Despite the sweeping landscapes of ?The Last Samurai,? its epic battle scenes and the simple beauty of its Eastern philosophy, it?s hard not to be distracted by the nagging feeling that you?ve seen this film before.

That?s because you have ? in 1990, to be exact, when it starred Kevin Costner and was called ?Dances With Wolves.?

Tom Cruise stars as Capt. Nathan Algren, a drunk, bitter Civil War veteran who?s recruited to go to Japan to train soldiers to fight the samurai, who cling rebelliously to their traditional ways amid increasing Westernisation.

But Algren himself ends up in a battle with these warriors, then is kidnapped by them and introduced to their culture.

?They are an intriguing people,? he scribbles in his journal after he?s sobered up and no longer has the shakes. ?I have never seen such discipline.?

So you see where this is going: Algren will gain an appreciation for the samurai and become one of them, just as Costner?s lieutenant character took on a Sioux name, joined their tribe and got it on with Stands With a Fist.

As Algren enthusiastically learns the Japanese words for rice and chopsticks, you half expect him to spot a buffalo outside and blurt out ?Tatonka!?

Cruise is also essentially playing the same guy he?s played in nearly every movie, from ?Top Gun? to ?Jerry Maguire? to ?Vanilla Sky.? He?s cocky, he gets his comeuppance and, in the process, finds humility. So you could just as easily imagine him blurting out ?Show me the money,? and that wouldn?t seem out of place, either.

This is a joke. ?The Last Samurai,? however, is all business, very much a faithful throwback to the Kurosawa films that director Edward Zwick (?Glory,? ?Legends of the Fall?) and Cruise himself revere.

The script, which Zwick co-wrote with John Logan and Marshall Herskovitz, is heavy with talk of destiny and honour; characters use the last breath in their bodies to say the most poignant thing at the most dramatic possible moment. It may seem corny, but anything less would be a watered-down Hollywoodisation.

?I will die by the sword ? my own or my enemy?s,? says Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe), the samurai leader who initially is curious about Algren because he wants to learn about his enemy, but later accepts the American as a friend.

The film really picks up as Algren and Katsumoto spend more time together. Each has an almost boyish enthusiasm about soaking up the other?s culture, and Watanabe has a charismatic, formidable presence that makes him hard to resist.

Algren also becomes intrigued by the beautiful Taka (model-actress Koyuki), the wife of a warrior he killed in battle who reluctantly takes him into her home.

And here?s where the film does get unnecessarily Hollywoodised: Taka serves him, defiantly yet quietly, since he?s her guest. But eventually, she and Algren secretly fall for each other, and a kiss they share toward the end seems totally out of place.

This is a minor quibble, though. Far more important is the film?s lush cinematography from John Toll, who also shot ?Braveheart,? which ?The Last Samurai? resembles during its thunderous battle scenes.

Bathed in blood, mud and mist, they are brutal and evocative. But they?re also incredibly refreshing and almost quaint because they feature real people fighting each other and not just computer-generated pixels simulating the act ? which, between the ?Lord of the Rings? movies and the ?Star Wars? prequels, unfortunately has become the standard.

?The Last Samurai,? a Warner Bros. release, is rated R for strong violence and battle sequences. Running time: 147 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.

The movie is currently showing at Southside Cinema in St. David?s.