|
| Troy / The Last Samurai | 
 enlarge | Directors: Wolfgang Petersen, Edward Zwick
Actors: Julian Glover, Brian Cox, Nathan Jones, Adoni Maropis, Jacob Smith
Studio: Warner Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $26.98
Buy New: $18.00
You Save: $8.98 (33%)
New (1) Used (4) from $14.89
Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 109767
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), French (Original Language), Japanese (Original Language)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 2
Running Time: 316
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 1.2
ISBN: 1419811991
UPC: 012569708693
EAN: 9781419811999
ASIN: B0007VY4EK
Theatrical Release Date: May 14, 2004
Release Date: April 5, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Factory Sealed. Ships next business day!
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
There are many reasons to recommend Troy as a good ol' fashioned Hollywood epic, especially if you've never read Homer's The Iliad. Dispensing with Greek gods altogether, this earnestly massive production (budgeted at upwards of $200 million) will surely offend historians and devoted students of the classics (for them, there's the History Channel's Troy). But there's politics aplenty in the grand-scale war that erupts when Trojan prince Paris (Orlando Bloom) makes off with Helen (blandly beautiful German model Diane Kruger), wife of Spartan ruler Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson), whose brother, the Greek king Agamemnon (Brian Cox) prods him into enraged retaliation. Greek warrior Achilles (Brad Pitt) brings lethal force to his battles (and there are many of them, mostly impressive), and his Trojan counterpart, Paris's brother Hector (Eric Bana), adds even more buffed-up beefcake to a film so chock-full o' hunks that there's barely room for Peter O'Toole (doing fine work as Trojan king Priam) and even less for Julie Christie, appearing ever-so-briefly as Achilles's melancholy mother. The drama is nearly as arid as the sun-baked locations (Mexico and Malta) that stand in for the Aegean coast, and many critics suggested that Pitt (who valiantly tries to give Achilles some tormented dimension) was simply miscast. But when you consider that Wolfgang Petersen also made The Perfect Storm, there's nothing wrong with enjoying Troy as a semi-guilty pleasure with a touch of ancient class. --Jeff Shannon While Japan undergoes tumultuous transition to a more Westernized society in 1876-77, The Last Samurai gives epic sweep to an intimate story of cultures at a crossroads. In America, tormented Civil War veteran Capt. Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise) is coerced by a mercenary officer (Tony Goldwyn) to train the Japanese Emperor's troops in the use of modern weaponry. Opposing this "progress" is a rebellion of samurai warriors, holding fast to their traditions of honor despite strategic disadvantage. As a captive of the samurai leader (Ken Watanabe), Algren learns, appreciates, and adopts the samurai code, switching sides for a climactic battle that will put everyone's honor to the ultimate test. All of which makes director Edward Zwick's noble epic eminently worthwhile, even if its Hollywood trappings (including an all-too-conventional ending) prevent it from being the masterpiece that Zwick and screenwriter John Logan clearly wanted it to be. Instead, The Last Samurai is an elegant mainstream adventure, impressive in all aspects of its production. It may not engage the emotions as effectively as Logan's script for Gladiator, but like Cruise's character, it finds its own quality of honor. --Jeff Shannon
|
| Customer Reviews:
 I like one, and the other we could just say was okay. January 4, 2009
I personally loved the movie The Last Samurai, I dont care much for Tom Cruise but its really a great movie. As for Troy, I was disappointing in the movie the acting was not bad, but the real last first scene wasn't all that great. I think others would probably like the movie, so this is all just my opinion. I think Troy makes more for a renting movie than a buying movie, but I think buying the Last Samurai is a bit better.
A pair of worthy movies August 13, 2008
There are great epics, fair epics and like the previous reviewer noted, bad epics like Alexander. The two movies on this offering I found to be entertaining and both movies are in my DVD collection but neither are great.
The Last Samurai had Tom Cruise as a cynical, drunken American army officer hired to help train Japanese troops in modern warfare and lead them against samurai who were resisting western encroachment in their culture. Captured by the samurai (led by Ken Watanabi), Cruise comes to respect them and learns much about honor through their example (honor he no longer believed in ... hinted at in flashbacks to his Indian fighting days and the atrocities committed against them). Cruise throws in with the samurai and their fight against the impending corruption of their ways (some of the Japanese in favor of changing their culture were less interested in how it would benefit their people and more interested in the financial gain to themselves).
The Last Samurai was an interesting study on honor, duty and what evil men will do for money. It was also the better of the two movies.
Troy was a little more uneven in its character development and Achilles (Brad Pitt) seemed far more interested in the glory to be found in battle and his place in history than such intangible things like honor. Diane Kruger as Helen was believable as a woman whose face would launch a thousand ships but wasn't given any real opportunity to actually act. I love Orlando Bloom as an actor but he simply wasn't believable as a warrior whereas Pitt and Eric Bana as Hector were quite convincing. Bana shines as Hector and the movie does an effective job of building him up as a hero which makes the duel where he confronts Achilles quite sad. Hector is portrayed as a wise prince and great warrior and the sense of loss when Achilles slays him is palpable. Braveheart fans will also recognize some familiar faces among the Greek kings.
If one is in the mood for an action film, Troy fits the bill well enough but it is far from being a great movie.
 "Last" trip to "Troy" June 1, 2005
6 out of 16 found this review helpful
Epic adventure flicks come in two varieties -- there's the "Ben-Hur"/"Lord of the Rings" type, and then there's the "Alexander" type. Sadly, two of the much-hyped adventures of 2003 and 2004 were monumental duds, both artistically and critically.
"The Last Samurai" tells the tale of a alcoholic officer-turned-mercenary (Tom Cruise), who is dragged to Japan to train the emperor's troops in Western warfare. But when he is captured by a samurai rebellion force, he begins to respect them and their way of life -- even to the point of fighting alongside them.
"Troy" goes further back in time, to ancient Greece and Troy. The beautiful, married queen Helen (pretty but wooden Diane Kruger) has run off with Trojan prince Paris (Orlando Bloom), prompting all the Greek kings to lay siege to Troy in an effort to bring her back, with doomed hero Achilles (Brad Pitt) at the front lines.
Oddly enough, these two films suffer from opposite problems -- "Samurai" romanticizes history to the point of disbelief, while "Troy" strips away all mythological trappings. And it doesn't help either movie: the former is turned into a dewy-eyed star vehicle, while the latter loses many of its layers, and feels thin and undernourished. Achilles isn't much fun without his goddess mom and flawed invulnerability, is he?
Admittedly, the costumes and scenery for each are spectacular. "Troy" is set in an arid Mid-Eastern setting, and has some truly spectacular battle scenes between the Greeks and Trojans. And "Last Samurai" was filmed in New Zealand, which gave it plenty of green, dewy expanses and forests. Too bad each film is burdened with very clunky dialogue.
Tom Cruise plays a P.C., rather annoying version of a soldier, while Orlando Bloom and Brad Pitt do seem to be giving it their all, but are hampered by their thin characters. The supporting actors are given better roles and do a better job, most notably Eric Bana ("Troy") and Ken Watanabe ("Last Samurai"), both of whom shine beside the A-listers.
"Troy" and "The Last Samurai" were attempts at modern Hollywood epics, but with difficult storylines and thin characters, neither one works. They're nowhere near as bad as "Alexander," but nowhere near good either.
|
|
|
 Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
