Movie Review: The Magnificent Seven

After being spoiled with a consistently strong and well-rounded summer movie slate, the cinema gods have decided to keep 2016's hot streak rolling into the early fall with the terrific Magnificent Seven. Director Antonie Fuqua's (Training Day, The Equalizer) high-profile western is not just a killer remake, it's one of the most purely enjoyable viewing experiences I've had in a movie theater in recent memory.

The Magnificent Seven's setup is about as familiar as it gets: vengeance-seeking widow Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett) hires famed bounty hunter Sam Chisholm (Denzel Washington) to bring down Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard), the greedy industrialist who killed her husband (Matt Bomer) and aims to take over the small mining town of Rose Creek in which she resides. Chisholm soon hires six fearless, skilled outlaws (Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Byung Hun-Lee, Vincent D'Onofrio, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Martin Sensmeier) from all over the surrounding territories to help him fight off Bogue's men and restore order to Rose Creek.

Fuqua deserves a ton of credit for making a film that applies modern visual effects/stunt magic and characterizations (the films portrays people of color and women in a positive light) to the western genre without disregarding the rollicking tone and palatable grit that the defined the genre's classic films. The massive gunfights are beautifully-shot and cleanly-edited, the pacing is brisk without being frantic and each member of the ensemble cast is note-perfect for their respective role (the reliably excellent Washington and legitimately menacing Sarsgaard are the standouts). It may not be as deep or inventive as the True Grit or 3:10 Yuma remakes, but it's still an elite entry in the criminally thin field of modern westerns. The Magnificent Seven is easily the best action blockbuster of 2016 so far and it's going to take one hell of an effort for another fall film to match or exceed its entertainment value.

4/5 Stars