Protraph
Lack of good storyline.
Fairaher
The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.
Ariella Broughton
It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.
Guillelmina
The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
aguti-09325
Brutal just brutal to watch. Don't mind a decent western but good Lord. Hopefully movie didn't go over budget. And for the folks who actually paid a ticket... ouch.
bluekroc
I never leave reviews, but I'm leaving this one with the wish that I could somehow send it back to my past self to try and save the two hours that was just wasted on this completely vacuous movie.
Nothing happened.
We got from A to B sure, but it was entirely banal. How do we spend two hours with this film and develop zero relationship with any of the characters? Any at all? That's includes main characters, villain, villagers that need saving, village, setting, none of it, we care about none of it because nothing meaningful or well-developed occurs by way of plot, dialogue, character development, or directing. This was so pointless. To say that the characters are cliched actually gives the writing and the direction way too much credit, a good cliche can be fun. These characters were too thin and poorly constructed to even fully become cliches. Seriously how was two hours so poorly spent?
Some have said Denzel was the only good thing here and to be frank he wasn't, it's just always nice to see Denzel. He wasn't bad, none the actors were bad, there was just so little substance to the script, that none of them could be good.
I didn't even have high hopes for this thing, yet still felt my time got truly wasted by whichever numbskulls wrote, financed and directed this film. Seriously if you want at all to enjoy good characters, and good plot, even a tiny bit, then go watch something else.
*sigh*
Ian
(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'.
Ramneek Suri
A pleasant surprise. This is a good solid western, a remake of the original classic which itself was an American take on the 1957 Kurusawa masterpiece. Sarsgaard isn't very imposing as the villain. Denzel is OK as are the rest of the cast. D'Onofrio is the acting standout here creating a memorable character in just a few scenes. Overviolent at times but an early standoff builds the tension nicely.Worth watching8/10