Denzel, Chris, and all of the diverse casting is what I love about this movie. Denzel's acting is impeccable. Chris Pratt is good, but his character could have used more development and additional scene takes.Vincent D'Onofrio is screamingly funny, and Byung-Hun Lee is sizzling hot. Holy bleep!Pete Sarsgaard makes the most riveting villain I have seen in years. That final scene between Denzel and him is pure genius (whether or not it follows earlier versions of the plot).Antoine Fuqua's casting could not have been better. BRILLIANT!

A ragtag bunch of loner mercenaries join together to defend a townful of innocents against a predatory (and far better armed) force which greatly outnumbers them. That synopsis fits this film and also its multiple forbears, starting with Kurosawa's Seven Samurai and including (of course) John Sturges' seminal 1960 western, and Roger Corman's rather less seminal Battle Beyond The Stars. The villain of the piece here is a property baron looking to extort the population of a town out of their land, using murder when necessary. Denzel Washington heads up the seven, in a nice selection of characters which both echo the original yet manage to be their own characters.That is the mark of this film: it often references its predecessor (the knife fight in the railroad stock yard, for instance) yet it is quite different in execution. I must say that the final reference - wait for the closing credits - gripped me by the throat and didn't let go.It is not without flaws: deaths of members of the seven flash by during the (well-staged) final battle, for instance, without them having the impact they should have. There is a closing voiceover which obviously exists only to have the word "magnificent" in it: it is contrived, clumsy and completely unnecessary. And Sarsgard's baddie, Bartholomew Bogue, is either badly conceived or badly performed, with an air of mildly exasperated but languid impatience which doesn't really feel credible.And it appeared to me that much of Fuqua's direction, in the early part, at least, seemed to be based on the assumption that none of the audience had ever seen a western. However, given how long the western has been out of favour, that may well be true.For all that, it is a decent enough movie. Not as epic or iconic as its predecessor, to be sure, but not bad at all.

Is it a masterpiece? No. But does it entertain you as a film should? Definitely. The acting is all great, but of course it is with so many fantastic actors. Chris Pratt once again is the stand out star in my opinion. He's his usual hilarious, charming and cool self. They did a great job with the fight scenes, special effects/practical effects and the writing is also really well done. An all around good movie. The only thing I can really fault it for is not having more speaking roles for actresses. Only one susbstantial female role in the whole movie. Other than that is was really good.

(Flash Review)This is the epitome of Hollywood. Take a legendary film, Seven Samurai, dumb it way down, crank the action to ten, make each character a unique stereotype and scribble a shallow story. Yet the result is fun when mentally prepared. For those unfamiliar with Seven Samurai, a small town hires a skilled samurai to defend their town. Much the same here as a skilled bounty hunter, Denzel, is hired to save them from a murdering gang threatening to take their land. Much of the movie is the recruitment as Denzel over-easily convinces six more guys to aid him. Will they be able to save the townsfolk and their land? I felt Chris Pratt was miscast. I like him but I never believed his personality type ever existed in a Western era. While the action was fun and relentless at times, it was manic for a Western. Peter Sarsgaard always plays a great villain and he did again. Overall, this is a mildly and mindless entertaining hyper-action 'Western'.