The Magnificent Seven is Great Entertainment

The Magnificent Seven takes us to 19th Century California, where the good people of Rose Creek are simply trying to make it day-to-day through frontier life. That life becomes impossible when corrupt industrialist Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard) comes to town, demanding the townspeople sell their land on the cheap, so he can expand his mining operation - a point Bogue drives home with bullets and corpses lining in the street.

One fresh widow named Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett) takes it upon herself to go out and locate some men who can take Bogue down for good. What she finds is Sam Chisolm (Denzel Washington), a gun-slinging bounty hunter lawman who takes up Emma's cause. Chisolm quickly gathers a band of talented misfit warriors to side, including former Confederate sniper, Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke); card shark Josh Farraday (Chris Pratt); knife expert Billy Rocks (Byung-hun Lee); Mexican desperado, Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo); Comanche warrior Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier) and wildman hunter Jack Horne (Vincent D'Onofrio).

Chisolm's troupe tries to train the townspeople how to fight, but when Bogue comes back to reclaim his town, he brings an army of killers. Chisolm and his men dig in for a brutal, bloody battle, prepared to give all in service of the defenseless.

John Sturges's 1960 version of The Magnificent Seven was an artful western remake of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai - the rare remake that stands alongside (or at least very close to) the original. Training Day and Olympus Has Fallen director Antoine Fuqua delivers more of a B-movie action western that only has hints of high-art cinema peppered in, resulting in a Magnificent Seven remake that's not as sophisticated as the original, but is still great entertainment.

Fuqua's forte has become gritty action thrillers with Noir elements, and The Magnificent Seven smoothly merges the director's signatures into a western setting. Working with his Equalizer and Training Day cinematographer Mauro Fiore, Fuqua creates a crisp and vibrantly colored palette, that doesn't sacrifice the feel of grit and dirt that's crucial to the western genre. As stated, Fuqua shows more of a cinematic side in this film, capturing gorgeous pastoral scenes, and at times paying homage to the high-art western iconography of legends in the genre like Sergio Leone.

In terms of action, Fuqua clearly excels at milking tension and great sequencing out of his action moments. The Magnificent Seven is a story that by its very nature revolves around one big battle, but that limited offering of action doesn't detract from the enjoyment of the buildup. And when the actual gunfights do happen, they are pretty enjoyable moments, steeped in the esteemed tradition of the western genre.

The story by Richard Wenk (The Equalizer, The Mechanic) and Nic Pizzolatto (True Detective) is a similar balance between staples of the western genre, and the high-minded thematic arc of Kurosawa's Seven Samurai. Fuqua's film doesn't ignore the deeper Eastern philosophical ideas of honor, sacrifice, and the warrior code - it just doesn't let those heavier, meditative, ideas pull down the momentum of the story, or interrupt the snappy comedic banter and chemistry between the principal cast members. As a bonus, the screenwriters work the revamped and diversified cast of characters into the story in a fully self aware and organic way, so that the respective racial and gender differences become essential to the story and its themes, rather than simply being a superficial update for sake of PC demographic appeal.

Fuqua's Magnificent Seven crew would face death with a smile and a one-liner, rather than a long contemplative stare. For the average audience, that'll be plenty.

The cast is, as stated, a wonderful ensemble, with each member of the seven getting a chance to stand out and shine, in some form or fashion. The crew is given a commanding leader in Denzel Washington, who makes Sam Chisolm into the sort of neo-Noir gunslinger that Leone would've been proud of. Chisolm has a very understated yet powerful arc in the film, and it takes an actor like Washington to carry us along to a powerful finale with nothing but a hard stare and a deceptively cool, stoic, delivery. He's badass, funny, and charasmatic in a reserved witty fashion that honors great western heroes like Marvin, Wayne, Eastwood and (of course) Brenner.

Hot on Denzel's heels in commanding the scene is Jurassic World and Guardians of the Galaxy star Chris Pratt, who plays Faraday as a low-down, no-good, bar-0fly sonofabitch who nonetheless has a golden charm and soft heart behind all the bravado. Pratt is (unsurprisingly) the comedic relief in the film, but employs a smirking gallows humor wit rather than his zany playfulness, which works to the film's strength.

The rest of the cast keeps things lively, with Ethan Hawke getting a bigger dramatic arc than most; Byung-hun Lee creating both humor and great action with his martial arts physicality; Manuel Garcia-Rulfo playing a funny "man of few words" type with Vasquez; Martin Sensmeier being the silent warrior badass as Red Harvest; and Vincent D'Onofrio simply eating up every piece of scenery in his vicinity, with an eccentric offbeat portrayal of wild man Jack Horne. Beyond that, Peter Sarsgaard plays a great despicable villain, while Haley Bennet (The Equalizer, Hardcore Henry) continues to be a breakout performer as the feisty Emma Cullen.

The Maginficent Seven may not impress cinephiles looking for an artful warriors' tale; but for the general audiences looking for a good western, this star-studded actioner will be worth every bit of the ticket prices. Cancel the undertaker: Fuqua and Co. prove that the western genre is far from dead.

The Magnificent Seven opens in theaters on September 23, 2016. It is 2 hours 12 minutes long and is Rated PG-13 for extended and intense sequences of Western violence, and for historical smoking, some language and suggestive material.