Thursday, May 22, 2008

Movie Review: 3:10 to Yuma

What is 3:10 to Yuma? That's what my wife asked me. It is what it sounds like, a train schedule. The train is supposed to take Ben Wade to prison.

Ben Wade is played by Russell Crowe. In my opinion, his is the most interesting character in the movie. He is pure evil, but he recognises honor when he sees it. Honor is to be found in Christian Bale's character Dan Evans. He is a in debt, starving rancher in Arizona struggling to make ends meet when his creditors burn his barn down. He accepts the offer of $200 to help take Wade to the train only because he thinks it's the only way he can save the farm.

This is a good movie, I'll say out front. It is a bit slow at times, the build ups to the action, especially the finale are long. I think it has aspects of both the old westerns, and also the new ones. The old ones because only the good guys can actually hit anything, and the new ones because good doesn't exactly triumph in the end.

I'd like to introduce a term I'll likely use alot in the future and that is EKI. EKI stands for easily killed individual, and this movie is full of them. The most obvious ones are the Marshall's men. In fact, when I saw them I told my wife "they just introduced some easily killed individuals for the finale, it will be over soon." Sure enough, they were all dead in a blaze of cowardice in less than three minutes. There are really only three non-EKI's in the movie, Wade, Evans, and Prince. Pretty much everybody else dies, and even two of those three do. It's really kind of dark.

The standouts are Crowe, Bale, and Ben Foster. The first two you know, but Ben Foster is an interesting guy. I remember him from a show called Flash Forward on the Disney Channel way back in the mid nineties. He has grown up to be quite a versatile actor, from The Punisher, to XMen, and now Yuma.

I guess it would have been nice to have more Americans in the cast, but hey, whoever can do the best job, so be it. I do really like Bale, he's one of my favorite actors, and not just because he's Batman either.

As far as the big three, there's no sex, only a woman's naked back, not much swearing, and plenty of violence with many visible squibs. Any effects used are obvious, to make towns appear, to blow up a horse, etc.

I give this movie a 6/10.
WiredForStereo

3 comments:

Heidi said...

I really liked that movie too, I'd have given it a 8 out of 10 though!

Anonymous said...

Are you kidding this movie deserves a 7 or 8 not a 6 man for that kind of review and a 6 what is the problem tell me latter.

Solomon Parker said...

I know you liked it, but it was depressing, and the bad guy wins. It was like Knockaround Guys, every body gets killed and I don't like those kinds of movies.