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Magnificent 7 (2016)

September 29, 2016
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This film isn’t remotely in the same class as “The Seven Samurai” (1954) or the original “Magnificent 7” (1960), but it has a great ensemble cast, beautiful cinematography (Mauro Fiore), a classic plot, and an exciting battle between the terribly out-manned 7 and their formidable, extremely evil foe.  It’s missing something, although I’m not quite sure what.  Perhaps it’s because it takes too long to “kick” into gear, it feels flat at times, and the 7, except for PTSD-impaired ‘Goodnight’ Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke), just aren’t that interesting.  All that being noted, however, seeing Denzel in a western is an opportunity that shouldn’t be missed!

An ultimately evil land baron, Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard), is trying to own all the land in the small mining town of Rose Creek.  He is intimidating the setters to sell their property for a song, or just leave town due to fear for their lives.  A Rose Creek resident, Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett), begs a righteous bounty hunter, Sam Chisolm (Denzel Washington), to help them drive out Bogue and his henchmen.  Chisolm accepts the mission and then rounds up 6 others to help him, including an alcoholic, Josh Farraday (Chris Pratt), and a marksman with PTSD, ‘Goodnight’ Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke).  Eventually, all this leads to about a 30-minute “High Noon” type of shoot-out.

I’d rent it, but there’s no need to see it now on the BS.

 

 

This film isn't remotely in the same class as "The Seven Samurai" (1954) or the original "Magnificent 7" (1960), but it has a great ensemble cast, beautiful cinematography (Mauro Fiore), a classic plot, and an exciting battle between the terribly out-manned 7 and their formidable, extremely evil foe.  It's missing something, although I'm not quite sure what.  Perhaps it's because it takes too long to "kick" into gear, it feels flat at times, and the 7, except for PTSD-impaired 'Goodnight' Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke), just aren't that interesting.  All that being noted, however, seeing Denzel in a western is an opportunity that shouldn't be missed! An ultimately evil land baron, Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard), is trying to own all the land in the small mining town of Rose Creek.  He is intimidating the setters to sell their property for a song, or just leave town due to fear for their lives.  A Rose Creek resident, Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett), begs a righteous bounty hunter, Sam Chisolm (Denzel Washington), to help them drive out Bogue and his henchmen.  Chisolm accepts the mission and then rounds up 6 others to help him, including an alcoholic, Josh Farraday (Chris Pratt), and a marksman with PTSD, 'Goodnight' Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke).  Eventually, all this leads to about a 30-minute "High Noon" type of shoot-out. I'd rent it, but there's no need to see it now on the BS.    

7

A Good Western!

Denzel is Swell!
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I have loved the movies ever since I saw “The Wizard of Oz” as a young boy. When Beatle-mania hit the USA, Rock-N-Roll was my greatest passion, but I haven’t enjoyed the current music scene nearly as much over the past 15 years, so that void has been filled by film. In college and med school, I would see movies with my friends and we would stay up late into the night chatting about them. I still love seeing movies with friends and then having dinner to discuss them. This blog evolved out of my desire to tell my movie-loving friends about movies I thought they would enjoy. The blog allows me to do this in a fun way and to reach movie fans everywhere.

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