Blog of Awesome: The Magnificent Seven: The Motion Picture 2016

Cast of The Magnificent Seven (2016)

Sigh. Sure aren't enough REEEEEEBOOTS this year! GB must be thrilled! Movie trailers over the last few years have insisted on a subwoofer-dive (also known as a bass drop) effect. You can hear it here:

It's supposed to create a sort of focusing effect that draws attention in some way, perhaps slowing-down the action in a scene, adding dread, etc. I'm pretty sure it was first used in Star Wars (1977) when Obi Wan was shutting down the Death Star's tractor-beam (which had script written in its own Empire language-base, later changed to English for the ruined, "Special" editions). You can CLICK THIS LINK to see the original theatrical shut-down sequence (having a subwoofer helps). In Star Wars, the effect was put to good use. It's pretty easy to duplicate on a computer, just a (for x=500 to 1; play sound (x) Hz; next) kind of a thing (syntax based on whatever your flavor-language-of-the-month is). In Star Wars it was likely done using an analog tone-generator and a knob, manually, but this can also be accomplished with a Theremin. Whatev's.

Hi, yes.. I play backup rhythm Theremin in the band Gay Robot, have you heard of us? No? Well pooie.

Now you'll hear this subwoofer-dive bass-drop in a lot of movie trailers, usually inappropriately so. I remember the worst such case was in the trailer for the film, Disney's The Lone Ranger (2013) at the 2:17 mark when a train-piece flies through the sky. What is that, a wrench? Something like that...

Really? So a train piece makes an electronic, sub-woofer sound as it's thrown? Let's try it.

Magnificent Seven Gays wins a Tony

Nope. The movie bombed terribly because it was very unrealistic. I find a film that requires me to NOT have to have a suspension of disbelief usually is very good, though some boring dramas are painful to watch as they're very dry so that formula is not the best one to make a good movie. There is a need for a bit more to keep my interest, but attention-to-little-details, (such as the minutia in Ridley Scott's Alien (1979)) make for a good film, as well as actor-interaction (which makes Walking Dead and Captain America: Civil War ultimately fail for me, personally because they all act like 13 year-old kids). By comparison, in Alien, though not "perfect", the actors are at-odds over contractor fees, quarantine concerns, power-struggles very subtle over finishing coffee.. very real stuff. Background items in Alien such as checklist yellow-stickies as temporary procedures is spot-on with current space-operations today. Little details like catalogue cut-outs taped to personal sleeping quarters of the latest new car when they get back, etc. are very distant and subtle, and it makes for a realistic ambiance. Even the beer in the film was Coloradan with Weyland/Yuntai logos on it (the buyers for the ore and also Ash's over-riding agency that makes him attempt to collect an alien) made just for a few scenes! It's little stuff like that which make a film great.

Alien (1979) beer in the background actually their corporate logo!

People and clothes being dirty when it's, well, dirty outside makes sense. The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly (1967) is a dirty Western because showers were rare and hard to come-by and often too expensive over a cigar anyway, as well as barbers and shaving. John (Marion) Wayne film-lovers like that King Arthurian Legend Western dimestore style where the secondary hero is shot, turns on his stiff-bodied heel in a pirouette, still blood-trickle out of the corner of the mouth, lilly held against the chest, falls, and tells John, "Get 'em for me, Chief!" then tilts-head and dies quietly, eyes closed. Stupid. It's my choice though. It's what I like. Not the John Wayne, Disney Western stuff, I like the grittier, rawer, more realistic stuff. Just me. I've lived a LOT of life. I've done a LOT of things; been in the dirt; been in war twice (not in a trench, mind-you). I've seen C-beams glitter off the shoulder of Orion, etc.

Promo-poster for the new Magnificent Seven 2016

I prefer the real stuff. (careful on that click)..;p There's very little of that now-a-days. Keep in-mind that if it's a fantasy/sci-fi piece, if it keeps with the physics-defying mythology, I'm okay with that too. Hercules is very strong, Superman can indeed fly, Ninjas can teleport with a smoke-bomb, lasers make sounds (pew-pew), sure. Okay. It's accepted as mythological okay-ness, and my suspension of disbelief is not taxed.

Simple truths, Tuco.. simple truths.

This year (like 1996), there are no very good movies yet, and only a handful of mediocre films, which is concerning to the cinemaphile such as myself. Zootopia was a kid's flick, but okay if you're into that. I just watched Deadpool (a character I despise) and didn't like it, though I give 1/2 star for a poorly-rendered X-Men's Colossus who stayed in-character. Wade is a discount, sociopathic Spiderman with a penchant for vulgarity who I don't care about his survival because he's quasi-immortal and therefore very boring like Marvel's Beyonder. Is anyone worried that Wade is going to die? Nope. Writers had to create tension by adding a mortal girlfriend. Yawn. Deadpool is a jerk who's immortal with a bad, sleepy storyline that makes me care less about him more than ever. Got great reviews though.

Deadpool disagrees with me. UN-sucks?

I consider myself a Modernist; that is, awesome comes from hard-work. Today's society is the opposite, Post-Modernism, which indicates that everything is equally perfect as-is, which means nothing really is truly great and like Ourbus it eats its own tail. Effort is not required in post-modernism, you just get.. well, lucky. It almost has an early Arabic feel to that, such as in the earliest tales of 1001 Arabian Nights which I recommend reading when you're over 30 years old. The recent Real Car Reviews nicely touches on that during a review of the PT Cruiser. Ultimately, this lazy Generation Zero and the forthcoming Snowflake Generation want to be special without being special, and Deadpool is circumstantially omnipotent and simultaneously narcissistic-sociopathic. Definitely the "rap music" generation gets this guy, success = no-work + easy-crime. Whereas a Modernist thinks, success = suffer + work over time. It's my opinion the post-modernist will fail, surviving only on liberal-minded socialism to trickle-feed the unlucky (99% of every lazy person) and the Nation will fall. Marijuana helps this along nicely and feeds into that design, "The rich will share their wealth with my lazy, high ass so I can do nothing!" The rich MUST be FORCED to do so. The Modernists who WORKED MUST pay-up! Clash of psychologies there.

WHAT'S your problem with society again and HOW do you not fit-in with everyone else, Mike?

So there's a remake of one of the most world-renowned films of all-time, The Magnificent Seven. This film was made in 1960 and is considered one of the best Westerns ever made. Arguably I don't think so as some of the acting is hammy at-times. Watch the 1960 trailer on YouTube if you want. It's not terrible, and the overall theme is very good.

Magnificent Seven on-location 1960.

This movie is considered sacred-ground, that is, it's part of the Criterion Collection I mentioned earlier as being culturally significant, such as is with Lawrence of Arabia or Star Wars (the first one, sorry Millennials [not]) and, apparently Ghostbusters The Motion Picture 2016. Such films in society are perfect and cannot be improved-upon. Recently, such movie-hacks such as JJ Abrams have tried to sneak-in their versions of Star Trek II and Gone in 60 Seconds (the original 1974 is brilliant aside from non-actors attempting to act.. I recommend watching it, and also the 60-second VITAL introduction by the director's wife now on BluRay).

Reboots are the BEST MOVIES EV-VAR!

Indeed, it was based-on the 1954 film Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa as an "Americanized" (aka worsened.. though sometimes bettered) version. So, what would I have changed? Better acting and a slower-pace. I wouldn't mind the director of Hell on Wheels, particularly the saloon gunfight-scene in the most recent episode puts Sergio Leone to shame (or honors him, whichever) to re-direct The Magnificent Seven 2016. Not happening. Might as well have been Michael Bay. Check out the trailer.. as you do, I want to point-out that any subwoofer-dive bass-drop gets one-star lost from the overall score. Maximum score can be 5 stars. Each bass-drop removes a full star. Any non-period music also removes a full-star (sorry Tarantino).

What's more insulting is the music, which is a remake of House of the Rising Sun by a band called, "Heavy Young Heathens" borrowed insultingly by "The Animals" (1964) which a song about a whore-house in New Orleans. The Magnificent Seven is originally about a group of hired gunmen to protect a village in Mexico. This is stupid. There's plenty of Mexican songs to choose from that would be appropriate, or heck, they could MAKE one, but this generation is all about stealing, not working. Modernism v. Post-Modernism.

What's-a-matter, Mikey? Don't you like big, thick Westerns? I got a hint, Mikey, I ain't gotta gun per-se.

Movie machines rob and scavenge music hoping no one notices. Sorry, I do, and it's inappropriate and rude. Sure, the composer's gonna get a big cut of $900,000 but James Horner or John Williams in your arsenal means it's going to be memorable and noteworthy and take you up 2 stars JUST FOR THE MUSIC instead of a garage band attempting Tom Sawyer by Rush for $3.50 and street-cred. No, you won't get lucky, and neither will that garage band.

So, SEVERAL subwoofer-dives, SEVERAL modern-music licks to get the distracted-generation to look away from their iBricks, and cut-scenes, and jump-cuts, and bang-bang! Oh, and look, a black-guy because we're modern and black-lives-matter! Not to say that in 1860 he'd be taken into slavery in Mexico, or Texas, or wherever, and the prejudice at the time would make him ineloquent and speak pidgen-talk like Jim from Huckleberry Finn. It would be an odd curiosity he'd have an IQ over 70 and 99.9% couldn't read or be allowed a fire-arm or be allowed to ride a horse. Yep. He'd be mocked as a curio and attacked EVERYWHERE in the entire world except parts of Africa (where he'd just be attacked by warring tribesmen, and THEN enslaved). Sure. Black cowboy. Okay, fine. Impossible, but whatever. Maybe in 1910 or 1920, but NOT 1860. Impossabaruuuuu!

No! MORE! REBOOT-A-ROOOOOOOOS!

I'm not watching this junk. Bad actors, bad acting, bad music, pew-pew. Dumb, and it's no Criterion Edition Ghostbusters The Motion Picture 2016 5 STAR God-ness.