6/10
Acceptable and passable sequel with a revenger Lee Van Cleef , post-Sergio Leone
2 August 2007
This is the last sequel to ¨Magnificent seven¨ with the skinny Lee Van Cleef as tough gunslinger named Chris (whose character was played by Yul Brynner in two occasions and one performed by Lee Van Cleef and George Kennedy). He's nowadays as sheriff , Marshal Chris Adams , who turns down a friend's request to help stop the depredations of a band of Mexican bandits , but then his spouse (Mariette Hartley) has been kidnapped by a gang . When his wife is abducted by bank thieves and his friend is murdered capturing the last outlaw , Chris feels obligated to take up his partner's cause . Then Chris along with a journalist (Michael Callan) set off in pursuit bandit gunfighters (Gary Busey among them) , as he recruits five prisoners to track down the desperadoes . Besides , Chris helping his buddy (Ralph Waite) must free a Mexican village (inhabited by women as Stefanie Powers , among others) besieged by nasty outlaws who are devastating the small location . Lee van Cleef is decided to take a group of prisoners and strike a blow against the Mexican bandits . He goes to Tucson Territorial Prison where a bunch of misfits , murderers , robbers , rapists and other prisoners (with a TV star-studded cast such as Pedro Armendariz , Luke Askew, William Lucking, Ed Lauter, and James B. Sikking ) get a chance to redeem themselves . As Chris recruits various Magnificent Men and once again defending hapless people from their oppressors . As a brand of new seven , doing their number , they put their lives on the line and let it ride .

The last in the original series of four ¨The Magnificent Seven¨ movies , here Lee Van Cleef as Chris , substituting Yul Brynner , who played the role in two occasions , and one performed by George Kennedy . Yul Brynner insisted he would only make the sequels if Steve McQueen was not involved , McQueen felt the plot was too absurd and for this, and other reasons, was not interested anyway . Van Cleef as a two-fisted avenger sheriff is good as well as his role of ¨Sabata¨, meanwhile Yul Brynner left the Chris character for playing the ¨Cleef's Sabata¨ role in ¨Indio Black¨ . The story is similar to previous entries , adding ¨Dirty dozen¨ wake , including customary outlaw band formed by an eclectic gang with diverse speciality , as dynamite or guns . The film gets action Western , exciting riding, shootouts, it's funny and entertaining , although nothing new but displays a television style . The movie contains some moment of grisly violence and even touching on the relationships between the women and the Magnificent . This is a drab , inferior sequel from the original and enduringly popular ¨The magnificent seven¨ (John Sturges,1960) that is equally remake to ¨The seven samurais¨ (in fact , it was Yul Brynner who approached producer Walter Mirisch with the idea of doing a Western adaptation of Akira Kurosawa's classic) . After that , followed ¨The return of the seven¨(Burt Kennedy,1966), again with Brynner and ¨Guns of the magnificent seven¨ (Paul Wendkos,1969) with George Kennedy and continued with a TV series and a Television movie realized in 1998 . As always , breathtaking and memorable musical score by the great Elmer Berstein. Elmer , whose score for the series is one of the best-known ever composed , also wrote the soundtrack for the parody of this film, 'Three amigos'. Appropriate cinematography by expert cameraman Fred J. Koenekamp (Patton, The inferno towering, Papillon) . The motion picture was regularly directed by George McCowan , a usual TV episodes director (Charlie's Angels , Banacek , Cannon , Starsky and Hutch) . The film will appeal to Lee Van Cleef fans .
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