13 Assassins2011
125 minutes
rated R
by Scott Mendelson
Tashaki Miike's 13 Assassins is an oddly old fashioned and traditional bit of action storytelling. While Miike is best known (in the states at least) for his often outlandishly gruesome horror pictures, this newest epic instead aims for Akira Kurosawa. 13 Assassins does not reinvent the wheel when it comes to character or even plotting, but it tells its story with polish and style to spare. Oh, and it also climaxes with an astonishingly lengthy all-out action sequence that would make John Woo, Peter Jackson, and James Cameron stand up and applaud. One can argue that the last third of the film may not be worth sitting through the first eighty minutes or so of somewhat generic, but character-driven, set-up. But the film absolutely rewards viewer patience and takes its place as a terrific action picture that does its genre proud.
