Movie: 3:10 to Yuma

[qos]

I took myself to the movie this afternoon, believing that even on a gorgeous September afternoon, spending a couple of hours in the dark with Russell Crowe would be A Good Thing.

Well, mostly.
*sigh

Crowe was eminently watchable, but I ended up walking out somewhere in the middle of the show.

It's not a bad movie -- but I had just watched "Seraphim Falls" a couple of weeks ago, and was not in the mood to spend another hour or two watching two groups of dangerous men chase each other across The Old West, with the secondary characters dying off one by one. It was not the way I wanted to spend an afternoon.

Besides, I was sure Alan Tudyk's sweet-but-out-of-place character (a veterinarian! in the posse!) was going to die eventually, and I haven't gotten over the last time I saw that happen.

I'll Netflix it later to see the ending, which will probably be good. I just didn't want to have to sit through all the rest of the gunplay this afternoon.



More rewarding the movie itself were three of the previews:

In the Valley of Ellah: Tommy Lee Jones, Susan Sarandon, Charlize Theron in a story about a young Iraq vet whose stateside death is being covered up.

Lions for Lambs: Robert Redford directs himself, Meryl Streep, and Tom Cruise in another Iraq-based film, this one about the political manuevering that started and perpetuates the war. Cruise was unnervingly perfect in his role as a charismatic, machiavellian politician being questioned by Streep's reporter.

And on a lighter note, Nicholas Cage and the gang are back for the sequel to National Treasure, which is one of the great geeks-as-heroes movies.

I expect that I'll be able to sit through at least two out of three of those. (I might wait and see "Ellah" on DVD -- but Tommy Lee Jones and Susan Saraondon are always good.)

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The original 3.10 to Yuma is a brilliant movie- and very restrained in the gunplay department. It really didn't need to be remade.

[qos.livejournal.com]

One thing that may not have been clear from my word choice is that this version was actually "restrained" in the gunplay department too, compared to most modern movies that have violent men as main characters.

I was pleased that the director didn't soak the audience in blood, using it sparingly and then only when it would impact the characters, such as when a fourteen year-old boy slowly comes up on the body of a man killed in a gun battle, or when a bank manager has to stand next to a man having a bullet removed and we see what he sees and share his reaction.

That's one of the things I liked.