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Hirokin: The Last Samurai More at IMDbPro »Hirokin (original title)

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15 reviews in total

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16 out of 22 people found the following review useful:
This is what happens when the boss writes a screenplay., 24 April 2012
Author: Raven19906 from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

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.

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10 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
Hirokin changed my life, 7 June 2012

Author: Cinema Cid from Vilin Grad

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

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)

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10 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
Poor execution of a potentially excellent plot, 1 May 2012
Author: wimle

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.

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13 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
Soooooo bad, it stinks seeing it, 5 June 2012

Author: Chilly Willy from at my place

I've seen Hirokin by mistake, as I didn't really planed to, and what a mistake that was. I know it's hard to imagine, but compared to this, John Carter feels like a masterpiece. The only interesting thing this movie actually had, was the concept laying at the core of it, even if it kinda makes you think at Samurai Jack cartoon series. Sadly even this little, sole sparkle it had, was wasted in every possible way. I believe it would be really hard to make things worst than they already are: ridiculously bad acting, highly uninspired story, lame unconvincing fight scenes, bad filming, improper soundtrack and so on.

Really, it doesn't worth your time or money. If you have a lot of time on your hands and you don't know how to spend it, than go and take a walk in the park as it would be far more entertaining than seeing this movie. Honestly, it would be more fair if they would be the ones to pay us so we would bother to come and see such crappy movies.

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9 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
From Bad to terrible!, 14 May 2012

Author: jedslather from United States

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.

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5 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Potential waisted, 30 September 2012

Author: zorrek from Darwin, Australia

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.

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2 out of 2 people found the following review useful:
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..., 12 January 2013

Author: bcbell79

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!!!

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Not the worst movie I've ever seen but it's damn close., 26 December 2012

Author: nick

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

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.

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Fallen (Empire), 19 November 2012

Author: kosmasp

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?

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Hirokin could become a cult classic with a little editing., 11 January 2013

Author: anthony-453 from Los Angeles

With a little editing, this could become a cult classic. Good actors, great landscape, a little hokey hover craft. Wes Bentley did a great job with a heavy dose of on-screen close-ups. Scenery was majestic.

The beginning written explanation of the situation is difficult to read, too long and goes by a little fast. The music needs to be lowered so that the dialog can be heard. Voices echoed at puzzling times. Some of the scenes need to be shortened, especially the ones roaming the desert. Costumes were well done. The one-sheet is great.

Reviewers are a little too serious. This film has elements that are interesting and attractive. It should do well internationally.

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