THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN remake is an entertaining and diverting popcorn Western movie that I enjoyed even though it doesn’t have the depth of some of the Westerns before it.   Denzel Washington is the weak link of the cast as the other players in the group of seven gunfighters outshine him like Chris Pratt as the roguish Josh Faraday and Civil War vet Goodnight Robicheaux.   Denzel is bounty hunter Sam Chisolm  who is hired by widow Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett) to stop the corrupt industrialist Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard) kicking out the people of the mining town of rose Creek (and also to avenge her husband’s death).   Sam assembles a group of gunfighters which assembles the diversity of people (Chinese, Mexican, blacks, Native Americans) who populated the Old West.

 

The action is very well directed as the cinematography compliments the last score of late composer James Horner which was finished by a friend of his after Horner died with a partly completed score.  The score does recycle some music cues from previous Horner scores (a practice you will come to learn if you listen to enough of Horner’s scores in various movies).  If you liked the latest MAGNIFICENT SVEN remake, you may want to check out the original starring Yul Brynner and Steven McQueen (which itself was a remake of Seven Samurai) and the Western classic THE WILD BUNCH.

 

This review is 10-4-2016 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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