3:10 to Yuma
Genre: Crime/Drama/Western
Cast: Christian Bale, Russell Crowe, …
Director: James Mangold
Release: (2007)
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But for all that other good stuff, the most important thing here is that Christian Bale and Russell Crowe just scorched it in every scene they had together. Even in the most mundane conversations between their characters, it kept occurring to me as I watched them, “This is what we always wanted DeNiro-Pacino to be.” And not just in the two-famous-actors-in-the-same-movie superficial kind of way, but in every real way I would have wanted scene between that dream team to turn out. Two independent personalities, two men who chose opposite paths in life but could have either gone the other way, two men who find themselves pitted against each other in a fight that only one can survive, but yet who begin to find that rivalry being clouded by that rare kind of respect you can only have for an enemy you consider to be you’re equal in every way. I mean, correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t that exactly what Heat was supposed to be? Isn’t that how we always imagined that scene should go? Well, guess what, IT’S HERE! Stop dreaming about the could-have-beens and never-will-bes of the dream team you think you want and enjoy the dream team you have!
And speaking of chasing pipe dreams, can I just throw this out there right now to anyone who cares about this sort of thing – for the sake of everything good about movies, can we please get Russell Crowe on board right now to play Superman opposite Christian Bale’s Batman and finally make the one movie we’ve all been waiting for a reality? Seriously, this has to happen. I’ve never been a big Russell Crowe guy (and, I’ll admit, I might have a non-sexual man crush on Christian Bale), but after seeing them together in this movie I am telling you that anything less than these two getting that movie done in the next five to seven years is just completely unacceptable. We already know that Bale is the best Batman ever brought to screen, and you don’t think Russell Crowe could nail Superman if he put his mind to it? You don’t think the guy who played troubled savant John Nash in A Beautiful Mind could bring new depth to Clark Kent? Could, should and has to.
In fact, forget everything I said before about learning to appreciate what you have, I will never be happy with anything in my life unless this movie gets made. I know there are a lot of great movies out there right now that I could be happy with, but I really think this could be my soulmovie. My soulmovie! Don’t you see that’s a chance I have to take?
Grading
Story: A
Acting: A+
Visuals: A
Originality/Innovation: B+
Enjoyability: A+
Overall: A+
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