By Emilio Frenk
Director: Antoine Fuqua
Cast: Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D´Onofrio, Byung-Hun Lee, Manuel García-Rulfo, Martin Sensmeir, Haley Bennett and Peter Sarsgaard.
Rating: Good.
Director Antoine Fuqua (“Training Day”, “The Equalizer and “Southpaw) brings the adaptation of the 1960 version of “The Magnificent Seven” and I really enjoyed it.
The movie tells the story of Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett), a woman who just became a widow after his husband was shot to death by the ruthless Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard).
Now she seeks revenge and hires Sam Chisolm (Denzel Washington) a bounty hunterwho will help her out and will recruit the gambler Josh Faraday (Chris Pratt), the sharpshooter Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke), the knife master Billy Rocks (Byung-hun Lee), the mexican outlaw Vasquez (Manuel García-Rulfo), the tracker Jack Horne (Vincent D’Onofrio) and Comanche warrior Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeir).
Together they will join forces in order to stop Bogue and bring peace to the town of Rose Creek.
Besides of being entertaining, one of the things that I really liked of “The Magnificent Seven” was that even though it is a remake from the 1960 film I liked the approach that took and wasn´t a carbon copy which has been a tendency with the adaptations that have been released in the big screen.
The Script written by Nic Pizzolatto who’s most notable work is the HBO series “True Detective” and Richard Wenk who previously work with Antoine Fuqua in “The Equalizer” was written with so much detail and it doesn’t get into cheezy moments and predictable ones that can make a movie boring and less interesting.
The chemistry of the seven characters was real and funny and has many good laughs, specially the performances of Chris Pratt who as usual uses his charm and wit like in most of his movies and I liked the performance of Manuel García-Rulfo, who’s body of work include the show“From Dusk Till Dawn” and “Cake” with Jennifer Aniston delivers a good performance and I hope we can see from him more in the future.
Not only Antoine Fuqua is one of the most talented action directors in the industry but he is really smart in choosing the write material and he delivers again.
The direction that he gave to the actors is solid, sharp, real and entertaining and that´s what you need for a movie of this genre.
I put this movie at the same level as the the movie from 1960 and I have to say that “The Magnificent Seven” is pure entertainment and it delivers.