|
3:10 TO YUMA |
||
|
By : Suzanne Philips |
Movie Reviews List | |
| 3:10 TO YUMA Directed by: James Mangold (WALK THE LINE) Written by: Halsted Welles, Michael Brandt, Derek Haas based on a short story by Elmore Leonard Starring: Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Gretchen Mol, Peter Fonda, Ben Foster, Luke Wilson, Logan Lerman, Johnny Whitworth, Alan Tudyk Running Time: 1 hour 57 minutes Rated R Pre-release review - film opens in the U.S. September 7, 2007 3:10 to Yuma is based on a short story by Elmore Leonard and the 1957 film of the same name. Outlaw Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) is captured in a small town and a gang of citizens, including rancher Dan Evans (Christian Bale) must transport him to a train that will take him to Yuma prison without being caught by Wade's gang. The basic characters and dilemmas presented in the story for 3:10 TO YUMA are fairly enjoyable and interesting as a short story. Unfortunately, this one should have stayed a short story. The story really takes place in the final 40 minutes of the film and the rest is just filler. There are long periods where literally nothing happens. It's just characters sitting there with seemingly no purpose other than to offer them screen time. The script is laughably bad and terribly over dramatic. There is a complete abundance of cliches in this film. Every bad cliche that you have ever seen in any Western ever made....you can find it here. The combination of the delivery of the lines and the overbearing musical score serve to make this even worse. It is almost as if the creative team set out to make a parody of a Western film and realized somewhere in the middle that it was meant to be a serious piece. The script is funny in places. This is not always a good thing. Some of the lines and the delivery produce actual laughs. Others produce the laughter of the "I cannot believe they put something so stupid in this" variety. If you look at the cast for this film, you would think...."How could it possibly be bad?" I thought the same thing, yet somehow they managed. 3:10 TO YUMA is like a bad TV movie of the week that just happened to land some outstanding actors. Most of the acting is cheesy and overdone, with the exception of a few. Russell Crowe and Christian Bale are outstanding given the travesty that they were handed. Crowe in particular really shines in this film. The only really good scenes in the film are the ones with Crowe and Bale together. This film could have been really good if the director and creative staff would have just let the 2 actors be in a scene and just act instead of going for the quick cuts and the horrid music overlay. Let them explore the characters more - are these two men, 1 seemingly bad and 1 seemingly good really that different? I can't imagine why you would have 2 amazing actors such as these and not use them to their full potential. Relative newcomer Logan Lerman was also quite good as Bale's son William. Hopefully if you are a fan of the Western genre you will find something to like in 3:10 TO YUMA. For the rest of us, just be happy that Crowe and Bale look wonderful and have fantastic hair. 2 out of 5 |
|