The Hangover versus The Magnificent Seven

Rating: 7/10 (10 June 2009)

THE HANGOVER and THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN are the two most recent feature movies I've seen. There are several significant points of comparison. Firstly, according to this site--IMDb--HANGOVER is the 126th most popular film of all time, while M7 does not make the top 250 as of June 10, 2009 (even though M7 is popular enough to be selected the second most often for presentation on television by network executives the past four decades). Secondly, film studio execs marketed 1960's M7 primarily as a "western," while this summer's HANGOVER is billed mostly as a "comedy." However, Steve McQueen constantly tried various comic gambits to upstage Yul Brynner in M7, while HANGOVER's bachelor party crew looks east (from L.A.) toward Las Vegas' "Sin City" reputation as the last vestige of the amoral "wild west." Thirdly, Charles Bronson is looking after three kids in peril throughout M7, while 75 per cent of the bachelor party quartet must take responsibility for a baby in peril during the first half of HANGOVER. Though there are many other eerie parallels between these two movies, I must fight against public opinion to express a preference for M7, with Elmer Bernstein's classic musical score providing a clear edge to the earlier flick in terms of likely staying power (though HANGOVER did better at the box office its initial week out, even adjusting M7's gross for inflation, thanks to the later movie's better marketing campaign).