The original “The Magnificent Seven” came out in 1960, and is considered a classic movie western. So like the recent Ben Hur remake Hollywood has decided to remake another classic movie. However, unlike Ben Hur which came out a few weeks ago and was mostly a bad movie, this remake of the Magnificent Seven was very well done. The story like the first movie is very simple. A bad man tries to take over a town by killing and terrorizing its citizens and then steals not only their land but all their gold. The evil villain in this movie is played extremely well by Peter Sarsgaard and seemed to have an innate ability to completely embody evil during this entire film. Even his IMDB picture shows him making a rather evil looking face.

Denzel Washington is also very good in his role and I think this is the only Western he has ever made during his long career. The rest of the cast includes Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onfrio and Chris Pratt and they all do outstanding jobs in this movie. Haley Bennet is also very good in her role as one of the residents of the town that was destroyed by the evil businessman, losing her husband in the process.

Of course, any remake of the original Magnificent Seven would not be as good as the original, but this one does stand on its own as an excellent movie. The original story has changed somewhat in this remake, making it unique enough for any die-hard lover of the original movie be curious enough to want to see this remake. The story is one we have seen before about injustice, an evil villain businessman who steals the property of poor townspeople and eventually revenge as the townspeople hire these seven men to stand up to the evil businessman and his army to rightfully take back what is theirs. Stories like this appeal to almost everyone because in our own lives most all of us want the good guy to win and the bad guy to get what he deserves; ultimately for something that is massively wrong to become right. Unfortunately, very often in real life this is not way things work out but we all want them to, just so everything makes sense in the end like it does in the movies.

The action sequences in this movie are very impressive and I have always been amazed at the logistical problems directors of action movies like this must have to overcome so there are no injuries to any of the actors, extra’s or horses that are used in so many scenes. The director Antoine Fuqua did an excellent job with this movie which must have been a logistical nightmare with the hot desert heat, very complex shooting and action scenes involving horses and even explosives. This movie reminds us of the mid 1800’s and how dangerous it was to live in the West in those days as murder, lynching and the lack of any real laws made living in that time extremely difficult. Just about everybody had a gun and would use it it seems just about every day. I thought this movie was very well done and I do recommend it.

Eddie Murphy has had probably one of the most successful and unusual show business careers of all time. He was as big as anyone ever has been in when he was only 18, having made the cast of Saturday Night Live in the early 80’s and arguably was the only reason why the show survived. Soon after this, he made big movie hits like “48 Hours”, “Trading Places” and his biggest hit, “Beverly Hills Cop” which came out in 1984. Then after 1984 he never reached the level of those movies again. Most of his following movies were either bad or at most average and the Beverly Hills Cop franchise was ruined by “Beverly Hills Cop 3”, which is considered by most a pretty bad movie. Beverly Hills Cop 2 looks like it was made entirely for the money and did not have the quality or great humor from the first film. In 2006 Murphy made “Dream Girls” and was nominated for an Academy Award for the best supporting actor, which I thought he should have won. The rumor was he was very angry that he didn’t win. Since then he has not made that many movies and the ones he did make were just small parts, perhaps because he was disgusted with the movie business or his attempt to be a serious actor met up with some very serious opposition in Hollywood. Perhaps because of the confusion of being a father to no less than 9 children with 5 different women.

The movie Mr. Church is the first 100% serious role Murphy has ever done in his entire career. It’s a very small film in limited release and I was impressed with the acting in this film given the subject matter which has a lot to do with cancer and dying. The story is highly unusual. Murphy is hired as a cook to work for a single mother and her 10-year-old​ daughter for 6 months and he is being paid by some benefactor who is never introduced in this film or fully explained. The mother is dying of breast cancer and due to some miracle is able to live longer than her original six-month​ diagnosis. Over the course of the film, we find out that Mr. Church has a very bad childhood involving a very abusive father, which causes him to be very secretive and an alcoholic​. There are several scenes​ where Murphy comes home very drunk and reenacts​ arguments with this father which are very well acted. Church is also a chain smoker and one serious flaw in this movie was the constant scenes where Murphy​ is smoking. Once again, I had to wonder if cigarette companies were involved producing in this movie in some way and I thought it was very unnecessary to show this much smoking in scene after scene. Hopefully one day all smoking in movies will be banned, but we are a long way from that day. At least in this movie, the end result of smoking and health are at some point revealed.

The daughter in this film is played very well by Britt Robinson, who​ has been in several quality movies lately, including in 2015 “The Longest Ride”, which is also reviewed in this blog. Her mother is played by
Natascha McElhone and her role is the most depressing part of the movie as she slowly dies over a period of 7 years of breast cancer. This is not a movie for anyone who recently lost someone to cancer or who has cancer themselves​ and the majority of this movie is depressing, but the acting and the story is good overall.

There are some rumors of Eddie Murphy being considered for an Academy Award for this movie and I am in agreement that he should at least receive a nomination. Murphy has finally proved that his career in movies should include more than just comedy roles and he should be considered for dramatic movies as well. I recommend this film, but be prepared for depressing moments.

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