai. Furthermore his 'best friend' is an ice cream truck man who can only speak French. This combined with the fact that the movie isn't afraid to address questions of morality and racism make the movie even more of a head-scratcher but nevertheless entertaining. To top it all off, RZA's soundtrack is one of the highlights of the film, layering it with great old-style Wu-Tang hip-hop that is enough to make the movie worth watching itself.… Full Review »
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