3:10 To Yuma

Every now and then a good movie comes along and you know you'll want to watch it again. To me, 3:10 to Yuma is one of them.

The movie stars Russell Crowe as a bad-ass gun slinger who happens to get caught after a stagecoach heist. Christian Bale (Rescue Dawn, The Prestige, and the little kid from Empire of the Sun), is a homesteader trying to raise his family in post-Civil War western America. He lost part of this leg, which makes his life even more challenging.

Bale wants to help the sheriff and his deputies take Crowe to jail and they have to get to the town to put him on the 3:10 train to Yuma, hence the name of the movie. Problem for Bale is that Crowe's posse is hot on his trail and will make life for him miserable.

Crowe's character is a talker and a very likable bad guy. He's also influential, but also very smart and dangerous. They don't call him a bad-ass for no reason. He's as good with his gun as he is with his cell phone.

The movie goes from high action to slow talking, but nothing that really made you want to take your eyes off of the screen. The action is solid and the chase is captivating.

I give this movie all 5 stars that I'm allowed. Crowe's plays the best New Zealander British Commander cowboy that you can imagine. Bale's character is gutsy and you want to cheer for him, too. I was almost cheering for Bale to join the bad guys.

Rescue Dawn

Rescue Dawn is the newest in the line of Veit-Nam era war movies. We really have not seen a new one of these since Full Metal Jacket and Hamburger Hill, unless, of course, you consider Forrest Gump and Viet-Nam era war movie. But as we know, Forrest Gump more accurately portrays John Kerry than it did any real soldiers.


Rescue Dawn stars Christian Bale, who's been busy in the last couple of years with 3:10 To Yuma, The Prestige, and Batman Begins. The beginning starts off exciting enough aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Ranger. It leads to his eventual crash and detainment as a prisoner in a war camp somewhere in Southeast Asia.


He is united with other prisoners, including Jeremy Davies who appears as a Charles Manson-like character, who interesting starred as Charles Manson in the 2004 TV movie Helter Skelter. The hatch out a plan to overtake the guards and escape from the camp and seek rescue from friendly faces. The later scenes border on somewhat "too convenient" circumstances, but the movie is based on a true story, so we may have to assume that much of it is true.


Overall, I like the movie and gave it 3 stars out of 5. On a side note, the movie was produced by former Duke basketball player Elton Brand. And we thought athletes from Duke couldn't amount to anything other than NBA stars.