3:10 to Yuma * * 1/2
Director: James Mangold.
Screenplay: Halsted Welles, Michael Brandt, Derek Haas.
Starring: Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Ben Foster, Peter Fonda, Alan Tudyk, Gretchen Mol, Vinessa Shaw, Luke Wilson.
After his Oscar winning “Walk the Line”, director James Mangold got on the saddle to direct this adaptation of Elmore Leonard’s western (filmed once before in 1957 with Glenn Ford). He employs two fine actors for the lead roles but even they can’t help with a script that has more gaping holes than you can shake a ten-gallon hat at.
When notorious outlaw Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) is captured, a posse is thrown together – including penniless rancher Dan Evans (Christian Bale) – to escort him to the town of ‘Contention’, where the 3:10 train to Yuma prison will arrive. Getting there is no easy task though, especially when Wade’s gang are determined to rescue him.
This is a western that certainly looks like a potential classic. It has great performances; a keen eye and feel for detail; beautiful cinematography and it’s based on the easily adaptable writer Elmore Leonard’s book. So what went wrong? Well, for a start it could have been doing with a script that wasn’t so ridiculous and insulting. Granted, the movie starts off great and really looks like it’s going somewhere. Suddenly Crowe’s character begins to show a different, more sensitive side, other than the ruthless murderer we were introduced to and the film goes in a completely different direction, with the last 15 mins or so completely unintelligible. Crowe and Bale put in good performances and work well together but when a script stinks, there’s not much the actors can do to save it. It starts off very promising indeed, before resorting to ludicrous plot developments, ruining what could have been a fine addition to the genre.
3:10 to Yuma? It’s a shame Crowe and Bale couldn’t have caught the earlier train.
Mark Walker
MARKED MOVIES 
August 28, 2012 at 3:54 pm
I don’t know if I missed it before but now I have seen the movie index and I’ll probably bother you to no end. I really liked this movie. I know it had some problems but for some reason I really dug it. Good work here sir ~
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August 28, 2012 at 6:18 pm
Yeah man, browse away. Some of my older reviews are lazily written but when I have the time, I’ll amend them. My opinion and rating of the film’s should stay the same though.
As for this movie, I really wanted to like it but I found the ending very poor. Crowe’s character changes dramatically and it didn’t sit well with me.
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September 12, 2012 at 1:28 pm
hey brother, what’s your email address? If you don’t want to post it, could you send me something to ei@theipc.me? I have an idea for something fun –
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September 12, 2012 at 1:58 pm
Cool bro. Drop me a line at mr.marakai@yahoo.co.uk
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September 8, 2013 at 1:40 pm
I thought this was a poor movie, even quite wretched in places. I also had high hopes, especially given the source material, but it really just hammered home how superior the 1957 version is.
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September 8, 2013 at 1:51 pm
Yeah, I’m with you on that Colin. I really wanted to like this more and it definitely had the potential. Unfortunately, it squandered everything it had going for it. The plot was all over the place and at times simply didn’t make sense. I found it quite insulting at times.
Thanks for commenting, man. Much appreciated.
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