Review of 3:10 to Yuma (2007) by Edd. — 22 Jan 2008

I recall in Network, or some such film, a scene in which a wealthy Texan makes it clear that he is in the market for "big" art. The American public likes big movies as much as they liked big cars in the 70s.

This movie had virtually no plausibility, as it crowbarred morality and meaning into coldblooded killers and down and out ranchers. What made it an absurd movie? The one staggering question as to why Crowe wasn't simply shot out of hand and brought in dead; scenes where hugely powerful bad guys wiped out everyone in the vicinity virtually at will ; igniting dynamite thrown in the air with a shotgun fired from the back of a galloping horse; leaving the coldest of coldblooded killers alone with Christian Bale's wife; shootouts of one to 20 or more proportions; a plot which went to ludicrous lengths to wedge Christian Bale into the last man standing role; and the totally unexplainable actions of Russel Crowe as he repeatedly assists his captors and finally gets on the train himself--the movie's makers have failed miserably to make a morality play out of an BIG western.

This is a movie that can only make sense as a load of crap sold to a public that demands it, and pushed by critics who don't know what it smells like.