The Magnificent Seven is a remake of the classic 1960 version of The Magnificent Seven, which in turn was a remake of the 1954 cinematic classic Seven Samurai. The 2016 installment is directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day, The Equalizer) and reunites him with Training Day stars Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke while also adding Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy) and Vincent D’Onofrio (Full Metal Jacket) The plot of this film is very reminiscent of any classic Western movie and is about a ragtag group of mercenaries who are hired by a group of townsfolk, led by Hardcore Henry’s Haley Bennett, whose town has been overtaken by Bartholomew Bogue, played by Jarhead’s Peter Sarsgaard, who wants to exploit the town for its nearby gold mines. The villain is the low-point of this movie as he is off-screen for the majority of the movie and is very generic, but Sarsgaard plays him with his usual sleaziness which is used to full effect here. Another aspect of how this movie suffers is that the motivations of why all the members of the seven joined the mission are not completely clear except for Washington and Hawke’s characters.

The positives of this film are Fuqua’s direction and the casting of the main seven which is completely on-point. The action scenes in this film are brilliantly shot and extremely engaging which is a true testament to Fuqua’s work and he did a great job of making the viewer feel the grunginess and brutality of the West during this time period. The seven are perfectly cast with Vincent D’Onofrio, Byung-hun Lee, and Ethan Hawke being the major standouts. After D’Onofrio’s stellar turns in Daredevil seasons 1 and 2 as the villainous Kingpin, he turns in a wildly different performance here and shows why he is always a positive in every movie that he is in because he commands the screen in every scene. Chris Pratt also demonstrates why people view him as Harrison Ford’s heir apparent because he has tons of charisma, but he might be held back in future films during his career because of writer’s penchant to give him all the jokey type lines because of his background in comedy, as shown by his hilarious turn on Parks and Recreation. Pratt’s big chance to show his range as a dramatic actor will come in Passengers which he stars in with Jennifer Lawrence and comes out later this year. Denzel Washington also shows why he is one of the few movie stars left in the world and why he is one of the greatest actors ever because he sells the action and dramatic scenes in the movie extremely well. While the plot of this film is not highly original, The Magnificent Seven makes for an extremely fun time at the movies because of its fast pace and the wonderful cast.
The Magnificent Seven: 7 out of 10