The Magnificent Seven (2016)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Antoine Fuqua (Olympus has Fallen, Shooter)
	Actors: Denzel Washington (The Book of Eli, Crimson Tide), Chris Pratt (The Guardians of the Galaxy, Jurassic World), Ethan Hawke (Gattaca), Vincent d'Onofrio (Men in Black, Daredevil TV-series), Byung-hun Lee (I Saw the Devil, G.I.Joe 1-2)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Western
	Conditions of visioning: 02.01.2017, in-flight entertainment system 10" screen
Synopsis: Oppressed villagers hire a bounty hunter (Washington) to help them. On their way home they will gather an eclectic bunch of men willing to join.
Review: This is a remake of the classic 1960 The Magnificent Seven with among others Yul Brunner, Steve McQueen and Charles Bronson, itself a western transposition of the 1954 Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa. Unfortunately, as many remake nowadays, a useless one. I feared the worst from director Antoine Fuqua to whom we owe Olympus has Fallen, while in fact the movie is not totally bad, it is quite well shot, the actors are good and the dialogs not stupid, but it can never ever reach the dramatic level of its model. The assortment of characters that tries to be universal makes it in fact totally unbelievable: imagine an afro-American, a native American and an Asian roaming freely the old west! That doesn't make any sense, no more than the character of Will Smith did in Wild Wild West. I also didn't like the gunfights, not very believable either. What's left from the movie? Denzel Washington as good as usual and well assuming the role of leader, Ethan Hawke hard to recognize (although his come-back in the movie is as predictable as weak in emotion) and most of all, Vincent d'Onofrio who after his role of Kingpin in the first season of Daredevil, delivers again an incredible performance in a totally different register. You can say Denzel Washington is good but he plays like the usual Denzel Wachington, while d'Onofrio plays totally differently from the other roles I know him for. Thinking about it, I don't know which other actors give me the same feeling: Johnny Depp, Leonardo di Caprio? The last time I mentioned this feeling was about Colin Farrel in Horrible Bosses, Jim Carrey in Kick-Ass 2 or Brad Pitt in Fight Club. I should definitely see more of Vincent d'Onofrio.
Rating: 4 /10