Jack Goes Confidential: Denzel Washington Fronts ‘Mag 7’

Resurrecting a movie franchise after its final chapter made its debut some 44 years ago seems like a financial stretch by any definition…

The original MANIFICENT SEVEN—the western remake of Akira Turosawa’s SEVEN SAMURAI—first rode across American screens in 1960.

And what a cast it sported: Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Eli Wallach, James Coburn, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn and a young Horst Bucholtz.

To re-imagine THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN for today’s audiences, director Antoine Fuqua needed box office bait to attract REAL interest in the project—and he got it by landing Denzel Washington to lead the cast.

All the elements of the original are here.

Land baron Peter Skarsgaard and his goons intent on plundering a small town village but offering the locals next to nothing—OR ELSE!

Their only hope is to hire protection!

And they get it in the form of warrant officer Denzel Washington who rides into town from Wichita and is financially persuaded to offer it.

But to face an eventual showdown with the bad guys would require some hefty gun power—hence his recruitment of a handful of mercenaries willing to put their diverse lives on the line.

Misfits including a gunslinger, marksman, knife thrower, archer—you get the picture. A gathering of rogues who become THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN.

Think Denzel and the village people…….

Violent? For sure!

But Washington and his pack, including Chris Pratt and Ethan Hawke, are walking a fine line between making this an R-rated film and a PG-13 western.

The PG-13 rating won out. Barely.

To get a whiff of the original ‘Magnificent 7 theme though, you’ve got to wait until the end credits.

Which brings me to “westerns” in general…

It’s been a long, dry spell for the genre.

The most successful of late was probably 2010’s TRUE GRIT which had the Coen Brothers behind it.

So will this resurrection of the Mag 7 bring back a desire by ticket buyers to return big scale westerns to the screen?

I don’t think so. But I do predict that this movie will do well, if only for Denzel Washington’s involvement and that audiences will enjoy it.

Our overflowing screening crowd sure did.

Some of the scene-stealing final showdown scenes make for a couple of hours WELL SPENT at the movies.

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN rides into theaters near you this weekend and scores a: B-

JACK GOES TO THE MOVIES Friday mornings during Kansas City’s Morning News on 98.1 FM, KMBZ.