I love The Last Samurai. I love these fish-out-of-water stories depicting a man out of step with his own way of life and takes on the teachings and discipline of another culture. This movie is basically the same plot as Dances With Wolves, another flick that I love as well. But instead of the Old West, the battlefield as well as the cultural change takes place in Japan as Captain Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise) first is paid to fight against the Samurai and then soon adopts their ways once he is saved on the battlefield and becomes friends not only with Top Dog Samurai  Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe), but also begins to fall in love with the Wife of the Samurai that he killed on the battlefield. I really liked the scenes with Algren and the family, especially the little kid as they become a family.

Watanabe is awesome in this one. It's no surprise that he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Cruise is great in this one as well. I was a little worried that having such a big personality and a lot of baggage (all his roles he has been in) that it would overshadow the film. Not at all. He played this with conviction like he does in everything else and it was very believable. But the true star here is Director Edward Zwick of Glory fame. He created a beautiful movie in every sense of the word. It looks gorgeous and the fight scenes were thrilling to watch.

I own this bad boy. So, it's a no-brainer that I would recommend this as a Buy.

When this came out, lots of folks were anti-Cruise. I kind of disliked the idea he was always involved in a movie where he alone was the star attraction. That was a little nit-pick of mine. Not a big deal really.

The Last Samurai was just a pleasure to watch. The whole story line, Cruises character evolution, and I guess for me I had seen this story many times before but in pretty shabby Asian imports.

With Collateral following, in my mind, Cruise was top of his game in movie entertainment. 1, 2 flicks hit out of the park.

This was such a well made, classy flick. I think it appeals to both men and women in some degree or another.

Highly recommend a rent at the very least. Don't pass this one up.

What's this 'penguin' thing your talking about? This is news to me.

Damn it! Now I have to go back and re-watch this, which isn't a bad thing. My guess is that they stuck Tom Cruise somewhere in Happy Feet.

Okay, whoever finds it first: gotta post a screencap.

I did a search for this Easter Egg last night and found zero hits on it.