CinemaNow - 3:10 to Yuma

Just when it seemed as if the traditional Western had gone the way of the the traditional musical, 3:10 to Yuma comes riding to the rescue with stars Russell Crowe and Christian Bale. Or at least, so several critics suggest. In a four-star review in the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert writes: "Here the quality of the acting, and the thought behind the film, make it seem like a vanguard of something new, even though it's a remake of a good movie 50 years old." A.O. Scott in the New York Times is less impressed, writing that it is "more likely to be recalled as a moderately satisfying entertainment than remembered as a classic," while also noting that the performances of Crowe and Bale "carry the movie." The film is a remake of a 1957 film that starred Van Heflin and Glenn Ford. Nearly all critics agree that it is an improvement over the original. Writes Kenneth Turan in the Los Angeles Times: "What's most impressive about this new version ... is that James Mangold directs it with such energy and passion that it's as if he didn't know it's all been done before." Lou Lumenick in the New York Post describes it as "handsomely produced" and also praises the performances. "Crowe gives a smooth, relaxed performance that's perfectly offset by Bale's intensity," he comments. But a few critics maintain that the film falls short of the original. In the Chicago Tribune, Michael Phillips writes, "Rare is the remake that meets or exceeds the merits of any film, and while Mangold's 3:10 to Yuma is certainly diverting, it is not quite one of those rarities." Several critics take note of the fact that the quintessentially American Western has been "outsourced" to foreigners -- the New Zealand-born Crowe and the Welsh-born Bale. Jan Stuart of Newsday remarks that "at this stage of their game, they speak American better than you and me."

A GREAT western, mirroring the greatest Sergio Leone's films (which Clint Eastwood continued), yet to end with a thud.The realism isn't as good as Leone's, as I noticed many, many "painted" backgrounds and I've never seen a tunnel floor through the earth as hard and smooth as the "set" in this film. Leone's films were entirely (or mostly) filmed in the real world with "weathered" conditions incorporated enhancing the atmosphere of a towns street or the range's open, rocky, bushy terrain to even those small towns that pop up like a shrub in the open range.Also the character's are much too clean and dry and look too "life of comfort" looking, contrasting the world they live in.I don't know why director's have left Sergio Leone's attention to detail for the more 60s-like TV westerns but it's a flaw in the film that only occasionally distacts you.The ending (I have been told there was a different ending in the "original") is the only "thud" in the film.Otherwise, if you want to see a great wild west movie? GET THIS ONE NOW.A side note, for my personal reason, is the character of a Pinkerton Agent who hires the group to get Ben Wade to the train. Slicing my heart in rememberance of John Ritter, the actor was so familiar looking to Ritter I had to check the credits to be sure it wasn't, possibly, the actor's last film. Ritter played a character in the wild west, dressed and mustachioed exactly as the Pinkerton man, in a "Twilight Zone" type TV show once. No matter if Ritter wore a beard, shot guns I could never shake the "Three's Company" character. Like John Wayne, no matter what movie Ritter was in, he was always "John Ritter" as "The Duke" was always "The Duke".So dig in, hold your woman and enter this exciting, well acted cinema!