2007's Most Rewarding Trip to the Movies... BUT.......

Rating: 2/10 (8 September 2007)

Please don't take any review of this film seriously that says this movie is a great picture, because it isn't. Great movies do not take the audience for idiots and self-destruct in the final 20 minutes.
This was 2007's best trip to the movies, and ought to have been a solid winner, as it was very, very good for an hour and 40 minutes. 3:10 TO YUMA was at least something we were truly interested in seeing, a real western and not some silly comic book adventure for 11 year old's. Too bad the filmmakers fell into the agonizingly familiar practice of covering over idiotic flaws with excessive noise and action; but that is exactly what they've done with the final 20 minutes --- when a common sense climax is what the audience paid for.
The critical task is for the rancher (BALE) to successfully take the outlaw (CROWE) from the hotel room to the train (1/2 mile) with the outlaw's gang in town to prevent that from happening. How the rancher does it is (get this) the outlaw simply co-operates! No kidding! And after that, the outlaw simply decides to gun down for no reason five members of his gang that were in town for the sole purpose of breaking him out. Can you imagine any worse insult to the intelligence of the audience? Oh, well; the first 100 minutes were really good, and this movie wasn't as bad as Warner's slaughter of J K Rowling's 5th book; a dreadful movie from start to finish.
The original 3:10 TO YUMA was never a classic western but it was a solid good movie, narrowly focused on a clash of two strong men. The new version is not a remake in the usual sense but a powerful and original new story borrowing the basic premise of the original as well as a few lines of exact dialog. Needless to add, the original film had an honest ending that neither insulted nor cheated the audience.