This movie will be loved by fans of old Akira Kurosawa samurai films crossed with old westerns with a touch of Tarantino story play. It is a little like Yojimbo meets Pale rider.<br /><br />First I want to clear up a significant error that most reviewers are making comparing this movie to Spagetti westerns. This movie is NOT a copy of a Spagetti westers. In fact most Spagetti westerns ARE copies of old Samurai films many written by Akira Kurosawa. This movie has similarities with Fistfull of dollars which came out in 1964. But Fistfull is a almost word for word copy of Yojimbo which came out in 1961, just substitute a gun for a sword. Anyway BOTH Sergio Leone and Akira Kurosawa made wonderful movies.<br /><br />OK let me start by saying the story only starts slow...and kind of cheesy with the whole Tarantino sitting around a campfire with fake Mt Fuji in the back. But all the old westerns and samurai films should have trained you to be patient in the first 15min.<br /><br />The filming is brilliant has just enough color in the background, just the right amount of lighting, nice mix of angry close-ups on hero and bad guys faces. Where the movie excels in a way Kurosawa would be proud is the well used special effects mini explosion bullets, exploding blood packs and my new favorite big bullet holes. <br /><br />There is a lot of clever little homage bits like Eastwood's poncho and Van Cleef's long shot gun.<br /><br />The only points off are for the dumb part by the sheriff. It would have also been better with more sword fighting.<br /><br />Near the end there is a nice homage line "This is for Akira"