The Magnificent Seven reminded me a lot of True Grit. Who better than Denzel Washington as Sam Chisolm to pull off the lead character as a sharp shooter and warrant officer with the monumental task of taking out an evil, greedy villain like corrupt industrialist, Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard). The Magnificent Seven takes place in 1879 and focuses on a gold mining town called Rose Creek. The town, filled with regular GOD fearing folk, is overpowered by Bogue and many of the locals are slaughtered, including Matthew Cullen (Matt Bomer) who tried to stand up to Bogue. After the slaughter, Matthew’s wife, Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett) along with a friend, Teddy Q (Luke Grimes) leave town in search of someone who can help stop Bogue and return Rose Creek back to the people.
After listening to Emma’s story and learning of the culprit’s name, Chisolm sets out to recruit a group of gunslingers who can help him, starting with gambler Josh Faraday (Chris Pratt). They are later joined by sharpshooter Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke), knife-wielding assassin Billy Rocks (Byung-hun Lee), skilled tracker Jack Horne (Vincent D’Onofrio), Comanche warrior Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier) and notorious Mexican outlaw Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo).
After the Magnificent Seven arrive in Rose Creek, a gunfight with Bogue’s enforcer McCann (Cam Gigandet) ensues. The Seven manage to win and sends a warning and challenges Bogue to return and fight or simply leave the town. As usual, there’s much more to this story but I’m minimizing spoilers, so I can say no more. This was a fairly good western or what my mom use to call a “shoot em up”. This remake of the 1960 version of The Magnificent Seven brings nothing new or earth shattering to the plate, but is very entertaining and well acted.
There’s only one word to describe Magic Mike XXL, raunchy! If you’re looking to see anything like the last Magic Mike, forget it. This sequel has a new look and feel. They’ve stepped it up by 10 times the fun and excitement of old. Word of mouth is something else because I kept seeing large groups of ladies, especially the 50+ range flocking to see Magic Mike XXL. The shy laughter and red faces were infectious. I had no intentions of going to see it because I expected more of the same since I had seen the first Magic Mike. I was surprised and my curiosity was well satisfied once I saw what the “brouhaha” was all about. We all know about the outstanding bodies of Channing Tatum who plays Mike, Joe Mangoniello who plays Big Dick Richie, Matt Bomer who plays Ken and the rest of the group Adam Rodriguez who plays Tito, Juan Piedrahita who plays Salvador and Kevin Nash who plays Tazan. Dancer, Stephen “tWitch” Boss joins the cast as Malik to make matters even better. In this sequel, Mike returns to the team after failing at love and struggling with his furniture business. Their journey to the stripper convention in Myrtle Beach makes for quite a story. Jada Pinkett Smith plays Rome, a DJ and entrepreneur who is well known and old friends with Mike. Andie MacDowell plays Nancy Davidson, a rich mother looking for love who helps out the team and develops a relationship with Big Dick Richie. Over all, Magic Mike XXL is a ladies movie that is entertaining and not for the prudish. I think it’s worth seeing.
CAROL's WORLDS 