A.C.’s Review: Keanu Reeves plays a half English/Japanese man in feudal Japan where he comes under the
protection of a Japanese lord. Though
he rides and fights with the Lord’s other Samurai his status does not allow him
to become an official Samurai. Meanwhile
he has fallen in love with the Lord’s daughter.
When a rival kingdom ruled by an
evil lord and assisted by a powerful sorceress leads to the death of the Lord
and all his Samurai become Ronin which means Samurai with no master. It’s now up to
the 47 to take revenge and save the Lord’s daughter from betrothal to the evil
lord.
I will say no more as not to spoil
this movie.
It’s almost a crime that this movie
was dumped into the holiday season where it has no chance for success. In fact
it is shaping up to be Universal’s biggest failure of 2013 and sadly it’s
completely unwarranted. Apparently its budget ballooned due to a lot of
tinkering with the movie for the past two years that included reshoots and
rewriting (adding the sorceress character for instance) but you would never
know it based on the finished product.
It was an excellent film for anyone
who loves action. It was always going to be a tough sell to get American
audiences to watch a movie with an entirely Japanese cast except Reeves
and unfortunately it has been bypassed. One actor in particular Sanada is one
of the best actors I’ve ever seen and he’s been showing up in a lot of US TV
series lately. He actually was the star of the movie but marketing had to shine
the spotlight on Reeves to try and sell tickets.
Best Scene: The Ronin’s surprise assault of the evil Lord’s mountain enclave.
A.C.’s Rating: See it while you can. Worth full price (Skip the 3D though and see regular 2D)
No comments:
Post a Comment