Remake fatigue becomes more powerful by the month and cynics would say that the number of people who are counting down the days until this shoot-em-up rides into town is six. Eight at a push.
Well, turns out that the reunion of Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke with their Training Day/Brooklyn's Finest/The Equalizer director Antoine Fuqua is far better than most of the hyped-to-the-hilt team-ups of recent months - front and centre Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, X-Men: Apocalypse, Ghostbusters and Suicide Squad - and manages to cram some grit into the 12A cert.
The storyline relocates the action of the iconic 1960 Western from Mexico to post-Civil War Louisiana where robber baron Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard) gives the townspeople of Rose Creek a choice: a knockdown price for their land, or a free coffin. With her husband among the victims, Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett) takes a stand.
Emma's quest for hired guns sees her cross paths with bounty hunter Sam Chisholm (Denzel Washington) just after he's cleaned house in another town. Addicted to the rush and haunted by the past, Chisholm takes Emma up on her offer. Now to find a few more men who have lost their way...
Love of the original Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen-starring classic hinges on the age you were when you first saddled up with them - and who was with you. When you roll back the years and watch through younger eyes this Magnificent Seven works just fine and is far more satisfying than the Return, Guns and Ride sequels. Granted, it's not in the same league as, say, True Grit or Open Range, but it's a solid action movie.
The biggest fault to find here is that having made his Seven so ethnically diverse, Fuqua doesn't give enough depth to the majority of the characters. The casting is spot on, but Washington and scene-stealer extraordinaire Pratt aside, the good-bad-guys/bad-good-guys and Bennett's widow don't get enough of the special moments needed to tug at the heartstrings and really set them apart. Sure, you still don't want any of them meeting the Grim Reaper but some of the deaths won't choke you like they did way back when. Maybe that's an age thing too.
If you've already seen Hell or High Water and the itching and scratching of waiting for the galactic gun-slinging of Rogue One and Guardians II is still proving too much, give this a go.
Harry Guerin
