The Magnificent Seven [2016] ★★★
Early reviews from the Toronto film festival dismissed this movie as a mere attempt to remake yet another Hollywood classic. I confess: I cringed at the idea at first. The 1960 film starring Steve McQueen, Yul Brynner and Charles Bronson (which in turn was based on Akira Kurosawa’s Japanese masterpiece “Seven Samurai”) stood the test of time and a remake was simply unnecessary. But after an explosive opening scenes in which Peter Sarsgaard and his army of thugs destroy a peaceful town for the sake of gold, I was hooked. Enter Denzel Washington and his group of outlaws, who agree to team up and protect this town from yet another deadly attack. By staging some of the best gun fights I’ve seen in a Western movie, director Antoine Fuqua has crafted a vastly entertaining remake that should satisfy any fan of the genre. What’s more, he picked just the right actors to carry it through: Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt are simply a treat to watch, and I loved seeing Ethan Hawke as a sharpshooter who was once known as the Angel of Death. The new “Magnificent Seven”, formulaic as though it may be, is packed with action and laughs, plus a superior score by the late James Horner that manages to pay tribute to the 1960 film. Maybe this redo wasn’t necessary, but Antoine Fuqua and his group of talented actors score a bullseye anyway.
Only Quentin Tarantino can make a Western film that feels and looks like a stage play and get away with it. I’m talking about “The Hateful Eight”, Tarantino’s 8th feature film and second consecutive Western. If you’re down with that, you’ll have to endure a surprisingly slow first act as we meet the story’s weird but intriguing characters, lead by the great Kurt Russell as a bounty hunter travelling alongside his prisoner (a tremendous Jennifer Jason-Leigh) to a town called Red Rock where she will be hanged. But with a blizzard brewing, they find themselves forced to stop at a place called Minnie’s haberdashery until the storm is over. And this is where the fun begins. At 52, Tarantino still loves dialogue more than ever. So it’s easy to pick at his film’s flaws: it drags at 187 minutes, it is uneven at times and trips on its own ambition. Haters might even say that the movie lacks action for a Western flick. Sorry guys but Tarantino does it his way. He divides his movie into several chapters as usual and gives us a lot to cheer for: unforgettable sequences, a witty dialogue, a spectacular climax and an incredible cast that includes Samuel L. Jackson, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen, Bruce Dern and Channing Tatum. Will the violence shock audiences at times? You know it. But it wouldn’t be Tarantino otherwise. His “Hateful Eight” may lack the greatness of “Pulp Fiction”, “Inglourious Basterds”and “Reservoir Dogs”, but his love and passion for movies still shines through every scene. I can’t wait to see where he goes next.
Prepare yourself for the most tension-filled Western film you’ve seen in a very long time. Writer director Alejandro González Iñárritu follows up last year’s Oscar winner “Birdman” with another spectacular film. “The Revenant” is an epic 156 minutes survival story set in the cold West, circa 1823. Leonardo DiCaprio gives a brutal, Oscar worthy performance as Hugh Glass, a man seeking revenge against the criminal (played by an excellent Tom Hardy) who murdered his son and left him half dead. Iñárritu is out to shatter your nerves. And does he ever. In lesser hands, the plot could be campy Western. But Iñárritu is a fearless visionary. He aims to push his limits and, ultimately, ours. A brutal scene early on finds DiCaprio wrestling a mama Grizzly and I’ve never seen anything quite like it before. But it wouldn’t be fair to discuss “The Revenant” without talking about the beautiful cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki and the haunting score by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Alva Noto and Bryce Dessner. And at the center of it all is Leonardo DiCaprio. The actor, now 41, learned to build a fire, speak two native American Languages and had to eat a raw slab of bison’s liver in one of the movie’s best sequences. His portrait of a man who has nothing left to lose is unmissable and unforgettable. So is the movie. It’s easily one of 2015’s best films.
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