Action movie in an unbelievable western setting

Rating: 6/10 (9 March 2008)

"Unbelievable" is the key word when it comes to describing "3:10 To Yuma". Unfortunately, not in the positive sense. That's not saying James Mangold's movie isn't very entertaining, because it is, but you really have to turn off your brain for it. Firstly, there's a father-son relationship that may be common in this day and age, but not at the period of time in which the movie is set. And secondly, characters behave irrationally all the time to a point where you could only buy their motivations if you were 10 years old.
Christian Bale and Russell Crowe are pretty good actors, but they don't get much chance to shine here. After all they're just in another fast paced action movie. For a western this here moves way too quickly and just isn't epic enough. Fair enough, maybe a modern western needs to be loud, fast and chatty. Personally, I'm not the biggest fan of the genre, so it suits me fine that Mangold doesn't really play by the rules. One thing is for sure, though: "3:10 To Yuma" will neither become a classic, nor does it belong among IMDb's Top 250 movies. Time will tell.