“3:10 To Yuma” (Lionsgate)
Take A Later Train
Fifty years ago Glenn Ford and Van Heflin starred in a moderately successful western titled
“3:10 To Yuma.” It wasn’t a classic in the sense of “Shane” or “High Noon” but it was enjoyable and entertaining. Now the movie has been remade starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale. It is directed by James Mangold of “Walk the Line” fame. That is a lot of star power associated with one film and it is still a mess.
Bale plays Dan Evans, a rancher who is down on his luck. He is strapped for money and sees a time when he and his wife (Gretchen Mol) will have to take their two sons and leave their property. A chance for some extra money arrives when the local sheriff captures robber/killer Ben Wade (Crowe). They offer Dan two hundred dollars to help take Wade to the nearest town where a train will take him to the authorities. This is the 3:10 train to Yuma.
Most of the film is taken up with this trek to the train station. Along the way Wade begins to work on Dan’s mind and even ends up offering him more than two hundred dollars to let him escape. Dan is tempted because he needs to have some security for his family, but his oldest son Will (Logan Lerman) is with him and he doesn’t want to set a bad example for him.
This sounds like a pretty interesting film but it just doesn’t play out that way. Nothing in the movie makes any sense. People stand around waiting to be shot and never seem inclined to fight back. In one scene the bad guys are down in the street below a window where thew good guys are located. These men are brutal killers but no one takes a shot at them. They sit around waiting for them to attack.
When you get to the end of the movie everything does fall apart. It is off the wall and totally unbelievable. At the start of the film Dan is shown limping badly because he has an artificial leg, but at the end he is running and jumping off roofs like he has two good legs.
The best part of the movie is the humor. Ben Wade gets off some funny one liners as he sits around waiting to be rescued. Still the humor seems out of place in such a dramatic situation, but in a movie this messed up you take whatever good you can find.
The acting is okay. Crowe shows Ben’s charm as well as his evil side. Bale is somewhat heroic. Ben Foster is outstanding as Ben Wade’s truly evil assistant, and Logan Lerman shines as the over eager son.
The movie is rated R for profanity and violence.
The ingredients are there for a good film but the lack of coherency is deadly. This movie is nothing to “Crowe” about and the actors should have “Bale-d” as soon as they saw the rambling script.
I scored “3:10 To Yuma” a trainwreck 3 out of 10.
