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Look, I’ll be the first to say that western fans have been taking it up the pooper lately. Besides the great Proposition and the shit Open Range, there really haven’t been that much coming down the pipeline, so when a western does come out, expect it to get good reviews. In the case of 3:10 to Yuma, however, good reviews actually should be given, because this is The Best Western Since Unforgiven! (copyright Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle me).

3:10 to Yuma, like most remakes, is a remake of an movie that came out some years ago. The original movie, in my eye, was a mediocre flick, offering up a generic western tale, with a clichéd happy ending. Sergio Leone’s stuff was better, but his stuff is better than sex, so I suppose that’s an unfair comparison. The basic setup for this “retelling” (note that I didn’t actually quote that from anywhere) is that Russell Crowe is a notorious outlaw and Christian Bale is an Average Joe trying to support his family. Russell Crowe gets caught by an obvious setup, and Christian Bale, along with other stock Westernites, need to take him to the 3:10 train to Yuma, where he’ll be hanged. Hilarity ensues.

What really separates this from other Westerns is that fact that the characters aren’t merely heroes and villains. It actually goes into the gray areas of the law, and the way it’s handled is pretty fascinating. The Proposition also explored the gray areas of morality, albeit with a much darker tone, but 3:10 to Yuma fills its little world with plenty of realistic people. Christian Bale is top notch as always, and even though I’m not a huge Russell Crowe fan, he was rocking the shit in the movie. Each of them are set up as the standard Western archetypes, but become more and more three dimensional by the time the tale is told. Also thrown in are Alan Tudyk, who is great as always, and an incredible Ben Foster. The only thing that I really remember Ben Foster from was his stint as the retarded kid on Freaks and Geeks, so to see him in this was a huge surprise. I’ll even go as far to say that he had the best performance in the movie as Russell Crowe’s soulless, but loyal, underling in crime.

The movie never lulls, either, which is something that I was a bit surprised with; I thought that Mangold’s Walk the Line lulled in places, so I was surprised that this flick kicked ass all the way through. The action scenes are set up pretty well, without being too over the top. Even the end, which dealt with honor and such, didn’t seem too preachy.

There really weren’t any major problems with the movie; I know a lot of people have issues with the ending, but I think it came together fairly well. I honestly couldn’t think of another way of ending the movie without it being a cliché, so kudos to all involved for mixing it up with the conclusion. Overall, this is one of the better movies of the year, and one of the best westerns in years. Not that it’s had any real competition.

This is one Blu-ray that I’ve been looking forward to, and I was mostly happy with the transfer of the movie. The image has the “no way, 3D” look in many places. There were a few scenes where the sharpness of the picture seemed a bit, resulting a look that was a tad soft, but I was mostly pleased with the image. I wouldn’t say that it’s top tier material, but it’s a solid B+/A- effort. Kudos to Lionsgate.

Hell yes. Lionsgate rocks all the speakers in their 7.1 PCM track, and I couldn’t be happier. Gun shots boom and sound spectacular, with plenty of surround effects for good measure. Voices seem a tad quiet, but it’s only a minor fault in the audio. Also included are a 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround EX track, and some Spanish subs. Overall, I’d put the sound just a notch above the picture quality, which was already spectacular. Nice job, Lionsgate.

This release has a fair amount of bonus materials, with some Blu-ray exclusives tossed in to compensate for the extra 15 bucks we pay for HDM. It should be noted that all of these features are in HD, which leads me to want to have the child of Lionsgate.

First up is an audio commentary by the director James Mangold. This track was a bit on the quiet side, as are most that have only the director, but he did have a fair amount of information on the making of the movie. I kind of wish he went further into the ending, since it tends to split people who have seen it. Overall, though, it’s a decent track, but I can’t really see myself listening to it again.

The Destination: Yuma Featurette is a pretty good little behind the scenes piece running 20 minutes going over the whole movie. It has some good info in it, going over finding the the locations and how the actors got into their characters and whatnot, but some parts felt a little too EPK-ish. Overall, it was mildly interesting.

Outlaws, Gangs, and Posses goes over real life outlaws, gangs, and posses. Who gives a shit.

An Epic Explored is a 6 minute piece about westerns in general, going over the different themes that westerns deal with. It’s mildly interesting, but has a few too many movie clips.

3:10 to Score is the oh-so-cleverly titled piece going over the film’s music. Talks about what they were going after, and why music is so important to westerns.

From Sea to Shining Sea is a 20 minute piece on how the west came to be, mostly dealing with the railroads. They got a few experts to come in and talk. Seems like it should have been the History Channel or something, but it’s nice that it’s there.

A Conversation with Elmore Leonard is a 5 minute featurette about the author Elmore Leonard. He goes over why he enjoys writing westerns. I care.

The Guns of Yuma is a piece on the guns used in the movie. Interesting to see, and thankfully doesn’t go on too long, running at 6 minutes.

Historical Timeline of the West is an interactive timeline running from the 1860’s to the 1890’s. Kind of an interesting feature, and has plenty of info on the west, if that’s your thing. This is text based, not video.

Also included is a IME-esque Inside Yuma feature. It can play the storyboard image or script pages along side the movie, while the director’s commentary runs. Pretty cool feature.

Also included are 7 deleted scenes. They aren’t too bad, but I can understand why they were cut. The trailer is also included.

Conclusion:

3:10 was one of the greats this year. This Blu-ray is equally great. The PQ/AQ are both mostly fantastic, and there are a good amount of special features, all in HD. Lionsgate did a great job on a great movie.

Movie: 8.5 out of 10
Picture: 9 out of 10
Audio: 9 out of 10
Bonus Features: 9 out of 10

Overall: 9 out of 10
3:10 To Yuma [Blu-ray]