Review #1,143: 'The Magnificent Seven' (2016)

Movie fans were predictably up in arms when the announcement was made that John Sturges' beloved 1960 action western The Magnificent Seven was to be remade by Antoine Fuqua, a director who has arguably only made one decent film in his career. Familiar claims of Hollywood running out of ideas and calls for the 'classics' to be left well and truly alone echoed across internet message boards, despite remakes having existed since cinema began and the fact that Sturges' film was itself a remake of Akira Kurosawa's samurai masterpiece Yojimbo (1961). The resulting movie is a perfectly enjoyable and action-packed couple of hours, although ironically lacking in magnificence. The Adequate Seven would have been a more appropriate, albeit less catchy, title.

Fuqua's film treads much of the same ground as Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Robert Vaughan et al did fifty-odd years ago. Denzel Washington takes on the role Brynner previously embodied, and he strikes a cool and formidable figure as Chisolm, despite sticking out like a sore thumb in the post-Civil War Wild West (although nobody brings it up). He is approached by the beautiful widower Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett) to help save her town from feudal landowner Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard) and his small army of enforcers, who have just murdered Emma's husband. Either for the bag of gold on offer or just for the sake of doing the right thing, Chisolm agrees to take the job, and begins recruiting his own gang of former acquaintances, lovable rogues and dangerous outlaws.

Hollywood finally seems to be catching up with the ethnic diversity so prominent in the U.S., and The Magnificent Seven reflects this wonderfully. As well as casting a black lead relatively unheard of in the genre, Chisolm rounds up Mexican Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), Korean knife-expert Billy Rocks (Byung-hun Lee) and, after befriending him by eating the heart of slain beast, also brings in Native American Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier). Making up the rest of the group are Josh Faraday (Chris Pratt doing his best impression of Star Lord), a cocky gambler with the gift of the quick draw; Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke), an alcoholic former soldier with a shaky hand and shakier nerves; and Jack Horne (Vincent D'Onofrio), the hulking, grey-haired, God-fearing frontiersman who is given the role of comic relief.

For most of its 2 hour 13 minute running time, The Magnificent Seven struggles to decide what kind of film it wants to be. On one hand, it's a western in the classic mould, all thigh-slapping and talkin' tough. Yet with the many over-the-top set-pieces on show, it also seems to have aspirations to be a shut-down-your-brain blockbuster, even pitting Red Harvest one-on-one against the bad guys' Native American in what is the movie's most ridiculous scene. It also hints at deeper ideas, and touches on themes of race with the lightest of brushes, just enough to make you ponder how good this film really could have been given the cast at the director's disposal. If it's an entertaining slice of action complete with strong performances across the board, then this certainly delivers. However, if you're looking for an absorbing genre piece and one that justifies its own existence, then you may become frustrated with Sargaard's sleepy-eyed scenery chewing. Insert pun on title here.

Directed by: Antoine Fuqua
Starring: Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Haley Bennett, Vincent D'Onofrio, Byung-hun Lee, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Martin Sensmeier, Peter Sarsgaard
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #939: 'Jurassic World' (2015)

Following the calamity of Joe Johnston's Jurassic Park III in 2001, the beloved Jurassic Park franchise was in danger of throwing away its massive potential. After 14 years of rewrites, recasts and director-swapping, the long-awaited fourth instalment arrives with anticipation and high-expectations, and the park is finally open to the public. Now sitting happily as the third highest grossing film of all time, it would seem that the world is still fascinated by dinosaurs, but Jurassic World knows its audience won't be content with the beasties that came before, and has gone for bigger and scarier. By creating its own dinosaur, the formidable (and ridiculously-named) Indominus rex, it certainly achieves this, and also serves as a commentary on corporate and consumer greed.

20 years after Dr. Alan Grant gazed upon the sights of Isla Nublar for the first time, Jurassic World is the planet's biggest theme park. Brothers Gray (Ty Simpkins) and Zach (Nick Robinson) head to the park to stay with their aunt Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), who is the operations manager. With audience demand on the increase, Claire has overlooked the development of the next big attraction, the lab-created Indominus Rex, which possesses high intelligence along with a collection of attack and defence abilities wound into its DNA from other animals. Navy veteran and velociraptor handler Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) thinks its a bad idea, and upon his inspection of the indominus pen, he notices claw marks on the walls and the creature nowhere to be found.

Jurassic World still very much follows the formula of what came before - characters arrive, think they're safe, and are soon fleeing and screaming from a variety of giant lizards - but at least director Colin Trevorrow has moved the story on. While throwing in a few new elements, it covers a lot of themes covered in the first movie, with a corporate bigwig (Vincent D'Onofrio) hoping to play God for his own - albeit less innocent - means, and ignoring the warnings of an expert with a better understanding of nature, while children who may just be wiser than their elders find themselves in mortal peril. Yet there is a certain charm to the film's nostalgic elements, and the set-pieces - which range from the exhilarating to the ridiculous - finally feel deserving of John Williams' iconic score.

You could pull the film to pieces if you're looking for plot-holes (how would a dinosaur bred in captivity, regardless of its intelligence, know to rip a tracking device out of itself?), but the indominus, despite its McGuffin status, is a suitably nasty antagonist, casually committing genocide as it carves its bloody path towards the tourist centre. Anyone who loved Jurassic Park for its science may be disappointed, as all sense of reality goes out of the window - this is a movie where velociraptors team up with humans to fight a greater threat. But as a film of pure spectacle, it's massively entertaining. It's well aware that it is pandering to a young audience brought up on quick-fixes and everything at their fingertip, and makes a point of this by showing hordes of snot-nosed kids running around the park lacking any sense of wonder. Will humanity ever learn? Unless the plan is to set its recently-announced sequel in a world where man and dinosaur live together in harmony, I guess not.


Directed by: Colin Trevorrow
Starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Ty Simpkins, Nick Robinson, Irrfan Khan, Vincent D'Onofrio, Jake Johnson, Omar Sy, BD Wong
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie