A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: 3:10 to Yuma (2007)

Date Viewed: 9/15/07

Details:

Russell Crowe

Christian Bale

Logan Lerman

Gretchen Mol

Ben Foster

Dallas Roberts

Peter Fonda

Alan Tudyk

Luce Rains

Director: James Mangold

Score: +

The Review: Classic western drama about honor, deadlines and gross villainy -- no, it's not High Noon, although there is a clock theme here -- played out sometime in the decade following the Civil War.

Infamous outlaw Ben Wade (Crowe) is finally captured and ready to be shipped off to the Yuma courthouse for trial, but there's a dearth of volunteers to get him to the train on time -- because Wade's gang is still haunting the fringes waiting to descend on the transfer party and release him. A local farmer (Bale) steps up, using the trek as an excuse to get his farm back on solid financial ground. His son (Lerman) also gets involved.

There is some degree of character complexity (or is it merely ambiguity?) in Crowe's Wade, but the real evil, slimy, son-of-a-bitch is Wade's "lieutenant" Charlie Prince (channeled by Foster).

Diamond anniversary of the original, remake of the classic with Glenn Ford in the role here played by Crowe and Van Heflin in Bale's shoes. From a short story by Elmore Leonard, apparently written long before he became famous for quirky mystery novels.

(27-Oct-07)

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