310 To Yuma review

3:10 Yuma Movie Review

310 to Yuma is the newest movie from James Mangold(Walk the line, Identity) and starring Christian Bale and Russel Crowe.
The story is that Christian Bale's Character Dan Evans is a civil war veteran with a bad leg deep in debt because of an extended drought in his farmland. Evans first meets Russel Crowe's character Ben Wade after Evans witnesses Wade rob a wagon and the first gunfight in the movie is shown. They confront each other and both end up in the same town again. Wade is caught by the sheriff, and a team is assembled to bring Wade to the train that takes him to Yuma the prison in the area to be hung. Evans goes along because he is being paid 200$ and he was the best shot in his unit. They encounter people along the way who want Wade dead along with the constant fear that Wade's gang will arrive to take him back.
310 to Yuma is a remake of a 1957 movie of the same name, and based on a short story by Elmore Leonard. The acting is top of the line as to be expected by the big names Bale and Crowe and for the most part they move the story along as best as they can. No real problems with the acting and there are small parts for Luke Wilson and Alan Tudyk with Tudyk providing some small comic relief as a vet who goes along with the crew.
The movie looks good with some impressive action sequences in between a whole lot of unneeded side stories. The gunfights are very drawn out and in some parts exciting but also somewhat improbable considering the time the story took place in. Mangold seems to get the best out of his directors here except for Ben Foster who plays the one of the people in Wade's gang who in my opinion seemed a little too close to Wade, and was just awkward overall.
My main problem with the movie was that some parts of the movie were too realistic and others were just far fetched as hell. The whole movie was leading up to a firefight on the way to the train station that was almost insane. Evans and Wade end up running half a mile to a train station while every person in the town is shooting at them. They seem to have terrible aim and I just thought it played out like every crappy action movie that shows the main character escaping enormous amounts of gunfire. The ending is very weak and just seemed to tie together really hastily and shakily.
Overall the movie feels very long at the times when guns aren't going off with unnecessary extra subplots and some very boring sequences between Evans and his teenage son who I absolutely despised in this movie. His son pulls the whole I am coming with you crap and it just added nothing to the story.
I enjoyed some of the movie but most of the movie switched between boring and ridiculous and despite some good acting I was not impressed with 310 to Yuma.
Score: 6.0/10