DJariya

Caught a matinee yesterday and I liked it. Very serviceable modern day Western. But, as mentioned, outside of Denzel and Pratt, most of the supporting cast was underdeveloped.

I did think Peter Sarsgaard was a pretty good villain, until:



Barely recognized D'Onofrio as Jack Horne. Probably the most different character he's played in awhile.


Scenery was nice, some good action and shootouts. Final battle sequence was solid. Fuqua did a more than adequate job manning his 1st Western.

Loved Denzel's look with the big bushy mustache, black clothing (including hat) and sideburns.

Thought it was worth seeing in the theater. I'd give it a B.

B5Erik

I loved his performance. Thought he was great. I loved Ethan Hawke and Byung-hun Lee, too.

Ash Ketchum

On a friend's recommendation I pulled out my DVD of THE GOOD, THE BAD, THE WEIRD (2008), a Korean update of Sergio Leone, and finally watched it. Lee Byung-hun, one of the seven in THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN, is one of the three stars in it. He plays "the Bad." The Korean film has novelty value, but it's not nearly as good as the films it's paying homage too, e.g. the Leone westerns and such 1980s Hong Kong action films as MAGNFICENT WARRIORS and Sammo Hung's MILLIONAIRES' EXPRESS. In fact, the character of "the Weird," played by Song Hang-ko (THE HOST), seems to be modeled on Sammo's character in that film. It's not as good as the new MAGNIFICENT SEVEN either.

inri222

OldBoy

saw this last night. certainly a well-made, slickly produced film, but so formulaic, generic and highly predictable, right down to the last gun shot. yes, i know it's based on previous properties, but Fuqua could have made it his own and at least added something original. liked hardly anything about it. the performances were ok, D'Onofrio stands out, but cared little of who lived or died. was surprised at the body count for the good guys, but this did little to cement its name in the pantheon of great or even good modern-day westerns.

hanshotfirst1138

I was surprised how much I enjoyed this. It wasn't John Sturges, and it sure as hell wasn't Kurosawa, but taken as what it was-a basic, functional modern-day Western action picture-it was a lot more fun than I was expecting it to be. The cast are clearly having a great time, and Pizzolato's dialogue has a nice, chewy, dime-novel kind of bite (The name Goodnight Robicheaux is right out of an old Brett Hart story). The script is thin, the characters are decidedly underdeveloped, and it's not a patch on either previous version, but it's a good time the for Western-starved. The PG-13 rating curbs some of Fuqua's usual crude violent excesses. A lot more fun than I was expecting.

Ash Ketchum

Indeed. This is one I want to see on the big screen again.

devilshalo

Yeah, I felt the same. Could have named it The Serviceable Seven.

Ketamine

I agree that is was a good movie but not great. I really liked the main 2 characters but everyone else was underdeveloped. I just didn't buy that all of these strangers would join together for a suicide mission with very little investment or gain from doing so.

The Bus

If you compare this to the average action movie (like, Smokin Aces) it's magnificent. It's even a good modern Western because I think there's been so many (and so many well done ones) that this one doesn't need to “say” anything new about the Western, which makes it a little self-aware and much more enjoyable.

I wish the film had a bit more humor in it, since at times it played a bit like an action-comedy without the laughs.

I thought it was Fuqua's best work since Training Day (but I haven't seen Brooklyn's Finest).

I saw this in a sold-out theater with what studio execs might call a four-quadrant audience.

Solid Snake

Both male and female... and both under and over 25, eh?

The Bus

Yessir.

creekdipper

Does this one have some good quotable lines the way the original M7 did?

You can pull up pages with some of the great lines in the original. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054047/quotes

It got me to thinking about some of the other "recent" westerns (such as the ones listed in the "favorite westerns 1980-present" thread).

In that one, Tombstone is a runaway favorite. And, like M7 from the sixties, it has lots of quotable dialogue.

Anything remotely equivalent in the new version of M7?

Ash Ketchum

Only the ones they repeat from the screenplay of the 1960 movie. ("If God didn't want men to be sheared, he wouldn't have made them sheep.") But nothing new and noteworthy. For some reason, the 1960 screenplay by William Roberts (and an uncredited Walter Newman) is not credited here, even though it should be.

RichC2

I barely consider Smokin' Aces an action movie, they talk about action but never actually show any.

Dan

This was definitely a movie.
Nothing truly terrible about it (although almost all of Pratt's jokes fell flat, IMO), but nothing great either. I liked the scene where they were training to town folk how to shoot, and a few other random bits. D'onofrio was great, and I really liked Byung-hun Lee. Hawke is always a pleasure. I wouldn't recommend it, but I wouldn't tell someone not to see if if they were interested.

Ash Ketchum

Good article by J. Hoberman in The New York Times on recent remakes and presidential politics. He cites the original MAGNIFICENT SEVEN as a Kennedy western and the new one as an Obama western.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/05/mo...dayspaper&_r=0

Why So Blu?

Saw this tonight and it was entertaining. They did skirt the PG-13 rating, with some of the kills.


Kind of funny that the only ones left alive at the end were


I did think the cinematography, production design, etc., were amazing.

Osiris3657

There are worse ways to kill a couple hours. I drifted out of focus every now and then, but it held my attention for the most part. The script is so formulaic and predictable, it felt like a screenwriter wrote this in a day.

Give it 3 stars for a good cast and decent action.

maxfisher

Watched this last night and it was more entertaining than expected, almost entirely due to the strength of the cast. That said, the gatling gun just about ruined it. In execution, it was no more realistic than if they'd wheeled out a laser cannon. It made what should've been an exciting set piece unintentionally hilarious.

GoldenJCJ

I watched this last night as well. After reading some lackluster reviews I wasn't expecting much but enjoyed the hell out of it!

It was a great cast and they all had decent chemistry. I've never seen Haley Bennett in anything before but the real star of the movie was her cleavage! The Magnificent Two. Imirite?

My wife said she thought the movie felt a little drawn out but I thought the pacing was just about right, I actually could have done with a slightly longer cut that showed more of the 7 being recruited/formed.

JimRochester

In spite of the cut and paste plot I did find I enjoyed this movie. They did just enough right to make it entertaining.

On the negative side, the shooting from horseback and hitting everything with one shot versus the bad guys can't hit anything even though they are supposed to be expert gunmen. The bodies flying through plate glass windows. The Gatling gun. As mentioned before they were way too far away for that kind of accuracy. There was no reason to not bring them in closer. Also that magazine appeared to hold 50 rounds. That gives them 15 seconds of fire with the 200 rpm those guns had.

On the plus side. It was just fun. Bad guy gets comeuppance.