’3:10 to Yuma’ Review

Speaking of Steve the Pirate, I finally got around to watching 3:10 to Yuma this past weekend, and I can say without hesitation that it is the best film I’ve seen this year. Granted, it’s only March, but still.

The film stars Christian Bale as a down-on-his-luck, one-legged rancher hired to escort Russell Crow, as an unstoppable criminal killing machine, to a train that’ll take him to Yuma prison. Oh, and between Bale and the train is Crow’s gang of also unstoppable criminal killing machines, led by Claire from Sex Feet Under‘s creepy boyfriend, who is desperate to have his fearless leader back, in a kinda creepy way. To make matters more awesome, Peter Fonda and the aforementioned Steve the Pirate are helping to transport Crow, and Luke Wilson shows up owning Chinese slaves.

The thing that makes this such a great movie is that it’s really a character piece, with both Bale and Crow playing incredibly complex and deep characters. Crow isn’t your typical villain, and Bale isn’t your typical hero. The film takes the time to really flesh out who these men are and what’s really driving them, and that makes the story really worthwhile. Honestly, I think if Javier Bardem is going to get an Oscar for his role in No Country for Old Men then these two guys should have gotten Oscar nominations, too.

I like the film so much I’m debating sending the disc back to Netflix. It’s a really that great of a movie. If I had to quantify its greatness, I’d say it’s about as great as The Prestige, with a little more character work here, and a little bit of a more awesomeness to the story there (I consider Steve the Pirate and David Bowie a push). It’s that kind of movie. Only more westerny.

See this movie. I highly recommend it.