All Aboard the Hype Express!

Rating: 3/10 (10 February 2008)

Now here's another movie that critics seemed to love, and I just plain hated. Sometimes it's annoying to be out of step with the Universe, and yet in this instance I think I have a strong case.
Frankly, I think "3:10 to Yuma" is an excessively violent, utterly unbelievable and even somewhat mean-spirited film. In vintage Hollywood tradition, the movie tries to make Russell Crowe's character - a crazy, murderous, gun-toting maniac - into a sort of folk hero, by pitting him against other characters who are even sleazier than he is. However, I did not like Crowe's character for a single moment; nor did I appreciate the film's attempts to put him on some kind of pedestal.
My other major problem with the film is that it's paced terribly. There are actually too many action scenes, and each one becomes progressively more unbelievable. An incredible number of people get killed - too many people, in fact. I simply can't believe that so many people would sacrifice their lives to perform some of the senseless missions depicted in this film. And, unbelievably enough, Crowe's character is considered to be a highly successful gang leader - despite the fact that he keeps getting large numbers of his men killed in clumsy operations. Ridiculous.
Worse yet, the action scenes are interspersed with repetitive "character development" moments in which Crowe, seated at a dinner table or near a fire on the prairie, talks trash to the other characters, who just passively sit there and allow themselves to be psychoanalyzed by a crazy gun-toting murderous maniac. Hmm...right.
I know that a lot of people like this movie. It is exactly the kind of movie that looks great to many critics and film buffs, but I just can't enjoy it because I think it's packed with movie clichés and it's got a messed-up moral compass. The more I see of sensitive foreign films, the less I like this kind of American movie - the kind where lots of people get shot in the head, and it's supposed to be OK because the bad guy is more interesting than the good guys. Yikes...