Fresh and Exciting

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

I love samurai films. Especially crazy ones. Cheesy ones. And "Legend of 8 Samurai" (even though the script used ninjas instead of Samurais) doesn't disappoint on both accounts. However for its long-winded running time this gaudy Japanese 80s (even though it looks older than that) period ninja fantasy hokum just doesn't deliver enough of it. Sometimes fairly ponderous (especially the journey part gathering all the 8 ninjas), but many distractions finds its way in. Like the god-awful, out-of-sync dubbing. The tasty dialogues are outrageously daft, but the dubbing only tops it off. It's funny… especially the out-the-place tones in the voices. One character goes about discussing his regrets, where he killed women and children and for some reason the dubbed voice seems so gleeful despite the sorrow-filled actions. Although there's a wry smile evident. Then we get these retro guitar riffs, electronic beeps and power ballads finding its way in. Talk about painful, namely the corny American induced power ballads. You know, it accompanies the love-making sequences or scenes of utter happiness. To balance out the cheese. We get colourful costumes, plastic armour, hokey sets, important historical picture stories, curses aplenty, blood bathing, hysterical screaming, evil cackling, puffed-up sulking, delicious snake eating, heart-felt flute playing, magical crystals, an demon rock with flickering lights, voices from beyond the grave, a gigantic flying snake and centipede (yep it's a sight to behold), glowing bow and arrow set and excitingly kinetic action set-pieces of martial arts combat. It's very well staged with some atmospheric encounters early on and plenty of scope within its framing, but it doesn't really fire in to full gear until it reaches its unsparingly climatic battle of good vs. evil. The stilted plot is dramatic, but at the same time a complete mess involving tragedy, witchcraft, romance and one's fate in almost capturing a surreal daytime serial vibe to it all. Must have been the music soundtrack. Hey was that a car horn I just heard too? The villains are sinister, exaggeratedly zany and pure comic quality. You know, they just build themselves up (being so evil) for one great fall. The 8 samurais (ah I mean ninjas) had some interesting drawings (albeit stereotypical), but their character arches are never truly expanded on. Disappointing. Instead more time is spent on the two young leads (which starred Hiroyuki Sanada). The performances are okay with Sonny Chiba making an appearance. Directed by Kinji Fukasaku (who would be known for "Battle Royale"), there are some interesting visuals and charming special F/X despite the scratchy low-budget look. Daftly out of sorts, but fun junky nonsense."There's no power on this earth that can destroy us". Wrong!

SPOILERS AHEAD! You have been warned!Much of what I could say about this movie has already been said by other reviewers, with some minor exceptions.Story elements -- for example, turning the group of captive women into magic temptresses with poisonous breath -- get introduced and then dropped, or brought back for a few seconds' cameo at best (the poisonous women turn out quite pathetic, achieving only one kill among them). Also, if you've seen this movie and watched the scene where the entire backstory is explained via scroll, you will know what I mean when I say: whatever happened to the dog? The reincarnated princess gets her father's lightsaber, I mean her predecessor's flute, but the dog puts in no reappearance as a dog or as a human (unless I missed something very subtle about either Hiroyuki Sanada's or Sonny Chiba's characters)... and he was, shall we say, rather important to the original princess. And although the tragic female ribbon dancer/swordfighter (far classier than her descendant, O-Ren Ishii) gets relatively little screen time, it's still more than the later additions to the group get in terms of character development or backstory, which is practically none. Chiba doesn't even get one line of clichéd surprise that two of the crystal-holders are a woman and a young boy. I can only conclude that the movie was written and edited under the same sort of chemical influence required to fully enjoy it.I also believe that Sanada must have had a clause in his contract requiring his thighs to be on display at all times. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) Indeed, in one scene he falls to the ground unconscious, and Chiba slings him over his shoulder and carries him toward the camera. Sanada's butt and thighs occupy the center of shot for a surprisingly long time before the director cuts away. So there are indeed redeeming moments in this movie. (Another is when the group has defeated the giant centipede demon, which had approached them disguised as an old woman, and one of the samurai astutely remarks, "THAT wasn't your mother!") A sidenote: as much as the movie borrows from Lucas, which is quite a lot, he seems to have borrowed back from it for aspects of the Star Wars prequel trilogy. The demon matriarch's headgear wouldn't look a bit out of place on Queen Amidala in "The Phantom Menace," and Lucas does the dropped-story-element (midichlorians, anyone?) and underdeveloped-character (wuxia master Ray Park as Darth Maul; the assorted villains -- Jango Fett, Count Dooku, General Grievous; most of the Jedi Council) routines like a master.One point for having Sonny Chiba in it (there are other elements in this movie that show up in "Kill Bill," in whose first volume Chiba has a small honorific role). One point for Hiroyuki Sanada's butt. One point for strong female characters. One point for the interesting sociological fact that apparently, evil undead demon clans have no incest taboos. (It is, however, a mystery to me why the matriarch is attracted to her son, who is sort of the medieval Japanese Jame Gumb.) Minus several million for the soundtrack. I found myself devoutly hoping that the writer and singer of those godawful pop ballads would be crushed in the destruction of the castle.

This is a movie so bad, it's good. For instance, when the main dude and the princess pork, it shows her from all these unflattering angles, so she looks fat. Plus, the dude has long hair. In addition, really bad English love music blares through. After they finish porking, a flying, obviously inflatable snake flies into the room and steals her. In another scene, two dudes turn into stone after holding up a support for too long. These are only a few examples of the shear volume of camp and crap in this film. Any other stupid or odd thing that could happen DOES. Like, some old lady turns into a giant centipede. It's so friggin awesome. In short, if you manage to get a dubbed copy of this, GO FOR IT.

Some wonderful pagentry and costumes, but limited actions. This movie has a lot of really great possibilities for some intense character development, but the majority of these threads are cut before the actors have the opportunity to bring out the full potential. The Eight Samurai are closer to being ninja than warriors, some of them not using typical weapons, the young hero fighting with a pair of kama.Some intense magic being used. Instead of using the two hours plus to develop characters and help explain some of the magic happenings, things are really dragged out. The last half hour of the film is by far the best, with some good action scenes and a relatively happy ending. Typical of most Japanese films, the majority of the good guys sacrifice themselves for the good of the whole, with some rather surprising aspects.The sound dubbing is below average on this one, with some drawn out, semi-romantic scenes with 80's pop music thrown in behind them. Most of the special effects, with the exception of the giant 'millipede' are surprisingly good for the era.