Hirokin: The Last Samurai (2012) User Reviews (35)

From Bad to terrible!

[jedslather · 3/10 · 14 May 2012]

I must say that Sci-Fi B movies is not all in the toe crunching class. But this movie is really terrible; I know that the budget was low but come-on! If you can't make a decent CGI in the year 2011 don't even attempt to do it. In the 80'ties there were a lot of movies in the "atomic wasteland Mad Max" category, this one will fit nicely in the row of movies that failed to get past the firing ramp. I watched the movie in 1080p and it didn't help much, so if you love Sci-Fi B movies you can give it a try on day, if nothing else come to your mind.

The scenery was great, and the fighting scenes were "sort of" OK, but everything else didn't deliver the silver screen magic at all. If you decide to watch this one don't expect anything, then you wont be disappointed.

Potential waisted

[zorrek · 2/10 · 30 September 2012]

Badly directed with even worse editing this story had a lot of potential. Fails miserably as entertainment, screen play and dialogue are even worse than the directing and editing. Production quality is almost there and the acting looks like it was all first takes with little rehearsal. I also saw bits from other movies, Gladiator, Star Wars a little of Dune. Plenty of good looking sorts in it, but even they can't save this festering mess. It would not have taken too much to have turned this into blockbuster, get Joss Weadon in to rewrite the screenplay and direct. Pay the actors a little more and give them some time to rehears.

Looks good, but...

[Bezenby · 3/10 · 3 May 2016]

...this is the first of three films I've watched recently that look great, but don't have much else going for it. The story involves our man Hirokin, who is a human that lives on a planet that looks like Earth, who gets involved in a rebellion against the oppressive human regime. In the desert.

Our aliens look remarkably like humans (one even has a Scottish accent) and are led by Agnus McFadyen. Hirokin is the chosen one and blah blah you've heard this thousands of times.

Bad stuff: Far too many over-emotional scenes of people standing around while the music swells, which is all fine if something was going in between these scenes, but there's a lack of action here. So if, like me, you were waiting for Hirokin to man up and starts slashing hordes of bad guys, you're in for disappointment. Hirokin is in fact a bit of a knob.

I couldn't care about anyone in this film. It looked really good though. More action, less arsing around talking philosophy.

Hirokin changed my life

[hejbreovojemojmail · 1/10 · 7 June 2012]

This absurdly poor creation shamelessly steals from the likes of Gladiator, Star Wars, Cyborg 2, Dune, Power Rangers, Braveheart, Mad Max 3, and ends up feeling like a lengthy montage sequence narrated by a drug addict going through withdrawal. Hirokin's hair is the craziest part of the film. It's like a crow's nest. His first girl is kinda rough in the face because the movie doesn't want us to care for her too much. Enter the smart-mouthed, wily, buxom blonde and her pretty eyes. The bad guy is laughable, he wears a man-corset; his henchmen are laughable, they wear full body armor in the desert; his woman is a venomous snake with a heart of venomous gold that just craves to be desired and bedded properly. Did they have but one stock cgi hovercraft desertmobile to spare for the entire army of evil? You bet! Oh, the mentor figure for Hirokin is some crazy plump desert samurai that talks like a homeless person. Oh I get it 'Arids'='Arabs'. Cute. I get the feeling the author of this scenario doesn't speak English as his first language, or even broken English for that matter. The entire film is riddled with moonspeak. And everybody gets to become samurai in the end. Which is brilliant. Hirokin even has a signature move - he takes his pitiful blade, holds it like a throwing spear and then he throws it, impales the target instantly, and then snaps the blade black into his girly hands.

Here's a splice from the dialogue: "I have seen you in the.. battlefield of my.. mind Hirokin, you will unite the tribes, my friend, change the world, my friend. My friend. Hirokin replies: No, thank you." and promptly walks away.

Thank you Hirokin. I have learned a lot today. You have changed my life. (Btw, his name means 'Sword for the downtrodden', but it's okay if you just call him Hiro)

This is what happens when the boss writes a screenplay.

[Raven19906 · 24 April 2012]

Okay I think I know what happened, Alejo watched the movie Dune and Star Wars, then monkey see monkey do. Alejo has a long background in martial arts and I've seen 5 minute youtube videos with better choreography than the hole of this film. The plot was week and poorly executed, especially the scene where Hirokin starts to fight back, gets surrounded, then decides to run, people move in front of the camera and he exited into safety, because why bother writing a believable reason for why your characters escape when you can just have a bunch of people move in front of the camera really fast. The two characters in the film I did like were the smugglers and their mildly funny banter. Even though it wasn't the worst movie I have ever seen (Going Overboard by Adam Sandler) it certainly was not worth watching, unless you enjoy seeing the culmination of one mans career in filmmaking go up in flames. Good day and RIP Hirokin.

Poor execution of a potentially excellent plot

[wimle · 5/10 · 1 May 2012]

This movie reminds me of John Carter; a very poor version of it.

LET'S TALK ABOUT THE BAD THINGS: First, I'd like to point out that the title is misleading - there are no Samurais in the film including the character "Hirokin". Most of the swordsmanship in the film were from Kendo, not Kenjutsu. Second, all CGI were obvious and some were even incomplete. There was even a shot of a floating ship where the top was not aligned with the screen's edge. I know the film is low-budget so I can't fault them for that but alignment should be simple enough and free of charge. Third, there were some "comedic" scenes that were out of place and should've just been excluded from the film - they were probably from "The Lord of the Rings". Fourth, the outline of the story is common and the plot is too narrow to be worthy of being a great film; they could have done so much better in ALL areas. Finally, some dialogs were amateurish and the set extras/actors were not properly directed; in some scenes, they were simply all over the place.

NOW, THE GOOD THINGS: The locations were amazing except the viceroy's base. The main stars' acting were excellent. I could spot that some of their dialogs were improvised from whatever was originally on the script. The framing and scene composition were all good and professional and the lighting was superb.

CONCLUSION: It's a good watch when there's nothing better lying around.

Not the worst movie I've ever seen but it's damn close.

[nickcullinan · 1/10 · 26 December 2012]

I once saw a movie that was worse than this. once. This movie is a horrible amalgamation of Star Wars, The Last Samurai and Gladiator. In the film our hero Hirokin and his wife get captured by an evil overlord named Phoenix. Somehow or another, Hirokin escapes and wanders off into the desert. He meets a fat, balding, Yoda-like guy who teaches him "the way" which is like the force but not really. after He's learned "the way" he "unites the tribes" which turn out to be like 30 people in total. Then he goes back and fights the evil Phoenix in a ring of guards, he kills Phoenix but is mortally wounded himself and dies.

In this basic recycled plot, the writer/director sprinkles in some other things that have no baring on the story and end up not being important. for example, a hovercraft that looks like Jabba's barge; An implied love triangle involving Yoda's daughter; two Irish idiots for comic relief and a half hour of Discovery Chanel nature shots.

There are blatant ripoffs throughout the movie. The Irish idiots are lifted from Hidden Fortress; They took Jedi robes and gave them unhemmed edges; the ending is from Gladiator, complete with a grassy field vision and to top it all off, a Black Obi Wan Kenobi that had nothing to do with the plot. You could make a drinking game where everyone has to do a shot for every ripped off element. everyone would be too drunk by the end to even notice the gladiator ending.

half the budget for set design seems to have been blown on one spiky death machine. One can deduce that from the three shots it's unnecessarily placed in, and also the fact that 90% of the movie takes place in tents.

The acting is horrible, The handful of real actors in it appear to not take their rolls seriously (and for good reason) and deliver "non-performances". The editing was amateurish at best, shots were carried too long and dialog scenes were sloppy. I've seen better editing in YouTube videos. The soundtrack was generic, ambient, crap.

Overall this movie had no redeeming features whatsoever. there was no single component piece to it that was even passable. whoever told "Alejo Mo-Sun" (writer/director/producer) that he has an ounce of talent in film making should be shot. His mother should be sued for encouraging him to follow his dreams.

An irredeemable waste of good potential

[TheLittleSongbird · 1/10 · 27 June 2013]

Hirokin did have a good idea going for it, unfortunately it now joins the already quite big pile of movies that badly executed their good ideas. The best thing about it is some exotic scenery, but that's it. And even then you can't really enjoy it because the camera work and editing is so lazy and amateurish. The special effects are also rather unfinished looking and like they were shoe-horned in pretty much last minute, and the choreography and fight scenes have no energy or momentum, just clumsily done all round. The music is at best generic, it can be annoying also and it doesn't sound as though it entirely fits with everything else. Hearing the dialogue, I got the impression that the writers didn't bother to make sure that what they wrote actually made any kind of sense, it just rambles on, sounds awkward and often doesn't seem to really mean anything. The story aside from being highly derivative is dull, lacking in any thrills or fun and so predictable to the extent that you are constantly correctly guessing what happens next. There is nothing interesting or likable about the characters here, they are little more than severely underwritten archetypes, especially the villains that are among the most laughable of any movie. The acting is terrible especially the bland and wholly unheroic lead(he has the looks but not the acting chops), even Julian Sands, most likely the most well-known actor in the cast, manages to give a flat and really quite insipid performance. Angus Macfadyen likewise. Overall, Hirokin did have good potential that is wasted by really bad execution. Not the worst I've ever seen, but you'd be hard pressed to find anything redeeming regarding the movie. 1/10 Bethany Cox

Attractive artwork sucks you in, then stabs your eyes!

[Movie-Misfit · 2/10 · 14 July 2014]

Thankfully bought at my local Poundland, I had been tempted by the nice artwork of Hirokin for a couple of years. But a gut feeling was saying wait.

Wait until you find it at a pound, then think twice again.

But I got it. I was expecting Star Wars meets Six String Samurai, but instead got, well, I actually don't know what that was!

Slow, boring and with painfully uninteresting fight scenes, Hirokin plays like a slow burning Japanese samurai epic, well it feels like it in running time, but has the flair of a film students documentary on watching paint dry.

Nope. Just nope. There was no need!

Fallen (Empire)

[kosmasp · 4/10 · 19 November 2012]

My summary line is the title the movie received when it was released in Germany. You've got to admit, that makes it sound intriguing and interesting. But the movie itself, that tries to copy quite a lot of Sci-Fi movies (some of them have copied other formulas of course, so there is nothing wrong with that idea), never quite gets there. It starts with the dialog and continues with just above the average (sometimes) fight scenes.

Don't get it twisted, it's not completely awful (I've seen worse FX and worse stories). The stoic acting of Wes Bentley will make you wonder if he has lost or never had any acting abilities. A fantasy tale that tries to be epic and does look good (colors on Blu Ray), but is it enough?

Barren wastelands, samurais and a predictable storyline...

[paul_haakonsen · 5/10 · 7 July 2012]

When I picked up the "Hirokin" DVD it was solely because Julian Sands was starring in it, and prior to that information then I knew absolutely nothing about the movie, so I had no expectations or beforehand impressions.

"Hirokin" is taking place on another planet where Griffin (played by Julian Sands) is a ruthless tyrant, keeping the natives oppressed and downtrodden. People live in fear and is waiting for a hero to come along. Enter Hirokin (played by Wes Bentley) who have to come to terms with his own heritage before he can save mankind from oppression and strife.

The story told in the movie was nothing new or innovative, it was all stuff that has been used and seen before. "Hirokin" seemed like a mutated mixture of "Dune", "The Last Samurai" and "Star Wars". But oddly enough it worked out well enough. And the movie did suffer from being rather predictable, as you knew exactly how the movie would end right from the very beginning.

The effects in the movie were adequate, though don't expect top of the line, million dollar CGI effects. However, the costumes and the scenery was really great. Especially the outfits of the soldiers serving Griffin. Their armor and outfits looked really nice, and had somewhat of a "Star Wars" feel to it. And the landscape and scenery was really spectacular.

As for the acting, well people did good enough jobs with their given roles, though it is nothing award-winning. And they had managed to get together a great enough ensemble of actors and actresses to play the various characters.

One thing that I didn't fully understand, was the sub-title to the movie; "The Last Samurai". So there are even samurais in outer space? Sure there were subtle references to the samurai and Japanese culture to be seen here and there (especially in the clothes), but it just seemed so misplaced in a Sci-Fi movie.

"Hirokin" is a good enough Sci-Fi movie and does manage to keep a certain level of entertainment and action all throughout the 105 minutes it is running. However, the movie failed to leave a lasting impression for me, and I doubt that I will ever be making a return trip to watch it again, despite being a huge fan of Julian Sands.

The movie seems to well suited for a younger audience, probably late teenagers.

Interesting Story, Hero, Villain, Bumbling Idiots, and Babes

[mikeame · 10/10 · 30 April 2012]

WOW, lucky I watched the film before I read that last dudes review (must have it in for filmmaker?)Anyway, saw the film in high def last week and the landscape shots were breathtaking, I liked the storyline and that machine where you are chained and need to fight to save your loved one is absolutely awesome. I know the film is a Indy low budget but didn't have that feel to it, kinda hovered on the cusp. Would love to see it re done by James Cameron or Spielberg(lol). Back to the review, the bumbling idiots were great in there roles and made me laugh, the connection between the hero and heroine was great (great job by the heroine), the tension between the hero and villain was less than exciting and the rest of the cast was believable and did a good job. The action (fight)scenes looked cool especially with the funky looking bad dudes. Oh did I mention that Jessica Szohr is also in it and looks really............you know.

This one had some potential

[lemon_magic · 6/10 · 17 February 2016]

Sometimes it's harder to watch a movie that's almost good than it is to watch a stinker or a lemon or a cheesy giggle-fest. This is one of those.

I don't want to be too negative about this, so I'll start with the good stuff: Wes Bentley is always a strong, interesting presence in a movie, and he's as good in this as the screenplay lets him be. He's obviously just an actor being coached in stage/film combat, but he's reasonably credible in the role, and I'm always glad to see him getting work.

The outdoor photography and scenery are vivid and pleasing to the eye, although the time-lapse photography thing with the rolling clouds is a bit overused. The soundtrack is suitably grand and sweeping, if a little clichéd; it adds to the experience which is all one can ask, right?

Some of the supporting actors are decent (Julian Sand is his usual elegantly repellent self), some seem unfocused and/or under- rehearsed,and a couple seem to be out of their element entirely.

Mostly the screenplay seems half-baked and underdone. There are holes in the plot and the scale of the events depicted is off. It seems unlikely that one stronghold and a couple dozen guys with swords and sticks could keep an entire planet in thrall, and this undercuts the immersion factor. And seriously, this is supposed to be an alien planet in the far future, but no one has a gun? Really?

Coupled this with all the hand-waving about the "wei" (and a completely unconvincing training montage), the complete lack of actual "samurai", and the derivative nature of the story - bits of "Dune", bits of "Priest", "Star Wars", "Gladiator" and pieces of half a dozen other, lesser works of SF...it adds up to something a lot less than I had hoped.

I watched this for free on a streaming Roku channel, and thought it was an OK time waster. If I'd paid money to see it, I might have been unhappy.

Hirokin

[phubbs · 4/10 · 19 November 2014]

Space samurai on a distant planet says you? yes please says I. The villain played by the dastardly devilish looking Julian Sands?? oh my! this sounds great! Wes Bentley says you? hmm OK not bad, not bad, but I've gone slightly soft now.

Plus points...the film looks pretty sweet, its basic with obvious sets and errr...a handful of bad guys, villagers and good guys used over and over but the location work looks nice. Set on the distant desert planet of Aradius you can see straight away certain similarities to many other sci-fi/fantasy films, need I list them? So everything looks very familiar yet admittedly rather nice with use of sunsets, twilight, dusk, early morning etc...the colours and hues are gorgeous at times.

Apart from that the film is your standard by the numbers chosen one styled plot line. A lone warrior saves a small tribe of people (aliens that look exactly like humans) from a tyrant human played by Sands naturally. All the bad guys look like Imperial guards from 'ROTJ' and Sands looks suspiciously like Sting in 'Dune'.

Its all very clichéd and run of the mill stuff, yet the whole point is lost on me, I have no real clue what's in it for the evil Julian Sands to do what he does. Angus Macfadyen is the Yoda-like Master, the all powerful leader, warrior and rebel who must train the eager Hirokin, cue lots of training montages set against facial close ups and with many shadows and silhouettes.

There seems to be a lot more style over substance really, very arty and nice to look at but behind that its pretty crappy stuff really. Doesn't really make much sense, why would a distant planet in the future (or so I assume) utilize the ancient Japanese samurai way of life, war and culture? where do they get their fuel, water and food from? etc...I could go on but I won't.

Shame the people/aliens of this poor village seem to totally outnumber the bad guys (but why would they even stay in this village?, the area offers nothing...leeeeave it!!). Oh and this alien race are called Arids. You see what they have done there? Arids...Arabs? or maybe because the planet they live on is arid?...ah beats the sh*t outta me.

Its a nice slice of B-movie sci-fi hokum that will please some fans of the genre. Its fun harmless stuff and Bentley does look the part I admit. May I suggest a better choice, if you like sci-fi hokum then I recommend 'Hunter Prey' which is a much better ride.

4/10

Hirokin review

[Al_The_Strange · 2/10 · 20 June 2013]

This film's cover caught my eye: I wasn't expecting anything great, but I was at least enthralled to see some samurai dude on another planet hacking and slashing away at some aliens or something.

Surprisingly, there's not much hacking or slashing involved; a few cheap and stupid fights, but nothing more. One of the more inventive scenes involved the fighters chained to a post, and whenever the chain slackened, a big spike would come down and murder a hostage. Aside from that, the film came off as being rather dull.

The story didn't really captivate me either; it's full of dull and lifeless characters, going through the motions of some drama and plot that I really couldn't care about. The movie overall tried to hard to resemble films like John Carter and Prince of Persia, but both are miles better.

This film must have been made on the cheap. It sports okay, but never exceptional, photography and editing. Acting and writing are serviceable at times, but they are often marred with certain levels of cheese, amateurism, or plainness. This production uses a limited amount of sets, props, and costumes. Music is very generic too.

1/5 (Entertainment: Poor | Story: Very Poor | Film: Very Poor)

a sketch

[Vincentiu · 23 December 2013]

waist. as a huge ball of actors, technical tools, story and possibilities. only virtue - chance to remind you many great S.F. movies. but it is not enough. a film lost in pink chaos. interesting as parts but not as final product. good scene and boring script. few philosophic lines, a crosswords action, ambiguity as heart, few fields of nonsenses. and that is all. and the feeling is the too large care to fail of team who transforms a not uninspired idea in a silly sketch. few crumbs of courage of director, a not gray acting from actors, the precision of events are good points for gives a decent movie. maybe, with another occasion.

Well filmed yet very boring

[ComedyFan2010 · 5/10 · 2 September 2017]

I gave this movie a bit more points than I was planning to because it was a low budget indie production. And I wouldn't have noticed it. So my respect for filming it to look like a normal Hollywood expensive movie.

But I took points off for things that don't matter if it is a low or high budget movie. It was just so boring. Out of fight scenes I liked only one, the one where he tries to save his wife in a battle against other captured. That was the only one where it was exciting. The rest was boring.

Wes Bentley is really good in the character. But there isn't much going on with the plot to keep ht viewer captured.

Interesting & Ambitious Indie Film

[ian-richard-jones · 5/10 · 25 July 2012]

People are comparing this to some big $50 million dollar studio films which it is simply not. It had an extremely small budget, but looks absolutely nothing like a low-budget movie. The fact that it's confusing people into thinking it was a studio movie is technically a really good thing.

Think about it, the cinematography, the quality of the film it was shot on, the posters, the CGI, the sound effects and the score, everything about the movie is able to compete with big budget studio movies-that's impressive.

Some of the actors aren't the best and the story isn't groundbreaking, but that's not unusual for indie movies especially when there are hundreds of movies with an entire cast of terrible actors (Hirokin had Wes Bentley as the lead) much worse than in Hirokin. It even has some surprising side-characters. The two stoner-buddy smugglers are extremely funny.

When you think about it like this, Hirokin is an achievement. An independent sci-fi action film is unheard of and extremely ambitious these days. Most indie movies involve characters sitting in an apartment or storefront and talking about hyper-specific culturally sensitive idiosyncratic topics and ideas for extremely niche audiences while Hirokin has SFX, an orchestral score, and looks like it was shot on another planet. Also Hirokin can travel internationally just fine.

Hirokin is not a 'studio blunder' like John Carter-it is a new breed of indie film that is able to confuse you into thinking it was a studio level movie.

The pain!

[joeyharris-85661 · 1/10 · 1 June 2020]

By far the worst movie I have ever seen, just plain awful. This film is bad in every sense of the word, there are no redeeming qualities whatsoever, absolutely shocking. Stay well clear.

I can't even be bothered listing everything wrong with this film

[violet_raven · 2/10 · 23 May 2021]

The other reviews say everything I was going to, including a list of the films it rips off in such a glaringly obvious way it's painful.

I only watched the first 40 minutes and decided I'd rather die of dehydration in the desert, so for all I know it could be a one star film. The sole redeeming feature were the night photography of the sky.

I'm disappointed to the degree of being actively offended, and I LIKE low budget sci-fi; I can usually get a laugh or at least some entertainment out of scripts that have refinement lacking, or characters that aren't fully developed, or plots that leave something to be desired, but this film is like someone swept up the cutting room floor for Dune, Star Wars, Gladiator, Last Samuria (there are no Samuria, it just suffers from White Guy Saves The Day syndrome, probably dying in the process but I never got that far), and instead of pasting those together to make sense just threw them at the audience.

Honestly, I want to give this film one star but I feel sorry for the one actor who tried to give a credible performance and the camera-person who spent the nights in the desert getting some lovely shots of the sky, and some artsy shots of sand blowing off the dunes in the daylight.

I'm also deeply offended that the comic relief duo was predictably Scots/Irish like we're all bumbling idiots, and they even make a point of saying that what they're saying makes no sense! I've seen school pantomimes and home videos on YouTube that were better than this, on a budget of £5 for some cheap sheets to string up as "tents" and wear as robes.

Not sure why, on a world with hovercraft, everyone fights with swords anyway, and in armour? In the desert?

Truly sorry to the people whose names are associated with this production. Utterly dire. I'm actively angry this even exists, and that I paid 20p to own it. I'll feel bad donating it back to the charity shop.

One last thing, it has no subtitle track, not that it would help the script but it just serves to make it even more exclusionary than necessary. If you're tempted to waste time on this film, read the reviews instead, they're more entertaining.

Nice Looking, but Very Forgettable

[daniel-mannouch · 3/10 · 10 December 2020]

Hirokin: The Last Samurai is a post apocalypse fantasy that is more a sword and sorcery film than anything else. It's also a tawdry bible story, lifted by impressive art direction, but ruined by wooden actors and bland as hell dialogue.

The word for the day children is Bland! Hirokin is bland. It's a Christ parable set in the barren desert. What more can i say? Well, maybe the cinematography was all right, and some good props went a long way too amping up the drama of certain scenes, but the averageness in this product is overwhelming as it shares its narrative with several direct to video sci-fi action films that came out during the late 80's and 90s. I've seen this film before. It was called Steel Dawn as well as taking the form of several Albert Pyun films.

I can say nothing else about Hirokin other than it's middle of the road direct to dvd sci-fi action that is the most atypical example of that kind of thing you can imagine.

Why did I keep watching?

[rdamian1963 · 3/10 · 13 December 2023]

I didn't have a lot of expectations for this movie. And thankful for that, because this movie fails to deliver. Most of the movie is unoriginal, stealing from movies like Star Wars and Gladiator. I can't imagine how they titled this as "samurai." The movie has a reasonable cast, but the script is lacking. The acting itself is almost passable but there is failure in execution by poor directing. The quality of action sequences varies greatly. The sword play scenes suffer the most with poor choreography and lousy cinematography.

There was definitely potential, limited as it may have been. But the movie just doesn't carry forward, and the movie drags on.

Descent Indie Movie.

[tredawg402 · 8/10 · 4 May 2012]

I recently saw the movie "Hirokin" and I have to say for an Indie movie it didn't feel that way. You normally associate an Indie movie with poor quality and mediocre acting as well as the feel that it was shot with a hand held video camera. This movie had great visual's as to the landscape and scenery. The story line was communicated well, Overall the film to me was an enjoyable. The characters in the film went well together, the comedic antics of the 2 hustlers in the "horde" were very entertaining. I thought that there were good performances from Angus and Julian as well as the gorgeous "Jessica Szohr". I was surprised to see these well known known actors in this indie as well as Wes Bentley. I guess if they attach themselves to a project they believe in it. The rest of the cast were good in and it helped enhance the movie. I give it to the Director for going out there to produce such a movie on an indie budget. If this had studio backing it would have those fine tuned effects and polishings to be a film.

Much better than the (current) 3.7 IMDb score, however it's still not a great movie. If you enjoyed the DUNE mini-series, it's worth watching...

[bcbell79 · 6/10 · 12 January 2013]

This low budget sci-fi film is cheesy but entertaining for anyone that enjoys sci-fi B movies. It's basically a SYFY channel quality film, even though I'm pretty sure it's never actually aired on the SYFY channel. The writer clearly mixed Dune and Star Wars, however this is not close to as good as either! My biggest problem is that there isn't a single impressive fight sequence. The film acts like an action sci-fi, but it never delivers a single impressive action sequence...

It's one saving grace is the film's costume design, which steals from the Star Wars video game Knights of the Old Republic (Sith specifically), however there is plenty of bland costume design as well.

If you want to see a bad-ass sci-fi action film, go rent (or buy) Casshern, an Asian film that not well known but totally kick-ASS!!!

Pitiful stuff

[Leofwine_draca · 3/10 · 18 July 2018]

Another day, another B-movie, and in the case of HIROKIN: THE LAST SAMURAI, a B-movie content to copy bits and pieces of earlier films like GLADIATOR rather than coming up with anything original. This one was shot on a couple of desert locations and features a slumming-it Wes Bentley as the titular hero, fighter of evil, champion of the oppressed, who gets captured by a warlord and proceeds to start a revolt. The film has plenty of action sequences, but they're directed in a choppy way where you never see anything, obviously by people with no idea of proper fight choreography or how to shoot even a semi-successful fight scene. The cast is peppered with familiar faces, from PIRANHA 3D's Jessica Szohr to BRAVEHEART's Angus Macfadyen, and of course it's almost inevitable that Julian Sands plays the villain. But this is pitiful stuff indeed and barely worthy of your time.