The Movie Filter

Why doesn’t Day-Lewis own this?

September 12, 2007
By Jeff Roedel

In theaters Friday: Eastern Promises, The Hunting Party New on DVD: D.O.A. Dead or Alive

I caught 3:10 To Yuma over the weekend, and this remake of the classic western did not disappoint. Christian Bale stars as Dan Evans, a downtrodden cattle rancher and family man who is going through just as much of a drought as his rain-deprived land. He owes a lot of money to a bank that wants him evicted so they can sell his pastures to the railroad for big bucks. Evans' family has lost respect for him (even as he limps around from a Civil War wound), and it doesn't seem like his brash teenage son ever respected his reserved spirit.

"I'm tired of the way the boys look at me," Bale tells his wife, played like a caged bird by Gretchen Mol. "And I'm tired of the way you don't … I've been standing here on one leg for three years waiting for God to give me a break." Evans' break comes when bank robber and murderer Ben Wade is arrested and the authorities need some volunteers to escort him to a prison train (the 3:10 to Yuma) safely before Wade's gang can catch up and break him loose. Bale's Evans volunteers for the job in exchange for $200.

Wade is played by Russell Crowe with the quiet charisma usually on display in the good guy. The colliding world-views and personalities of Evans and Wade as they trek to the train station is brilliant, and the abrasion of these men's characters filing each other down gives the film an internal struggle and makes it much more than a shoot 'em up—though there is plenty of quick draw gunplay, too. And anyone who thought Ben Foster was a flash in the pan after Alpha Dog better get a load of him here as Wade's head hooligan, Charlie Prince. Good grief, this kid is going to be, well, probably the next Christian Bale…

There Will Be Blood! And there will be a theatrical trailer for what looks to be a remarkable film right here. Starring Daniel Day-Lewis as an ambitious prospector looking for some "Texas tea" and based loosely on Upton Sinclair's novel Oil!, There Will Be Blood is auteur P.T. Anderson's first film since Punch-Drunk Love, though two years ago he ghost-directed A Prairie Home Companion with the ailing Robert Altman. And if Anderson and Day-Lewis gracing the screen with their craft is not cool enough, the score of the film was written and arranged by none other than Radiohead guitarist and genius Jonny Greenwood. The emerging Paul Dano of Little Miss Sunshine fame, co-stars as a faith-heeling brimstone preacher who stands in Day-Lewis' way of a big score. What a fantastic trailer! It sets the mood, introduces characters and doesn't give the plot away. I must have watched Day-Lewis' "Why don't I own this?" part 10 times. Mark my words, this will be a fine film to watch. It will be released to limited theaters Dec. 26 (just in time for awards, which it could rake in a'plenty), and to wider audiences in January.

Well, it's official. From the mouth of Shia LaBeouf and confirmed on the official Web site, Indy 4 has a title. So what is it? City of the Gods? Nope. The Quest for Propecia? Nope. Drum roll and trumpet blast for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I don't mind the title. It's growing on me as I'm typing this. For the longest time I just assumed it would eventually be named it's working title "Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods." This may have been a relic from Frank Darabont's now sidestepped script that had Indy fighting space aliens at Area 51. Though a certain secret base in the New Mexico desert may play a small role in the film, everything I've read about the production seems to point to a story that involves, South American temples, kingdoms, and yes, skulls.

"Is it cool if I take a picture with you?" "Yes—It's very cool." Finally, here is the trailer for Iron Man. I give the first half of the trailer an A+ and the second half a D. Honestly, the first minute of the clip won me over. I mean really, because I had zero interest in the film until seeing that. So I paused it, and started writing this little review. Then I pressed play and Robert Downey Jr. actually becomes Iron Man, and, well, I started laughing. The bulky suit, the flame throwers (those are always a hoot). I don't know. I'd much rather see a whole movie with Downey as a slick, disaffected and uber-infamous weapons manufacturer/playboy for the military-industrial complex, something akin to Thank You For Smoking, than another superhero movie trying to be as cool as Batman. Cause, believe me, that's not happening.

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