3:10 to Yuma

Well I finally managed to free some time up to go see 3:10 to Yuma. It just happened to be the very last showing of the movie in our local theater. I'm glad I managed to go and see it since it met most of my expectations.

In short it's a good movie. If you get a chance see it our pick up the DVD when it comes out. The acting is solid and better then the first version. Russell Crowe and Christian Bale continue to impress me and the best parts of the movie are when these two great actors interact.

The story follows the first movie and I can only assume the original work pretty closely. I need to pick up a copy of Elmore Leonard's short story and see which version is more true to the work. One of the things I really enjoyed about the first version was the fact that the Dan Evans character was pretty much an everyday man. He was down on his luck, but not any more then most people and while he needed the 200 dollars to get by and needed it badly doing the right thing was more important to him. In this version the character is truly beat down with a missing leg from the war and a son with TB and an evil neighbor trying to steal his land. It's almost like Hollywood doesn't believe in the everyday man...what am I saying of course they don't.

The movie adds a few action sequences like a dangerous apache pass that wasn't any more dangerous then Dan Evans ranch and a run in with some other railroad people both of which seemed to be in there for the MTV generation. The only thing that really bugged me about the movie however was the overt approach to telling the audience that putting Ben Wade in the 3:10 to Yuma did not mean that he would get hanged. At one point Russell Crowe has to say that he's broken out of Yuma twice before. It just dumbs it down to much and generally pisses me off.

The action was solid, the acting was great, the costumes and guns were fun and the movie was enjoyable. Ben Foster did a great job playing the part originally done by Richard Jaeckel and definitely stole a couple of scenes. It's not the best western I've ever seen, even in the modern era, but it is well worth the price of admission.