The Magnificent Seven (2016)

Antoine Fuqua's The Magnificent Seven is about as brazen as the cowboys it portrays. It is loud, visceral and action packed but lacks the necessary functions for it to be a truly great film. Despite Fuqua's most confident directing and Denzel Washington's excellent performance, the film ends up being as cluttered as the cast would suggest. When it all comes down to it, it is a matter of an overload of star power. While there have been films in the past that have had incredible casts and flourished, this film makes it feel as though the film is only big enough for one star. Chris Pratt is great as an alcoholic and incredibly ballsy gunslinger, Faraday, but he lacks any gusto to really command the screen as does most of the cast outside of Denzel Washington (someone who I can't say enough good things about here). It ends up feeling like these roles could have been played by anyone when it should have felt like these actor's owned these roles so much so that you can't imagine anyone else in it. Unfortunately that isn't the case here. Quite frankly, the only performances worth noting are Washington and Peter Sarsgaard, who gives a devilishly good performance as a sadistic law man. In this respect, the film is very much a disappointment for anyone expecting to see the next great ensemble film of the year. More importantly, those of you who were excited to see the re-teaming of the Training Day squad (Washington, Hawke and Fuqua) will have to wait a bit longer for that because there is barely any chemistry between Ethan Hawke's Goodnight Robicheaux and Washington's Chisolm. The screenplay, written by True Detective's Nic Pizzolatto and action aficionado, Richard Wenk is lackluster to say the least. As I said, the character development with the characters is either not there or so forced and unnatural that it takes you out of it. After the abysmal season 2 of True Detective and this, I think is safe to say that Pizzolatto is turning into the one hit wonder that everyone feared that he would be. However, I will still hold off on officially saying that about him because there are some ideas that were introduced in the film that were really interesting which is why it is all the more frustrating when they are cast aside and never touched upon again. The screenplay is the big problem here. It is well paced but emotionally hollow. It never really reaches anywhere near the heights of the Kurosawa masterpiece or even the 1957 remake that that film spawned. In this case, the script reads and sounds like a bad imitation. Despite this, The Magnificent Seven does boasts some pretty exceptional action set pieces much to Fuqua's credit. The film is explosive but it is highly predictable. Those who are killed don't really resonate with the viewer because quite honestly, we don't care about any of the characters outside of Washington. They are mere footnotes to the larger picture which is a monumental disappointment. Overall, I thought that Antoine Fuqua's The Magnificent Seven boasted a great idea and never truly capitalized on it. The film felt like it really could have been something but we are left holding on to the idea of what could have been.

Fmovies: Don't misunderstand.

Both Liam Neeson and Denzel Washington are in their 60s, both have defied the laws of Physics by starting brand-new careers as Action Heros late in life. and both are charismatic and talented enough to pull it off.

(Neeson with the Taken series plus a few other assorted action roles recently; Denzel with the Equalizer franchise and this strange oater.)

Frankly, I would be happy to buy a ticket buyer for all the action roles they both can dish up. If both these gentlemen want to continue to make these sorts of pictures for the next 20 years, I promise to keep watching.

However, leaving aside the star power of the lead in this production, overall this film is a borderline remake.

The original had a better ensemble cast, better music, and better acting.

This is an "OK" remake (as many other members have opined here) with arguably better pistol-handling skills.

And still a very nice way to spend a rainy afternoon.

Hollywood, you do not take a classic film and do a lackluster job and make it worst. You try to transcend. It's lazy Hollywood all over again. The script makes no attempt to develop any of the characters and what we get is a piece of hollow action flick with no substance to it. Hollywood thinks we are all sheep and simply throw away our hard earned money to them. They insult our intelligence over and over again with remakes of great classics promising to be better than the original. Once in a blue moon they succeed but not this time! Don't waste your money. Wait for it to go on DVD or watch it free if you can. Better yet, watch the classic Magnificent 7 with Yul Brynner and you will see how much better that one is to the remake. They don't call it a classic for nothing!

The Magnificent Seven fmovies. Come on now. If you're going to re-make "The Magnificent 7" let's do it magnificently. Where was that great music? Where is the superlative cast that include Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, and Vladimir Sokoloff? You might argue that Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt are on a level with Brynner and McQueen, but I wouldn't. Pratt certainly has potential, but he doesn't yet have McQueen's star power. The rest are pale imitations, except perhaps for an unbelievably fat Vincent D'Onofrio who is certainly entertaining.

This is a modern re-telling. You might call it the Diversity 7. The producers threw in just about every minority you can think of – Mexican, Asian, Black, Woman. The only thing missing was a "little" person .

Personally I liked the idea of the woman, played very well by Haley Bennett who has been with Washington before ("The Equalizer").

An action film like this works only when the villain is villainous. Eli Wallach was terrific. Peter Sarsgaard wouldn't scare a fly.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed it. It's OK, but it's not magnificent.

Another MADE-FOR-TV movie brought to the screen.

More of the same from Hollywood.

Lets re-make a classic, but ensure it's politically correct and an absolute that it represents every race, so as not to step on any toes.

Oh,and lets give everyone modern-day attitudes and dialects, because apparently no one has the capability of acting with the original language or mannerisms associated with the time-period depicted.

Filling a movie with a handful of 'regular stars' does NOT assure the film will succeed. This one is like the recent 'TARZAN' movie.

Save your money and watch the Seven Samurai & The Magnificent Seven (original) to see film beauty and entertainment.

Yes, Denzel makes for one very cool bad-ass with his shiny Colt .45 strapped to his hip with the butt forward, but that's about it.

There is almost nothing in this picture that is a surprise or unpredictable. Dialog between actors is awkward and stilted (and sometimes completely unintelligible). Very little background on any of the characters is presented and offers no development what-so-ever.

Take "Red Harvest", the crack Indian archer outcast. We practically beg to know more about him, but all we get is his announcement, "The elders have said I'm on a different path", and boom, he's in the club. Please. The movie is over two hours long, and that's all we get?

There is a few laughs and a decent stunt here and there, but all that could have been accomplished in a much shorter run time and on a fraction of the ridiculous $95 million dollar budget.

More plot holes than you can count, and a final gun battle that is so technically improbable it will ruin what little suspension of dis-belief you had left. Example? The Gatling gun that fires hundreds of rounds on a single clip and magically zeros in on strategic targets... from a quarter mile away!

Also present is a fair amount of politically correct 'hate whitey' propaganda. When Red Harvest isn't pegging bad guys with his bow and arrows he frequently complains about 'white man's food', and all the white heroes are the only ones who get killed.

I wasn't amused.

This movie is a perfect example of why I rarely venture out to see a first run picture for the same amount of money I could have spent on a half tank of gasoline.

Maybe your kids will enjoy it, but you will not.

For real, don't bother