The Last Samurai (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Yes, it's been done before: Add Dances With Wolves to the King and I and what do you get? Well, you would get a LOT MORE than this movie, but generally you get the idea...
The acting is generally average, with the exception of the usual Tom Cruise faux intensity, replete with the usual faux intellectual/academic post movie interviews...
As for action scenes, the audience get's to watch a slo-mo repeat of one sword-swingning scene presumably to show us how great the fist version would have been had it been properly filmed...and the epic scenes are, well, simply put, NOT EPIC.
The lack of love interest is apparent in the apparent lack of interest in the female character by Cruise - no surprise - which leaves the male viewer with little more than some OK aikido, iaido and sushi.
The only thing missing was a rice-rocket motorcycle scene. No Top Shogun here.

I've watched Last Samurai in the theater before, and was entertained enough to come back for another look, this time on Blu-ray format. I remembered that it was shot in lush surroundings, and that warriors then were real warriors; not some big-shot general hiding behind some war room somewhere directing "smart missiles" etc. On the whole, it's a movie worth having around to please many different types of audiences; action-adventure, some historical basis, some romance & drama (though you do need to excuse a number of cheesy lines particularly towards the end).

Great performance of Tom cruise...I am not a big fan of him but I just love this movie.

After picking up my HD DVD player I've had troubles watching regular DVD movies. I had heard some good things about this movie but couldn't pass it up once it was in high definition.

The story is pretty good. This is the story of Captain Algren who has been sent to Japan in the late 1800's in order to help them modernize the Japanese army as they go from fighting with swords and arrows to machine guns and cannons.

After the "modern" Japanese army prematurely attacks the Samurai and lose horribly, Captain Algren is taken captive by the Samurai and introduced to their way of life and refusal to lay down the sword in the name of compliance. In time, Captain Algren finds himself wanting to become one of the Samurai and learning more of their way of life.

The story is pretty good but what raises this up to the level of being outstanding is the high definition quality of the movie. It was fantastic, especially seeing the colorful Japanese landscape in all of its magnificence.

If you like Tom Cruise action movies, this is one to pick up especially in high definition (whether it be Blu-Ray or HD DVD). The violence can be extremely graphic (hey, this is war) so if you are sensitive to that you may want to look for something else. Otherwise, the pacing of the movie is pretty good. It isn't an all out gore-fest... there is action and then it breaks and lets you relax and catch up a little bit and then goes back to action and so on and so forth.

This is a must have for any fan of samurai period drama, and now with the advanced Blu-ray tecnology it's even better. As a fan of Japanese culture and history, this film holds up fairly well. Tom Cruise's is somewhat typical for him...a bit over the top, but bearable.

There was a nice transition from languages to illustrate his communication with the Japanese samurai. I still would have preferred Cruise learning the language and seeing it almost entirely subtitled, but that's not a viable approach for Hollywood. Nevertheless, the director did a good job of capturing the culture. Even though I tend to be a purist, it's possible to watch this film and be entertained, despite some inaccuracies.

This is more a review of the movie itself rather than the disk, sorry! It has some nice extra features and enhancements over the original DVD version.