Lovesusti The Worst Film Ever

Lawbolisted Powerful

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Janis One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Leofwine_draca At two hours and ten minutes LEGEND OF THE EIGHT SAMURAI could do with some serious pruning, especially in the romantic scenes which seem to last forever. Yes, some producer or another saw this action-adventure romp and decided to appeal to the teenage girl audience by throwing in plenty of love scenes which only serve to slow down the pace for us red-blooded males. The worst scene in the film is undoubtedly the love-making in the cave which seems to go on and on and on forever. To make matters worse, in the English dubbed version, a cheesy pop song plays out over the "action", which has scant regard for the subject matter of the film. If you think a similar moment in LUST FOR A VAMPIRE is bad, just wait until you see this.Anyway, I digress. LEGEND OF THE EIGHT SAMURAI is a lengthy, epic-feeling STAR WARS rip-off with a popular fantasy theme. Influences about from George Lucas' aforementioned space opera to RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and even CONAN THE BARBARIAN. Director Kinji Fukasaku is the man responsible for MESSAGE FROM SPACE, another STAR WARS rip-off, and here he is dedicated to delivering a straightforward historical romp complete with a colourful palette and some distinguished actors. And unfortunately it's one of those deeply flawed movies which alternates between crashing boredom and ultimate entertainment, a movie where the budget is saved for the finale and the first ninety minutes is really a time waste. In a film where eight "samurais" team up to save a kidnapped princess, it really isn't a good idea to wait until the LAST FIFTH of your movie until the scene where they actually attack. There isn't even any characterisation in the long hours beforehand: the characters just wander around and interact occasionally.The film wins points by being imaginative when it comes to the fantasy aspects. There's an undead witch; dissolutions; an evil statue; magic glowing crystals; a huge, giant, rubbery snake – a cool effect inspired by the aforementioned Schwarzenegger flick – and the cheesiest, fakest-looking giant centipede that you'll ever bear witness to. Throw in some gorgeous girls who have poisoned blood and breath and a surprising display of nudity and gore (watch out for the witch bathing naked in blood like Ingrid Pitt in COUNTESS Dracula); numerous decapitations, skin grafts and gory impalements) and you have one heck of a kid's movie that would never get made in the west! As mentioned, the cast is a quality one. Yakushimaru and Sanada are emotive leads even if such emoting is out of place in a movie like this. Sonny Chiba is of course the best thing in the movie, and the scenes where he gets to kick backside are dynamic. The supporting cast are all pretty good, even if the characters are wooden and prove to be little more than attractive scenery waiting to get bumped off at the end of the film. And what an end this film has. The last thirty minutes alone contain some of the most exciting action and destruction I've seen in a long time. It had me cheering on the lead characters. Rated on its own, this ending would deserve the highest score, but sadly the long mind-numbing build-up drags the overall quality down. Still, if you want to see dozens upon dozens of Darth Vader-lookalike bad guy henchmen getting chopped up with swords and picks, a massive set getting destroyed via some nifty SFX and tons of bloodshed and heroics, then the last thirty minutes are for you. This is a colourful and crazy enough film to warrant a look!

lost-in-limbo I love samurai films. Especially crazy ones. Cheesy ones. And "Legend of 8 Samurai" (even though the script used ninjas instead of Samurais) doesn't disappoint on both accounts. However for its long-winded running time this gaudy Japanese 80s (even though it looks older than that) period ninja fantasy hokum just doesn't deliver enough of it. Sometimes fairly ponderous (especially the journey part gathering all the 8 ninjas), but many distractions finds its way in. Like the god-awful, out-of-sync dubbing. The tasty dialogues are outrageously daft, but the dubbing only tops it off. It's funny… especially the out-the-place tones in the voices. One character goes about discussing his regrets, where he killed women and children and for some reason the dubbed voice seems so gleeful despite the sorrow-filled actions. Although there's a wry smile evident. Then we get these retro guitar riffs, electronic beeps and power ballads finding its way in. Talk about painful, namely the corny American induced power ballads. You know, it accompanies the love-making sequences or scenes of utter happiness. To balance out the cheese. We get colourful costumes, plastic armour, hokey sets, important historical picture stories, curses aplenty, blood bathing, hysterical screaming, evil cackling, puffed-up sulking, delicious snake eating, heart-felt flute playing, magical crystals, an demon rock with flickering lights, voices from beyond the grave, a gigantic flying snake and centipede (yep it's a sight to behold), glowing bow and arrow set and excitingly kinetic action set-pieces of martial arts combat. It's very well staged with some atmospheric encounters early on and plenty of scope within its framing, but it doesn't really fire in to full gear until it reaches its unsparingly climatic battle of good vs. evil. The stilted plot is dramatic, but at the same time a complete mess involving tragedy, witchcraft, romance and one's fate in almost capturing a surreal daytime serial vibe to it all. Must have been the music soundtrack. Hey was that a car horn I just heard too? The villains are sinister, exaggeratedly zany and pure comic quality. You know, they just build themselves up (being so evil) for one great fall. The 8 samurais (ah I mean ninjas) had some interesting drawings (albeit stereotypical), but their character arches are never truly expanded on. Disappointing. Instead more time is spent on the two young leads (which starred Hiroyuki Sanada). The performances are okay with Sonny Chiba making an appearance. Directed by Kinji Fukasaku (who would be known for "Battle Royale"), there are some interesting visuals and charming special F/X despite the scratchy low-budget look. Daftly out of sorts, but fun junky nonsense."There's no power on this earth that can destroy us". Wrong!

MartinHafer The film is about a crazy queen and her equally insane son who are trying to wipe out an entire Japanese clan in order to please their evil god. You see, like most evil gods, this one wants the blood of innocents and can also keep these two freaks alive by bathing in blood as well. Nice folks, eh? Anyway, almost the entire clan is wiped out except for a young princess who is aided by eight samurai--though because of lousy translating, often the film calls them "ninja" (they are definitely NOT the same). In the end, it's the standard good versus evil final showdown and the film is filled with explosions, blood, magic and more explosions.This movie is obviously NOT one you'll mistake for an Akira Kurosawa flick, as it is loud, silly and far from subtle. I knew I was in trouble when I saw that this was an English-dubbed film and not the original Japanese version. My apprehension increased when the film began, as very tacky American disco music blared on my TV screen. Yecch! As for the rest of the film, while the fight scenes were well done and the movie was entertaining, it was a silly and over-the-top effort filled with giant millipedes, snakes, magic crystals and demons. It's best with a film like this just to turn off your brain and enjoy. If you question what you're seeing or think too much, your brain might just explode!

reemakabu Legend of Eight Samurai...aka...Japanese Ripoff of American Blockbusters of late 70s and early 80s.The majority of the plot stitched together by the patchwork of the first three Star Wars films.So bitterly ironic since Lucas has credited the Japanese classic The Hidden Fortress by the late, great Akira Kurosawa as a heavy influence for his first Star Wars film.Open as an evil empire converges at their fortress to solidify their evilness with the heads of the entire royal family. All save for one! A Princess?! They need to find the princess to complete their task!And of course, that feisty princess is on her way to meet up with her uncle.But runs into a feisty, bratty pretty-boy who wants to be a fighter like the others. As well as her older protector who will unite a band of special warriors to defeat the Empire... Sound familiar?This flick is chock-ful-o-Lucas-clichés:Darth Vader...err... I mean, the evil queen proclaiming the pretty-boy is her son. NOOOO! I'll never join you!The group fighting a serpentine creature in the trash compacto...err... I mean, bowels of the Death Sta...err... I mean, Castle.Obi Wan...err... I mean, Sonny Chiba's character constantly being the sage leading the feisty princess... all the while knowing his time is finite.There's even rip-offs of the other great Lucas franchise, Raiders of the Lost Ark:The re-creation of the famous boulder opening. Snakes, why does it always have to be snakes. And the over-abundance of pistols... even though everything else in the film dates it to a time long before pistols were even invented. Speaking of which, you gotta dig the times when they failed to eliminate modern elements from the shots. Like telephone poles.Still, campy fun. Thought truly painful at times. Like the love scene with the cheesy early 80s rock ballad score. They keep cutting back and forth between some painful, badly framed love-making shot and one of the eight samurai statues. So you keep counting off each Samurai statue shot, urging the editor to cut to another statue fast in order to end the painful scene.And as far as that other review I read that claimed video games ripped THIS movie off?! That is giving this little seen flick far too much credit.