GLASS ONION : A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY - Tuesday 29th November 2022.

I saw the M rated 'GLASS ONION : A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY' on its final day of its very limited theatrical run earlier this week. This American murder mystery film is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Rian Johnson whose previous film making credits take in his big screen debut with 'Brick' in 2005, then 'The Brothers Bloom' in 2008, 'Looper' in 2012, 'Star Wars : Episode VIII - The Last Jedi' in 2017 and 'Knives Out' in 2019, to which this film is a standalone sequel. This film had its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in mid-September this year and is scheduled to have a one-week limited theatrical release from 23rd November before its streaming release on 23rd December by Netflix. The film saw the widest theatrical release ever for a Netflix film generating US$15M in Box Office receipts towards its production costs of US$40M and garnering universal critical acclaim. 

During the height of the 2020 COVID pandemic when the world is gripped by lockdowns, we are introduced to a group of individuals who all receive a large and strange looking wooden box, with no visible means of gaining entry to it. There is Lionel Toussaint (Leslie Odom Jnr.), the head scientist for global tech company Alpha Industries; Birdie Jay (Kate Hudson), a former supermodel turned fashion designer; Claire Debella (Kathryn Hahn), the governor of Connecticut now running for the Senate; Duke Cody (Dave Bautista), a Twitch streamer and men's rights activist; and Cassandra 'Andi' Brand (Janelle Monae), Miles's ex-business partner. Lionel hooks up with the other recipients of the same identical box (for they are all close friends of one another) and together they are able to gain entry into the box revealing an elaborate number of puzzles and games contained therein, with the final reveal being an invitation from billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) and owner of Alpha Industries to attend his very own murder mystery weekend at his private estate 'Glass Onion' which is housed on his own private Greek island. Tagging along are also Peg (Jessica Henwick) Birdie's Assistant, and Whiskey (Madelyn Cline) Duke's girlfriend and Twitch channel Assistant. 

World renowned Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is hired by Andi's identical twin sister, Helen, to investigate her sister's alleged suicide the previous week. Helen advises Blanc that Miles jettisoned Andi from her role as CEO of Alpha Industries after Andi categorically denied his request to release 'Klear', a  hydrogen-based alternative fuel that early tests have proven to be very dangerous under certain conditions. She lost a lawsuit against him due to her inability to prove that she conceived of the company and not Miles. Helen suspects that one of Miles's friends killed Andi after she found a cocktail napkin from the 'Glass Onion' bar that they all used to frequent back in the day, on which she scribbled Alpha's founding ideas, evidence that would discredit Miles. 

Blanc instructs Helen to take Andi's place for the weekend given that they were identical twins and news of Andi's death has still not hit the headlines. Arriving on the island to help him investigate undercover as though they are unknown to each other, Miles informs Blanc that he did not send him an invitation but allows him to stay, assuming that his presence was a joke arranged by one of the other guests. 

On the island, Helen sets about covertly searching for clues that could potentially lead to Andi's killer, but determines that Lionel, Claire, Birdie, and Duke are all suspects. Lionel and Claire had staked their professional reputations to support Klear, only to learn of its dangerous qualities afterward; Birdie was forced by Miles to take responsibility for hiring a sweatshop in Bangladesh to manufacture her clothing line; and Duke was attempting to coerce Miles into giving him a position at Alpha News by using Whiskey to seduce him. 

On the first evening with the weekend ahead of them, Miles lays out plans for his elaborate staged murder mystery in which he is the victim and his guests need to prove who the killer is. But Blanc, before the game has even started, solves the case much to Miles' frustration saying that he even had Gillian Flynn write his murder mystery game, and she doesn't come cheap! 

So the group parties with a number of guests considering returning home the next day. Duke suddenly collapses dead after inadvertently drinking from Miles's glass. The group begins to panic, suspecting the missing 'Andi' to be the killer and discovering that Duke's pistol (which he never goes anywhere without) is missing. Then at 10:00pm right on cue, all the lights across the island go out except for the lighthouse which intermittently illuminates the house and grounds. In the resulting chaos, the group splits up. Blanc bumps into Helen outside on the steps, who has been searching for Andi's cocktail napkin which she believes the killer stole. He instructs her to search Miles's office. An unknown assailant shoots Helen in the chest, but she survives unknown to anyone else but Blanc, due to Andi's diary in her jacket pocket having blocked the bullet. 

Blanc rounds up the remaining group in Miles's art room, where he deduces that Miles committed both murders. After Miles learned of the napkin's existence from Lionel, he had killed Andi to prevent her from revealing it to the public. Immediately following her murder, he was seen speeding away from her house by Duke who was nearly 'pancaked' on his motorcycle, and who deduced Miles's involvement with Andi's death during the party, when his newsfeed revealed her death, and as a consequence he attempted to blackmail Miles. This then prompted Miles to poison Duke with pineapple juice, which Duke was severly allergic to, before using Duke's pistol to shoot Helen. 

Helen finds the napkin in Miles's office and reveals her true identity to the group, but Miles burns the napkin with his cigar lighter as she is holding it. With no evidence against Miles and the group unwilling to side with her, Helen sets about smashing all of Miles's glass sculptures before triggering the Klear-powered mansion to explode. This destroys the Glass Onion and the Mona Lisa, which Miles had on loan from the Louvre, while it was shut due to the pandemic. With Miles's reputation now in tatters due to the worlds most famous painting's being destroyed and Klear being proven as dangerous, the group decides they will testify against him. Helen and Blanc sit on the beach as they watch the Police arrive by boat as the sun rises. 

'Glass Onion : A Knives Out Mystery' is very entertaining and I'm pleased to have seen it on the big screen at my local independent movie theatre (which was packed out I might add) rather than waiting for the small screen Netflix release at Christmas. The film shines in almost every aspect from the sun drenched Greek island setting, to all the trappings of a very wealthy tech billionaire, to the performances of the cast to the script, the humour and the direction laid on by Rian Johnson, it hardly misses a beat. This is more than a worthy follow-up to 2019's 'Knives Out' and with double the budget it is clear that no expense was spared in bringing together an ensemble cast lead by the returning Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, and the exotic location that undoubtedly contributed to the film being greater than the sum of its parts and a real crowd pleaser to boot. Also starring in cameo appearances Ethan Hawke, Angela Lansbury, Hugh Grant, Natasha Lyonne, Serena Williams and Stephen Sondheim, amongst a handful of others.

'Glass Onion : A Knives Out Mystery' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.  

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE BLACK PHONE : Tuesday 2nd August 2022.

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'THE BLACK PHONE' earlier this week, and this American super-natural horror film is Co-Written for the screen, Co-Produced and Directed by Scott Derrickson whose previous feature film outings take in the likes of 'Hellraiser : Inferno' in 2000, 'The Exorcism of Emily Rose' in 2005, 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' in 2008, 'Sinister' in 2012, 'Deliver Us from Evil' in 2014 and 'Doctor Strange' most recently in 2016. This film is an adaptation of the 2004 short story of the same name by Joe Hill. The film saw its Premier screening at Fantastic Fest in late September last year and went on release in the US towards the end of June this year, here in Australia on 21st July and has so far grossed US$144M off the back of a US$18M production budget and garnering generally positive Reviews.

The film opens up with a bunch of young lads playing in a baseball competition, with thirteen year old Finney Blake (Mason Thames) pitching the ball, and Bruce (Tristan Pravong) batting. With two strikes behind him, Finney pitches his third ball which results in Bruce hitting a home run and winning the match. After the game Bruce and Finney congratulate each other with Bruce saying that Finney has got a 'minted arm'. It is 1978 and we are in Denver, Colorado. Finney lives with his sister Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), and their abusive and alcoholic father Terrence (Jeremy Davies) in the suburbs. At school Finney is often bullied by the same gang, but is looked out for by his good friend Robin (Miguel Cazarez Mora). One day Bruce is seen cycling towards a black panel van, and is next seen on a Missing Person's poster adorning the local streets. 

Gwen, who experiences psychic dreams just as her late mother did, dreams of Bruce's abduction and sees that he was taken by a man in a black van with black balloons, known locally as The Grabber. Detectives Wright and Miller (E. Roger Mitchell and Troy Rudeseal respectively) attempt to interview young Gwen, but struggle to believe her claims. Sometime later the Grabber abducts Robin, and then within a few days Finney is also kidnapped. 

Finney comes around sometime later on a mattress in an empty soundproofed basement. On the wall is a disconnected black rotary phone that the Grabber claims does not work, and the broken cord would seem to confirm that notion. Later, Finney hears the phone ring and answers it. Bruce's spirit, unable to remember his own name or who he was when he was alive, tells Finney about a floor tile located in the corridor to the toilet, that he can remove to dig a tunnel to escape through the soft earth directly beneath the floor. 

The Police conduct door to door searches for Finney, but this proves fruitless. The Grabber (Ethan Hawke) brings Finney food and a soda. While eating on scrambled eggs the phone rings and it is another boy called Billy, who instructs him that he had hidden a length of cord behind the junction of the wall and floor and he can use it to escape through the high window of the basement. While climbing Finney breaks the bars on the window which come crashing down on top of him and so preventing him from climbing back up. Gwen dreams of Billy being abducted and confides in her father about what is happening. Finney sleeps and when he wakes up the Grabber is there in the basement having watched him sleep. The Grabber exits but leaves the door to the basement unlocked. As Finney prepares to sneak out the phone rings again and Billy tells him not to as this is a game the Grabber likes to play, as he lies in wait upstairs to attack his victims within an inch of their lives, with a belt, just as Billy was. 

Detectives Wright and Miller speak to an eccentric man called Max (James Ransone) who is staying in the area with his brother and who has been conducting his own investigation into the missing kids. It is revealed Finney is being held in the basement of Max's brothers house, of which he is unaware, and that the Grabber is in fact his brother. After a heated exchange with the Grabber, where he tests Finney's honesty, he speaks as if he would have let Finney go free. Finney speaks to another one of his victims, Griffin, on the phone. Griffin directs Finney to the combination of a bike lock scrawled on the basement wall with a bottle top, and that the bike lock secures the front door to the house. He also informs him that the Grabber has fallen asleep upstairs while waiting for him to emerge, and that if he is to get past him he must do so in absolute silence. Finney gingerly sneaks upstairs and unlocks the door after several attempts with the dial combination, but the Grabber's dog alerts him to Finney's escape. Finney flees down the street but is quickly recaptured at knife point. 

Discouraged by his failed escape attempt, Finney answers the phone to hear another victim, a punk called Vance whom Finney was scared of. Vance advises Finney of a storage room located immediately behind one of the basement walls and that he can escape through it if he breaks a hole in the wall and exits through the freezer on the other side. Finney creates a hole with the cistern lid and enters the back of the freezer only to discover that the freezer door is locked. Feeling even more dejected Finney breaks down sobbing, totally disheartened. The phone rings one more time with Robin at the end of the line. He consoles Finney and encourages him to finally stand up and fight for himself. He instructs Finney to remove the phone receiver and pack it tight with the dirt he had dug up and to use it as a weapon.

Gwen has a dream of Vance's abduction and learns the number of the Grabber's property. She cycles around the neighbourhood trying to locate the house and falls from her bike when confronted by the bloodied spirits of the Grabbers victims stood in front of her adjacent to the house. She returns home and calls Detective Wright. 

Max realises Finney is being held in the house and rushes to the basement to free him, believing that his brother is out working. Little does he know that his brother is standing right behind him on the stairs and brings down an axe right on his head killing him instantly. The police rush over to the house that Gwen found but find it empty. In the basement, however, they find the buried bodies of the Grabber's five previous victims with an open grave waiting for the sixth. 

The Grabber attacks Finney with the axe, but Finney manages to trip the Grabber with the cord, causing him to fall into the partial tunnel Finney dug, where the Grabber breaks and traps his ankle in the window bars placed at the bottom. Finney repeatedly smashes the weighted phone handset against the face and head of the Grabber. The spirits of the Grabbers other victims taunt him over the phone before Finney breaks his neck with the cord used to trip him initially, killing him. Finney distracts the guard dog with meat from the freezer and escapes the house using the combination he learned from Griffin. Finney exits the house across the street from the gravesites where he reunites with Gwen and the police rush to the property. The siblings comfort each other as their father arrives, apologises for his treatment of Finney and begs his forgiveness. Back at school, the new local hero and a now more confident Finney sits next to his crush in Science class.

With 'The Black Phone' Scott Derrickson is back in his comfort zone providing the audience with a well crafted story, combined with dramatic, emotional, super-natural and horror elements and set back in the late '70's where the aesthetic of that era is spot on and hark back to the classic horror films of the '80's such as 'The Shining', 'Poltergeist', 'Misery' and 'A Nightmare on Elm Street' and the type of story that could have easily been penned by Stephen King. The performances from Thames and McGraw as the two siblings who each have their own super-natural experiences to work through are first rate, and Hawke as the multiple child killer whose face is never fully revealed, lends his menacing machismo to solid effect. As a horror film, this film is light on jump scares and what would be described as real moments of horror tension and terror, but as a super-natural crime thriller it does deliver on the chills and spills that help elevate it above many of its current contemporaries. 

'The Black Phone' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE GUILTY : Wednesday 6th October 2021.

With Greater Sydney still in COVID lockdown now until the 11th October, and as a result all cinema's closed until this date, I've been reviewing recently some the latest feature films released onto Netflix. One such film that I watched from the comfort of my own sofa at home this week is the American crime thriller 'THE GUILTY', Directed and Co-Produced by Antoine Fuqua, whose previous film making credits take in the likes of 'Training Day' in 2001 with Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke, 'Shooter' in 2007 with Mark Wahlberg, 'Olympus Has Fallen' in 2013 with Gerard Butler and Aaron Eckhart, 'The Equalizer' and 'The Equalizer 2' in 2014 and 2018 respectively both with Denzel Washington, 'Southpaw' in 2015 with Jake Gyllenhaal and 'Infinite' this year too with Mark Wahlberg and Chiwetel Ejiofor. This film is based on the 2018 Danish film of the same name Directed and Co-Written by Gustav Moller who also serves as an Executive Producer here. It saw its World Premier screening at TIFF in mid-September this year, had a limited US theatrical release from 24th September and was then released onto Netflix on 1st October. It has garnered mostly positive Critical Reviews. 

Here then, Joe Baylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) is working the night shift at a 911 call centre, while he awaits to attend court the next day for an incident that occurred eight months ago while he was on duty patrolling the streets of Los Angeles with his partner. He has subsequently been demoted to the call centre pending the outcome of his court case. Out of control wild fires rage across large tracts of California and are steadily encroaching upon LA. We see Baylor fielding several calls, including a business executive, Matthew Fontenot (voiced by Paul Dano), stranded inside his rented BMW 7 series held captive by a pink haired voluptuous Hispanic prostitute; then from a crashed cyclist with a knee injury; then from a woman whose house is on fire; and a guy calling from a nightclub. 

In the meantime he takes an unexpected call on his mobile phone from a reporter from the Los Angeles Times wanting his side of the story in advance of his court appearance tomorrow, which he in no uncertain terms rebuffs. He also attempts to call his recently separated and soon to be ex-wife Jess (voiced by Gillian Zinser) wanting to say goodnight to his young daughter. 

He then answers a call from a young woman named Emily Lighton (voiced by Riley Keogh) who tells him in a high state of anxiety that she has been abducted. Baylor keeps her talking, making out that she is speaking with her young daughter, and learns that she and her abductor are traveling in a white van, but Emily is forced to hang up before she can provide more details. Baylor calls the California Highway Patrol (voiced by Da'Vine Joy Randolph) but they cannot locate the van because of the heavy smoke haze from approaching wild fires and the unknown license plate number. 

Desperate to get more information, Baylor calls Emily's home phone number and Abby answers, Emily's six year old daughter (voiced by Christiana Montoya) who is seemingly home alone with her younger brother Oliver who is sleeping. Abby is distraught telling Baylor that her Mum left them home alone after going off with their Dad, Henry. Abby provides Henry's mobile phone number from which he is able to look up the van licence plate number and get more details on Henry's record of assault and his time in prison. He relays the licence plate details to the CHP, and contacts his former Sergeant Bill Miller (voiced by Ethan Hawke) asking him to send a patrol car around to Emily's house and to check on Abby and Oliver.  He calls Henry (voiced by Peter Sarsgaard), threatens him and demands to know his intentions with Emily, but Henry hangs up on him. Baylor then calls his former partner Rick (voiced by Eli Goree) and asks that he visits Henry's house to gather whatever clues he can as to where Henry may be taking Emily. On that phone call, at 2:00am in the morning, Rick expresses concern to Baylor about the testimony he is to give at tomorrows court hearing.

Baylor takes a call from Abby in a panic when two LAPD officers arrive at the door, and he tells her to let them in. Over the phone, he overhears that the officers notice blood on Abby's hands and nightdress and find Oliver in the bedroom seemingly dead. Joe calls Emily back and tells her to pull the handbrake, which she does, but it fails to crash the van. Henry puts Emily into the back of the van. When Henry stops the van and tries to remove Emily from the back, she hits him with a brick and flees.

In the meantime, Rick has gained entry into Henry's house and finds documents from a psychiatric treatment facility where Emily had been a patient. Joe calls back Henry, who explains he was taking Emily back to the facility and that she had been off her meds for a few weeks because they couldn't afford them and, during a psychotic episode, unintentionally hurt Oliver. Henry says he did not report the incident to the authorities because he wanted to protect Emily and has no faith in the 'system'.

Emily calls Baylor back from somewhere on the freeway, implying that she is preparing to commit suicide by jumping off an overpass because she believed Oliver had 'snakes in his stomach' and that she 'took them out'. Joe directs the CHP to her location while attempting to talk her down. He attempts to distract her and keep her talking by revealing that he killed a 19-year-old boy while on duty because he was angry and wanted to punish him for hurting someone. He pleads with Emily that Abby loves and needs her and that he promised Abby that she would come home. Over the phone, Baylor hears patrol cars and officers arrive, as the line is cut off.

Soon afterwards the CHP calls Baylor to inform him that they got Emily down safely, and Sergeant Denise Wade (Christina Vidal) sticks her head around the door to advise that Oliver is alive and in the Intensive Care Unit. As she leaves she says to Baylor 'broken people help broken people, as a back handed compliment. A short time later, in the mens room, a distraught Baylor vomits before calling Rick and tells him to tell the truth at the hearing. Rick says he can't and if he does it will be years before he sees his daughter again. Sobbing, Baylor tells Rick again what he must do at the hearing. He then calls the LA Times reporter to tell her that he intends to plead guilty at the trial. News reports after the hearing indicate that Baylor is only the fourth Police Officer to be sentenced to prison for manslaughter. 

I never did see the original Danish film from 2018 of which this is a Hollywood remake, and as such I can't draw any comparisons between the two. Suffice to say, this taught, tense and emotional drama which takes place over a single night shift in a sparsely manned Police call centre, maintained my interest throughout, and while Gyllenhaal is in just about every frame for its ninety minute running time, he inhibits the role of fractured Joe Baylor, puts in a very convincing and powerful performance and proves his worth again as one of the finest Actors of his generation. Shot within the confines of two rooms, over the course of just eleven days and in the middle of a pandemic Antoine Fuqua has proven here too his ability to make a lot out of a little particularly when you have an Actor of Gyllenhaal's stature doing the heavy lifting supported by the equally convincing voice of Riley Keogh on the other end of the phone. If you haven't seen the original, then you could do worse than hunt this remake out as it will keep you on the edge of your seat from the get go.

'The Guilty' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN : Sunday 25th September 2016.

I caught an advance screening of Antione Fuqua's Directed 'THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN' at my local multiplex on Sunday evening four days before its official Australian release date. The inspiration for this film and its Old West predecessor from 1960 came from the 1954 Akira Kurosawa Directed, Co-Written and Edited Japanese historical drama adventure epic titled 'The Seven Samurai' set in 1586 during the Warring States Period of Japan. Telling the story of seven Ronin hired to defend a village of farmers from rogue bandits intent on stealing their valuable crops following harvest, the film went onto to be critically lauded and has appeared on numerous Greatest Films Lists ever since, and has been highly influential and often remade and reworked. In 1960 John Sturges Directed and Produced 'The Magnificent Seven' based on that Kurosawa story, but set his film in the Old West in Mexico where a band of seven gunslingers are hired to defend a village from a group of marauding bandits. Now fifty-six years later Fuqua has remade 'The Magnificent Seven' for a whole new audience likely to be unfamiliar with Kurosawa's inspirational film, or the Sturges Americanised version upon which this 2016 offering is based. Made for US$108M the film premiered at TIFF earlier this month, was the closing film at the Venice Film Festival and was released Stateside last week.

The story here has changed little in this Fuqua rendition. This time however, the action takes place not in Mexico but in some remote mining town three days ride from Sacramento, called Rose Creek. Here the simple townsfolk are besieged by a local heavy handed, ruthless and uncaring industrialist Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard) intent on mining the area for gold and taking over the Rose Creek land by all and any force necessary. In an attack on the townsfolk by Bogue and his henchmen after breaking into a meeting held in the town church, the husband of Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett) is killed together with various other innocent townsfolk just minding their own business and wanting a quiet life. Bogue very generously and graciously offer each family $20 for their house and land package, and if they refuse, he'll be back in two weeks to take it anyway!

Emma Cullen rides out with her good friend Teddy Q (Luke Grimes) to the nearest town to find some support to help defend Rose Creek from Bogue's pending return. There by chance they come across Sam Chisholm (Fuqua's go to man, Denzel Washington, dressed all in black just as Yul Bryner's character, Chris Adams, in the 1960 film version of the same film), a grizzled war weary bounty hunter who initially refuses Cullen's request, but relents when he learns that it is Bogue creating such a stink.

And so Chisholm, Cullen and Q head back for Rose Creek, and along the way recruit six other guns for hire, all with a shady past, but each in possession of a particular set of skills that might just serve them well for fighting a small army of Bogue's men. First to join the throng is poker gambling whiskey swilling cigar chewing gunslinger Josh Faraday (Chris Pratt). They in turn meet up with ex-Confederate sharpshooter soldier with 23 confirmed kills Goodnight Robicheaux (Ethan Hawke) and his sidekick the Asian knife wielding assassin Billy Rocks (Byung-hun Lee). They happen across skilled trapper and a God-Fearing bear of a man Jack Horne (Vincent D'Onofrio) and then Mexican on-the-run outlaw with nothing to lose Vasquez (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), before joining up with native American-Indian and ostracised Comanche warrior Red Harvest (Martin Sensmeier).

Later the seven ride into Rose Creek only to be greeted by a posse of Bogue's men headed up by his #1 standover enforcer guy McCann (Cam Cigandet). There's a standoff and some resultant gun play in which all of Bogue's men are killed, leaving McCann and the local Sheriff who is on the take from Bogue, still alive but ordered to ride out and tell Bogue to return in person to do his own dirty work. In the meantime, the seven conclude that they have about a week in which to ready the town, arm themselves, train the townsfolk how to shoot to kill, and prepare themselves before Bogue comes riding into town with his small army.

Over the course of the next week plans are hatched, preparations are made, and the good people of Rose Creek ready themselves for the imminent onslaught. Ditches are dug, explosives laid, traps set, and cover made all in an attempt to give them their best chance against Bogue. At this point Robicheaux gets cold feet as he is hiding some inner Demons about his days of killing on the battlefield, and bids Chisholm farewell under cover of night, saying that his fighting days are behind him. The seven are now down to six, but Cullen steps up to the cause.

The next morning at dawn, Bogue and his army of two hundred or so hired soldiers ride over the hill overlooking Rose Creek. Despite their laid traps, explosive charges, element of surprise and best efforts, there are severe casualties on all sides. When Bogue looks as though his army has been overcome, he rolls out a Gattling Gun and systematically tears the town to shreds with a full magazine of bullets and then another, killing more townsfolk and his own men in the process. Taking a last stand Faraday mounts his horse and rides out to where the Gattling Gun is positioned and with a stick of dynamite sacrifices himself to destroy the gun and the remainder of Bogue's men. In the meantime, Robicheaux who returned warning Chisholm about the Gattling Gun, Rocks and Horne have also been killed in the attack.

Bogue and his two remaining henchmen make for the town to finally mop up. Two are quickly dispensed by Chisholm, leaving Bogue to face off against Chisholm outside the burnt out remains of the towns Church. Chisholm shoots Bogue in the hand and then the leg, and limping into the Church seeking sanctuary and last minute forgiveness, Chisholm recounts to Bogue that he and his men raped and murdered his mother and sisters a few years back, and now it's pay back time. In the process Bogue reaches for a small pistol secreted away in his boot, but not before Cullen shoots Bogue dead from the door of the Church, saving Chisholm. In the closing scene Chisholm, Red Harvest and Vasquez ride out of town passing the four crosses marking the burial sites of their fallen colleagues, who have been hailed as legends by Cullen and the towns people.

In summary there is little new to see here. The plot is the same as for the films predecessors except that it has been updated for a new audience raised on stylised violence, big body counts, fast gun play and political correctness. The seven consist of a black dude, an Asian dude, a Mexican dude, a native American Indian dude, a God-Fearing bible bashing dude, a hard drinking and smoking gambling dude, and a dude fighting his inner Demons who all come to the rescue of a damsel in distress - all demographics are covered here. And all the Western cliches are there too - close ups of squinted eyes in the sun, cigar chewing bad guys, hands poised menacingly over holstered guns, the saloon scene where a tall dark stranger enters, bad guys getting shot off rooftops, the local undertaker doing great business with his pine boxes lined up outside his shop in readiness for the next stiff . . . it's all there, and then some! On the one hand it is good to see the Western genre getting some mileage but how about something fresh and original rather than simply dusting off a classic and rehashing it again for the sake of a new audience. The film has so far recouped US$42M and it is entertaining enough but predictable and we've seen it all before, and better!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-