- Sometimes it’s so easy for me to like a movie, it really is. Russell Crowe? Check. Christian Bale? Check. A shoot-em-up Wild West cowboy flick? Check. Those three things alone make this worth seeing. I’m willing to bet that The Assassination of Jesse James will be equally easy to like, given both Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck (!!!) are in that gun-slingin’ movie, and perhaps we can see a nice little Western revival. What the heck was the last big western, anyway? The only western of the last fifteen years that I can remember other than The Quick and the Dead is that one with Colin Farrell, whatever it was called. There have to be other ones.
- Christian Bale, you are so striking and so strong in everything you do, why can’t you be in every film ever? I don’t think there’s anything I’ve seen him in that I didn’t like him in. He’s incredibly consistent in his performances, consistently good. And you know, despite being Batman, he manages to fly under the radar a lot, I think. God, I cannot wait to see him in I’m Not There as Freewheelin’-era Bob Dylan. Between him and Cate Blanchett, I think I’m going to die. And speaking of Christian Bale, you know what’s a fantastic movie? American Psycho. Oh my god, it has a watermark!
- Copy and paste the above point and substitute Russell Crowe for Christian Bale. I don’t think this is amongst his greatest performances, but even when he’s average he’s enjoyable to watch. He can do the charming/ruthless/redemptive switch seamlessly and believably. I’m really looking forward to American Gangster. Also, what was kind of hysterical was that in the credits there were various people whose job’s were “Mr. Bale’s driver” or “Mr. Bale’s assistant”, etc. but instead of Russell Crowe’s staff being listed the same way, everyone was “Mr. Wade’s driver” or “Mr. Wade’s assistant”, his character being named Ben Wade. Sometimes there is such a thing as getting too into character.
- I really thought Dan’s oldest son William was going to die because his character was exactly the kind of character who does die in movies like this. You know the type: the fourteen year-old who is determined to be a man but is very much still a boy who won’t follow his father’s direct orders to stay home and take care of the family and instead acts rash and impulsively in an attempt to enact vengeance on those who have done his family wrong. Characters like that never survive, and I kept expecting him to take a stray bullet through the back in any one of the many shoot outs that occurred. He’s like that one kid in The Patriot, which is amusing if only because the kid who played William was also in The Patriot (but didn’t die, I don’t think). Of course, the only reason he got to survive was because Christian Bale died and someone has to take care of the ol’ homestead.
- The other son, Mark, was freaking adorable. That kid has the longest eyelashes ever.
- I was kind of impressed with Ben Foster in this. I really did not enjoy him all that much in Alpha Dog; there’s something about his voice and his presence that really rubs me the wrong way, like he’s a chihuahua trying to be a rottweiler or something. But I liked him as Wade’s unflinching and ruthless right hand man, and I like a man who can shoot just as well with his left as he can with his right (if only on screen).
- Luke Wilson’s random appearance in this was sort of… odd, as was the random electric shock torture. He’s not credited in the film, now that I think about it.
- I am really fond of the poster treatment this movie has received, so you know the DVD is going to end up looking like crap. It’s such a shame.
3:10 to Yuma
Two words: UM, AWESOME.
IMDB Plot Synopsis A small-time rancher agrees to hold a captured outlaw who's awaiting a train to go to court in Yuma. A battle of wills ensues as the outlaw tries to psych out the rancher.
