Good (Until the Ending)

Rating: 8/10 (26 May 2008)

This is a well-done old fashioned Western, a repeat in fact of a film done 50 years earlier. I suspect I never saw the original because I feel sure I would have remembered the completely unconvincing O.Henry ending. Before it comes to an ending that should have been tossed in the trash can, however, "3:10 to Yuma" is quite well done with Russell Crowe surprisingly good as the bad guy and Christian Bale excellent as the rancher who agrees to shepherd Crowe's character to the train depot where he will board the train that will carry him to prison in Yuma. Westerns have virtually disappeared as a film genre but if you were raised on them, as I was, you've seen variations on this plot 1000 times more or less. This film is well executed, and Crowe and Bale do their roles efficiently. Several of the minor characters are also very good. These are dry times for lovers of old westerns, so catch this one when and where you can.