Director: Antoine Fuqua
By Alex Watson
The odds were stacked against Antoine Fuqua almost from day one when he announced his remake of The Magnificent Seven. Though there are sporadic moments of entertainment, this remake fails to even touch upon the cool or classy nature of either of the two originals. At points, Fuqua does manage to conjure a gold ol' western gunfire in the vein of Sam Peckinpah, but this remake runs out shells pretty fast.
The town of Rose Creek has been constantly bullied and robbed by rich businessman Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard). After the death of her husband (Matt Bomer), widow Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett) convinces bounty Sam Chisholm (Denzel Washington) to help defend their town. Faced with a monumentally difficult task, Chisholm seeks out Civil War hero Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke), tracker Jack Horne (Vincent D'onofrio) and drunken gunslinger Josh Faraday (Chris Pratt) alongside three more killers to keep the villains at bay.
While it has a slick delivery and an impressive cast, The Magnificent Seven is not a movie that will break any real boundaries. It is a fun experience, but there is little in the way of gritty or memorable in this desert. Starting with a gutsy entrance by Bogue who corners the village's population in a church and then burns the building to the ground, we at least get a nasty villain for the seven to play off against. Peter Sarsgaard is wonderfully nasty at this part but never gets to fully expose this evil at its fullest. Fuqua seems in a hurry to get the gang together and we never really get to learn anything of our heroes. Goodnight Robicheaux gets the deepest backstory as a Civil War sharpshooter nicknamed 'The Angel of Death' for his 23 kills. Suffering from PTSD, Robicheaux is a man who has become a toothless bear in the heat of battle.
The Seven each have their merits, Chisholm is a man looking for justice for something close to home, Faraday is cheeky chappie with a penchant for magic tricks, Horne is a gentle yet brutal tracker that looks like Santa Claus went rural. Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier), Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) and Billy Rocks (Byung-hun Lee) are just good at killing stuff. There are the obligatory montage sequences as the men train the town to defend itself while picking off the corrupt lawmen that have allowed Bogue to run riot. Being denied a chance to really know or understand these characters leaves a flat aftertaste and they seem like seven guys are just doing this deed because they have nothing better to do. While both John Sturges and Akira Kurosawa dedicated more time to allow their audience to know their heroes, this remake feels worst off without it.
When the big showdown hits, Fuqua does raise the film's thrill levels and as the body count stacks up. Sadly we have no heroes we are really rooting for and our interest in who lives or dies is long gone by this stage. Wanting to reenact grizzly finales like The Wild Bunch, Fuqua is left with a more family friend scenario and what could have been a gutsy display of iron will is just dull and uninteresting. Missing the presence of men like Yul Brenner and Steve McQueen, this seven bonds well together on screen but we never sense there is much comradery among them. Fuqua did a good job resurrecting The Equalizer with Washington, but lightning fails to strike twice.
Denzel Washington is cool as Sam Chisholm but his character depth is barely a foot deep. We know he has his own motives for going after Bogue, but we never really feel the heat or anger coming off them. A frequent collaborator with Fuqua, this movie will not go down as one of his more memorable efforts. Chris Pratt is also stranded in what is essentially a one-note role as Josh Faraday. Given little to do other than giving the same kind of lovable guy persona we've seen in all his recent movies, Pratt feels wasted in what could have been a good redoing of Steve McQueen's Vin. Ethan Hawke has some fine moments as Goodnight and is perhaps the one character that truly stands out, mainly because we actually know more about him.
The Magnificent Seven is another Hollywood classic given an inferior remake, all film fans can do is wonder what this could have been in better hands. Seven Samurai fans beware of future remake attempts.
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