Review

The satisfying Seven

The third incarnation of the classic good-guys-versus-bad-guys Western delivers plenty of bang for the buck

(l to r) Billy Rocks (Byung-hun Lee), Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke), Chisolm (Denzel Washington), Josh Farday (Chris Pratt), Jack Horne (Vincent D’Onofrio) and Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier) do their civic duty in The Magnificent Seven, the second Western remake of Akira Kurosawa’s classic 1954 film Seven Samurai.
(l to r) Billy Rocks (Byung-hun Lee), Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke), Chisolm (Denzel Washington), Josh Farday (Chris Pratt), Jack Horne (Vincent D’Onofrio) and Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier) do their civic duty in The Magnificent Seven, the second Western remake of Akira Kurosawa’s classic 1954 film Seven Samurai.

It's fairly easy to guess how Antoine Fuqua's new remake of The Magnificent Seven will unfold, and that's actually part of the fun. The man behind Training Day and The Equalizer sets out to deliver the kind of horse opera that Mel Brooks affectionately parodied in Blazing Saddles and in the process reminds audiences that the open range and six-gun battles c

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Bounty hunter Chisolm (Denzel Washington) leads six rough men as they come together to defend a poor village against a savage capitalist in Antoine Fuqua’s new version of The Magnificent Seven.

an be just as exciting as superheroes or spaceships.

It doesn't hurt that Fuqua is borrowing from the best. Not only is he following in the footsteps of John Sturges' rousing 1960 oater, but that film was in turn a remake of Akira Kurosawa's 1954 classic The Seven Samurai. All three films feature a small, dedicated band of warriors who defend a village against warlords with legions of hired guns.

The Magnificent Seven

86 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

Director: Antoine Fuqua

Rating: PG-13, for extended and intense sequences of Western violence, and for historical smoking, some language and suggestive material

Running time: 2 hours, 12 minutes

Screenwriters Richard Wenk and Nic Pizzolatto set their take on the story in 1870s California where the villain Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard) is a different type of bandit. Instead of the Mexican bandit portrayed by Eli Wallach in the 1960 film, Bogue is an American capitalist, who sports fine suits and swears eloquently. Having made several fortunes off of gold mining, he still keeps the residents of the border town Rose Creek under his thumb, shooting those who resist his overtures.

Bogue is so depraved he attacks the local pastor and his church. Sarsgaard hams it up, but with the big action to follow, that's actually the right approach to take. The local sheriff and his deputies simply watch because they're on his payroll. For a guy who doesn't even live in the town, that sure seems greedy.

The widow (Haley Bennett) of a man who stood up to the robber baron goes through nearby settlements recruiting a tiny group of specialists who might be able to protect the town. She finds a low key bounty hunter named Sam Chisolm (Denzel Washington) and the wisecracking gambler Josh Faraday (Chris Pratt), who can do with card tricks what some Westerners do with guns or knives.

Speaking of sharp objects, Billy Rocks (Byung-hun Lee) can throw blades and subdue enemies before they can draw their pistols. His best friend is Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke), whose courtly bearing belies the skill of hardened sharp shooter.

The team also includes a wanted Mexican outlaw (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) with a strange knack for survival and a lone Comanche whose skill with a bow makes machine guns seem obsolete.

Rounding out the squad is a brawny, scripture reciting madman named Jack Horne (a delightfully typecast Vincent D'Onofrio) whom Faraday dubs "a bear in people clothes."

Fuqua, as Sturges and Kurosawa did before him, takes his time setting up the eventual showdown between the title characters and Bogue. This gives viewers a chance to giggle at Pratt's quips, D'Onofrio's childlike outbursts or sigh at Hawke's struggles with his conscience.

Washington is still the star of the film, but he stands out by underplaying while his peers go over the top. He provides a calm center as Fuqua stages some expert gunplay and equine action. The director promises an apocalyptic battle and lives up to it. Even if you haven't seen either of the previous movies, you'll probably guess each turn of the conflict. That doesn't stop the climax from being satisfying.

Fuqua on a couple of occasions seems to revel in the bloodshed and mayhem a little more than he should. With all the tongue in cheek dialogue, a lighter touch might have been more effective.

Nonetheless, there is still plenty of frontier left for The Magnificent Seven to deliver from tedium.

MovieStyle on 09/23/2016

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