3:10 to Yuma

Over the years, the Western has degenerated from a rousing, exciting drama (The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly) to a vehicle for veteran actors to pay off their water bill. (Uh...everything from the past 10 years). 3:10 to Yuma not only offers a thrill ride not seen this year since Die Hard 4, but a fascinating character study, an action-packed roller coaster, and excellent performances from Russell Crowe and Christian Bale.

Russell Crowe plays Ben Wade, a notorious outlaw, who gets caught looting in a town. Local rancher Dan Evans is a family man, whose financial and personal problems are escalated when people burn down his barn. And so, Dan is offered $200 to get Ben on the 3:10 train to Yuma, so he can be brought to justice. But when Ben begins to murder his captors, and his gang come after them, AND Dan's son tags along, AND, Ben offers Dan $1,000 dollars if he lets him go, many things go awry.

This truly is a fascinating movie, with a shocker of an ending that left yours truly in semi-tears. (For me, Titanic jerks head-on tears) The idea of good guy befriending bad guy, before bad guy is to be hanged worked 50 years ago, and works in this remake. Russell Crowe is my favorite 'appreciated' actor, and Christian Bale my favorite 'underrated' actor, the chemistry is very good. I have reviewed several entertaining movies, but at that not many excellent movies. This is one of the year's, no, the decade's, absolute best. A