Pop culture Politics Perversion Advice Speedmonkey.net

Details

Rate

Images

Russel Crowe and Christian Bale are badasses, maybe the two biggest badasses in American film today (sorry Sam Jackson, I know you had hopes), so it's not surprising that a Western with both of them in it delivers.

Director James Mangold ("Walk the Line") pays homage to the old Westerns with the story (yeah, it's technically a remake) while keeping it fresh with the style (not quite one of those flicks where someone gets shot and falls down and you go 'Where's the blood?').

Christian Bale is Dan Evans, a crippled farmer with no respect from anyone (including his own wife and son) and a house he is about to lose to moneymen. His one last shot at pulling in enough dough to at least keep what property he has is to join a crew of men who've banded together to bring outlaw Wade Garret (Russel Crowe) to the train station, where he is to be shipped to Yuma Prison and hanged for his crimes.

Notable sideshows are Peter Fonda as the dickhead leader of the crew and Ben Foster as Garret's right hand man who leads the remaining posse to retrieve their boss and kill anyone who's in the way. Yes, the gay angel from the worst X-Men actually makes a great bad guy. He's like the update of that little dude who you could swear you would have in a fight and yet still was convincing as hell as the bad guy in everything from "The Warriors" to "The Crow."

Crowe is his usual grade-A self in his role as a charismatic guy who could've played by the rules but just chose not to, and Bale is Bale (do we really even need an adjective for this guy by now?) as the man who dicovers throughout the story that getting his job done and setting an example at any cost to himself is more a test of his manhood than how much money he brings home.

While there are some holes in here, one must remember that this thing is only out to be an action flick -- it's not a preacher, and it's not gonna waste your time with some romance that has no place in it. It's here to be cool, and cool it indeed is.
 
(four bongs)

---

Read more movie reviews

Name
Email
Comment