The Magnificent Seven (2016)

Antoine Fuqua and Denzel Washington return to collaborate on this remake of the classic, The Magnificent Seven (a remake of Seven Samurai).  It also stars Ethan Hawke, Chris Platt, Vincent D'Onofrio,  and Byun-Hun Lee as part of the magnificent seven with Peter Sarsgaard as the nemesis. Seeing Hawke (Training Day) collaborating again with Washington was certainly a treat and great performances by the aforementioned along with D'Onofrio and Sarsgaard were acting highlights. Fuqua's remake certainly doesn't trump the originals, but it's a great effort with a talented cast and it's certainly obvious that they were having fun with the western genre. Fuqua excels in directing the action scenes and there's no denying that in this film.  Understandably so, it's a challenge in developing the characters and unique subplots, but The Magnificent Seven was in competent enough hands with writer Nic Pizzolato (True Crime). There are deficiencies in the film for sure, but it's mostly the type of film to entertain with the sheer star power and action scenes.  That, it does.