6, ridiculous; 8, hate it; 7, magnificent

It seems that lately, there have been Western movies with titles that show the number of main characters and an adjective in front describing the characters. Two examples would be “The Hateful Eight” and “The Ridiculous 6.” “The Hateful Eight” is serious and though it earned good reviews on the Internet, my parents loathed the movie and warned me not to watch it, which I obliged to. Then, there’s Netflix’s “The Ridiculous 6,” which was panned and despised by critics.
However, just recently in theaters, there was “The Magnificent Seven.”
It’s about seven sharpshooters and fighters hired by Emma Cullen, played by Haley Bennett (and no, it’s not Jennifer Lawrence in the film; don’t be fooled), to bring down a corrupt and greedy industrialist Bartholomew Bogue, played by Peter Sarsgaard, after he took over a small town.
“The Magnificent Seven” consists of an African-American warrant officer and leader Sam Chisolm, played by Denzel Washington, then followed by the gambler Joshua Faraday, played by Chris Pratt, the sharpshooter Good night Robicheaux, played by Ethan Hawke, an Asian assassin Billy Rock, played by Byung-hun Lee, a Mexican outlaw Vasquez, played by Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, the tracker Jack Horne, played by Vincent D’Onofrio, and a Native American warrior/skilled archer Red Harvest, played by Martin Sensmeier.
While there are mixed reviews on this movie by critics, I thought it was actually pretty good. Of course, it wasn’t the greatest Western movie in the world, but it was a good Western film. They made good casting choices and there were a few funny moments with clever humor. The only character I didn’t like was the villain Bartholomew Bogue. I’m guessing he’s one of those villains that people might love to hate. Good thing he got what was coming to him (I’m not going to tell, because I don’t want to spoil it).
Joshua Faraday was basically the shine, not just for his gun-fighting skills, but also for his humor and tricks. The characters are good fighters, but I like the knife and close-quarter combats from Billy Rock. Definitely don’t push it with Billy; of course, one guy found that out the hard way.
“The Magnificent Seven” is a remake of a film that was released in 1960, which is said to be a remake of a 1954 Japanese film called “Seven Samurai.” What I learned in the 1960s version, it takes place in a Mexican town, where a group of men help out the people there fighting bandits. Comparing the 1960 version to the 2016 film, the 1960 version had a Cajun-U.S. Marshal named Chris Adams as the leader.
The 1960 film also put out a few sequels taking place with a new line-up of characters in the seven, replacing the few deceased ones that got killed off in the previous films. And another difference is that the 1960s version’s reviews were better reviews than the remake’s. I guess original films made in the old days get better reviews and were probably more liked by the audience than their remakes. The remake of “The Magnificent Seven” is a good Western movie. While “The Hateful Eight” and “The Ridiculous 6” are not my parents’ favorites, they did think “The Magnificent Seven” was good compared to the other two films. Even though it didn’t beat “The Hateful Eight” on the critic stand-point, it did manage to beat “The Ridiculous 6.”
Heck, people on Metracritic liked “The Magnificent Seven” more than “The Ridiculous 6.” The seven main characters were a good choice of cast members and it had clever, humorous moments. So, I give this film a thumbs up.