Sep 23, 2016 05:50 PM
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What do you look into a movie that is a remake of a Western movie, which in turn was again a remake of Eastern movie? Well, that was more of a rhetorical question, as many of us know that remakes…are not…like.the originals. This has been the case once with The Magnificent Seven of 1960, when haters threw bricks when Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson played the roles of gunslinger in John Sturges’ version, claiming it cannot lick the boots of Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 Seven Samurai. But its ok with this film, as it is not trying to compete with the greatness or magnificence of those films, because once you have seen the movie it really doesn’t offer much newer portion.
The plot is essentially the same: Seven outlaws are hired to wipe out the bad guy who wants to destroy their town. In the 1960 version, Brooklyn-born Eli Wallach, using an outrageous Mexican accent, played the sombrero-wearing villain. This time, the bad guy is Donald Trump. OK, not really – but it is a megalomaniac white dude named Bartholomew Bogue(Peter Sarsgaard, all stops out) who uses his army of Caucasian capitalists to buy up all the land, mine it for gold, and fulfill his power-mad dreams of empire building, circa 1879. If that means destroying everything in sight, starting with the local church, so be it. In Bogue's view, the town of Rose Creek is gonna be huge.
Another droll conceit in the script that Nic Pizzolatto(True Detective) wrote with Richard Wenk, is to have the hiring done by a girl. She's Emma Cullen(Haley Bennett), a redheaded widow with a multi-cultural eye for employing assassins. Washington plays Sam Chisolm, a bounty hunter who rides into town with a "don't-shit-me" attitude. No one mentions he's black. Reckon they don't have to; his quick draw has a way of silencing overt racism. Washington has a wicked blast in the role(Fuqua directed him to an Oscar in Training Day), especially when mixing it up with Pratt as Josh Faraday, a gambler who can juggle one-liners and sticks of dynamite with equal ease. Watching the playful give-and-take between Washington and Pratt is one of the film's joys. And Vincent D'Onofrio as Jack Horne, a grizzly mountain man who looks like a brick wall, is the butt of many jokes.
Hawke adds a note of gravity as Goodnight Robicheaux, a Confederate sharpshooter once known as the Angel of Death but now, alarmingly, losing his nerve. Luckily, he brings along his Korean best friend Billy Rocks(Byung-hun Lee), an expert with knives of every size. Then there's Vasquez(Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), a "Texican" with trust issues. And wait till you see Red Harvest(a sensational Martin Sensmeier), a Comanche in face paint, possessed of killer skill with a bow and arrow.
Everything remains same ol’, same ol’. Not much variation is seen and this is due to script, while sticking to the old gimmick, it tries to add diversity. It’s disappointing as colour-blindness is more of a play rather than emotional depth charge, and there’s effort to ground the story in historical fact.
Still holding the age-old Hollywood bias: the movie stars gets characters. The minority, supporting actors get types. This leaves the movie fighting for equality rights, shooting blanks.
There are scenes where one can fell that director Antoine Fuqua woke up and decided that he needs at least few legendary, maybe not, big action scenes. So the one is the star entrance of Denzel Washington. Second, when the seven ride into the town and third – well, the last chunk of a scene, where they fight, last act of the movie.
Then the rest of the movie, not much to see or going on. There isn’t even great cowboy music in the background to hold interest. There is just dust and duty, cowboy and bromance.
Its Denzel Washington all the way. Even Chris Pratt didn’t hold up to his reputation. Actually, the script may have restricted for the actors to be themselves, as they are acting for roles regenerated from past. This is where the kick sticks in the core.
The only thing that leaves a smile by the end of this 2-hours of cowboy-rolling flick is the famous theme song. Over the end credits. The only way to leave with a smile on.
