Ever since Guardians of the Galaxy turned him into a superstar, Chris Pratt has almost exclusively tended to operate in the realm of broad, crowd-pleasing blockbusters. There’s no doubting his talents as an actor, but it would also mark a refreshing change of pace to see him do something other than rely on his natural charm, comic timing and charisma on the big screen.
In the seven years since James Gunn’s Marvel Cinematic Universe smash hit made him an overnight A-lister, Pratt has gone on to reprise the role of Peter Quill several times over, with Thor: Love and Thunder and Guardians Vol. 3 his fifth and sixth appearances in the franchise. His third Jurassic World epic hits theaters next summer, while recent Amazon effort The Tomorrow War already has a sequel in early development.
Throw in The LEGO Movie and its sequel, Pixar’s Onward and big budget intergalactic romance Passengers opposite Jennifer Lawrence, and it’s clear that small independent projects really aren’t his thing. He did make a period piece a few years back, though, but even then Antoine Fuqua’s The Magnificent Seven was a star studded $90 million Western with Denzel Washington in the lead role.
The latest re-telling of the familiar tale is nowhere near half as good as either Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai or John Sturges’ original, but it’s still an entertaining slice of popcorn escapism. It didn’t perform spectacularly at the box office, topping out with just $162 million in the coffers, but The Magnificent Seven is now finding a new lease of life on Netflix.
The most-watched charts tend to reflect the importance of star power to the platform’s subscribers, and the duo of Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt has been more than enough to send their collaboration as high as third position.