Starring Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, Ben Foster, Peter Fonda, Alan Tudyk, Dallas Roberts, Logan Lerman, Gretchen Mol
Written By: Michael Brandt, Derek Haas, Halsted Welles
Directed By: James Mangold
Studio: Lionsgate
Buy on Amazon.com link

I saw 3:10 to Yuma at a sneak peek a week before it opened. I liked it a lot then and I like it just as much now. The film has a great cast, some good action sequence, the film was well written and the direction was excellent. Put that all together and you got a kick ass western!

3:10 to Yuma is about a poverty stricken rancher Dan (played by Christian Bale), who gets caught up in bringing in an outlaw to prison to be hanged. While Dan is retrieving some cattle with his young boys, they witness the notorious Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) robbing a wagon that’s associated with the Railroad. Wade rides out to meet Dan, and takes their horses & guns. Dan has a run-in with Wade again in the local town, and demands he pay for his cattle and his troubles. While he’s negotiating with Wade, the local Sheriff and Railroad people arrest Ben Wade and want to hang him at Yuma prison. They need men and are willing to pay people 200 bucks for job. So Dan agrees to help out because it will mean having 200 dollars and a chance to save the farm, and get respect from his family. While on the journey to the prison, Dan proves to himself and his son that he can bring Wade in and do something instead of failing.

I still have to see the original movie but I thought this was a great Western. There are still loads of Westerns I have to see but I try to catch all the new ones that are being released. Granted there aren’t that many being released nowadays, but the ones that have been coming out of late have been excellent. Well minus American Outlaw but you get the general idea. The director of Walk the Line goes down a different road this time and I really liked the way he filmed this movie. He focuses more on the characters than the actual gun fighting & action. If people are looking for a straight up action film, this isn’t it. It’s slow-paced at times and it might not please everyone but I thought it was a really strong film with terrific acting. Christian Bale, Russel Crowe and Ben Foster all do superb jobs with their roles. Ben Foster pretty much stole each scene he was in, and he just looked & acted very menacing. Christian Bale continues to impress me with his characters and his portrayal of Dan is both believable and well done. Russel Crowe doesn’t seem to play too many bad guys anymore but he certainly played a very likable one in 3:10 to Yuma. He added charisma to the character, being both scary and charming at the same time. Although he can be polite & charming, in the a blink of an eye, he can turn on you and murder you in your sleep.

The bonus features for this DVD are okay, it’s the usual array of extras. There’s an audio commentary with director James Mangold (which I didn’t listen to yet), a making of documentary, “an epic explored” featurette, a documentary about outlaws, gangs and posses of the wild west, and some deleted scenes. The making of was all right, it had a lot of interviews and some behind the scenes stuff for the action sequences. I liked the outlaws documentary and wished it was longer, but I guess I can just watch stuff like that on the History Channel. The deleted scenes basically had more scenes with the characters, and some scenes had more violence in them. Not bad but I can see why they were deleted.

I thought the movie could have been trimmed down a little bit but overall, I liked it a lot. It’s definitely one of the best westerns (not the hotel chain) to have come out this decade, even though there aren’t many. The film has an interesting story, excellent acting and makes you want to watch more Westerns. Check it out Yeehaw!

Features:
Audio Commentary with Director James Mangold
Destination Yuma – Making-of Documentary
An Epic Explored Featurette
Outlaws, Gangs And Posses Documentary
Deleted Scenes

Audio:
ENGLISH: DD-EX 5.1 CC

Video:
Widescreen 2.40:1 Color (Anamorphic)

Subtitles:
English, Spanish

Favorite Scenes: The chase in the beginning, the scene at mountain blasting site, and the finale
Rating: R
Running Time: 122 minutes
Extras Rating:
Overall Rating: