A Forgotten Denzel Washington Action Remake Is Killing It On Streaming
Denzel Washington's The Magnificent Seven is one of the most watched movies on Amazon Prime Video.
It’s rare to see a Denzel Washington and Antoine Fuqua film fall under the radar, but that’s exactly what happened with the 2016 remake of The Magnificent Seven. Well, now the film is picking up some steam as it’s currently killing it on Amazon Prime Video. According to FlixPatrol, the film is currently sitting at #7 in Amazon Prime Video’s Top 10 today.
The Magnificent Seven is a remake of the 1960 classic Western of the same name, which also happens to be an adaptation of the Akira Kurosawa classic Seven Samurai. The film follows seven gunmen who are gathered together by a widow to help protect her town from a robber baron’s private army. Along with Denzel Washington, the star-studded cast includes Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onofrio, Lee Byung-hun, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Martin Sensmeier, Peter Sarsgaard, and Haley Bennett.
The Magnificent Seven is also a reunion of sorts for the talent behind one of Denzel Washington’s best films, Training Day. Antoine Fuqua directs both Ethan Hawke and Washington in the film, putting these three together again for the first time since Training Day. Fuqua has joined forces with Washington and Hawke individually in other films, but The Magnificent Seven and Training Day are the only two films they’ve all worked on together.
Apparently, there’s even a five-hour epic cut of The Magnificent Seven that Ethan Hawke has been wanting Fuqua to release ever since the film came out. Fuqua reportedly had to make cuts to the film to make it fit a PG-13 rating under studio pressure, so there’s a longer R-rated cut out there that would have given us more of Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke, Chris Pratt, and the rest of the cast gunslinging. The original cut of the film has pretty mixed reviews, so there’s a chance that there’s a much better version of this movie out there somewhere (other than the 1960 original).
Still, if you love John Sturges-directed version or even if you love Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, this film might give you what you’re looking for. The performances from Denzel Washington and the rest of the cast are solid, and the action is good. Overall, it’s a solid action film, and you likely won’t be disappointed if you don’t go in expecting a masterpiece.
While people probably don’t think about the Denzel Washington version of The Magnificent Seven often, the film was still a moderate success at the box office at the time of its release. It ended up grossing $93.4 million in the United States and Canada, and $68.9 million in other countries, for a worldwide total of $162.4 million. With a production budget of $90 million, the movie was profitable enough to be considered an overall success.
If this collaboration between Antoine Fuqua and Denzel Washington isn’t your cup of tea, you can check out their latest collaboration The Equalizer 3 when it hits theaters later this year. The Equalizer 3 will also reunite Washington with his Man on Fire co-star Dakota Fanning. In the meantime, you can check out Washington’s performance in The Magnificent Seven on Amazon now and check out The Equalizer 3 on September 1.
