Director:
Bryan Singer
Writers (WGA):
Tom DeSanto (story) &
Bryan Singer (story) ...
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When I first saw ads for The Last Samurai months before it was released, I didn?t know that this was Tom Cruise?s latest attempt to try to grab some Oscar gold. I figured it was his latest attempt to prove that he can do his own stunts, a la the Mission Impossible movies (he does that here as well anyway.) In the month that the movie has been in theaters, it has garnered several award show nominations, including three Golden Globe nods. Since I have now finally seen it, I think it is award-worthy, though I don?t see Oscar going to Cruise this year.

Captain Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise) is a Civil War hero who is haunted by his past. He?s not haunted by the Civil War, but from recently fighting American Indians in the West. It?s now 1876, and he is an alcoholic and experiencing flashbacks of a cruel massacre of women and children by himself under the direction of his commanding officer, Colonel Bagley (Tony Goldwyn.) He is doing demonstrations for a rifle company, but it almost equals up to a circus sideshow act. He gets a chance to do something more challenging when Japanese businessman Omura (Masato Harada) makes him an offer. He wants to modernize his country through his railway system, and he has been pressuring the young Emperor Meiji (Shichinosuke Nakamura) to suppress the recent samurai attacks that are stopping that process. Omura has hired Bagley to train the country?s new army and the Colonel in turn thinks of Algren because of Algren?s experience with fighting the Indians, which he figures are the same as the Samurais. Algren doesn?t want to do it at first, but eventually agrees after an offer to be paid $500 a month plus an additional $500 upon completion, and he gets to bring his friend and fellow Army veteran, Sergeant Zebulon Gant (Billy Connolly), with him. Algren heads to Japan where he meets the army?s interpreter, the British Simon Graham (Timothy Spall), and starts training the troops. He also depends on General Hasegawa (Togo Igawa) to help him learn more about the leader of the Samurais, Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe), since Hasegawa once fought along side him. Omura gets antsy though, and demands that Algren lead the army into a battle with the Samurais, even though they were clearly not ready. Predictably, the army is massacred, resulting in the deaths of some friends and people he has come to know. Algren himself is almost killed, but his warrior spirit while killing a red-armored Samurai impresses Katsumoto enough that he spares the American?s life takes him prisoner so he can find out what Omura is up to next. Katsumoto brings Algren to a remote village run by his son, Nobutada (Shin Koyamada.) Since Algren doesn?t exactly know where to escape to, he isn?t confined in a cell, though he is constantly followed by the Silent samurai (Seizo Fukumoto), his bodyguard/watcher. He stays with Taka (Koyuki), Katsumoto?s sister and the widow of the red-armored Samurai, who dutifully heals him up, but is uncomfortable with him being there. Katsumoto?s right-hand man, Ujio (Hiroyuki Sanada), constantly challenges Algren to fights, but ironically trains him in Samurai fighting techniques. Time passes and Algren becomes friends with Katsumoto. He decides to help the Samurais, especially with the regrouping of Omura?s army and his purchase of modern weapons that could wipe out the Samurais for the last time.

When I first saw ads for The Last Samurai months before it was released, I didn?t know that this was Tom Cruise?s latest attempt to try to grab some Oscar gold. I figured it was his latest attempt to prove that he can do his own stunts, a la the Mission Impossible movies (he does that here as well anyway.) In the month that the movie has been in theaters, it has garnered several award show nominations, including three Golden Globe nods. Since I have now finally seen it, I think it is award-worthy, though I don?t see Oscar going to Cruise this year.

User Rating:
7.0/10 61,399 votes
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Down 8% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
McG

The Name: VA
The Album: Hurricane of Hits On the Europe Plus
Year of an output: 2009
Quality: 192 kbps
The Genre: Pop
Duration: 738 mines
The Size: 675.25 MB

The Da Vinci Code is a 2003 mystery-detective fiction novel written by American author Dan Brown.
It follows symbologist Robert Langdon as he investigates a murder in Paris's Louvre Museum and discovers a battle between the Priory of Sion and Opus Dei over the possibility of Jesus Christ of Nazareth having been married to and fathering a child with Mary Magdalene.

The novel has provoked a popular interest in speculation concerning the Holy Grail legend and Magdalene's role in the history of Christianity. The book has been extensively denounced by many Christian denominations as a dishonest attack on the Roman Catholic Church. It has also been criticized for its historical and scientific inaccuracy.

The book is a worldwide bestseller that had 60.5 million copies in print by May 2006 and that has been translated into 44 languages. In 2006 a film adaptation was released by Sony's Columbia Pictures.

Read by Paul Michael.

A poor village under attack by bandits recruits seven unemployed samurai to help them defend themselves.
Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 4 wins & 5 nominations.

Artist: Natalie Bassingthwaighte
Title Of Album: 1000 Stars
Year Of Release: February 21, 2009
Label: Sony BMG
Genre: Pop / Dance-Pop
Bitrate: 320kbps / 44,1kHz / Joint-Stereo
Total Time: 54:38 min

Birth name: Scarlett I. Johansson
Birth date: 1984-11-22
Birth location: New York City, New York, U.S.
Measurements: 34C
Height: 5' 4" (163 CM)
Scarlett Johansson is an American actress. She rose to fame with her role in 1998's The Horse Whisperer and subsequently gained critical acclaim for her roles in Ghost World, Lost in Translation and Girl with a Pearl Earring, the latter two earning her Golden Globe Award nominations in 2003.

In 1997, she was nominated as Best Actress, for her role in Manny & Lo, by the Independent Spirit Awards.