Movie - The Magnificent Seven (2016)

Note:  There may be minor spoilers throughout, but I will keep them to a minimum.

     The Magnificent Seven is a remake of a movie from 1960, which was at the time a remake of Seven Samurai by Kurosawa.  The premise is similar, but there were certainly changes made from the original film, which had it's own changes, since it was a western and the Kurosawa film was a Japanese martial arts movie.  The new movie was an attempt to bring the same themes from the older movies and make them relevant to more modern audiences.  I feel as if this was accomplished, while still keeping the true older western feeling to the movie, which was my primary concern going in.  I'm a pretty big fan of westerns, when they are done right, and I think that the new version of The Magnificent Seven was certainly one of the ones that was done right.
     The movie starts off by introducing us to the bad guy, Bartholomew Bogue (played by Peter Saarsgard).  He is a ruthless, over-the-top villain, which is what I'm looking for in a western, and Bogue checks all the right boxes.  He offers to buy all the land from the townsfolk for $20 each, and when the people try to protest, he kills several of them and says he will be back in 3 weeks time to get the answers from the rest of the townsfolk.  This causes two of the townsfolk to go out and look for some help.
     Entire Chisolm (played by Denzel Washington).  Chisolm is essentially a bounty hunter, who is collecting on government warrants.  The two people from the town come across him on their search, and offer him everything they have if he will help.  He is reluctant at first, but when he hears the name Bogue, he suddenly changes his tune, and starts recruiting others to help him.  Obviously, he ends up with seven men total, and they go to the town to help out the townsfolk.
     The cast was very solid, as every character was played well.  With the run time of the movie, and so many characters to flesh out, some of the characters didn't get the development that maybe they deserved, and so a few characters in particular stood out more than others.  Denzel, as the main character, obviously, and Chris Pratt as Faraday were the main focus points of the story, but I also thought that Ethan Hawke and Vincent D'Onofrio stood out as well.  I think that D'Onofrio was probably my favorite character from the movie, as he was very funny and still managed to have a deeper feel to his character than just comic relief.
     If anything suffered in the movie, I would say that the climax was a bit abrupt, but the fighting sequences leading up to the final moments were really well done, and let each character shine in their own way.  Some of the behavior of some of the characters was a little strange at times, as I felt that they were going through the motions sometimes to get to the ending instead of their actions being what caused the ending to play out like it did, but with this type of movie, I think you have to throw a little bit of logic out the window and just enjoy the ride.
     If you like westerns, or were a fan of the original movie, than you can't go wrong with The Magnificent Seven.  It was a fun movie, with good performances, good action, and a satisfying, if not somewhat bittersweet, ending.  I was pretty excited for this movie since I saw the first trailer, and had a little higher expectations than maybe I should have had going in, but I think that the movie lived up to what I wanted it to be, and I left the theater feeling satisfied.

My rating for the movie is 8/10

TV Show - Vice Principals - Season 1

Note:  May contain minor spoilers, but will try to keep them to a minimum.

     Vice Principals is a comedy on HBO, starring Danny McBride and Walton Goggins.  The premise of the show is that these two vice principals have been waiting for the principal (played by Bill Murray) to retire so that they can have their shot at becoming principal.  However, they are destined to set each other up for failure so that they get it over the other one, which ends up leading to the school board bringing in someone from outside of the school to take over.  This eventually leads them to team up to take out the new principal so that they can get back to fighting each other for the position.
     The premise isn't anything spectacular, but considering this is primarily a comedy first, that doesn't really matter much.  These two guys are both terrible people, and so they spend pretty much the entire season doing terrible things to try to get rid of the new principal, which leads to some very funny moments.  There are some jokes that miss, but for the most part, the show delivers on the comedy bits it sets out to accomplish.  Where the show surprised me a bit was when the show would take some darker, more serious turns.  Just when the show has you laughing out loud, they will throw something in there to make you feel sorry for the different characters, even though you know that they bring most of their problems upon themselves.
     The two main characters certainly carry the show, but the supporting cast does a pretty good job as well.  Danny McBride pretty much plays the same character from his last show on HBO (Kenny Power from Eastbound and Down), but by a few episodes into the season, he starts to set himself apart a bit as the bitter and mean Neal Gamby.  If you are already a fan of McBride, you are getting exactly what you are looking for here, but if you don't already like him, his performance here isn't going to do anything to change your mind.  The real star here though, in my opinion, is Walton Goggins as Lee Marshall.  He is eccentric, very metrosexual, and he is dark and twisted in ways that you have to see to believe.  As messed up as he is, he still finds ways to make you feel sorry for him, even as he completely ruins the new principals life on more then one occasion.
     Overall, I liked the show very well, but I can't quite place my finger on just why.  It was very funny, well acted, and the serious moments don't feel out of place, and even seem to carry you on to the next episode wondering what will happen next.  But I still felt like maybe there was more to be had, and sometimes it felt like the show couldn't quite make up its mind what it wanted to be.  The first season ended in a way I was certainly not expecting, and it really makes me wonder just where the show will go from here.  It was renewed for another season, and from what I can tell, that will be its final season, as they only planned out 18 episodes.  I honestly think that is a smart way to go with the show, as I think they can only go on so long with the pace they have, so it's best to not try to stretch the show out unnecessarily.

My rating for the season is 7/10