This was one of the better movies I have seen in a long time. I love westerns, but sometimes they are so slow that it is all you can do to keep track of who’s who. This film, on comparison, is paced perfectly and is really dramatic with excellent characters that are memorable and complex. I loved it. Can I have a horse that answers to a whistle?

i liked this. i completely bought russell crowe as a cowboy and loved ben foster’s character. good gunslinging, shoot-em up movie i can watch with my dad over and over.

This movie is a lot like a heating a kettle of water at the top of a high mountain – it never quite reaches boiling point. It gets lukewarm at best and the tea it makes is not that tasty.

There is a strong plot and the cinematography is good but…the performances are lukewarm. Russell Crowe mumbles through most of the film and although he is supposed to be the baddest of bad, bad men he is about as scary as someone who is not very scary.

As a psychopath he does not come over as very psychotic. He has a good side of course demonstrated by his love of sketching and excellent table manners. Also he rescues his captors from the evil Injuns and the nutty mountain men. All in all he’s a rough tough lovable type who just happens to be in with the wrong crowd. Not to worry he sorts them all out in the end.

On the other side the Christian Bale is the weakling, loser who is despised by his wife (small underplayed role), his children but worst of all Russell Crowe likes him.

Of course they become buddies and develop a kind of mutual respect.

The main problem with this movie apart from the dull performances is it can’t figure out what kind of film it is. New style 21st century western or old fashioned 50’s western. This is a remake of a 1957 film starring Glenn Ford and this version seems heavily rooted in the past. In some ways it feels like an old Randolph Scott movie where the bad guy is not really that bad.

See the original and ignore this one. I wish I had.

1 – It deals with a lot of universal themes, like redemption, regret, friendship, family values and so on
2 – It has much more depth than most action flicks out there
3 – The acting is simply breathtaking
4 – It relies a lot more on dialog than pointless action scenes
5 – It’s fun
6 – It lets some space for interpretation
7 – Russell Crowe’s character is not a walking cliche