Review of 13 Assassins (2010) by Jeff B — 30 Sep 2011

I'm a big fan of samurai movies, from Kurosawa to Kubayashi, or even movies like Zatoichi (old ones), the twilight samurai or Ghost Dog.

So I was expecting something fresh with 13 assassins but I just found a pale copy of 7 samurai. It does not come close to the quality of Kurosawa's movie.

The film tries to be realistic but is over the top quite a few time. The characters are just like in 7 samurai: One of them is not a real samurai, you have the pro, the young, the gambler etc....

It's just a remake of 7 samurai. The final battle in the village and the trap is also comparable.

This movie is just more boring and does not show us anything new. A big disappointment for me.

I'm saying all this because each time something happened in the movie, I was thinking "Damn again something stolen from 7 samurai".... I mean come on, give us something new apart from your super last fight which was honestly over rated.

The manichean pseudo moral does not go to far either. They want to kill a very very very bad guy (who obviously has mental issues) and they try to turn this as a good vs evil thing...

The actors and the music, which made 7 samurai unforgettable dont compare either.

TO be honest, I got bored and I thought about stopping the movie.