The Magnificent Seven

Not quite magnificent but certainly Fuqua’s best since "Training Day" and a rare remake that actually delivers. Yee-haw!

This Seven’s just silly, solid entertainment: multiplex fun by numbers.

Pure blockbuster gloss – perfectly fine for a Saturday afternoon matinee, but instantly forgettable once you’ve emerged from the dark of a multiplex.

The picture is action-packed but mindlessly so, and it’s neither light enough to work as a coltish entertainment nor smart enough to cut beyond anything but the most rote notions of masculinity.

A sense of lethargy hangs uneasily over the lumbering new version of The Magnificent Seven. Despite its sturdy plot, seasoned director and capable cast toplined by Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt and Ethan Hawke, it arrives in a comatose state, a film unlikely to arouse passions one way or another.

The performances are dedicated, but the camaraderie feels perfunctory, outside of a few ruminative exchanges between Hawke and Washington.

It would be too easy to say The Magnificent Seven isn’t magnificent. It’s definitely not, but the film has an even more egregious quality: it’s uninspired. There’s no risk, no real attempts to subvert expectations, and no desire to truly give the audience something, if not entirely new, then at least surprising.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

The Magnificent Seven is a serviceable and at times very enjoyable remake of a classic Western. While it does not hold up to the original in my opinion, they are some good performances and some fun action scenes to entertain you for a while.

Yup, another PC script shoved down our throats. My enjoyment was diminished by the shear vapid storytelling followed by quota characters. Why was the woman part of the seven except that her husband got shot? The Asian guy was cool, but by his inclusion I was already glass-eyed with the tripe. Of course Washington's character us ultra alpha male in charge. Then you have the Indian come along who looks like an Abercombe& Fitch model, and of course is there to feed and join the group in defeat of the evil white tyrant. A+ set, costumes and setting. Everything else is CNN-APPROVED and yaaaawn.

One of the best westerns ever is given a makeover as a quite boring and forgettable film in this 're-imagining' of the 'The Magnificent Seven' of the 1960's. This version is as far from the original films as one can get. The essence of the originals (Seven Samurai and Magnificent Seven) are all but gone and what we are left with is a well staged, but highly fanciful, gunfight that might have you laughing at the improbabilty of its execution. The fine cast is wasted on this pseudo-western showing little pathos for the underlying emotions of the original films engaging characters. The only rousing moment in the entire film was the end credits in which Elmer's Bernstein's 1960 Magnificent Seven theme is played over the credits. Viewers will also be amused by the inclusion of Haley Bennett's Emma, the obligatory hot female movie insert, who contrary to all dress standards of the 1870's, always has her shirt unbuttoned to show off her ample bosom.