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First Reviews for "The Magnificent Seven"

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saw it last night, and its not great, but its no disaster. Its just on the happy side of mediocre really. Killing time in theaters until it finds its rightful place as a reliable timeslot filler on basic cable (this thing's got Heavy TNT Rotation written all over it). Its too long running time goes by amiably enough, most of the cast doesn't have enough to do, except for Chris Pratt, who has far too much. Fortunately the other six guys are all a lot more engaging than him.

-Byung-hun Lee gets another big budget Western feature to presumably cash a fat paycheck and waste his time in (this year's Terminator Genisys).
-Vincent D'Onofrio is deeply committed to playing his squirrelly character as weirdly as possible, his efforts were much appreciated by me.
-Ethan Hawke has an actual character arc, nice, lucky you, keep your agent pal.
-Manuel Garcia-Rulfo doesn't make much of an impression, but then again he doesn't have much of a character to play.
-Martin Sensmeier was awesome enough that I forgot that his character is kind of problematic. I really want to see more of this guy in the future, he rocks.
-and of course Denzel is great in this, the guy could sell me a lease for my own kidney.

But the long scenes wherein people aren't shooting each other or exchanging colorful, PG-13 quips (which admittedly is a substantial portion of its runtime) feels rather listless. Its like a checklist is getting whittled down as the story progresses, and the dearth of creativity or actual dramatic stakes is a real killer. But still, I enjoyed it, to an extant. Its not The Magnificent Seven, more like the Pretty Okay 4.5-Out of 7
 

kris.

Banned
i saw this last night and it was an enjoyable way to spend 2 hours.

worth the price of admission to see vincent d'onofrio
slowly axing dudes in the face while citing scripture for a split second

the last 45 or so minutes were a lot of fun
 
Saw it last night. And it was a good action picture. Not as good as the 1960 version when it comes to character development. Hard to top Steve McQueen, Yul Brenner, James coburn, and Charlie Bronson. Also Eli Wallach was much better as the villain. But all in all it was a great action flick. Loved Denzel and Pratt. DON'T read if you don't want spoilers!!!!!!
Chris Pratt went out like a bad ass. I thought he was playing the McQueen character so him and Denzel going to survive.
 

kris.

Banned
oh my shit, the guy that played Denali was also Ken Hotate in Parks & Rec AND voiced John Redcorn on King of the Hill

DAMN
 
Saw it. Well, the team itself worked but the tone of the movie was a little over the place. Having 7 different kinds of western characters was interesting, the city was actually the one that needed more character building. Also, some dialogues were just out of nowhere. Still, movie was good, probably the kind of western I'm not into (I'm a Leone kind of)
 

this_guy

Member
Saw it, and it's exactly what I thought it'd be - a fun and enjoyable action flick. It's not great or anything but worth watching.
 
Why would you watch this when you can watch the original?
Or the original original,
Seven Samurai
?

Both still stand up today far better than 95% of modern movies.
 

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Olympus has Fallen (much better than White House Down and as close to a modern Die Hard as we'll likely get)

This was a test. You failed.
 

TAJ

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Watched X-Men Apocalypse the other day. That movie was a piece of shit, but Rose Byrne's line about Apocalypse was hilarious.

"And wherever he ruled, eventually it would end in disaster, cataclysm, some kind of... apocalypse."

I don't know how you write shit like that and don't realize how fucking terrible it's going to read.

And then Xavier does it again with Havok.

"Alex, destroy Cerebro. Wreak havoc!"

Just, terrible.

That can't be real... can it?
 

BlueTsunami

there is joy in sucking dick
Did anyone else laugh at Vincent D'Onofrios choice of pitch? At first I held it back but some dudes in the back were openly laughing and I couldn't help it. That shit was hilarious. What made it even better is how it was obviously toned down the further the movie went.
 
Did anyone else laugh at Vincent D'Onofrios choice of pitch? At first I held it back but some dudes in the back were openly laughing and I couldn't help it. That shit was hilarious. What made it even better is how it was obviously toned down the further the movie went.

We'll were laughing everyone he opened his mouth.
 

Subitai

Member
Enjoyed. Was about what you would expect. It didn't telegraph who would survive and who wouldn't except for Denzel's character.

If it gets people to check out the original and Seven Samurai, I'm all for it.
 
Enjoyed. Was about what you would expect. It didn't telegraph who would survive and who wouldn't except for Denzel's character.

If it gets people to check out the original and Seven Samurai, I'm all for it.
I have to say, for all the issues with the movie, I was surprised by who lived and died.
 
Just got back from seeing this, had a good time with this one. Pratt was hammy and I kinda cringed at
his last line
but all in all it was good fun. I was legit shook on how
Ethan Hawke died
. This movie really has me in the western mood. Gonna probably re-watch some classics including Seven Samurai which I haven't seen in almost 4 years.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
I have to say, for all the issues with the movie, I was surprised by who lived and died.

I was also surprised by the "how" as much as the "who".
Dropping two at once from the gatling gun was a surprise.

At any rate, it was fun. Doesn't elevate the genre, or have any real surprises aside from the who lives and who doesn't angle, but overall solid. You could tell there was a longer, meatier film in there with a lot more character work. Scenes of the seven gathered together, around a fire or after a battle, would run 60 seconds with a few exchanges between main characters and a quip or two from the others. I'm guessing there was an awful lot more to them than that.

One angle the film didn't quite land - and this is pretty mild spoiler territory, but I'll tag it anyways - was
the transition from when they were doing it for the money, to protecting the town because it was the right thing to do. Denzel's character had enough backstory for it, but Pratt was more clearly a hired gun. They just toggle from mercenaries to protectors;
again, it feels like some meat was cut from the script here.

I really liked Chris Pratt in this, and Denzel killed it, as did Ethan Hawke. The rest were fun but didn't get nearly enough screen time.

Was nice to see a western again - it had been a long time. Hopefully we get a few more coming down the pipe.
 
I really enjoyed the movie. The ending fight was a little too drawn out for me, but *shrug.

I was really surprised that only some lived and died. Usually expecting either everyone to live or everyone to die.
I dont know how it was in the original Magnificent Seven, but that aspect is very much in the spirit of Seven Samurai.
 

Hystzen

Member
How wasted is Lee Byung-hun in this like rest of Hollywood films so far turns up without a shirt on then just sits in background and disappears?
 

Randdalf

Member
I enjoyed it, it's not a deep film by any means, mainly an excuse to have a ridiculous battle at the end, but it's good fun. They definitely managed to characterise the Seven to the point where you cared, even if only a little, about their fates.
 

Apt101

Member
My GF scored an early screening while she was out on some work thing in another state. She says it's pretty amazing and she isn't even into these kinds of movies. I have high hopes. I plan on seeing it this week.
 
My GF scored an early screening while she was out on some work thing in another state. She says it's pretty amazing and she isn't even into these kinds of movies. I have high hopes. I plan on seeing it this week.
Might be why. If you're into westerns and have seen a lot, this isnt going to be amazing. It's decent, the cast has good chemistry, and the action is great, but story-wise, character-wise, it's mediocre.
 

Nokterian

Member
Watched X-Men Apocalypse the other day. That movie was a piece of shit, but Rose Byrne's line about Apocalypse was hilarious.

"And wherever he ruled, eventually it would end in disaster, cataclysm, some kind of... apocalypse."

I don't know how you write shit like that and don't realize how fucking terrible it's going to read.

And then Xavier does it again with Havok.

"Alex, destroy Cerebro. Wreak havoc!"

Just, terrible.

This is in the movie? What?
 

rdytoroll

Member
Good, not great movie. That last really drawn out fight could have been shortened a bit. I also got a bit of an headache from all the shooting at the end. Might have been the cinema I was in just cranking up the volume to 11, but I kinda dreaded every next round of the
gatling guin
.

That last battle also never came close to the tension you felt when the 7 first freed the village. Now that shoot out was awesome
 

Grisby

Member
Decent. Was nice to see a big budget western on the big screen again.

Hope it does well enough. Was suprised at
Pratt's
death.
Was that scene at the end CGI? It looked reaalllllly bad.
That was really bad. Yeah, I believe it was CG. I didn't really like that scene nor the return of
Goodnight
, since the
horse jumping over
the fire shot felt cheap.
 

Lulubop

Member
Chris Pratt character was the most awful, trying to hard to be cool, tryhard character I've ever seen. Movie was ight, Denzel made it better than it should have been.
 

shintoki

sparkle this bitch
Might be why. If you're into westerns and have seen a lot, this isnt going to be amazing. It's decent, the cast has good chemistry, and the action is great, but story-wise, character-wise, it's mediocre.

I wouldn't send people in with hopes of good action. It's alright and fun, till the finale which is a few steps down to weak. They resorted to about every cheap shot possible for it.
 

TSM

Member
I saw this on Friday and it was pretty enjoyable. It feels like there's about 30 minutes of footage missing that could have elevated it from a good movie to a great movie. As it was there was just enough story and backstory to make the 2 hours work.
 
Just saw it was pretty good not too often you get some sweet western action lots of good action.
not gonna lie I cheered when Pratt fucked those clowns in the ass with the dynamite
 
Really meh movie with awful action. The action at the town siege was especially bad. Having so many people shot and killed is not exciting or cool it got boring after a while.

Also, the lack of racism was pretty fucking racist. Only time Denzel faced racism was in his introduction scene. Even the native american had an easy time of it.

Only good part of the movie was Vincent D'Onofrio, that man acted circles around everybody else.
 

GhaleonEB

Member
I thought the action was pretty good, on a shot by shot basis. It could have been choreographed better, though. They did that thing where we see the town getting ready for the fight, but they want the audience to be surprised by the particulars, which meat some of the logistics were obfuscated. There wasn't really much ebb and flow to the battle, just sustained chaos and then a transition into the ending action. Some things didn't also make a lot of sense.
I thought the idea with the trenches, boarded over, was so the horses would run over them and they could pop up and shoot from behind. Instead they jump up at close range.

And if you have a gatling gun, it would make more sense to use it first, then send your posse into town. But that would rob good guys winning -> good guys losing transition.

Pratt's death was a little over the top. I was thinking he was going to light the dynamite as he was riding and just barely making it close enough to lob it onto the gun. That would have been more realistic but not as dramatic a send off. It kind of tipped into weird territory since he'd been shot full of holes at that point. In a fight where everyone dies in one or two shots, it didn't play that well. Great payoff, though.
 
That can't be real... can it?

I liked the movie, but yea, there was some pretty cringey lines sprinkled throughout.

Erik: Who are you?
Apocalypse: Elohim, Krishna, Yahweh, the Klingons call me Fek'lhr..
Erik You are NOT Fek'lhr
Apocalypse:
Feklhr.jpg


Was pretty ridiculous.
 

Randdalf

Member
That was really bad. Yeah, I believe it was CG. I didn't really like that scene nor the return of
Goodnight
, since the
horse jumping over
the fire shot felt cheap.

IIRC that shot was a homage to a scene from the original Magnificent Seven, as was Denzel Washington firing his shotgun in the entrance of the saloon.
 

Dabanton

Member
How wasted is Lee Byung-hun in this like rest of Hollywood films so far turns up without a shirt on then just sits in background and disappears?

He has a lot to do in the movie. But fuck the guy has charisma in spades.

He needs meatier roles.
 
Really meh movie with awful action. The action at the town siege was especially bad. Having so many people shot and killed is not exciting or cool it got boring after a while.

Also, the lack of racism was pretty fucking racist. Only time Denzel faced racism was in his introduction scene. Even the native american had an easy time of it.

Only good part of the movie was Vincent D'Onofrio, that man acted circles around everybody else.
After Django Unchained I think we can settle down on the racism. I thought it was refreshing to see almost everyone treat Denzel's character with respect. Same with the Native American character.
 
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