3:10 to Yuma

USA, 2007

Director:

James Mangold

Starring:

Matt: -

Adam: A-

Yuma is a remake of the 1957 Delmer Daves film and sees a hard-up farmer volunteer to join a gang escorting notorious outlaw Ben Wade on an overnight trip in order to catch the train headed to the court at Yuma. There are liberties taken with the realism during this rather improbable journey, but it's nevertheless so well directed and acted they both go a long way in making up for any deficiencies in plotting.

I really love Russell Crowe in everything he's done (bar A Beautiful Mind obviously, which was crap, but that wasn't his fault) and he's very strong in this as usual. I was very entertained all the way up to and including the end which I thought was perfect. The last 5 or 10 minutes in fact were my favourite of the entire film. A throbbing score by Marco Beltrami echoes other gret Western music and helps ratchet up the tension notch by notch towards that gripping finale. Rather bizarrely I've read criticism of the ending I liked so much in other quarters, with other critics saying it actually ruined the film. Obviously it's a quite contentious issue but I for one loved it. Bale is also strong, and the supporting cast hardly put a foot wrong. There's much to enjoy and heaps of convincing character development, you'll just have to forgive the poetic license taken here and there.

AL