Review of Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) by Steve J — 10 Dec 2007
Forest Whitaker is a modern day urban samurai named Ghost Dog who works for the mob and communicates with his boss via pigeon. Some complications in a job cause him to end up hunted by the local don (played, to all appearances, by Bob Dole).
His boss is caught somewhere in the middle, with the code of the samurai clashing with mafioso notions of honor and revenge. It's a very good movie filled with odd characters. Everyone habitually watches vintage cartoons; Ghost Dog's best friend speaks only French (which Ghost Dog doesn't speak); there's a guy who's apparently building an ark on a rooftop; and one of the mobsters is a huge Public Enemy fan.
There are some good fight scenes, and Forest Whitaker does a great job (as always). The film does have a few problems, though. They cut out frames from time to time, making parts of it look like it should be on MTV or something.
The between-scenes cuts of the pigeon flying last entirely too long. These are both forgivable. The worst thing about the movie is the soundtrack, which is composed of really bad rap -- the kind with a constant, unchanging baseline and lyrics that apparently don't have to make sense, just rhyme -- you know, shit like "I eat a hot dog/walkin through the fog/turn your ass into a frog/bitch looks like a hog/think I'll go for a jog.
" Really bad. Luckily, there's not that much of it.
This review of Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999) was written by Steve J on 10 Dec 2007.
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai has generally received very positive reviews.
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