Posted by Championship_Vinyl at l1.wpalaw.org on December 08, 2003 at 15:25:38:
In Reply to: The Last Samurai (OT).... posted by Brodie God on December 08, 2003 at 15:08:20:
And I'm usually not a fan of Tom Cruise unless his character's name is Maverick.
Anyway, it's somewhere between "okay" and "good" for me. Maybe when the DVD comes out and I get to see it a few more times, I'll decide which side of the fence to come down on. It's really pretty to look at, the costumes are authentic as hell, and the few battle scenes kick ass. It's all about the entertainment, however. It's also totally been done before, and there're HUGE gaps in a little thing I like to call "plot." Tom seems a little bit (scratch that, a LOT OF BIT) out-of-place in some scenes.
For that matter, Tom Cruise shouldn't get top billing, because a couple of others make the flick. They have severely Japanese names, and I won't disrespect them by trying to type their names here... especially after I saw what that one guy can do with a Katana.
Yeah, I liked The Last Samurai, but don't expect a history lesson or a wholly original movie. It's not the best movie ever, but it was fun.
And I haven't seen Bad Santa.