Wow, what a good movie. I really loved the cinematography, it was downright beautiful. The characters were really fun to watch and they carried the plot forward at a great pace. Quite the serious work by Miike, but it still includes his typical dark humor and violence. The ending is amazing.

Outstanding fuedal action/drama.

I thought this movie was awesome. The samurai always make interesting subjects, with their high sense of honour and duty. It had a lot more humour than I was expecting, and I liked that. Also, I was expecting more blood and gore, but there wasn’t too much. Overall, it was a really enjoyable movie with fantastic action, great dialogue and beautifully shot by Miike.

A few of the 13 have distinct personalities, but for the most part they're kind of a bloody blur. It doesn't help that the first act is a whirlwind of names, locations and second-hand stories. Once the action kicks in, it's fairly enjoyable. Miike's talent for creative gore is put to good use and he crafts some inventive battles. But despite a few interesting moments, there's an emptiness to it. I don't mind Miike getting more conventional, but something more original would have been nice.

It's like watching a violent but imaginative child smash action figures together for two hours.

A group of samurai are tasked with assassinating the mad half-brother of the Shogun before he can rise to any kind of political office and disrupt the peace. A surprisingly serious samurai drama from Takashi Miike, capped by an incredible massive battle sequence as the 13 ambush the evil Lord and his 200 men in a tiny village. The set up is pretty leisurely paced but the explosive finale is worth it...there's some great sword fighting and a stellar one on one duel at the end.

Well made but feels like a giant missed opportunity. The first act should be spent introducing us to the Assassins so we actually care when they die. Instead it's spent taking overly long to set up a very simple plot. As a result about 10 of the 13 Assassins might as well be faceless grunts and we still don't actually care about the other 3. The fight is cool but without any real investment in the characters it gets kind of old.

Simply awesome. Ever so rarely does a film live up to its awesome trailer and 13 Assassins simply blows it away. Its a tale of vigilante justice woven with Miike's unflinching examination of brutality and callous evil. I appreciated the slow burn that builds to the 30 minute battle-climax after so many summer films with front loaded action pacing. Definite recommendation for anyone with fond memories of Kurosawa and a fortitude for graphic violence.

Beautifully shot and pretty well acted, but the story is derivative and extremely thin. I just got bored of all the endless swordplay.

Flawlessly taps into the spirit of the samurai genre. My one nitpick is that the assassination plot seems a little over the top for the serious tone of the film.

I haven't seen that much Miike yet, but this one takes the top spot from Fudoh for me. Very nice Samurai film - the intrigue and action is top notch. Inagaki Gorou did a surprisingly good job as the villain of the piece. This is just one step behind Seven Samurai and Lone Wolf and Cub.

Takashi Miike does Kurosawa; a big, very violent historical drama about a small troop of samurai setting out to take down a very well-armed warlord who, technically, can do anything he wants without legal sanction but is threatening to throw the entire country into civil war. Builds slowly to an amazing climax, a 40-minute action scene with more swordplay and distinctly non-honourable fighting than you can shake a katana at. A bit predictable, but impressive.

"That tension between a servant's duty and moral responsibility forms the crux of 13 Assassins, and proves a standard dynamic that Miike handles without subversive humor or irony." - Nick Schager

fucking epic. only part I didnt love was the poorly cgi'd bulls, it could have done without those, but I guess its good to break up the action a bit.

Good movie 13 take on 100's done well.

It was a little hard to follow for the first 15 minutes or so, when a million characters' and locations' names are getting thrown around in every line, but it quickly filters down into something easier to follow. The only Miike film I'd seen before was Audition, so I was expecting a lot of brutal imagery, but most of the violence was relatively tame. I mean, it's still R-rated, but it could have gone a lot further.

Miike's latest pits the values of the old collective samurai honor code against one's individual moral code; set during the twilight of the samurai era. Plus it has some gnarly action

Miike's tribute to the samurai genre features subdued drama contrasted with an explosive forty-minute long climax. In order for that climax to work in the time allotted it must sacrifice some characterization, but it makes up for that with the sheer spectacle of the action, incredible visuals, and the rich subtext attacking honor and patriarchal values. My soft spot for samurai flicks probably helped a bit too, but this is some pretty great fun all around.

A cool movie but I just couldn't get over how unauthentic the entire thing felt. Everything felt staged and fake which is even more distracting considering what they are asking you to believe. That said, pretty badass fight scenes. The characters aren't bad and it has some disgusting and shocking moments. It bugged me that they kept harping that it was 200 vs 13 when it clearly was more like 500 vs 13, they just kept coming like a cheesy 80s action movie. Not a masterpiece but not bad.

Well, this is just fantastic. Excellent homage to old samurai films and serials, and has a bit of that Miike touch, but not too much.

Miike seems to be channeling Kurosawa here except that this is the sort of film that Kurosawa never could have made. It starts off with some interesting plot development, but I felt that the whole segment of the first act's searching for the 13 was incredibly clichéd, especially in execution. Overall I think it was somewhat weak and uneven, but in typical Miike fashion there's some excellent scenes and very entertaining action sequences.

Fun movie, a little over the top, but a good romp.

I was a little disappointed with the final battle. There seemed to be a hell of a lot more enemies than 130 and it didn't make sense why they didn't just try to pick off Lord Naritsugu with the arrows or explosives (let alone blowing up the bridge with him on it). Hirayama = total badass though.

About half way through the film I was wondering if I'd heard correctly that 13 Assassins was a Takashi Miike film. There was brutality in the beginning, but for him, seemed somewhat restrained. The final battle sequence was *very* long (not bad, just long), and it's tough to feel for some of them, outside of basic human stuff, because they weren't given proper treatment (which is tough for 13 guys). Miles better than Sukiyaki, but couldn't touch 7 Samurai even if it kicked mud in it's eyes.

Ode to "Seven Samurai" is a strong entry in the genre. Not as nuanced as "Twilight Samurai," but a lot of fun. If the end seems over the top, then pretend you're watching a fictional movie.

Leave it up to Miike to breathe life back into Samurai films in such a spectacular, if not flawed, fashion. Probably his most visually astounding film to date, everything looks perfect for the time period and the locations are breathtaking. Whilst not as impressive as scenes from "Warrior King/Ong Bak 1&2", the almost hour long battle is a true spectacle to behold. This probably would have worked better as a miniseries, to focus more on character development so we actually care when people die.

While admittedly very similar to 7 samurai, this was a really exciting ride, with great staging and a beautiful soundtrack. The disturbing scene near the beginning put me on edge and I thought that I may have enjoyed the movie more without being worried that it ay show up again, but all in all, a great modern samurai film.

Samurais are cool.

It's been some time since I've seen a film with long, interesting battle scenes, and for about an hour at that. It's a simple story, evil guy is evil, a few people take on a lot, and battles galore.

Halleluja! After 40 years of non present Samurai Flicks Miike created this wonderful genre gem. This movie is simply amazing from the beginning til the end. Setting, costumes, battles, characters, this one has it all. I guess Kurosawa would be proud.Furthermore I had never expected such a great and epic movie.

Much more conventional than Miike's other films, but just as cool. The elegant and slow build-up in the first hour is sent home by a rip-roaring finale. Awesome.