3:10 to Yuma - 7.5 rating

I like Russell Crow and Christan Bale and all n' all this was not a bad movie. Going in to it I had high hopes (Which is almost always bad). I heard it was the best western since Unforgiven. In my opinion Unforgiven is a great movie. Also I like The Quick and the Dead as a more recent western. 3:10 to Yuma is not in the same league as those two.

While the acting is good the characters seem pretty stereotypical. Russell Crow plays an infamous Outlaw. The leader of a gang of outlaws. He is a ruthless killer-thief with a twisted sense of justice. Christian Bale plays a father, husband, down on his luck rancher, civil war veteran with a bum leg and his own personal demons.

Its the personal demons where my problem with this movie resides. From the beginning it seems like he has money problems and this is the main motivation for his actions throughout the movie. This is reinforced several times. But in the end when he is offered an opportunity to walk away from certain death with the money he was promised he decides not to do it. Instead he decides to go with door #3 where if he succeeds against all odds he will get everything he could possible ever want AND gets to kill his demons too boot. Its like he was making decisions knowing that he was the hero of the movie.

Please do not get me wrong I understand what they were trying to do. I just didn't believe it. I didn't believe Christan Bale. I give it 7.5 stars. I recommend it but don't have high hopes.

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