The remake or reimagining in this case of two classic films, the Seven Samurai and the original Magnificent Seven is not without its moments, but is a bad imitation to the aforementioned movies. Even the Roger Corman opus, Battle Beyond the Stars is better this.
An evil land baron who controls a mining operation for gold and his hired gunmen take over a town forcing its inhabitants to either accept his low ball pay for their land or face the consequences, which includes killing women and the husband of Emma Cullen (Bennett).
Cullen enlists the aid of bounty hunter, Sam Chisolm (Washington) who then embarks on assembling his band of crusaders to face off against 200 bad guys and a Gatling gun.
The characters are interesting, but you never really like or care about them as they are cardboard cut-outs of the original characters. There are even two lines of dialogue lifted from the 1960 version that blow the fourth wall with the audience that reminds you that you should be watching the Yul Brynner/Steve McQueen film.
Admittedly, the cinematography is stunning, but the story is mediocre and the dialogue borderlines on corny. You pretty much know who is going to live and who will die out of the seven in the first third of the film.
The late James Horner’s music along with Simon Franglen is unmemorable. To add insult to the original film, they play Elmer Bernstein’s memorable theme over the end credits. If only the movie lived up to that one tune it would have been much better.
Overall, better to catch this on DVD or the tele.
THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN / CERT: 12A / DIRECTOR: ANTOINE FUQUA / SCREENPLAY: RICHARD WENK, NICK PIZZOLATTO / STARRING: DENZEL WASHINGTON, CHRIS PRATT, VINCENT D’ONOFRIO, ETHAN HAWKE, BYUNG-HUN LEE, MANUEL GARCIA-RULFO, MARTIN SENSMEIER, HALEY BENNETT / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Expected Rating: 7 out of 10
Actual Rating:
