2/50: 3:10 To Yuma

For some reason I have never gotten into Western films. However, a little while ago I watched the series Deadwood and I have sort of become a little hooked on 'some' Westerns.

Even before that, however, I was very interested in seeing 3:10 To Yuma and had heard a lot of great things about it. But, I never got around to watching it - thus why it was added to my list.

Let me first start out by saying that I totally forgot that Christian Bale was in this film. I am not sure why, but I remembered Russell Crowe, but forgot Bale - so that was a pleasant surprise.

So, anyway, Crowe stars as Ben Wade a very well-known criminal that leads a pretty rugged gang. Bale is Dan Evans, a struggling farmer with a huge amount of debt.

Wade has eluded the law for many years, but manages to get himself caught after a recent heist. In order to stay ahead of Wade's gang they get together a small crew of their own, including Evans who makes a deal to help lead Wade to his train for a price and to get out of debt.

The rest of the film is the journey that the crew heads out on to get Wade on a train to take him to his trial. Which could sound rather boring, but it was nothing but.

Crowe's Wade was a lot less of the bad guy than I was expecting, he ended up being more of a psychological villain while in custody. The larger villain ends up being Wade's right hand man, Charlie Prince (Ben Foster). It's Prince that convinces the rest of Wade's gang to track him down and get him out of custody.

The film was great. I have had by issues with Crowe in the past, but I thought his performance was amazing here. As I said before, I wasn't expecting to see Bale, but he was outstanding as well. I have become a fan of Foster and it was great to see him play such a great villain.

There was great action and a lot of good dialogue - especially between Crowe and Bale. I figured this movie was going to be good, but it was even better than I thought it was going to be.

Grade:

Random Movie: Get Over It

I probably could be posting reviews of about 10 films I have watched since I have sort of taken a sabbatical from the blog writing. However, I finally finished my summer classes and have a few weeks before my master's work starts (if my B remains in my class).

Anyway, I thought I would start yet another quick blog about random movies that my wife and I watch and somewhat love. These are movies that I have watched a ton of times and are usually somewhat old. So, I am calling it Random Movie.

This past weekend we were in a flux about what to watch as nothing was on television and our almost three-year old son was still up. So, we had to watch something somewhat enjoyable, yet also meets the standards of a show that if my son gets sucked into watching won't be asking 'what is that guy doing to that lady?' or 'how come that guys arm just got caught off?'

This week, I rummaged through our DVD collection and tossed in Get Over It, a film that I don't think we have seen in many years.

The film came out in 2001 and stars Ben Foster as Berke Landers and Kirsten Dunst as Kelly Woods. This was Foster's first main star film role before he became a more successful star. Dunst, however, was a lot more well known, but this film was sort of her in between stage before she became, in my opinion, too important. This film was just after Dick, Drop Dead Gorgeous and Bring It On, but right before Spider-Man.

Anyway, the film starts off by showing Landers and his one-true love, Allison McCallister (Melissa Sagemiller), whom he has known since he was a child. (Sagemiller is currently starring in Raising the Bar on TNT, a very underrated law drama). In one of the first scenes, Allison dumps Landers as she feels the sparks are no longer there in their relationship and she needs something new.

Here we find out this isn't going to be the normal film, as when Landers leaves then popular pop star Vitamin C breaks out in "Love Will Keep Us Together".

Moving on, Landers does everything possible (while loathing) to figure out how to get Allison back. Meanwhile his two best friends Felix Woods (Colin Hanks) and Dennis Wallace (Sisqo) desperately try to get him out of his duldrums. (This was one of Hanks' first roles before Orange County. Also, remember Sisqo?).

A former boy band member, Bentley Scrumfield (Shane West) also known as 'Striker', transfers into the high school and immediately becomes infatuated with Allison. The two decide to tryout for "A Midsummer Night's Dream" being put on by Desmond Forrest-Oates (Martin Short).

To try and win back Allison, Landers also try's out for the musical, only to land a very small role. However, a stage accident knocks out one of the leads and in an attempt to humiliate the not-so great acting performance of Landers, 'Striker' nominates him to take his place.

Still trying to win back the heart of his one-true love Allison, Landers accepts the role and Kelly, who also holds a large part in the play, agrees to help him get better - while also slowly falling in love with him.

Of course, the film is cliche, because you already know what is going to happen even though I will not tell you the ending - but it is still pretty fun to watch every once in a while.

Ed Begley, Jr. and Swoosie Kurtz play Landers' parents, who are a pair of sex experts on a local television program - and who basically encourage Landers in anything he ends up doing. Te Woods' family is dogsitting their aunt's dog, who also happens to have a humping problem. And a major hottie named Dora Lynn also happens to be the most accident-prone person in the world.

This film also has small performances by some pretty large stars now. Zoe Saldana, who this sumemr played Uhura in Star Trek and is in James Cameron's Avatar, played Allison's best friend Maggie. Mila Kunis (That 70's Show, Forgetting Sarah Marshall) was Kelly's best friend Basin - who was also in a small love story of her own with Dennis in the background. Carmen Electra and Coolio (haha Coolio) also had a couple cameos in the film.

I enjoy this film because it was basically the start for a handful of great actors (Hanks, Foster, West, Kunis), had a few vanished from existence stars (Vitamin C, Coolio, Sisqo), some pretty funny scenes and music (Dunst actually sang her song) and a very cute Dunst before she got a little too large for her own good.

A great film? Not in a million years. But, it's an easy, quick watch that sort of leaves you somewhat satisfied at the conclusion.