Samouraïs

While it's nice that more French non-art movies are being brought to this side of the Atlantic, this is one that can be skipped. To be sure, it has a few nice martial arts sequences, and the production values are pretty good - in fact, some of the special effects are up to those in big-budget Hollywood movies. Unfortunately, the movie has some of the negative attributes commonly found in big-budget Hollywood movies - a story sorely lacking in explanation, annoying characters, blatant product plugs, and unfunny comic relief. But the main problem is that the story is slow-moving and downright dull at times. If you want to see a more entertaining French actioner, rent WASABI.

Look, most of the review here say the movie is terrible...it isn't that bad. For what it is...a low budget direct to video release it is actually much better than a lot of releases that were low budget direct to video releases. The Manga like storyline is ok, the acting is tolerable, there is some good action and funny lines...I watched the english dubbed version which you have to look past. This flick isn't hald bad for what it is, if you can look past the flaws there is a decent story and some fun action scenes. It is not a film to be taken seriously, in some ways I think the director was making fun of the big budget star studded films, many of which were worse than this one. If you like Manga type action films, this one is probably worth your time...if not just move along.

The film is very different,many of the films that are given bad ratings by many of the fewers are generally rated bad because of the inability to follow a movie.Many watch just to see the fight scenes as if in real life conflicts don't generally start by things people say that is considered offensive."Lets just fight for no cause or reason".The story is well explained but you have those out there that cannot follow the film because hey,"I have to think".Ask anyone the question, why was the computer programmer of the video game killed in the beginning?"Because he knew Kung fu and Karate.Ha! Spiderman not the greatest movie of the year the hulk was OK, not anything unique.The film is very different but didn't receive the attention it deserved.The best films out there goes with- out attention.I know people who watched water world twice in one day but put something out there different unique.My point is here most people want to see the same things over and over.I'm even surprised the matrix was a big hit.

I didn't know until now that countries like Spain and, or France were capable of making things like Samourais. I understand America's obsessive impulse to rent movies that are hilariously terrible, but I didn't know that Europeans are answering our demands. I'm not saying all foreign films are great, but for the larger majority of what we absorb in foreign cinema, American audiences usually get the upper rung.

However, Samourais seems to be the product of a massive delusion on the part of the director, writer, etc. I don't know how money gets spent on things like this. If movies are meant to incur a profit, Samourais' net gain must have earned the director a sandwich.

If I wanted to see a film that included scenes with insipid lackeys working at a video store,transmute into what's supposed to be ancient warriors/demons coming back from the past to battle, I. . .well, to tell you the truth, I don't know why I would ever watch something like this. I find that actually reading about Japanese mythology or renting Kurosawa films much more enterprising. Why spend money on something with clunky cumbersome dialog as it is? Especially considering that the dubbed features only convey that the French/Spanish dialog is bad in itself ! The worst is the action sequences- Historically, most martial arts films puts characters into the perspective that they are warriors fighting against impossible odds, however, this film mutates that concept horribly. The fighting sequences are just as awkward and clunky as the dialog, and they lack the fluid execution and limits that most martial arts movies are actually implicative of. This movie seems like it was made by someone who failed a course in metaphysics in college.

The only thing good about this movie is the repulsive french rap during the credits.

Having just finished watching this movie, I must say it was nowhere near as bad as most of the reviews would have had me believe. I suppose the most misleading thing about this movie is the title – it really has very little to do with Samurais at all. Basically, Samouraïs is mix of martial arts, supernatural action, cop story and techno thriller. I'll be the first to admit, the story is far from perfect, being very simplistic, and outrageously silly in a few places. Nevertheless, I did enjoy it. Anyway, let me break it down into pros and cons:

Pros – great fight scenes (for the most part); some truly fantastic visual effects and CGI; great "video game" sequences; and some clever (if bizarre) story elements.

Cons – the Nadir character is a truly stupid and annoying "bumbling sidekick", on a par with Jar Jar Binks; the fight scenes and violence were strangely sanitized in many ways, much more so than I would expect given the genre and subject matter; every attempt at humor and/or comic relief fails miserably (extremely unfunny and insultingly stupid); and as had been pointed out, the plot is very simplistic, and very implausible in many areas.

All in all, Samouraïs is worth a watch if you are a fan of martial arts action and/or supernatural action movies, but please don't see it with expectations of epic cinema or brilliant acting. Also, if you are looking for a "Samurai" genre movie, this certainly is not it. All that aside, an entertaining and easy to watch B-grader.