The Magnificent Seven

Remake of 1960s horse opera gets back in the saddle with Denzel Washington and an all-star cast.

3112d ago

Fuqua’s remake is a worthy successor to the ’60s “Seven.”

3112d ago

Director Antoine Fuqua updates an old story for today's audiences.

3112d ago

Antoine Fuqua’s forgettable remake of The Magnificent Seven reimagines the 1960 movie about Old West hired guns coming to the aid of a small Mexican town (itself adapted from Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai) as a generic Western with half a dozen choice zingers and a script that feebly insists that it’s “about America.”

3112d ago

The film never surrenders to the abandon of its action, and as such never feels like it shifts out of first gear.

3112d ago

The Magnificent Seven is Western "dumb fun," which works just fine with proper expectations.

3112d ago

Fuqua offers fine vistas and some inspired visions of men on horses. Occasionally, he stages a bit of action that's clear and convincing enough to jolt you.

3112d ago

The new movie is as moth-eaten as the serapes strewn through the 1960 film, but there’s no denying the appeal of the image of Mr. Washington riding a horse, shooting a Colt and leading a posse of vigilantes to save a mostly white Western town.

3112d ago

Denzel Washington’s classic western hero is commandingly cool and supported by a rakish Chris Pratt, but there’s a great deal of waiting around for something to happen in Antoine Fuqua’s strenuously-topical western.

3112d ago

Denzel Washington's politically charged Magnificent Seven remake brings out the big guns.

3112d ago

For some people, just getting this particular group of ragtag heroes together will be enough. And, to be fair, we may see films with this structure, but we don’t get star-powered westerns very often any more. The star power, especially with scene-stealers like Pratt and Hawke, can be blinding enough that genre fans won't see the wasted potential. They just forgot to take advantage of it.

3112d ago

Toronto 2016: A bizarrely subdued Washington and blandly feisty Chris Pratt lead a diverse pack of gunslingers in Antoine Fuqua‘s semi-stylish but mostly disappointing update of the 1960 classic.

3112d ago

Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt star in a remake of the 1960 Western classic that hits all the right buttons but misses the fun of the original. Maybe because back then, this plot wasn't old hat.

3112d ago

There are at least seven reasons to remake The Magnificent Seven, John Sturges’ larkish 1960 western, itself a retooling of Akira Kurosawa’s rousingly elegant 1954 epic Seven Samurai: at any given time, there are always at least seven young-to-middle-aged male actors ready to strap on holsters and peer out from beneath rakishly tilted cowboy hats. Because really, what could be cooler?

3112d ago

'The Magnificent Seven': Antoine Fuqua's fawning fan letter to Westerns.

3112d ago

Antoine Fuqua's Toronto opener stars Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt and Ethan Hawke in a revisionist take on 1960's 'Magnificent Seven,' about a band of loners who defend a village from an outlaw gang.

3112d ago

Despite amounting to less than what we had hoped for, The Magnificent Seven is an agreeable enough movie (even if Denzel’s pearly whites seem too modernly bleached for the Old West, and dialogue like “It is what it is” sounds too much like contemporary jargon).

3112d ago

It would be too easy to say “The Magnificent Seven” isn’t magnificent. It’s definitely not, but the film has an even more egregious quality: it’s uninspired. There’s no risk, no real attempts to subvert expectations, and no desire to truly give the audience something, if not entirely new, then at least surprising. “The Magnificent Seven” hires plenty of top level talent, but it turns out they’re all firing blanks.

3112d ago

The Magnificent Seven is like a long-fused stick of dynamite: It takes forever to get interesting but does at least unleash an explosive finale.

3112d ago

This movie's all over the place, trying too hard to be all Westerns to all sensibilities.

3112d ago

The Magnificent Seven is fine as far as it goes, but — especially when the familiar strains of the 1960 theme song begin wafting over the final scenes — one can’t help feeling that it should have gone much further.

3112d ago

Rose Creek, 1887. Terrorised by robber baron Bartholomew Bogue (Sarsgaard), the townspeople send newly widowed Emma Cullen (Bennett) to find a band of men crazy enough to tackle him. Enter dead-eyed bounty hunter Sam Chisolm (Washington), chirpy gunslinger Josh Faraday (Chris Pratt) and five more lethal recruits.

3112d ago

Ethan Hawke is appealing as a polysyllabic coward of some complexity, but Mr. Washington has been stripped of his usual verve and grace. Sometimes you can catch him going slack, like a man looking for the exit.

3112d ago