Los siete magníficos

Finally another great western movie!

To be sure, all the western clichés are found in this movie; and I don't have a problem with that! One of the things I liked best about this western was the pacing, sometimes I find westerns to be a little too slow (for my personal taste - subjective, I know) but I felt this movie nailed it, even with a run time a little over 2 hours.

The action scenes are great, very well done. The casting and acting was great - Denzel does a great job as the leader of this rag tag group of guys. Pratt, of course, nails the comedic relief role.

The movie carried a surprising amount of "heart" throughout it all the way to the end.

Here is the bottom line: Yes, this movie is worth your hard earned money to go see in the theater.

My only critique is with the Emma character. She's supposedly a pioneering woman...tough no-nonsense. But her dress says otherwise. Off the shoulder, low cut? Not the reality of the day at that time. If y'all wanted sexy keep it authentic...not contrived out of Hollywood!

Come on now. If you're going to re-make "The Magnificent 7" let's do it magnificently. Where was that great music? Where is the superlative cast that include Yul Brynner, Eli Wallach, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, and Vladimir Sokoloff? You might argue that Denzel Washington and Chris Pratt are on a level with Brynner and McQueen, but I wouldn't. Pratt certainly has potential, but he doesn't yet have McQueen's star power. The rest are pale imitations, except perhaps for an unbelievably fat Vincent D'Onofrio who is certainly entertaining.

This is a modern re-telling. You might call it the Diversity 7. The producers threw in just about every minority you can think of – Mexican, Asian, Black, Woman. The only thing missing was a "little" person .

Personally I liked the idea of the woman, played very well by Haley Bennett who has been with Washington before ("The Equalizer").

An action film like this works only when the villain is villainous. Eli Wallach was terrific. Peter Sarsgaard wouldn't scare a fly.

Don't get me wrong. I enjoyed it. It's OK, but it's not magnificent.

Yet another remake…but the trailers for this one were at least encouraging, especially with Denzel Washington playing the lead.

I have vague memories of seeing the original The Magnificent Seven, (which is in itself a re-imagining of Seven Samurai), and I seem to remember liking it. I think 56 years is long enough of a gap to justify a remake, so I'll give them a pass on this one (although you could argue that 1980's Battle Beyond the Stars was another Seven Samurai remake). So what was it like?

Each character was steadily added to the team, they had a bonding/preparing the town montage, the bad guys showed up, they shot each other a lot, characters were killed, the film ended. Pretty much what I was expecting, and that's fine.

Personally, I love Westerns (The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is one of my favourite films ever), so for me this formula really worked. Is it going to win any awards? Probably not, but the performances were good (although it might be hard to argue that Chris Pratt was acting anything other than himself, which again, is fine), it looked good, and most importantly, I was entertained.

(From my blog site: whingewood.wordpress.com)

Don't misunderstand.

Both Liam Neeson and Denzel Washington are in their 60s, both have defied the laws of Physics by starting brand-new careers as Action Heros late in life. and both are charismatic and talented enough to pull it off.

(Neeson with the Taken series plus a few other assorted action roles recently; Denzel with the Equalizer franchise and this strange oater.)

Frankly, I would be happy to buy a ticket buyer for all the action roles they both can dish up. If both these gentlemen want to continue to make these sorts of pictures for the next 20 years, I promise to keep watching.

However, leaving aside the star power of the lead in this production, overall this film is a borderline remake.

The original had a better ensemble cast, better music, and better acting.

This is an "OK" remake (as many other members have opined here) with arguably better pistol-handling skills.

And still a very nice way to spend a rainy afternoon.