Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Edison Witt The first must-see film of the year.

morrison-dylan-fan With about a week to go,I talked to my dad about what presents to get for a pal for their birthday. Knowing that me and my friend are hoping to see the new Magnificent Seven on the big screen,my dad decided to get him the final title from the original Magnificent Seven era.The plot:Trying to put his outlaw life behind him,Chris focuses on being the best sheriff in town,who makes sure that everyone serves their time for misdeeds (even when his wife Arrila pleas for a teen ragamuffin to be freed!) Learning that his old friend Jim Mackay is caught in an ambush,Chris goes to help him out. After helping him escape,Chris is asked by Mackay to help him protect a town that is being overrun by outlaws. Turning down the offer,Chris soon discovers that he will have to gather up the Magnificent Seven.View on the film:Crossing the floor, Lee Van Cleef gives a very good performance as Chris,who despite having an "old romantic" side which looks a bit odd against Cleef's credits,is given a smooth soulfulness from Cleef,which Cleef melts down with a pipe smoking stamp which keeps all the guys in line with a cold hard stare. For the lone Magnificent Seven flick of the 70's,director George McCowan and cinematographer Fred J. Koenekamp ride off to a dusty warmth,as smooth crane shots catch the glare from the sun gliding over the 7 outlaws.Loading up short shots of action, McCowan gives the movie a grubby mood by splatting dry blood on the slow-draw cowboys. Mapping out the final set-piece, McCowan rolls out explosive shoot-outs,that catch a few surprising people in the crossfire. Bringing the sun down on the series,the screenplay by Arthur Rowe gets some Western grit under the gun by firmly pulling Chris from the straight and the narrow back to the path of the outlaw. Clearly inspired by The Dirty Dozen (a film I've not yet seen!) Rowe fails to give the other six members of the gang "their moment" and instead leaves them to fade into the background,and stops The Magnificent Seven from going out with all guns blazing.

classicsoncall The movie doesn't have the star power of the original but it's refreshing to see Lee Van Cleef in a Western leading role for a change. His character is Chris Adams, a role portrayed by Yul Brynner in 1960's "The Magnificent Seven". The character is played with some ambiguity, since even though Chris is a town marshal, he's not above shooting a couple of bullies who rode off with a young man he freed from prison at his wife's (Mariette Hartley) request. Events conspire to propel Chris and pulp tabloid writer Noah Forbes (Michael Callan) to form an alliance with five hardened criminals who are granted amnesty provided they accompany Chris to rescue the Mexican town of Magdalena against a marauding bandit named De Toro.Though the film plays out largely as a made for TV Western, I was intrigued by the preparations for battle made by Chris with the help of one of the convict cohort, Captain Andy Hayes (James Sikking). In charge of the mandatory explosive devices was Luke Askew as Skinner, while the widowed women of Magdalena pitched in to help defend their small town against the outlaw gang. The expected confrontation held it's fair share of surprises and violence against the Mexican outlaws, though it came to a rather abrupt end with the death of De Toro (Ron Stein), who for all the build up of the character, had almost no screen time and very little in the way of presence considering the way the part was written.With virtually no time spent grieving for his murdered wife, Chris forms an amiable alliance with Stefanie Powers' character, Laurie Gunn and they close out the picture as one of the couples to survive the gunfight. Considering his options, I was left a little puzzled by Chris's decision to remain behind in Magdalena as the new village marshal, wondering to myself what the citizens of his former town would have thought about that.

sorbonne The director was probably still in his early learning stages when he tried his hand at westerns. Have a look at the outfits. Everybody looks well-scrubbed, well-brushed, well-dressed and well-ironed as though ready for church. Even the horses look well-groomed and shiny. This is a WESTERN, for crying out loud! It's supposed to look dusty, nasty and sweaty. And then there's the amateurish acting of the females in this bird. The whole lot, a dozen or so, all pretty and well-endowed, were just freshly raped and widowed, but hardly a tear flows. Instead they all look with great interest (if not downright lust) at the newly arrived magnificent seven who they subsequently feed, bandage and comfort with love during their battles with the bandits. The same directing criticism goes for Lee van Cleef, who does a reasonable good acting job. Our Lee, playing the law, just lost his dear wife. But Lee, hard as organic rock, shows no emotion whatsoever and finds himself within days of his spouse's demise in the arms of a juicy widow with whom he, together with her brood, walks off into the future. The cad. And then there's another thing that always kind of bothers me with this type of films: it doesn't matter how many dynamite-induced explosions take place in the middle of a pack of some 50 horses, never mind how many shots are being fired at the rabble on top of them, only the crooks get killed and the nags always go their way rejoicing in one piece. (I know...silly moi...it's just a movie...). It's not the worst western ever made, but prepare for some serious yawning.

s-woodier This film is a cash in. A cash in reliant on a rousing theme tune created for an earlier classic. Yul Brynner has long since jumped ship and so have most of the production values. Lee Van Cleef takes over the lead role of Chris. I can't think of any actor who looks less like Brynner than Van Cleef. Hey, he could have at least shaved off his hair and lost the moustache, just for the sake of continuity. Some correctional centres show this movie in order to punish offenders. One step out of line and The Magnificent Seven Ride! is brought to the fore and wielded. They didn't even bother trying to make this movie not look like a TV movie! Abysmal.