Reviews & Ratings for
The Magnificent Seven More at IMDbPro »

Page 7 of 25:

[2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]

A modern day spaghetti Western!

Author: Kate from Clermont QLD, Australia
11 December 2016

I am a fan of westerns! Anyone who is a fan of Westerns knows just how many good westerns are out there compared to "all" westerns out there in the world. So finding a good one - mark it - keep it - love it! So this movie is a must for any "Western" fans out there. I would suggest watching the old one first - because after all this is a remake! And a remake of a movie which, when it was made, followed a different formula to today's westerns. So please do not expect to see 'an Oscar winning drama which delves deeply into the mind of a desperate man during desperate times' - because this isn't that type of western. It's a spaghetti western, where the good guys fight the bad guys, and there is no gray area! Which brings me to my second point - not exactly rehashed! And it's great! The differences are welcomed - especially in the characters of the Magnificent Seven. The Story fundamentals are the same, as is the plot, but the everything else is not what you expect. Which is refreshing! There is plenty of action & enough one-liners! So I would put this on par with "Quick and the Dead". Which is my way of way of saying "no, it is not the best western out there - But definitely above average!". Lastly, Denzel Washington.... makes a smoother gunman than I expected.

Ridiculous 6...Magnificent 7...Hateful 8.

Author: stonedraim from Sweden
11 December 2016

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

**** May contain strong spoilers ****

This is a review made by StoneDraim... and that means that if you want to read a probably different kind of review, keep reading....

This is my personal experience, my personal point of view/perspective and my personal opinion... and my opinion is just one of like 7 billions in this world.

The best western so far of 2016. I will start off with that.

The production team has gathered around and counted for that Italian western atmosphere, and brought it home to America packaging it in that typical touch of Hollywood. I mean that in a positive way, as they have saluted the way of living, the way of striving and the way of fighting back in the 19th century. I have read that Magnificent 7 is a new combined version of "Shichinin no samurai" and "Magnificent 7 1960" (Swedish: 7 vågade livet). Well, the only thing I can say about that with the knowledge I have right now is that Magnificent 7 2016 is well worth the watch. The dialogue that runs through the entire motion picture is almost perfectly executed; professional, sometimes sophisticated, more than sometimes humorous and always drawn back to the wild towns in the wild western.

...and... as usual, Vincent D'Onofrio; everybody's name is Jack.....

Over to the movie as a product: - The production : Maybe the make up artists, the director and the producer wanted this to be more subtle than it should have been, as the dust and the gun powder takes over hand, when blood should have run down the gritty streets of Rose Creek. - The actors : A handful of dollars.. I mean actors. Good actors, each and every one carry a more than good character deliverance. Entertaining to see Vincent D'Onofrio team up with such as Ethan Hawke and Denzel Washington, as Mr. D'Onofrio digs deep to get that peculiar man of God and western out of him... "did you see that bear wearing human clothes?" The glorious and... yes, magnificent Haley Bennett as Emma Cullen just gives the film more to enjoy; she is treated in a most precious way to bring forward an adorable and amazing woman. Peter Sarsgaard creates a great villain with a tired and experienced past. - Entertainment : Do you like westerns? Then you will probably like Magnificent 7. And on the other hand.... watch the movie even so. - Age : 15, definitely. Murder, violence, language.

7,2 out of 10. (The final rate is based most on my own entertainment of the movie. Short elucidation of the rating: 8 Excellent movie and a solid production 7 Well made movie. Proper entertainment.)

1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:

Familiar story - poor adaptation

Author: lethe67 from Belgium
6 December 2016

The first Magnificent seven was already a far cry from Kurosawa's Seven Samurai but this one hits new lows. No character development which in turn gives no reasons why these men would act the way they do. This mainly because there's virtually no interaction with the people they are supposed to protect. In the end just some random all be it entertaining shoot-outs. Crazy also how politically (and don't get me wrong, you can even argue historical) correct the diversity of the cast is, but the townsfolk are again all white, even the slaves working in the mines? And the new, once upon a time in the west type, twist at the end almost had me in stitches. Foolish and unbelievable (age difference all wrong), a meaningless attempt to give all the killings some meaning. Just another remake in the hope of a quick buck.

1 out of 2 people found the following review useful:

rework more than renew

Author: SnoopyStyle
3 December 2016

It's 1879 Rose Creek. Robber baron Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard) with his private army is driving out the town's gold-mining folks. With the local sheriff bought, he burns down the church and murders any opposition. Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett) seeks justice for her husband's murder. She travels with Teddy Q to Amador City and convinces warrant officer Sam Chisholm (Denzel Washington) to help. They recruit gambler Josh Faraday (Chris Pratt), sniper Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke), knife fighter Billy Rocks (Lee Byung-hun), mountain man Jack Horne (Vincent D'Onofrio), Comanche Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier), and Mexican outlaw Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) to organize the town against Bogue.

I'm trying to figure out why this isn't as magnificent as I wanted. The cast is filled with top level talents. Antoine Fuqua is great at handling action and dark material. This should be a superb sandbox to play with. Nothing is inherently bad. Everything works to a certain extend. Maybe the expectation is too high. I liked cold-blooded Sarsgaard blowing into town and killing the lead character right away. Pratt should have continued that cold-bloodedness by killing the other brother. There is a sense of a copy of old Hollywood westerns which keeps this from being better. This feels like play-acting. None more so than Haley Bennett who has limited facial range. D'Onofrio's doing something weird. This doesn't push the envelop or inject anything new to justify a reboot of this old cinematic franchise. The final act has plenty of fun high-energy action. The main thing that bugged me is some of the missing preparations. One would expect each building to be barricaded and piled high with dirt to make them fortresses. One would expect more for a week. I understand that Hollywood doesn't trip horses anymore but maybe CGI could have been used. It just seems like everybody had fun playing around but it isn't much more than that.

2 out of 4 people found the following review useful:

Even better the second time around

Author: steve_jm_kidd from United Kingdom
18 October 2016

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

A good, modern, film by numbers. There are no unsurprising surprises, the characters are all pretty much stock-in-trade, the outcome not unpredictable and the baddie does have a 'magic wand, make my monster grow' moment. So don't go and see it if you seek novelty. On the other hand if you want to see a slew of actors at the top of their game playing gnarly old stagers who are hard as feck, shooting bad guys, you can't go far wrong. Good movie.

As an addendum I went to see it a second time, and I enjoyed it even more. The thing was, I wasn't sat through the film waiting for Elmer Bernstein's theme to kick in, so had more time to enjoy the humour which actually dominates the first half of the film, and the absolutely sumptuous filming of people's faces, I have never seen a film like it for taking such interesting visages and highlighting them in such fascinating detail.

2 out of 4 people found the following review useful:

Not Magnificent but somewhat Great

Author: Andy_8888 from United Kingdom
18 October 2016

I'm a big fan of the original movie, so went into this remake with more then a little scepticism, but in fact this movie was well made & very enjoyable & I'm looking forward to seeing it again.

The movie is somewhat different from the original, but the main brunt of the story was still intact.

I have to say though, that as much as I love Denzel Washington, having him in the lead role as a top gunslinger when the movie is set just after the end of the American civil war ( which is also mentioned in the movie ), is somewhat pushing the boundaries of believability.

Also, I was hoping that they would use the very stirring MAGNIFICENT SEVEN theme from the original movie throughout this movie also, as like the JAWS theme it is almost half of the movie, but sadly they only used it for a very short while during the end credits, which was a shame as it is a very rousing tune.

My favorite character has to be ' Red Harvest ' the American Indian, played by ' Martin Sensmeier ' as looked so Kool and what he couldn't do with a Bow & Arrow is no bodies business.

I highly recommend this movie to anyone that like the original, or likes westerns in general as this is one of the greater ones.

2 out of 4 people found the following review useful:

Chris Pratt makes a mighty fine gunslinger

Author: Pokedom
17 October 2016

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

But for real, the only reason I walked into the theater was to see how Chris Pratt would do. Denzel does a good job, the other guys are pretty cool too... that one bad guy was pretty intimidating... but the man who played a Marvel superhero who was abducted from Earth, the guy who trained velociraptors to hunt for humans in a dinosaur theme park, AND the guy who is set to be the only man to save a bunch of other people from crashing into a star? Yeah, I had some high hopes he would be great.

He was better than great.

The whole cast was great, actually.

On a side note, how many others wandered into the theater with the same mindset? That Chris Pratt would kick butt as an actor and a character, and the others would still be impressive but not the center of attention?

Anyways, the whole film is shot very well, and the characters add a lot more, well, character to your typical wild west movie. (And it's been a while since we've had wild west movies hasn't it? Because Hateful 8 didn't happen in this parallel universe I dunno). I only have problems with the movie's climax. The final battle.

It's the most engaging scene in the movie. Everyone has a roll to play and the fighting is extreme. 4 Mcrees, a Widowmaker, a Sombra and a Hanzo... oh wait, that was my last round of quick play on Overwatch. My bad. It might be a bit forgettable, but only because the only bits of interest are main characters dying. 4 out of the 7 die. 1 from Hanzo's... I MEAN... bow and arrow guy's... tribe defectant, 2 from a Gatling Gun (Hey look! It's Bastion getting Play of The Game!... sorry, too many Overwatch references. I apologize) that ended up killing more than half the villagers, and 1 (CHRIS PRATT I COUNTED ON YOU NOT TO DIE) that died taking out the Gatling Gun.

I had a lot of fun watching Magnificent 7. I hope we get more like it. But I do wish it had more fluff than "LOL IT'S FANCY BOUNTY HUNTERS SHOOTING PEOPLE".

2 out of 4 people found the following review useful:

The Sufficient Seven....

Author: FlashCallahan from Leicester, United Kingdom
17 October 2016

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Seven gunslingers join forces in order to protect a small town from a mining tycoon and his goons, who plan to seize the residents' land by force.

The seven-man army is led by a mysterious bounty hunter, and also includes a sharp-witted gambler, a troubled ex-Civil War soldier, a mountain man, an expert knife thrower, an outlaw, and a Comanche warrior......

Keeping the film politically correct, Fuqua has made his titular posse ethnic-tastic, because for some reason, it just isn't in good taste to make them how they used to.

A.K.A, Hollywood is too scared to offend anyone in case it damages potential box office. It isn't a real problem with the film, but some of the narrative makes it stick out like a sore thumb, especially some of the comments they make to one another.

But it seems that when Washington makes a film with Fuqua, you can sit back and breathe a sigh of relief, because you know you are going to get something slick from the eye of the director, and you are almost guaranteed that Washington will put in a wonderful performance, even if the rest of the film is a little ropey (He made Virtuosity more enjoyable than it should have been).

And it's pretty much what you get with this film. If nothing more, it's harks back to when blockbusters were not the beginning, middle, or part of a bigger universe, when films were big because of it's star power, and when the summer blockbuster season started in July, not April.

It's just a great old fashioned action film, that homages Westerns of old with great respect, and has a silly pantomime villain, and the most heroic of heroes you could ask for.

Compared to the original, it's not the epic, beautiful masterpiece that Kurosawa gave us all those years ago, but it doesn't try to be, because everyone knows that would spell instant failure for the film.

My one gripe with the film is the classification it's received. There is no way on earth that this should have been a 12a, it's far too violent for that. The set pieces are visceral and brutal, and seeing that the final set piece lasts for almost half an hour, and doesn't shy away from the audience seeing blood and death several times.

This is one of the rare times that the BBFC got it wrong, which is very surprising.

The cast as expected, are excellent. Washington has that effortless swagger that he's had since he was in Carbon Copy, and shows once again why he is considered one of the Hollywood greats.

Hawke adds a little emotional depth to his character, and is one of the most fleshed out of the seven, and Pratt, while good, is dangerously coming close to playing the same character in every film he's in.

He's still a breath of fresh air at the minute, but he will become annoying in a few films time.

The rest of the seven are good, but they feel like nothing more than filler for Washingtons merry men, even D'Onofrio, who plays nothing more than an angry version of Little John. It's the stereotypical God fearing member of the group, who also has sporadic outbursts of violence.

But all in all, it's still great to see a summer blockbuster that doesn't try to go over the top in it's grandiosity.

It's just a fun romp, and it knows it is.

2 out of 4 people found the following review useful:

It's good... enough.

Author: balldropin101
12 October 2016

I'm not a huge fan of Antoine Fuqua, but he has his moments. This is one of those movies of his that's just fun, and very well-made, but just sort of everything I've come to expect. From the way he shoots, to his character development, it all can feel sorta choppy to me. Do not get me wrong though, the movie is still very fun.

I don't want this review to be based purely from a narrative perspective, because at the end of the day, this is a remake of a remake we are dealing with here, so we know it's more about the $. So I will give it it's credit where it's due, it's action can be BREATHTAKING at times. In fact, I'm going to make an early prediction that it's gonna be nominated for a fair share of "technical" Oscars, maybe even win for sound design. I thought that the actors, too did very well with their parts, especially Ethan Hawke, who shined for me PERSONALLY. It's popcorn fun, with little depth, but that's what I thought it would be when I went into it, so at least I wasn't expecting anything more. (this would have been a lower rating if that were the case)

2 out of 4 people found the following review useful:

Politically correct remake

Author: Barry Nester
11 October 2016

This is a remake of an earlier Magnificent Seven, which was itself a westernized remake of the Japanese film The Seven Samurai. Each remake is inferior to its predecessor. The genre was well parodied in The Three Amigos (1986).

The film opens with the bad guy, Bart Bogue, terrorizing a peaceful western town because he wants the land for gold mining. Just to show you what a rogue is Bogue, he guns down several innocents and sets the church on fire. The pretty widow of one of his victims approaches a bounty hunter and hires him to protect the town.

The bounty hunter, played by Denzel Washington, assembles a gang of hard cases who all have uncanny skills in killing people. Because this is a modern remake, the gang of mercenaries has to be politically correct, ticking off all the right categories of minorities: there's an Indian, a Chinaman, a Mexican, all taking orders from a black man (this is supposed to be just after the Civil War!), with the widow thrown in for feminists.

The gang have one week to prepare defenses and train the hapless townspeople before Bogue and his army of Bogueymen fall upon them like the wolf on the fold.

The predictable mayhem ensues, during which the viewer is left to ponder questions like: why are there no representatives of other fashionable minorities - where is the homosexual, the handicapped, the Good Muslim? Why is Baddie Bogue just a greedy gold miner when he could have been the agent of a giant corporation dedicated to Global Warming? (Maybe they're saving this for the next remake.) Why is the music so insipid and nondescript, when they could have used the stirring soundtrack from the previous version? (Maybe they couldn't afford the royalties.) When is X going to kill Y (no spoilers here!) and end this melee? Luckily, I saw a version with subtitles, so was able to understand the dialogue, which I could not hear properly. I don't know if this was owning to bad sound recording, or poor projection facilities in the cinema.

Despite its predictability, the movie is competently made, and holds your attention. If you haven't seen the previous versions, it's worth a look.

Page 7 of 25:

[2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]

Add another review

Related Links