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The Glorious Seven
Germany 2018
produced by Harald Franklin, Müjdat Singin (executive) for Arena World, Think Global Media
directed by Harald Franklin
starring Julia Mulligan, Jerry Kwarteng, Maurice Nash, Ilker Kurt, Maksim Kolesnichenko, Alek Beardman, Marina Kinski (as Marina Viktorovna), Ender Atac, Fernando Carrera, Usman Maqpool, Fernando Corral, Santos Adrián, Joan Ruiz, Sophie Toropchina, Daria Gomez, Vladimir Parkhomchuk, Yana Klyuchnik, Andrey Snitsarchuk, Yuliya Dzhak, Dmitry Levadny, Artem Bedzay
written by Harald Franklin, music by Peter Latimore
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Guerra (Jerry Kwarteng) once was the top mercenary there was - but he
quit the "job" a couple of years ago to lead a quiet life ...
until rich man Levin (Fernando Carrera) arrives, whose wife Valentina
(Julia Mulligan) has been kidnapped by a rebel from Nicaragua, Javier
(Fernando Corral), and who offers Guerra 2 million Dollars to get her back
alive and also capture Javier - dead or alive, really. Guerra shows
reservations, especially since the story doesn't add up - Javier has never
been a kidnapper -, but the lure of the money is too strong, so he drums
up his old crew - Thai fighter Ryan (Maurice Nash), coke-addicted arms
dealer Jannis (Ilker Kurt), Russian strongman Alex (Maksim Kolesnichenko),
revolutionary Ernesto (Alek Beardman) and his daughter Cheyenne (Marina
Kinski), and wrestler Hurricane (Ender Atac), and off they go through the
jungle, facing many challenges before they even arrive at Javier's
headquarters. The operation to free Valentina goes almost glitchless,
thanks to the help of an insider (Sophie Toropchina), but their escape
less so as Alex has been wounded and is slowing them down, and once they
have arrived at their own headquarters, they find it hard to hold the
place - and all the while, Guerra starts to wonder if he's really on the
right side of the battle, as Valentina didn't seem like a kidnapping
victim, and Javier wouldn't go to all those troubles to get her back if
she was nothing but. But while Guerra is still wondering, fighters on both
sides start to drop like flies ...
Loosely based on Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, The
Glorious Seven never really reaches that movie's raw power - but
that's probably an unfair comparison, as Kurosawa's movie is a pretty much
undisputed classic of world cinema, while The Glorious Seven is
much more a testosterone pumping action flick that indeed has put more
thought into the story (and righteousness of its heroes) than the usual
shoot-em-up, but it's really a film that's more centered around its
action, fights and shoot-outs than anything else - and on that front the
film really delivers, the action is uniformly well choreographed, expertly
timed and excitingly filmed and edited, and the many exotic locations -
the film was shot in Spain, Italy, Costa Rica, the Ukraine and Thailand -
are put to great use here, too. So while no, it's not the next Seven
Samurai, it's still a hell of a watch taken by its own merits!
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