THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN

I just came from catching The Magnificent Seven! This is of course a remake to the wildly popular 1960 film which starred Yul Brenner, Steve McQueen and a plethora of Hollywood's toughest leading men back in the day. The 2016 version is no different, joining Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke and more into a septet of outlaws, rustlers and bad hombres unified to face an army of hired guns lead by the evil mustache twirling Bartholomew Bogue played by Peter Sarsgaard.

I love a good western and ensemble films are among my favorite. The western genre is no stranger to these types of ensemble films and the original Magnificent Seven is one of the biggest and best examples of the genre. This version of the Akira Kurosawa inspired film mixes action, drama and no small amount of comedy together to make a very enjoyable film. Denzel Washington brings the intensity and Chris Pratt comes loaded up with charm and wit. The supporting cast including Ethan Hawke, Haley Bennett and Vincent D'Onofiro, who's character is a standout, really do well in rounding out the cast. The movie does a good job of keeping all the action clear yet intense making the viewer feel as if they are standing in the middle of the fights. The movie does have a little bit of a struggle with tone in that there are an equal amount of funny moments to dramatic ones to where by the end of the movie I was having a little trouble finding emotional resonance. However, that may also be due to the fact that there are an awful lot of characters here and getting a feel for all of them while maintaining the tone is a tough trick. That aside, I was never bored or confused watching it and it ended up being a fun time at the theater. I would definitely recommend it to someone one looking for some action and especially to the western fan. The Magnificent Seven gets a 3.5...out of 5.