55
Metascore
44 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 90TimeRichard SchickelTimeRichard SchickelA movie that demands our surrender -- to its energy, to its bold-stroke moviemaking, to its acting (particularly by Cruise and Watanabe, who blend musing and graceful muscularity) and, above all, to its romantic vision of a lost world.
- 88ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliA rousing tale that combines high adventure with emotional effectiveness. This movie works because it never loses sight of the characters no matter how epic the scope becomes.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttThe Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttHugely satisfying entertainment that will attract a broad spectrum of audiences around the world. Zwick fully exploits the star power at his disposal, pairing off Cruise and Japanese star Ken Watanabe as two larger-than-life warriors.
- 75Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumEntertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumA handsome epic, a brave-hearted 19th-century man-saga from the director who made the period piece man-sagas ''Glory'' and ''Legends of the Fall.''
- 60New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter RainerNew York Magazine (Vulture)Peter RainerThe Last Samurai is an idyll in which the savageries of existence are transcended by spiritual devotion. That’s a beautiful dream, and it gives the film a deep pleasingness, but the fullness of life and its blackest ambiguities are sacrificed.
- 60L.A. WeeklyScott FoundasL.A. WeeklyScott FoundasThe only history that bears a real influence on The Last Samurai is the history of Hollywood moviemaking, and the unfortunate way it has of turning extraordinary stories into hopelessly ordinary ones.
- 50VarietyTodd McCarthyVarietyTodd McCarthyAs rich in period and historical background as it is deficient in fresh dramatic and thematic ideas.
- 50The New YorkerDavid DenbyThe New YorkerDavid DenbyZwick can’t find anything fresh in this deeply pious East-meets-West stuff. The movie comes close to dying between battle scenes. [8 December 2003, p. 139]
- 50The A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe A.V. ClubScott TobiasWhat it lacks is artistry, those small touches of personality that might have distinguished its lugubrious history lesson from a bunch of pretty pictures with captions telling the story.
- 30Village VoiceJ. HobermanVillage VoiceJ. HobermanThe least one can say for this costume action flick is that it hits bottom immediately.