*** - I hate to be one of those people who puts spoilers in their reviews, but with this 2007 remake of a 1950s Western I feel it is necessary because the sole reason it didn’t get a higher rating is because of some of the plot-ruining aspects of it. The premise is that a down-on-his-luck rancher (played by Christian Bale) takes on the job of joining a team of five who are transporting via horseback a murderous outlaw (Russell Crowe) to catch the titular train to a prison in order to earn himself $200. Along the way, they have awkward campfire chats as Crowe picks off the other lawmen and volunteers who are in the group one-by-one by slashing their throats or throwing them off cliffs. Where it starts to lose me is on the first of about a dozen opportunities Crowe’s character has to escape that he doesn’t take advantage of, instead relying on attempts to bribe Bale into freeing him, which seem totally unnecessary. After a number of further squandered opportunities, the pair (now with only a meek railroad tycoon and Bale’s son left as company) end up at the train station. They are a little early and Crowe’s revenge-craving compatriots have arrived and start blasting the place to kingdom come. Crowe then decides for some reason (apparently having to do with Bale’s gimpy leg and his need to impress his son) to cooperate and dodge his own gang’s bullets with Bale in order to get to the arriving train that will be taking him to prison and earn Bale’s soon to be widowed wife and orphaned children some cash. It just doesn’t make sense to me. Other than that stuff it’s a pretty entertaining flick, though.
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