The Magnificent Seven
Magnificent could be a stretch, maybe the Mediocre Seven? Perhaps the ‘Meh’ Seven? Or in the eyes of the studio who decided to make this movie, The Myopic Seven? Either way, why this film was made we’ll never know and for two hours and thirteen minutes the script and cast will ask the same question. This is the Money Seven.
Spin the roulette wheel in Hollywood and see if it lands on ‘Reboot’, ‘Sequel’ ‘Adaptation’ or in this case, it landed on ‘Remake’. The legendary John Sturges directed the original Magnificent Seven from 1960 and for 2016 it is Antoine Fuqua, who was behind Training Day amongst some other big hits.
Being tasked with bringing a classic into the modern lens isn’t easy, and Fuqua has delivered an entertaining and appealing flick, albeit missing quite a few beats. Casting is nothing short of expensive, with the likes of Denzel Washington (who can do no wrong), Chris Pratt and Ethan Hawke all delivering passable performances.
The story is of a small town called Rose Creek, who has come under the tyrannical reign of greedy industrialist Bartholomew Bogue, who tries to force the innocent and powerless residents out of their land. By happenstance a brave widow named Emma Cullen (played by Hayley Bennett) comes across Denzel’s Sam Chisholm, a bounty hunter, and enlists him to save their humble abodes. One man against an army surely isn’t enough, so we get an ensemble montage as he travels across the vast terrain of the old west recruiting gunslingers, brawlers and weapons experts, and when he gets to seven people he thinks, ‘Yeah that’ll do’.
What follows is your run-of-the-mill action movie, with scarce character development, which is to be expected with so many to cover, flat and un-fleshed motivations, and awkward acting at times. The final climatic scene however is worth the wait, with plenty of violence, explosions and satisfying Western vibes. Another bonus for the film is that it is well shot and edited, and the pictures are pretty.
It is hard to place The Magnificent Seven, it’ll likely fade into the ether before anybody realizes, and yet it is still an amusing and enjoyable enough movie, just saved by it’s cast and director, which is the benefit this film has say over the abysmal Ben-Hur remake. It is a perfect movie for 9:30pm on a Friday night on free-to-air telly.
Rating: 5.5/10
