3:10 to Yuma

Both dull and deeply unnecessary; a stinker.

It is part of the richness of 3.10 to Yuma that this is a classical piece of storytelling with themes and characters that can be found in the very earliest Westerns.

[I]f you're looking for an Unforgiven-style reinvention of the Western, prepare for disappointment.

The film is a creditable remake - no better than the original but different enough to stand on its considerable merits.

Mangold's film is more than sufficiently subtexty and cynical for our modern sensibilities while simultaneously embracing Mangold's obvious pleasure in the Westerns' time-honored swinging saloon doors and stern masculine traditions.

Mangold delivers a taut modern take on a lesser classic, preserving the High Noon themes about doing the right thing against all odds, and injecting a more modern pacing and urgency without going overboard.

The filmmakers take a huge chance by altering the original’s final scene and it doesn’t quite work but neither is it a sellout. Even those who’ve never seen the first will find glaring contradictions yet no one will be able to discount its searing impact.

It’s a brutal film about brutal people on the frontier, where even the “good guys” are often thugs in it for the money ...

Thanks to James Mangold, Christian Bale, Russell Crowe, and the rest of the cast and crew, 3:10 to Yuma is an epic Western in its own right.

One of the 21st century's best westerns.