The Magnificent Seven (12A) ABC, Odeon,Cineworld Poole ***

TOWARDS the bullet-riddled conclusion of director Antoine Fuqua’s stylish western remake, a voiceover dreamily recalls the self-sacrifice and heroism of seven righteous men, who laid down their lives for a town in jeopardy.

“It was magnificent,” gushes the film’s narrator.

That’s going a little far.

In its bombastic latest incarnation, The Magnificent Seven lassos a stellar cast and a rollicking soundtrack composed by the late, great James Horner and completed by his good friend, Simon Franglen.

Action sequences are orchestrated at a canter and Richard Wenk and Nic Pizzolatto’s script introduces some moments of bone dry humour in between the frenetic shoot-outs.

It’s an entertaining ride, but Fuqua struggles to distinguish his battle royale between morally conflicted men from the countless westerns that have trotted down this same narrative trail.

Oscar-winner Denzel Washington, who won his golden statuette in Fuqua’s 2001 film Training Day, is a swaggering, physically imposing hero, driven to his suicidal actions in the name of retribution.

The script is peppered with well-heeled one-liners - “Fame is a sarcophagus” - and the final assault on a besieged Rose Creek packs in sufficient excitement to stay in the saddle for 133 minutes.

The Girl With The Gifts (15) Odeon, Cineworld Poole **

Following a blood trail left by cult director George A Romero, award-winning TV series The Walking Dead has consistently raised the bar for nail-biting human drama set in the midst of a zombie apocalypse.

But the bar is set too high for The Girl With All The Gifts, a dystopian horror directed by Colm McCarthy and adapted for the screen by Liverpudlian author Mike Carey from his bestselling novel of the same title.

Predominantly filmed on location in the West Midlands, including Birmingham, Cannock Chase and Dudley, this grim vision of mankind teetering on the brink of annihilation feels second hand for the majority of its slow-burning 111 minutes.

Deepwater Horizon (12A) Odeon, Cineworld Poole Preview

DIRECTOR Peter Berg and leading man Mark Wahlberg, who collaborated on the wartime drama Lone Survivor, reunite for this action-packed disaster thriller based on the true events of April 20, 2010, which resulted in the deaths of 11 oil platform workers and the most catastrophic oil spill in American history at the drilling platform Deepwater Horizon located approximately 40 miles off the coast of Louisiana. 

Survivors of the initial blast race against time to lower lifeboats into the water before flames engulf the entire structure.