The Last Samurai

Here's a pretty funny quote from a Newsday review of TLS

good movie.

Y'know... based on your review, I'm going to wander off and check out that movie later this week.

Oh, how I miss the Top Gun days, though.... ::nods:: Le sigh.

He is not the bad ass in this film though. Thank god. And hopefully Ken Watanbe (katesmoto) could get a acting nod from either the golden globes or oscars for supporting actor.

I thought it was really great. I'm not a Cruise fan, but I thought he did well in it. Not just cos of the action either, not at all.

This movie kind of sucks actually.

[URL=http://www.chuckpalahniuk.net/community/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6705]read me[/URL]

I really enjoyed the film. the action was great same with the costuming but fuck japan is gorgeous some of the shots in that movie are so beautiful...but the one thing that got me into that movie was the pride and honor and total respect of the people in Japan...it amazed me. and yes Ken Wantanbe should get something for that movie he did a great job.

There have been a ton of good movies this year, thank god.

Anyway. Your biggest complaint seems to be Cruise being the main char, and I agree, but like I said, I didn't think he did too bad in it. The others were certainly more interesting characters, but what do you expect?

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by MusicShapedHole [/i]
[B]Y'know... based on your review, I'm going to wander off and check out that movie later this week.

Oh, how I miss the Top Gun days, though.... ::nods:: Le sigh. [/B][/QUOTE]

That's kind of how I feel about this too. I'm going to 'wander off' and see it. Like when I get around to it.

(Also, I secretly love it when people say 'le sigh'.)

le movie was excellent in my view
and not because of tom cruise
i thought the key japanese actors were brilliant
i thought the english translator was likewise brilliant
and the scenery, just breathtaking are the isles of edo

the only negative for me was the development of the rift between the american colonel and captain aldren. clearly, it has something to do with the senseless massacres of indian women and children but i felt there was something more there. still, it could have been me.

oh, and some son of a bitch could not keep his mouth shut hooting and howling after every sword sequence.

I loved that they touched on the real massacre of the Native Americans....has there been a movie that has really been based on that?

i belive there was a film about wounded knee

My friend said there was some movies out there...id really like to know..and they should totally make another one.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by disx [/i]
[B]Kind of sucks, or decent? Make up yo mind. You say it's decent and basically say it's pretty good, just has some hollywood-flaws, then people come in and say 'blah looks like crap" and now you're all "yeah it kinda sucks..."[/B][/QUOTE]

Today I'm going to say it's somewhere between "okay" and "decent Hollywood epic." Tomorrow I'll call it "mediocre." This weekend it'll be "whatever." Three years from now no one will remember or care about this movie, kind of like how no cares about [u]A Beautiful Mind[/u] now.

[QUOTE][B]Anyway. Your biggest complaint seems to be Cruise being the main char, and I agree, but like I said, I didn't think he did too bad in it. The others were certainly more interesting characters, but what do you expect?[/B][/QUOTE]

I'm not going to excuse the movie for "what do you expect." This kind of movie has been done and done again so many times, and better. Forgive me for expecting more from a movie.

[QUOTE][B]I don't know about that. He didn't come off as a racist. He came off as someone that regretted his past and being an alcoholic seemed to be linked to that regret. Cliche, yeah, but not as bad as your version. [/B][/QUOTE]

Whatever you say.

Anyway...

I really liked it... I was sad when Bob died

be a man.

come on Bob was the man!

DEAD MAN

guess what Bob wouldn't be doing right now?
CRYING LIKE A BITCH.

this is true, now I am going to end my life
*takes out dagger
*plunges dagger into stomach
*writhes in pain

Whoa, for some reason, when I read that, it looked like "Takes out plunger".....Fuck, that would be a painful way to die.

overacting sucks.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by orange jews [/i]
[B]Today I'm going to say it's somewhere between "okay" and "decent Hollywood epic." Tomorrow I'll call it "mediocre." This weekend it'll be "whatever." Three years from now no one will remember or care about this movie, kind of like how no cares about [u]A Beautiful Mind[/u] now.I'm not going to excuse the movie for "what do you expect." This kind of movie has been done and done again so many times, and better. Forgive me for expecting more from a movie.Whatever you say. [/B][/QUOTE]

Let me know what other movies you don't like. I'll probably love them.

Last Samurai was a great movie with all the violence kids love nowadays. It was as long as Master and Commander but it didn't feel as long. The only thing that would have made this movie was a nude scene by that one chick.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by ArcherDylan27 [/i]
[B]I really enjoyed the film. the action was great same with the costuming but fuck japan is gorgeous some of the shots in that movie are so beautiful...but the one thing that got me into that movie was the pride and honor and total respect of the people in Japan...it amazed me. and yes Ken Wantanbe should get something for that movie he did a great job. [/B][/QUOTE]
Ha ha. It was shot in New Zealand!
FACE Japan. F A C E!

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by PoetryWrittenInGasoline [/i]
[B]I really liked it... I was sad when Bob died [/B][/QUOTE]

Why do Bob's always die in movies?

I liked the movie, but I had to leave before the last 10 minutes or so. My only comment on it is that they really took some poetic license with the subtitles. I know Japanese is the language of the infinite, but c'mon.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Fiberoptic Jesus [/i]
[B]Ha ha. It was shot in New Zealand!
FACE Japan. F A C E! [/B][/QUOTE]

Whoah...my gawd is New Zealand beautiful...didnt they film LOTR there too?...im gonna live their when i get older most definitly.

I liked the guy that got shot in the stomach and then spit out the blood and carried on. I wish they had some real weird samurai shit like those guys who could swing their sword in such a way that they could decapitate themselves with their own blade. That would have been amazing.

The more I dwell on this movie the more my dislike for it grows...

But it has ninjas. Just dwell on that coolness factor.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by orange jews [/i]
[B]The more I dwell on this movie the more my dislike for it grows... [/B][/QUOTE]

for some reason, whenever you post, the words [i]"pretentious fuckstick"[/i] pop into my head.... I can't imagine why....

Happy to annoy you.

I'll say this again: if more people took off their "cool" and embraced their pretense instead if trying to come off as "not pretentious," we'd have better movies in general. Because then people would realize that they're being fed ancient cliches dressed up in different clothes. They'd vote with their feet and not feed the machine helmed by oscar-hungry producers like Brian Grazer who are still deluded into thinking they're making good movies. It's tough, I know. It's tough when the only things worth seeing are playing on three hundred screens across the country and the usual tripe is on thousands, and the distributors are employing multimillion-dollar ad campaigns to try and convince you to go see it. The same technique worked for Hitler: if you keep telling people long enough and in a voice louder than everyone elses, they'll eventually believe it or go along with it.

The "fuckstick" I'll just consider a bonus. There are many worse things to be.

andy

how do they attempt to justify an American in Japan?

andy- can you tell me that?

It's posts like that that make me want to carry Andy around in a little box and talk to him when I get bored.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by orange jews [/i]
[B]
The "fuckstick" I'll just consider a bonus. There are many worse things to be.

[/B][/QUOTE]

like being Lazlo perhaps?

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by Wesley Sonck [/i]
[B]how do they attempt to justify an American in Japan?

andy- can you tell me that? [/B][/QUOTE]

He was there to help modernize Japan's army. My point was that had the movie been about anything other than a status quo Western-bred hero, [i]the film never would have been made[/i]. If the movie had had any balls it would've focused on the inherent members of the defunct Shogunate (Watanabe and co.) --the people who had reasons for fighting-- and their (doomed) struggle against a modernized army. But it doesn't. Because it's a Hollywood epic and an "oscar contender," the screenplay is instead another tired allegory about an American's "redemption" through (what he perceives to be) unorthodox means ("Gosh, these Japs really aren't all savages! How enlightened I am now!").

Anyone who has studied feudal Japan or read any Bushido or the [u]Hagakure[/u] will notice that the film is very slight about the Samurai way of life. It's all kept to a minimum of course because producers and writers are scared to death of having anything in the movie that will confuse the audience's Lowest Common Denominator, which can result people not liking the movie and thus telling their friends to not go (and pay money to) see it. This denominator increases with the number of prints being shown.

andy

I don't care if something is bullshit, so long as it's good bullshit. I don't consider porn realistic either, but I do consider it entertaining.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by orange jews [/i]
[B]He was there to help modernize Japan's army. My point was that had the movie been about anything other than a status quo Western-bred hero, [i]the film never would have been made[/i]. If the movie had had any balls it would've focused on the inherent members of the defunct Shogunate (Watanabe and co.) --the people who had reasons for fighting-- and their (doomed) struggle against a modernized army. But it doesn't. Because it's a Hollywood epic and an "oscar contender," the screenplay is instead another tired allegory about an American's "redemption" through (what he perceives to be) unorthodox means ("Gosh, these Japs really aren't all savages! How enlightened I am now!").

Anyone who has studied feudal Japan or read any Bushido or the [u]Hagakure[/u] will notice that the film is very slight about the Samurai way of life. It's all kept to a minimum of course because producers and writers are scared to death of having anything in the movie that will confuse the audience's Lowest Common Denominator, which can result people not liking the movie and thus telling their friends to not go (and pay money to) see it. This denominator increases with the number of prints being shown.

andy [/B][/QUOTE]

yeah, god forbid we have anything intelligent or historically accurate.

why the fuck would the Japanese- who have been fighting for thousands of years before the Americans were around-- need help from them? christ, gunpowder was around in Asia for fucking ages. not to mention they could actually make lovely weapons.

well, im steering way clear of this fucker. thanks andy.

ps. who directed this fucking abortion of a film?

The same guy who directed Glory. A movie I consider a fucking classic.

it was a wonderful film, and zimmer did an exceptional job.

i had pretty low expectations going into it, and came out being really satisfied. i loved the writing in the area of themes conveyed, and found the emotional arch of the film to be beautifully done. it was interesting, from what was brought out in the story to the elegance of the visuals. it was just a great movie, and im happy i went to see it. its just so... lovely.