Samurai Commando is alledged to be a remake of theSonny Chiba Classic GI Samurai, also known as Timeslip. Though it feels more than a bit like a follow up than a remake.

I really wanted to like this film, I finally (after an age of wanting to watch it) watched GI Samurai only the other day in anticipation of watching this movie! Funnily enough when watching that old classic I thought to myself, it would be nice if they could extend the story a little, show us what’s happening in the future as a result of this and generally give it a bit more depth. However, this seems to be what they’ve tried to do in Samurai Commando… and unfortunately they have failed badly to do it the justice it so deserved.

The plot is just naff, it seems that someone decided to make this movie and then just threw at it the first plot that came along... and it's a stupid plot. The worst thing is it wouldn’t have been so hard to do it properly… this seems like a lazy attempt to make some cash based on a quality old film. Effects aren’t great but that doesn’t really detract, the acting is adequate but the truth is we aren’t really interested… and we bloody well should be! The original movie had characters you could relate to, it had some great scenes of interaction between the soldiers and the Samurai. This one has loads of arrow fodder and some main characters that you felt indifferent about… it has no heart… no soul… and as such nothing to keep you interested.

The last 20 minutes is pretty action packed and quite enjoyable if you forget totally what this film is supposed to be.

I can’t explain how gutting this all was, such a missed opportunity… I can’t believe not one person while they were getting ready to make it didn’t say “hang on, lets just take a bit of time to write a decent plot for it coz this one sucks!”

This is lazy film making… the kind of lets rake in a bit of cash for not much effort we expect from a Hollywood remake… not what I expect from a Japanese Movie.