Takashi Miike’s samurai film 13 Assassins screened at Austin’s SXSW film festival last week, and featured some great swordplay. It was, however, somewhat dry and lackluster, and seemed to be missing director Miike’s signature dark vision and twisted violence.
Ray Porreca of Entertainment Buddha writes: "Video games and movies have a long – and traditionally rocky – history together. Games have always popped up after the release of a hit film, hoping to capture the box office rush and generate more sales numbers. Sadly, all too often, movie related video games end up disappointing fans. Instead of building upon the great and engrossing worlds seen in feature films, video games based off of movies tend to simply rehash what the viewer has already seen on the silver screen, creating for what generally feels like hollow entertainment."
Reviews of 13 Assassins and Submarine, interview with The Eye of the Storm actor Geoffrey Rush and my Top 5 Fight Movies.
The once dormant samurai movie is rejuvenated in 13 Assassins, a spirited and violent romp which delves into the honour and savagery of samurai ideology.
