Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 09/09/2008 Run time: 122 minutes Rating: R
Here's hoping James Mangold's big, raucous, and ultrabloody remake of 3:10 to Yuma leads some moviegoers to check out Delmer Daves's beautifully lean, half-century-old original. That classic Western spun a tale of captured outlaw Ben Wade (Glenn Ford)--deadly but disarmingly affable--and the small-time rancher and family man, Dan Evans (Van Heflin), desperate enough to accept the job of helping escort the badman to Yuma prison. Wade, knowing that his gang will be along at any moment to spring him, works at persuading the ultimately lone deputy to accept a bribe, turn his back on "duty," and go home safe and rich to his family. That the outlaw has come to admire his captor intriguingly complicates the suspense. All of the above applies in the new 3:10, but it takes a lot more huffing and puffing to get Wade (Russell Crowe this time) and Evans (Christian Bale) into position for the showdown. Mostly, more is less. To Mangold's credit, his movie doesn't traffic in facile irony or postmodern detachment; it aims to be a straight-up Western and deliver the excitement and charisma the genre's fans are starved for. But recognizing that contemporary viewers might be out of touch with the bedrock simplicity and strength of the genre--not to mention its code of honor--Mangold has supplied both Evans and Wade with a plethora of backstory and "motivations." At the overblown action climax, the crossfire of personal agendas is almost as frenetic as the copious gunplay. (By that point the movie has killed more people than the Lincoln County War.) Best thing about the remake is Russell Crowe's Ben Wade, a Scripture-quoting career villain with an artist's eye and a curiously principled sense of whom and when to murder. As his second-in-command, Ben Foster fairly pirouettes at every opportunity to commit mayhem, and Peter Fonda contributes a fierce portrait of an old Wade adversary turned bounty hunter for the Pinkerton detective agency. --Richard T. Jameson
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Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Loved this western:
I loved the combination of bale and crowe and they both played great characters. I would recommend this to everyone!
Very Underrated Movie:
3:10 to Yuma is a great update to the classic movie with Glen Ford. It stars Christian Bale as Dan Evans, a Civil War vet that's trying to farm his land with one leg and no water. He volunteers to escort a bandit named Ben Wade, played wonderfully by Russell Crowe, across Arizona and make sure he gets put on the 3:10 prison train to Yuma. While that basic set up doesn't seem like it necessarily would make a great movie, the writing makes up for what looks like it could be a bare bones plot. Along the... more info
great acting, horrible plot, story and sequencing, very boring, no Tombstone!:
movie never gets going. even the last shoot out, which I was hoping would redeem the horrible story was very poorly directed. SPOILER: How long does christian bale stand with his back to the gun fight before getting shot? Ridiculous, who would do that? Crowe and Bale put on great performances, movie was just horrible though.
Awesome movie:
I never thought Russell Crowe would be able to pull off a western film after Gladiator, but I must admit he was fantastic in this movie. Christian Bale portrayed a wonderful character and both Crowe and Bale pulls you into the movie. This movie is a fine example that westerns can still be good movies and I think Hollywood should make more of them. Cheers to Crowe and Bale on a stellar performance.
