Christian Bale makes the rest of us want to believe that his kind of man still exists.

Rating: 9/10 (2 November 2007)

The original version of this wonderfully done remake is probably the inspiration for 16 Blocks, S.W.A.T. and other similar movies. 3:10 to Yuma is about the complications in transit taking a prisoner from one place to another.
Even non-fans of westerns should watch this if only for the extremely talented Christian Bale; watching any movie of his is surely time well spent. He always chooses to play interesting roles, and in 3:10 to Yuma, he plays Dan Evans, a poor, handicapped rancher who volunteers to be part of a rag tag team to take captured legendary outlaw Ben Wade (Russell Crowe) to Yuma prison.
James Mangold (Walk the Line, Identity) does an incredible job of directing the terrific cast. Ben Foster (X-Men: The Last Stand, 30 Days of Night) is a revelation as Charlie Prince, Wade's most loyal crew member, who will stop at nothing to rescue his captured leader en route to Yuma prison. Crowe is able to make his complicated character multi-dimensional in that he is both fearsome but someone you also secretly root for.
Everyone does justice to the heart-wrenching script peppered with killer lines. In explaining his decision to take the prisoner on the dangerous journey, Dan frustratedly whispers to his wife Alice (Gretchen Mol), "If I don't go, we gotta pack up and leave. Now I'm tired, Alice. I'm tired of watching my boys go hungry. I'm tired of the way that they look at me. I'm tired of the way that you don't." In another pivotal scene between Dan and his teenage son (Logan Lerman), he says, "Just remember, it's your old man that hauled Ben Wade to that station... when nobody else would." Not all men in his situation will do what is right. Christian Bale makes the rest of us want to believe that his kind of man still exists.