2016 Films: #19. The Magnificent Seven

September 27th in St. Charles MO. For those not aware, this film, directed by Antoine Fuqua, is a remake of John Sturges' 1960 classic of the same name, But the film that started it all was Akira Kurosawa's 1954 all-time uber-classic Seven Samurai.

The year is 1879 and the venue is the western mining town of Rose Creek (it could be Arizona, Utah or even Northern California but it was filmed in New Mexico if any of that matters). The populace of ROse Creek are under the thumb of wealthy but evil industrialist Bartholomew Bogue ( Peter Sarsgaard) who burns down the church and kills a few townspeople to make sure the get the fact that he runs the show. One of the townsfolk gunned down was the good looking guy from White Collar and his wife Ellen (Haley Bennett) wants vengeance.

Ellen goes out to recruit some hired guns. The first person she runs into is warrant officer, Sam Chisolm. Chisolm isn't really turned on by the gig but perks up when he hears that Bogue is the lead villain. Here's the crew that makes up the title of the film:

• Sam Chisolm (Denzel Washington): The leader and the replica of Yul Brynner from the original.
• Joshua Farraday (Chris Pratt): The goofy, boozing gambler who has impure thoughts for Miss Ellen. He's the Steve McQueen of this version.
• Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke): Confederate veteran, good friend of Chisolm (a black guy by the way) and sharpshooter. Hawke is this version's Robert Vaughn.
• Billy Rocks (Byung-hun Lee): Robiceaux's confidant, martial arts and knife expert. Lee is the Jame Coburn character.
• Jack Horne (Detective Bobby Goren): Mountain man.He represents Jeremiah Johnson. Who was not a character in the original. His closest match is Brad Dexter. Not really but they're both heavy set big dudes. 
• Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo): A Mexican outlaw that Chisolm just sort of runs into whole trying to recruit another guy. He closest match would be Charles Bronson but Bronson has no equals. 
• Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier): A Comanche who stumbles upon the group when they're camping out. Chisolm tells him that they're going to right some wrongs and kill some white people. Red Harvest is like, "yeah man! I'm in." The closest match here is Horst Buchholz. Much like Horne and Vasquez, its not a match.

The group arrives back at Rose Creek and  dispatch Bogue's henchman with relative ease while Bogue is in Sacramento. Since Bogue is in Sacramento, they have a week to prepare for his assault and they start making preparations. Robicheaux, who's seen too much killing, leaves because he feels this is a no win situation and he just can't kill anymore. When Bogue's forces arrive and attack, they're ambushed and in the ensuing shootout Robicheaux returns only die a gruesome death alongside Billy Rocks when Bogue unveils his gatling gun and sprays the town with bullets. Farraday sacrifices himself in order to take out the gatling gun. Eventually, Chisolm and Bogue square off against each other. It's here where Chisolm reveals that Bogue was responsible for the rape and killing of his sisters and mother back in Nebraska. Chisolm survived the lynching and it's payback time.

The film has had mixed reviews, much like Antoine Fuqua's other films. This was entertaining but not that great. Seven Samurai, was the first film that gave film viewers the plot element of recruiting heroes into a team to complete a mission. Sturges did a much better job in 1960 than Fuqua did here. Maybe it's because we're only supposed to care about Pratt and Robicheaux. To be fair, Fuqua did a nice job of recreating the scene that introduces us to Billy Rocks. It was a nice homage to the Coburn scene. In the 1960 version, there was an emotional attachment to all of the crew. Here it's pretty much just Denzel, Pratt, Hawke and to a lesser degree Lee. The others really just rounded the group out. Red Harvest's only purpose was to battle and kill Bogue's Comanche assassin (I knew there was a Native American in the group and I knew immediately when I saw Bogue's Native American that two we're going to fight. Too obvious). As for Vasquez, the group needed more diversity I guess. In fairness though, the original group was pretty iconic. It's difficult to match that kind of talent from the the 1960 film. 

Ellen Cullen seemed a bit too much like Mattie Ross from True Grit and since she was a ginger, she would have gotten a 3rd degree sunburn. Denzel was his usual brilliant self. Pratt had a difficult job of taking the McQueen role. It was a fine performance and he did the best he could but there isn't anyone who can match McQueen. Hawke's performance is right up there with Denzel. He played the Robert Vaughn character very well. I also liked Lee in the Coburn role. But I had no emotional connection to the rest of the group. None what so ever. That's probably the way the filmmakers wanted it? Take a close look at the poster, see how far in the background Jack Horne and Red Harvest are? You can barely make out Vasquez's face. That is intentional.

There were also a lot of elements from Pale Rider in here as well. Especially the Chisolm/Bogue showdown. Chisolm having survived a lynching is from Hang 'Em High. Speaking of lynching survival, it seemed really convenient that the first person that Ellen runs into is Chisolm. He turns the gig down until she mentions Bogue. If Chisolm was so into revenge, he probably could've tracked Bogue down. It's not like Bogue was keeping a low profile. He was a wealthy industrialist for crying out loud. Since Bogue is a wealthy industrialist, people are going to miss him when he's dead. Now Chisolm has a mark on his head. I know it's 1879 and vigilante justice wasn't as frowned upon as it is now but you can't just kill a mining tycoon and not expect repercussions (especially when the murderer is a black man, in 1879 there are people that will be all too happy to make sure the lynching does the job the 2nd time around). There are a lot of  flaws in this picture (I won't bother about the accuracy of the gatling gun or that no horse suffered so much as a scratch from all the bullets flying around) and it's those flaws that keep this film from being good. It was entertaining for sure but that's it. It just wasn't very good. It was meh. It's worth seeing if you're a fan of the original just for comparison's sake.

2016 Films: #18. Hell or High Water

September 24th in Chicago. This is a film that got some excellent buzz and more than a few people told me to see it. The film received an 98% Rotten Tomatoes rating and has grossed over $25 million against a budget of $12 million. The film went into a limited US release on August 12th and a wider release on August 26th.

Set in the bleak desolation of West Texas, Toby (pretty boy Chris Pine) and ex-con brother Tanner (the criminally underrated Ben Foster) pull off an early morning heist of a Texas Midlands Bank. The robbery is assigned to Texas Rangers Marcus Hamilton (The Dude) and Alberto Parker (Gil Birmingham). Hamilton, the old coot Ranger, is retiring (sounds a little like a certain sheriff in No Country For Old Men right?) ad this is his last case and he wants to see it through. While at a diner at another small town, Tanner knocks over another bank while Toby is flirting with the waitress.

The brothers so far have only stolen a relatively small amount from the banks. The reason is they're raising money (Hamilton deduced as much from the investigation) to pay off (they launder it at an Oklahoma Native American casino) the reverse mortgage on the farm since oil was discovered on the property. The boys' mother had died and the bank is itching to foreclose and sell it off to get that sweet oil money.

There is a historical reference you know.

There's one more Texas Midlands Bank to knock over. Hamilton and Parker are staking one out (which leads to the funniest exchange between Parker/Hamilton and an old waitress when trying to order lunch). Hamilton realizes they're at the wrong bank. Toby and Tanner hit the bank but it's payday. This being West Texas, everyone in the bank is packing and violence erupts. The brothers split up and Tanner leads the authorities in the desert for his last stand. The film ends with Toby paying of the bank and turning into a trust for his estranged sons. He's confronted by a now retired Hamilton about his involvement.

This picture is directed by David Mackenzie, an Englishman who's not exactly well known on this side of the pond. The film is very reminiscent of No Country For Old Men but it more than holds its own. The characters are gritty (there were more than a few times when I muttered to myself, "isn't he going to take a shower?") and the characters are very real and layered. My problems with the film were minimal. One being that Chris Pine is too much of a pretty boy to dirty up. He did a fine job, it's not his fault he's such a good looking guy. Another is that Bridges is pretty much reprising his Rooster Cogburn role but that's just being nitpicky. Ben Foster gives a great performance as the somewhat unhinged brother who's going to go down in flames. In a fair world, Ben Foster would have a few Oscars on his mantle for supporting roles.

There are also few messages here as well. First and foremost is the plight of the Howard farm. There's a scene where Toby and Tanner are getting the proper instructions on how the save the farm and keep a large steady flow of income coming in for Toby's boys. The banker explains that Midlands loaned their mother just enough to keep her poor. There is probably happens in real life and I am sure something along these lines happened during the Great Depression. There was a feeling that the Howard Brothers were sort of heroes sticking it to "the man." The staff and patrons from the diner were not that cooperative when asked to describe the brothers and at the end even the bank didn't seem to give a crap about identifying Toby as the second robber. Then there's the gun angle. Violence erupts and innocent people are killed when some guy decides to be the "good guy with a gun" inside the bank. Technically the bank guard tarted shooting first (he was a lousy shot considering he got the drop on the Howard Brothers) but we see a bank patron pull his gun out prior to the bank guard making his entrance. The "good guys" give chase but turn tail and run (as they should) when Tanner pulls out a machine gun and sprays bullets into their cars. I just got the feeling that the film was trying to say that police work should be left to the professionals,

This is a must see film. An all around well made film. Hell or High Water is the best film I've seen this year.

2016 Films: #17. Don't Breathe

September 10th in Chicago, IL. So I was hanging out in downtown Chicago on a rainy day and needed to kill some time while my wife was at work. I had heard about this film, it had an 88% Rotten Tomatoes rating, I had heard some good buzz and nothing else looked appealing. The film had a $10 million budget and has grossed over $82 million domestically.

There's a gang of essentially delinquents that are pulling off low to medium level burglaries in the Detroit area.

L to R: Money, Rocky and Alex

The team consists of Money (Daniel Zovatto), the standard drop out with dreams of being a big time gangster and who looks like James Franco from Spring Breakers. Rocky (Jane Levy), the tough but pretty Detroit chick who's only avenue to escape the bleakness of Detroit is crime (her home life is stereotypically awful, she wants to escape to sunny California with her little sister). She's also dating Money. Rounding out the gang is Alex (Dylan Minnette), the brains of the group. His dad owns a security company and it's his clients that they knock over and makes sure that the robberies stay under the felony limits. Alex has been in love with Rocky since grade school and is basically taking down scores to impress her (it's not working). Alex is a smart kid who doesn't need to be a criminal but love has a tendency to make people do silly things.

Let's be fair, a lot of geeky young males would take up crime to get close to her. 

After the opening heist, Money meets the fence and feels they didn't get enough money ( the economics of robbery are not a dollar for dollar trade. A $10k watch doesn't mean you'll get $10k in return. This should be taught in Robbery/Burglary 101). The fence tips Money to a score that could net them 0ver $300,000. The mark is a Gulf War veteran who came into a settlement after his daughter was killed in a car accident. After the three "case the joint," they learn that the mark (Stephen Lang) is a blind man (with a large dog) who's the sole person living in an abandon neighborhood. He also happens to be a customer of Alex's dad so it works out.

Suffice to say that the heist does not go as planned. Money brings a gun upping the ante to armed robbery and a minimum prison sentence. It also turns out that the blind man is really adept at moving about the house. Things go from bad to worse and there are some creepy twists along the way. I would go into more detail but this was a good film that is worth watching and I don't want to give any spoiler alerts. Go see the film.

Fede Alvarez, wrote and directed the picture and does a really nice job of giving the audience the sense of isolation and ratcheting up the tension. There are more than a few "trapped in a house" tropes involved but he's not looking to reinvent the wheel. I started to feel bad for the gang when they clearly get more than they bargained for. There is also a disturbing twist when Rocky and Alex try to escape through the basement (does that ever work out in film?). That leads to a really disturbing scene involving a turkey baster (very cringeworthy). Heck, the opening shot of the film is of a woman being dragged down the street (ensuring the viewer that they are in store for something interesting to say the least).

Alvarez keep the film short (88 minutes) and never goes off the rails with ridiculousness found in other films like this. Don't Breathe is very similar to the likes of It Follows (both take place in Detroit and Blue Ruin; minimalistic, gritty and intense. Alvarez is a director worth keeping an eye on (his 2013 remake of Evil Dead of nice debut). This is a film worth watching. Check it out.