Les Sept Mercenaires

Yet another remake…but the trailers for this one were at least encouraging, especially with Denzel Washington playing the lead.

I have vague memories of seeing the original The Magnificent Seven, (which is in itself a re-imagining of Seven Samurai), and I seem to remember liking it. I think 56 years is long enough of a gap to justify a remake, so I'll give them a pass on this one (although you could argue that 1980's Battle Beyond the Stars was another Seven Samurai remake). So what was it like?

Each character was steadily added to the team, they had a bonding/preparing the town montage, the bad guys showed up, they shot each other a lot, characters were killed, the film ended. Pretty much what I was expecting, and that's fine.

Personally, I love Westerns (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is one of my favourite films ever), so for me this formula really worked. Is it going to win any awards? Probably not, but the performances were good (although it might be hard to argue that Chris Pratt was acting anything other than himself, which again, is fine), it looked good, and most importantly, I was entertained.

(From my blog site: whingewood.wordpress.com)

Come on now. If you're going to re-make "The Magnificent 7" let's do it magnificently. Where was that great music? Where is the superlative cast that include Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, and Vladimir Sokoloff? You might argue that Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt are on a level with Brynner and McQueen, but I wouldn't. Pratt certainly has potential, but he doesn't yet have McQueen's star power. The rest are pale imitations, except perhaps for an unbelievably fat Vincent D'Onofrio who is certainly entertaining.

This is a modern re-telling. You might call it the Diversity 7. The producers threw in just about every minority you can think of – Mexican, Asian, Black, Woman. The only thing missing was a "little" person .

Personally I liked the idea of the woman, played very well by Haley Bennett who has been with Washington before ("The Equalizer").

An action film like this works only when the villain is villainous. Eli Wallach was terrific. Peter Sarsgaard wouldn't scare a fly.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed it. It's OK, but it's not magnificent.

Finally another great western movie!

To be sure, all the western clichés are found in this movie; and I don't have a problem with that! One of the things I liked best about this western was the pacing, sometimes I find westerns to be a little too slow (for my personal taste - subjective, I know) but I felt this movie nailed it, even with a run time a little over 2 hours.

The action scenes are great, very well done. The casting and acting was great - Denzel does a great job as the leader of this rag tag group of guys. Pratt, of course, nails the comedic relief role.

The movie carried a surprising amount of "heart" throughout it all the way to the end.

Here is the bottom line: Yes, this movie is worth your hard earned money to go see in the theater.

My only critique is with the Emma character. She's supposedly a pioneering woman...tough no-nonsense. But her dress says otherwise. Off the shoulder, low cut? Not the reality of the day at that time. If y'all wanted sexy keep it authentic...not contrived out of Hollywood!

You sit down, ready for an old-school, sweat-soaked, gunpowder-packed western, and instead, you're greeted with a team of mercenaries that looks more like the cast of Fortnite than the Wild West. Denzel Washington as a Black cowboy hired by an entire town without a single racist redneck raising an eyebrow, a perfectly diverse set of characters, and even an Indigenous warrior who's not a walking stereotype. At this point, it's less of a western and more like an illustrated brochure from the UN.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for representation, but these historical inaccuracies hurt. These are characters who, historically, would probably be at each other's throats. Instead, they're cooperating like it's a special Dora the Explorer western edition. A bit of casual racism is thrown at a few Asian characters to tick a box, but otherwise, everything's running as smoothly as a community picnic. The historical realism here has about the same credibility as Greta Thunberg giving a keynote speech at an oil industry convention.

Luckily, the cast itself is rock solid. Denzel Washington? Still the king. The man could play a scarecrow and radiate charisma. Chris Pratt does his usual jokester routine, and surprisingly, it works. Vincent D'Onofrio plays a gruff giant with a smoker's rasp that'll make you crave straight whiskey. Honestly, the actors carry the film, and they don't disappoint.

The plot? Simple: bad guys show up, terrorize the town, and our seven mercenaries come in to light them up. It's a basic premise, and that's okay. Antoine Fuqua isn't trying to reinvent the wheel, and that's actually refreshing. Sometimes a western just needs guns, horses, and a final standoff to work. The structure is classic: gather the team, prepare for battle, and end with a grand, chaotic shootout. It's clean, efficient, and it smells of gunpowder.

Let's be honest: no one came to this movie looking for a deep narrative or Oscar-winning writing. We wanted epic gunfights, burning saloons, and bad guys dropping like bowling pins. And on that front, the film delivers. The final showdown is a beautifully orchestrated mess of whistling bullets, galloping horses, and bodies hitting the dirt like a Red Dead Redemption heist gone horribly wrong.

The Magnificent Seven is like a big, greasy hamburger: it doesn't innovate, but it satisfies your craving for action. Don't go searching for moral depth or a profound lesson. If you want a modern western that sticks to the basics and entertains, you're good to go. But if you're a John Wayne purist, be prepared to grit your teeth.