The Magnificent Seven Review

Denzel Washington (Training Day) and Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) may have converted me into a westerns fan with The Magnificent Seven. Not to say Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy), Ethan Hawke (Training Day), and everyone else in the film didn't do a good job. They did great! It's just, having Washington star in the film made the difference between this being a must-see in the theater for me instead of a maybe on Netflix. Westerns just aren't my thing. But today I learned The Magnificent Seven is absolutely my thing!!

Let's start with the diversity of the seven men who come in to save this town! Four of the seven are minorities. Washington plays the leader of the group, Chisolm. Byung-hun Lee (G.I. Joe) plays Billy Rocks, a sidekick of sorts (that really can hold his own alone and does at one point) to Hawke's character Goodnight Robicheaux. He is actually much more than a sidekick, only being a sidekick in that he joined the group because Goodnight Robicheaux (Hawke) would not join without him. Then there's Vasquez, played by Manuel Garcia-Rulfo (Cake). And finally, there's Red Harvest, played by Martin Sensmeier (Salem), who is of Tlingit, Koyukon-Athabascan, and Irish descent. Other than Washington, they don't say as much as the other three, but their presence is known and felt. Billy Rocks can shoot a rifle, but his forte is slinging knives. Red Harvest shows off his bow and arrow skills, and though he speaks Comanche with Chisolm, later they discover he speaks English too. Not only do Vasquez, Red Harvest, and Chisolm share the talent of being bi-lingual, they are also the sole survivors of the seven! I went in expecting them all to survive, but I must say the last thing I was expecting was for the Black man, Native American, and Mexican to be the sole survivors of the group. It left me pleasantly surprised!

Washington gave us classic Washington, and as always I loved it! Pratt gave us a glimmer of comedic Pratt. Just enough for comic relief without turning the Western into a comedy. It was just right, as was the comic relief Jack Horne (Vincent D'Onofrio, Law and Order) brought to the film. D'Onofrio is given the perfect character in Jack Horne, because no one plays a beat-to-your-own-drum character like D'Onofrio! Hawke's character, Goodnight Robicheaux, had one of the more interesting character developments. You'll go from questioning if he is who he says he is, to watching him abandon the other seven, to seeing him help save the town. On top of that, he is haunted by his past in the Civil War (or as they call it in the film, the War of Northern Aggression). It seems he fought on the Confederate side, and all the killings he's famous for have actually traumatized him to the point where he finds it hard to shoot to kill. But he's not the only one with an interesting past. Chisolm wasn't sure he would stay to help the town fight off the bad guys trying to take their land from them, but then he found out the leader was Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard, Jarhead). Towards the end of the film we learn Bogue and his men did a similar thing to a town Chisolm lived in with his family, and Bogue's men raped Chisolm's mother, murdered his sisters, and hung Chisolm (he reveals the rope burn on his neck)!! 

Now, it's a western. So the key to a good western is the climactic fight scene (or so I assume, lol). And it was perfect!! Who needs a Marvel film in IMAX 3D?! The shots were great and varied. The tempo and pace kept you enthralled in the fight sequences, with great help from the accompanying musical score. With seven characters to follow, and a variety of weaponry and fight styles, the pace appropriately varied as it shifted from the different scenes in the fight sequence. On a related note, two nice surprises were how they worked in having Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett, The Equalizer) be one of the shooters and having Red Harvest take down the Native American who was one of Bogue's men. And Bogue's death scene was perfect for the ultimate pure justice for the two people who were severely impacted by Bogue and his men!

I'm not a westerns fan, but there are no complaints from me. It was a great movie and I highly recommend you go see it!

9/10

The Magnificent Seven Review [Alandrus David - 8 Arms & Counting]

Literally just finished watching. I had no real expectations except to see Denzel. Then I saw the cast and all its diversity. Of course there were no black women, but hey it's hollywood. Moving on, I want to say that having a black man lead all these white folks to freedom after they feel their lands were rightfully theirs made me chuckle. As the storyline developed it for better. Now to the part that made me love this movie, Denzel, Manuel, and Martin being the surviving heroes. My goodness.

When was the last time a black, hispanic, and native man ever all been the heroes to live through an entire movie....together!

Just touched my soul.

😧 once you've been woke you can't watch movies the same way you used to. I needed that ending. It made the entire movie.

Check out Alandrus David's Blog 8 Arms & Counting. 

The Magnificent Seven Review [Brandon Keith Avery - JustMyOpinion.net]

If you’re tired of remakes and reboots, your cry would be heard loud and clear. Every other day it seems like another rehash is on the horizon, though some properties are still worth dusting off. As most know, this remake was adapted from the 1960 western The Magnificent Seven of the same name, which was previously remade from the original Seven Samurai film in 1954. The word of mouth from these two films couldn’t be any more positive, as they’re both respected as classics. So when this next incarnation was announced, it wasn’t greeted with disgust and disdain. It was welcomed due to the great cast, remarkable story, and the man running the show in the director’s chair, Antione Fuqua (Training Day).

Having not seen the two films that came before this one, my expectations were set at a neutral level. Although everything appeared to be fruitful on the surface, there was still a chance this would be a giant mess. Early on, the warm opening credits set the stage. It was simple and focused, and you’re teased with each cast member’s name as it flashed on the screen. It’s like you were about to embark on a journey everyone else was raving about and this is your first time witnessing it for yourself. Shortly thereafter the atmosphere revved up fairly quick. Disaster struck in the most menacing ways imaginable, and you knew who the devil was pulling all the strings. It was an interesting casting choice that worked to sell the antagonist Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard). He was a sniveling little weasel and was the perfect baddie with insecurity issues that any sane human would want to demolish.

Luckily there’s plenty enough screen time spent on other lovable characters such as Chisolm (Denzel Washington). Washington is great in every role he plays, but to be honest, in a lot of his roles he plays the same character; which is himself. He did the same thing here in a cowboy outfit, but it was still great to see him on the big screen. Chris Pratt playing Josh Faraday was a little different than most may be accustomed to. Pratt is usually the comic relief in whatever part he plays, but this time he took on more of a serious role, which was surprising. The biggest surprise is that of Jack Horne (Vincent D’Onofrio). He had the best transformation of all the characters on screen. He is a true talent and literally becomes a different person every time the word “action” is said. It was difficult to tell who the real man was solely based off his great performance. It’s clear he practiced hard and told himself he would give everything he had for this role. 

All the characters that were part of The Magnificent Seven were great, but that’s also where the main problem of the film lies. It’s great seeing a team come together, and in this film it’s a lot of fun. However, a film also has to be realistic about how humans naturally act around each other. Here, how the team comes together is so convenient it’s disturbing. None of the characters have anything to do except show off their respected skill exactly when the captain shows up for recruitment. At times, without saying more than two sentences, they’re on board and ready to defend a city and people they’ve never heard of before. If it was a personal vendetta they wanted to pay back it would be more understanding, but here it’s rather convenient.

That doesn’t mean when they come together it isn’t a ton of fun that has you towards the edge of your seat at times. The action within this film is top notch, and if you’re not usually into westerns it may convert you over to that genre. All of the gun play and camera angles flowed smoothly to where you almost knew where every bullet landed. Seeing all the jumps, bullets, and arrows, was all you’d ask for in an action film. The stakes were high, and you couldn’t predict the outcome. And the film flowed so smoothly, making you laugh here and there. It’s the perfect movie to just sit back and enjoy. Whether released in the summer season or the fall, it’s nearly impossible not to find some value in it. It may not master the original, but for the newer generation it’ll get the job done.

8/10

Release Date: September 23, 2016

Director: Antoine Fuqua

Writer: Akira Kurosawa (based on), Shinobu Hashimoto (based on), Hideo Oguni, (based on), Richard Wenk, Nic Pizzolatto

Cast: Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onofrio, Byung-hun Lee, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Martin Sensmeier, Haley Bennett, Peter Sarsgaard, Luke Grimes, Matt Bomer, Jonathan Joss, Cam Gigandet, Emil Beheshti, Mark Ashworth, Billy Slaughter, Dodge Prince, Matthew Posey

MPAA Rating: PG-13

Runtime: 132 minutes

Production Company: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Columbia Pictures, LStar Capital, Village Roadshow Pictures, Pin High Productions, Escape Artists, Columbia Pictures

Genre: Action, Western

Language: English

Country: USA

Budget: $95,000,000 (estimated)

Read more reviews by Brandon Keith Avery at Just My Opinion.net. 

The Magnificent Seven - Bounty Hunter Featurette (Denzel Washington)

The Magnificent Seven Trailer