The Magnificent Seven 2016

Good action, but that's where it ends

I went to see the movie as a great fan of the original "The Magnificent Seven" in 1960 and came out of the theater really disappointed. Not because this was a bad movie, but just because Antoine Fuqua made this a normal action movie which does nothing more than entertain the average movie crowd.

Sadly, the action is the only good part in this movie. Some shots are really awesome and really got me on the edge of my seat, but unfortunately that's where the good things ended.

First, the movie had to be at least a half hour longer just to explore the characters. I didn't care about anyone and although Denzel Washington and especially Ethan Hawke did an excellent job in portraying their role, it still wasn't enough to get me invested.

Second, where was the good music? I was waiting for two hours on that one famous song that made the original great and we got it when the credits rolled. Big let down for me. Drum roll and high pitch notes do the work for this movie, but it didn't make the movie stand-out next to all the other action based movies.

Overall, the movie wasn't what I expected it to be and that surely wasn't a compliment. Maybe I would do a re-watch on Blu-ray if they came out with an extended version, but that's a big maybe. The cinematic version didn't just do the trick.

Great action scenes, but that's it.

It was a good enough western, I suppose, but seems like, for the length of the movie, I would have preferred to see it done a bit differently. For one thing, there were hardly any back stories on the characters, so you wind up knowing practically NOTHING about any of them; makes it difficult to get invested in their character. Secondly, the whole scene with the townspeople "learning" how to fight…it was hard to tell whether that was supposed to be lighthearted and humorous, or were they just total idiots. Anyone with a knowledge of frontier times and frontier life would know that almost any man, woman, boy and girl knew how to shoot a rifle, how to defend their homes against intruders/invading forces, and wouldn't throw their hands in the air and cry for help. There were some good things about this movie; unfortunately, there were a lot of incorrect things as well. Having never watched the original show (or movie) from the 1960's, I'm not comparing this one to that one. I'm just saying that, as a modern "western", this was fun to watch but was far from accurate in its portrayal. Vincent D'Onofrio never ceases to amaze me...

It is a confident film-maker who remakes the 1960’s seminal film The Magnificent Seven. No amount of confidence or star cast is going to make the film good if you don’t get it right.

With some beautiful cinemtography and fabulous scenery as credit in the ‘bank’ as it was Antoine Fuqua frontloads the film with his go-to actors from his previous films in the shape of Denzel Washington (Training Day, The Equalizer) and Ethan Hawke (Training Day) and an actor whose star is high in the firmament Chris Star. Unfortunately on the whole the film fails to live up to the premise.

The opening set-ups are entertaining if a little laboured, in particular the hand-holding and giant sign-posting that lets us know that Peter Sarsgaard’s character ‘Sir Jasper Naughty-Bonce’ is evil, like totally evil dude, was bordering on pantomime. I understand that if you looking for a realistic portrayal of the West in the late 1800s then don’t watch this film. This is definitely pop-corn, brain on hold, fare. Nevertheless, I do feel that my intelligence does not need to be insulted in quite the way it was from time-to-time.

As entertaining as those opening scenes were the ending scenes were as disappointing. I get the feeling that the Marvel Universe style denouement is infecting action films of all types. This film had explosions, as many baddies and goodies being, shot, stabbed, blown to bits and generally murdered as the average small war. After the end credits rolled the people of Rose Creek need no longer worry about n’er-do-wells as the local population of them had been totally eradicated, along with ninety-percent of the town folk.

Denzil Washington and Chris Pratt are always good value for money and the rest of the cast acquit themselves well in general. Peter Sarsgaard and Vincent D’Onofrio veer into pantomime territory on several occasions, particularly as D’Onofrio seems to be playing some sort of Brian Blessed hybrid. The need for every diverse type of population to represented in the ‘seven’ does not get me frothing at the mouth and red-faced as some reviewers and I can understand the modernising of the story but I’m not sure it was necessary in my view.

The Magnificent Seven was really The Average Seven and although the relentless drive for entertaining the multiplex masses has probably forced the hand of the director and producers I’m sure without such a big broad brush and some muted colours there was a good modern remake of The Magnificent Seven in there. Instead, this was slathered with the bright explosions of the ‘Why’s he doing that?’ crowd.

Antoine Fuqua can make good films and tell good stories, The Magnificent 7 was a good film and a great story. It should have worked but in reality it didn’t. It’s a shame.

This is indeed a very good remake of an old classic. As always I am a bit worried when they make a remake of old classics that I liked. This remake is well worth watching though. Despite having a few minor gripes I went for 5 out of 5 stars on this one.

Most of you are probably familiar with the story of The Magnificent Seven. Gunslinger gets hired to protect a village from the evil industrialist, he picks 6 buddies to help him, trains the villagers, digs in and sits down and waits for the bad guys to arrive. A simple and well suited story for a bit of Western entertainment. I guess I should mention as well that the original Western is actually not the “real” original. That honor befalls Shichinin no samurai, or Seven Samurai in English, which is a Samurai movie by Akira Kurosawa and with Toshirô Mifune in the lead role. That is the movie from which the plot originates.

Anyway, history lesson is over, back to this movie. The movie starts of by introducing the main characters. The bad industrialist is a nasty piece of thug and quickly demonstrates that, although by no means being a blood splatter movie, it is definitely more cruel than what I remember from the original. Next in line is the movies hero played by Denzel Washington and I have to say that he plays the role very well. I liked him as the calm, fairly silent, but oh so deadly gunslinger from the first frame to the last.

The other characters fit quite well into their roles as well. I cannot make up my mind about Jack Horne though. I did like the character but at the same time I felt that he was a wee bit to comical at times. I also liked Goodnight Robicheaux quite a lot but the writer really went a bit over the top as far as I am concerned when he actually left.

Of course the entire movie plays out as a build up to the final big fight and it is a big fight, that has to be said. However there are plenty of things happening during this build up. Both things involving chemically propelled slugs flying around and things slightly less noisy.

Sam Chisolm has to pick up his buddies of course, each one being an opportunity for some cool movie story telling. Then we have the training of the villagers which, as expected, becomes a wee bit comical at times. Oh, and I almost forget that there is a nice little shootout when Chisolm and his buddies introduces themselves to Bogue’s thugs in the village. Said thugs includes the local Sheriff. To no ones surprise I believe. So much for law and order. Time for a new management.

So, fast forward to the end and the big fight. It is big, it is well done and it involves plenty of things that go boom. It is plenty of action but it is also the part of the movie where I have the biggest gripe. Okay folks there are going to be a mild spoiler now. With that out of the way, let’s go to the Gatling gun. It is always cool to see a Gatling gun let loose. However can we keep it a bit more realistic please? They fire thousands of bullets without reloading (they make a fuss about reloading later in the movie). Also they position the gun out in the open where it would have been relatively easy to shoot the men operating it. An idea that they finally get much later and manage to goof up. The final solution to taking out the gun is dramatic but quite convoluted. This is the part of the movie that made me go a bit what the fuck!

Apart from that I really enjoyed this movie. A good remake of an old classic.

I am entering western mode here apparently, and this viewing is what kicked it off. It has been a long time since I've seen the original, and I'm sort of glad. Now I hopefully am not too biased going in.

Overall, this is a pretty good piece of entertainment. No, this isn't some high end artistic film on the level that I remember the original being (not even close to Seven Samurai), but not every movie needs to be that. Instead, we get a really fun experience with interesting characters fighting it out in style.

Denzel Washington is a pretty solid lead in here, but I will admit that my favorites of the seven are Ethan Hawke and Vincent D'Onofrio. Hawke isn't exactly one of my favorites, but I do like him from time to time. Here his southern man character just has a great personality. D'Onofrio is pretty much always different in his roles. His voice is so weird, and the shyness in such a crazy wildlife guy is fun to watch.

There are a few problems though, mainly with the tech stuff. I really disliked some of the action directing. While the staging was good, the way they used a minor slow motion style here and there was frustrating. I don't like that style normally, but putting it into the old west just doesn't feel right at all. And why the hell did they wait until the credits to play the great theme?

If you're in the mood for a fun western, go check it out.