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.

Actually there is no need to speak long about this one.During the movie,you can not find a way to connect this movie into the samurai culture.An interesting idea but lots of clishes.This movie needs a director who knows how to get into action.<Actually when I see John Woo's name in the airport scene,I get some kind of hope.>The characters,the dialogs,the things happened,the things done;they are all well-known from the American movies.Besides,while there is nothing new in the screenplay side,the action side is worse.There are a couple of fight scenes to remember and the final fight going parallel with the PS2 game is just a brilliant idea.But there is no director to use these in the way they should be.So if you want to see something glorifying about Samurai,keep on sticking with 'THE SEVEN SAMURAI'

The French action movie "Samouraïs" boasts an incoherent plot, some slightly better than average fight scenes and weak attempts at humor. Nothing that would cause any applause from the viewer, I guess.

Why watch it at all? For one, there's the music by Kenji Kawai. The legendary composer incorporates some nice tunes, except perhaps the guitar-heavy-title track. Also, the cast is OK - most notably action veteran Yasuaki Kurata and the cute leading man, Cyril Mourali.

There's really not much more to say about the film which has the look of your typical direct-to-video-stuff. Nothing exceptional. I'd give it a

Rating 3/10

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.

who wouldn't love a French martial arts movie? The dubbing alone was the epitome of spoof, especially the hapless sidekick, a Tunisian-looking dude who was voiced by some sort of terrible Eddie Murphy/Martin Lawrence impersonator. Not much of the movie made any sense (in a good way), but quite frankly, whatever. It was what it was, and the fight scenes, I thought, were very good- especially the fight in the gym with the 7 or 8 identically dressed Japanese goons against the 20 or so sparrers- multiple styles, 1 on 1, 3 on 1, every other combination. Plenty of mean-looking cold-eyed warrior action, open-hand, sword v. baton, all kinds of good stuff. Go at it with open eyes and enjoy on every level.