Editor Reviews:

Product Description:
Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 09/09/2008 Run time: 122 minutes Rating: R

Amazon.com:
Here's hoping James Mangold's big, raucous, and ultrabloody remake of 3:10 to Yuma leads some moviegoers to check out Delmer Daves's beautifully lean, half-century-old original. That classic Western spun a tale of captured outlaw Ben Wade (Glenn Ford)--deadly but disarmingly affable--and the small-time rancher and family man, Dan Evans (Van Heflin), desperate enough to accept the job of helping escort the badman to Yuma prison. Wade, knowing that his gang will be along at any moment to spring him, works at persuading the ultimately lone deputy to accept a bribe, turn his back on "duty," and go home safe and rich to his family. That the outlaw has come to admire his captor intriguingly complicates the suspense. All of the above applies in the new 3:10, but it takes a lot more huffing and puffing to get Wade (Russell Crowe this time) and Evans (Christian Bale) into position for the showdown. Mostly, more is less. To Mangold's credit, his movie doesn't traffic in facile irony or postmodern detachment; it aims to be a straight-up Western and deliver the excitement and charisma the genre's fans are starved for. But recognizing that contemporary viewers might be out of touch with the bedrock simplicity and strength of the genre--not to mention its code of honor--Mangold has supplied both Evans and Wade with a plethora of backstory and "motivations." At the overblown action climax, the crossfire of personal agendas is almost as frenetic as the copious gunplay. (By that point the movie has killed more people than the Lincoln County War.) Best thing about the remake is Russell Crowe's Ben Wade, a Scripture-quoting career villain with an artist's eye and a curiously principled sense of whom and when to murder. As his second-in-command, Ben Foster fairly pirouettes at every opportunity to commit mayhem, and Peter Fonda contributes a fierce portrait of an old Wade adversary turned bounty hunter for the Pinkerton detective agency. --Richard T. Jameson

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Rating : - A Nice Try
My take on this movie is that some very good performances were devalued by the special effects people sitting in front of computer screens. A tense psychological cat and mouse game begins with the capture of Russell Crowe who plays notorious outlaw Ben Wade. A simple rancher Dan Evans, played by Christian Bale, volunteers to escort Wade to the train to Yuma prison in order to earn badly needed money for his rain-parched ranch.

This is a remake of the 1957 release of the same name starring Glenn Ford as Ben Wade and Van Heflin as Dan Evans. Russell Crowe does his usual outstanding job. Crowe is as excellent as a charming cowboy psychopath as he is as master and commander of a ship, a fearless gladiator, or a police thug turned noble. Ben Foster is perfectly cast as Billy Prince, Wade's wild-eyed loyal to the death sidekick. If you saw a fellow with his demeanor on a city street today you would be inclined to cross to the other side.

It is unfortunate that the makers of the film decided to go with special effects action to the detriment of the psychological in this movie. Action and psychology are not mutually exclusive but they are out of balance in this movie. The earlier version is incredible enough as Van Heflin shoots his way to the train with Ford in tow. Putting Christian Bale's character on a peg leg goes beyond one's willingness to suspend disbelief. The firepower depicted in this version is enough to invade Iraq again.

This version runs one-half hour longer than the 1957 edition in order to accommodate all of the extra violence. There is a scene that was added to this version and not present in the earlier Glenn Ford version. Crowe kills three Indians. Though the script tries to justify the scene by having them take a short cut through dangerous "Indian territory" it is obviously not justifiable since Indians are never seen or discussed again.

"The Unforgiven", the best of the modern cowboy genre, did not need as many (if any) computer-driven effects to tell a good tale of the old West. With such an excellent cast neither did "3:10 to Yuma". Nice try, but computer gimmicks should always be subordinated to good performances.