No. In fact, I'm looking forward to it.

I have to disagree with you there. There's that little indie movie called Return of the King. And it's rather sad that you think The Last Samurai is "REAL".



Um, so you thought there was a chance that Tom Cruise would have his head chopped off midway through the movie?

Ebert and Roeper liked it. I'm going to a sneak preview on Monday. (Roeper did think Cruise was miscast,though)

who knows, if the film actually develops other characters to great deapth, why not? sorta like how segal gets it early in executive decision. lol!!! in all seriousness, sure you know the main guy isnt gonna die... but a good director/writer can atleast fool ya for a few moments. Now that we have all seen the scene in the preview... when the scene begins the thing that klicks into our head is "oh, this is the scene where that mean looking guy ISN'T going to chop cruises head off" as opposed to.. "wait a sec, whats that guy gonna do with that sword?!". Pretty big difference.... IMO anyway. The former is a "do i have time to go to the bathroom and get back?" situation, the later could be real drama, again depending on director/writer/actor skill.

j

SPOILERS!!!! AHHH MY BRAIN IS EXPLODING!!!!! STOP THE PAIN!!!!!

I gotta admit I hated Planet of the Apes and haven't been really into anything he's done for a while, but what about Ed Wood. Damn good filmmaking in my opinion. And I really enjoy Pee-Wee's Big Adventure.

As for The Last Samurai, I think a lot of people just have trouble separating Tom Cruise the actor from Tom Cruise the celebrity. I have never had that problem. I think the movie looks great and I think Cruise generally does a good job with his movies (stuff like Far and Away and Days of Thunder excepted) so i will be there opening weekend. I've had the poster on my wall ever since I saw the first trailer.

Bottom line is some people will watch the movie and no matter what they try to do they will see Tom Cruise trying to be a samurai, whereas I will see Nathan Algren, a civil war hero, trying to be a samurai. Don't understand why so many people have problems with suspending disbelief and getting past the celebrity to the character.

And Nightmare Before Christmas . . .

And Edward Scissorhands . . .

And Beetlejuice . . .

And Batman . . .

And Batman Returns . . .

I honestly Can Not wait til Dec. 5! This movie is gonna own my ass completely...

Maybe the point of that scene isn't to provide tension over whether Cruise's character is going to die or not . The way that Cruise doesn't even flinch, and the reactions of his captors suggest the scene is about two things. One, Cruise's character is either a complete badass ,or doesn't care whether he lives or dies. Or two, seeing the bravery and stoicism of Cruise's character in that situation forces his samurai captors to have respect for him. Which leads to their acceptance of him. If the scene doesn't provoke suspense and tension in the audience, the scene can still work on other levels.

When he does a good job, this is easy. Ex: Mission Impossible. When he does a bad job, this is impossible. Ex: Mission Impossible 2. Hmm, part of this is probably the films themselves. MI was engaging, MI2 was not. It's not only him, although his performance in 1 was certainly better. But with someone like him, the celebrity pops into your mind if you aren't into the film for whatever reason.

If this isn't about him being a silly American samurai amongst the Japanese, then I will give it a try someday. So I'll go back on my earlier post. I hate when trailers give a false impression of the movie, it always ruins your expectations.

Going to see a sneak preview of this tonight. Though the trailer looks kinda cheesy (but the cinematography looks fantastic), I am open to this film. I know some of my friends have a terrible attitude toward this movie--a movie they haven't seen.

But, if it's like "Legends of the Fall" or "Courage Under Fire," then it WILL be disappointing.

But, I'm hoping this will be more like his masterpiece "Glory." The Hans Zimmer soundtrack has got to excite you too.

Back to the topic: I think TLS might be decent despite the attempt to make it an Oscar push for Cruise. This has long been a project of Edward Zwick before Cruise got involved with it, and that makes me feel more confident.
Besides, how else am I going to see a Samurai movie on the big screen without attending some Kurosaua festival?

check out rotten tomatoes. Only ten reviews so far but they all say it's excellent.

I doubt Cruise will beat Penn for the Oscar.

I saw it and you though I was "dreading" it I actually think it was a really good movie. EXCEPT for the last scene, which I thought was Lames McCLaine.

Cruise - he was very blah. He's a movie star, not an actor, and I doubt he'll even get a Oscar nomination for the role, but less a win.

I thought the trailer was awful and it looked bad. But after hearing great word of mouth and good critical reviews, I saw it yesterday and it was definitely a worthwhile film. I enjoyed it, and the movie is much better than the previews make it out to be - a rare movie, indeed.