I gave the movie a watch today and I did so not knowing anything about it. It was set in the old West and Chris Pratt was in it so it might surprise. But the movie did anything but. It was about as hackneyed a plot as you could come up with. I feel as though I've seen the siege of a western town by its citizens against overwhelming odds a dozen times. It might have been new and fresh back in the 60s but I couldn't say.
I'm supposed to be invested in the liberation of this city because the brother of the only female character died. I knew squat about Emma and I don't even remember her brothers name. The rest of the towns citizens seemed like righteous douchebags. So I didn't buy into the movies premise which is never a good thing.
Maybe the real movie is about the titular seven gunmen! That'll be where I get hooked. Denzel, Star Lord, Kingpin, sexy Asian and Native American guys. Surely something's got to pop out of that lineup and onto some celluloid. There was nothing. The entire movie bereft of any compelling narrative. No complex or layered character arcs. The main cast hardly even has scenes together which is a shame because I think there was potential chemistry among them. Ethan Hawkes character had some kind of shell shock or ptsd but that goes nowhere. He overcomes it off screen though. Just in time for the climax.
And for a movie that's had no great story or characters the action had to be on point. But even this is a snoozer. They take the time to demonstrate guns have kickback in the training scenes, but this detail is abandoned in the action sequence. The booby trap Home Alone traps were fun, but fleeting. Nameless bad guy fodder run around on horseback without any real plan while they get picked off one by one by the heroes. Get off the damn horses. They do you no good in close quarters! And because this is a western siege plot, the bad guy has to have a Gatling gun. More forgettable stuntmen fall.
It was surprising to me that movies like this get green lit. Clearly this is to the credit of the director and producers who no doubt sell the movie as some Oscar bait tour de force. But even reading the sparse screenplay you'd see there's nothing really going on in this film. It's a remake without a soul or an identity. Maybe you don't need either when it's a remake.
I'm supposed to be invested in the liberation of this city because the brother of the only female character died. I knew squat about Emma and I don't even remember her brothers name. The rest of the towns citizens seemed like righteous douchebags. So I didn't buy into the movies premise which is never a good thing.
Maybe the real movie is about the titular seven gunmen! That'll be where I get hooked. Denzel, Star Lord, Kingpin, sexy Asian and Native American guys. Surely something's got to pop out of that lineup and onto some celluloid. There was nothing. The entire movie bereft of any compelling narrative. No complex or layered character arcs. The main cast hardly even has scenes together which is a shame because I think there was potential chemistry among them. Ethan Hawkes character had some kind of shell shock or ptsd but that goes nowhere. He overcomes it off screen though. Just in time for the climax.
And for a movie that's had no great story or characters the action had to be on point. But even this is a snoozer. They take the time to demonstrate guns have kickback in the training scenes, but this detail is abandoned in the action sequence. The booby trap Home Alone traps were fun, but fleeting. Nameless bad guy fodder run around on horseback without any real plan while they get picked off one by one by the heroes. Get off the damn horses. They do you no good in close quarters! And because this is a western siege plot, the bad guy has to have a Gatling gun. More forgettable stuntmen fall.
It was surprising to me that movies like this get green lit. Clearly this is to the credit of the director and producers who no doubt sell the movie as some Oscar bait tour de force. But even reading the sparse screenplay you'd see there's nothing really going on in this film. It's a remake without a soul or an identity. Maybe you don't need either when it's a remake.
