***Muscular Western headed by Denzel Washington is superior to the hokey original***

A woman (Haley Bennett) seeking justice after the murder of her husband enlists a bounty hunter (Denzel Washington), who gathers six others, to defend the woman’s southwestern town against a ruthless army hired by a destructive industrialist (Peter Sarsgaard). Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, Byung-Hun Lee, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and Martin Sensmeier play the other six gunfighters.

"The Magnificent Seven" (2016) is a reimagining of the 1960 Western, which itself was based on Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" (1954). While the plot is contrived the original version had a stellar cast, a magnificent score and great locations, but it was ruined by hokey script flaws. For instance, the teen Chico (Buchholz) was able to effortlessly infiltrate Calvera's bandits, utterly fooling them, even though there were only 32 of them by this point (rolling my eyes). Even if Calvera & his brigands failed to make out Chico's face, which is a big IF, his dialogue & accent would've given him away. Keep in mind that Chico was just an unseasoned teen.

Another example is the villagers' sudden cowardly turnaround (betrayal), which totally contradicted their earlier resolve. Yes, I realize they learned that the bandits weren't run-off and that they were going to return to the village out of desperation, but there were only like 30-32 bandits left at this juncture and the combined forces of the seven gunmen and the fighting villagers now had the opportunity to annihilate the thugs for good.

This version of course eliminates such idiotic writing and ups the ante with the action. The movie's bloody, but no more so than recent Westerns like "3:10 to Yuma" (2007) and "Django Unchained" (2012). If you like those ones, as well as oldies like “Duel at Diablo” (1966) and “The Outlaw Josey Wales” (1976), you’ll like this one. Washington stands tall in the main role while Jennifer Lawrence lookalike Haley Bennett is stunning and superior to Lawrence.

The movie runs 2 hours, 12 minutes and was shot in Arizona, New Mexico and one shot in Colorado (Miller Mesa, Ridgway) with the main set being in Jackson, Louisiana.

GRADE: B