3:10 to Yuma (2007)

Two of my favorite actors, Christian Bale and Russell Crowe, face off in this gritty western remake. Even if I had heard that the movie sucked, I would still have seen it just for them. I have yet to see a performance by either Bale or Crowe that was not interesting and engaging. This film did not disappoint.



Christian Bale plays peg-legged rancher, father, and husband Dan Evans, who struggles to make ends meet. Things turn from bad to worse as his landlord cuts off his water, and burns down his barn because he is late on his payments. As luck would have it, the ruthless outlaw Ben Wade (Crowe) comes to town, is caught and destined for Yuma prison. Bale's character volunteers to escort the evil Wade to the prison train in order to make some extra cash. Gratuitous violence ensues as they travel through Indian territory, evade Wade's mob, and eventually end up in a shootout at the train station. Interestingly, Wade goes through a transformation during the journey, after observing the stalwart goodness of Evans in the face of certain death.

The ending was a little unbelievable, and the movie seemed to have the token western stereotypes (Chinamen working on the railroad for example). But in the end, I really enjoyed this movie. Ben Wade is one of those really bad bad guys that you love to watch in movies like this. I was actually a little shocked at first that Crowe was portraying this type of character - it seems like his staple is the heroic character that Bale was playing. But, Crowe's prowess as an actor shines through all the same. Bale's performance is just as good.

I highly recommend this movie to anyone. One of the better films of 2007.