The Last Samurai
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: December 5, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
55
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 43 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
20
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
EmpireWill Lawrence
The Last Samurai is much more fun than a mere history lesson. Read full review
90
TimeRichard Schickel
A 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. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Beautifully designed, intelligently written, acted with conviction, it's an uncommonly thoughtful epic. Its power is compromised only by an ending that sheepishly backs away from what the film is really about. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
A 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. Read full review
83
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
In his first role since turning 40, Cruise displays a likable new maturity, and an unexpected willingness to look weak and foolish. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Hugely 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. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Even if you think Cruise has never had a moment of doubt in his life, he makes Nathan's self-loathing palpable, and the character's regeneration has a hoarse, cautious purposefulness that's striking. Read full review
75
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
A 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.'' Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
May fall short of its great model, "Seven Samurai" (almost all action movies do), but it's miles ahead of most of the gadget-ridden adventure epics around now. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
An almost perfect example of mainstream Hollywood filmmaking at its most expensive, well-calculated and safe: opulent production values, solid acting from its name star, distinguished performances from people surrounding him, Big Themes concerning sacrifice and honor, and a ridiculous finale full of superhuman achievements. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Cruise's undeniable star voltage makes it all palatable, and the film is gorgeous to behold and even to listen to, from the rolling green hills to the galloping horses to the "Lohengrin"-like theme music on the sound track. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Cruise holds the center of the film with a sharply focused performance, though his bonding with the wise samurai chieftain (Ken Watanabe) is noticeably more ardent than his soggy romance with the stoic wife of a man he killed in combat. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesManohla Dargis
Taken on the level of spectacle rather than of sense, The Last Samurai affords the sort of fizzy enjoyment that can come with epic movie endeavors, including a meticulously detailed world unlike our own, an excellent supporting cast and some pulse-pounding fights. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Though serious, well-crafted and handsome, lacks most of the pungency of the epitome of the genre, "Lawrence of Arabia." Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleSteve Davis
What is not debatable, however, is that Cruise is an actor of limited emotional resources, one who lacks the presence required for the film’s protagonist, a character intended to inhabit more than one dimension. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Grandly overblown and deeply cornball. Read full review
63
PremiereGlenn Kenny
Depends on how you're feeling about Tom Cruise--as opposed to the character he's putatively playing. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
It's not just Hollywood convention that gets in the way of the story, it's the lack of depth, heft and heart at its core. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Cruise isn't horribly miscast, a la Tony Curtis in "The Son of Ali Baba" or John Wayne as Genghis Khan in "The Conqueror," but he doesn't miss by far. Read full review
60
Film ThreatChris Barsanti
Director Edward Zwick has an ace up his sleeve, in addition to all the glorious scenery and pulse-pounding battles, and that’s Ken Watanabe. Read full review
60
SlateDavid Edelstein
All its themes are laid out like index cards on a screenwriter's bulletin board, and each plot turn seems so inevitable that you'll think you saw this movie in a previous life. (You did.) Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
The 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. Read full review
60
L.A. Weekly
The 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. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
Most watchable during the majestic brutality of the battle sequences. This is not only because of the handsome staging, but also because the keywords sacrifice and honor are evoked with verve and simplicity, more so than in the "exchange of idea" chats between Algren and Katsumoto, which sound like statements being read into the Congressional Record by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
Unwilling to offend, Zwick whitewashes a culture in which brutality and contemplative beauty were inextricably intertwined and, afraid to alienate audiences, he shies away from the story's logical downbeat conclusion, replacing it with an "ambiguous" ending that recalls, of all things, "The Road Warrior." Read full review
50
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
In The Last Samurai, the body count is almost as high as the dead-brain-cell count. Read full review
50
NewsweekDavid Ansen
There are pleasures to be had in the handsome, heroic The Last Samurai. But they' all on the surface. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
When the script, by Zwick, Marshall Herskovitz and John Logan, doesn't sabotage the images, and the great cinematographer John Toll turns action into poetry, The Last Samurai emerges as a haunting silent movie. Read full review
50
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
Patently intended to be a serious exploration of a cultural encounter, but this intent withers through a lack of writers' gravity and a mass of action clichés. Read full review
50
VarietyTodd McCarthy
As rich in period and historical background as it is deficient in fresh dramatic and thematic ideas. Read full review
50
The New YorkerDavid Denby
Zwick 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]
50
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
What 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. Read full review
50
Dallas ObserverBill Gallo
This is a Tom Cruise vehicle, pure and simple, and that means it's destined to be the biggest chunk of guilty white-boy wish fulfillment since Kevin Costner got down with the Sioux in "Dances With Wolves." In fact, the parallels are all but plagiaristic. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Worst of all, nothing happens that we don't see coming. Nothing. If, as Nathan seems to believe, surprise is a crucial element in any campaign, then The Last Samurai might win a battle or two for your attention but is doomed to lose the Oscar war. Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Less a heart-stirring historical study than a nostalgic fantasy, built on a foundation no firmer than Cruise's superstar persona. Read full review
50
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Too many mind and the story grows tedious or absurd. No mind and the spectacle suffices.
50
USA TodayStaff [Not Credited]
Never recovers from its failure to grip or engage in the early going. Read full review
50
New York PostLou Lumenick
A crock - a pandering epic that's as phony as it is condescending. Read full review
40
Film ThreatRick Kisonak
Watanabe's charismatic performance and a couple of colorful minor characters aside, The Last Samurai has little to recommend it. Read full review
30
Washington PostStephen Hunter
There's some cool sword-fighting. But still, it's junk. Read full review
30
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
The least one can say for this costume action flick is that it hits bottom immediately. Read full review
30
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Despite its intelligent agenda, swollen heart and fabulously epic surface, amounts to a didactic banality: a white guy's politically correct lesson abroad. Read full review
30
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Cruise pedals hard through The Last Samurai, and the exertion shows. In fact, the whole picture is belabored and lumbering. Read full review
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