Western

3:10 to Yuma

/ / Home Video
  • Title: 3:10 to Yuma (1957)
  • IMDB: link

“Safe!  Who knows what’s safe?  I know a man dropped dead from looking at his wife.  My own grandmother fought the Indians for 60 years then choked to death on lemon pie.”

3:10 to YumaDirector Delmer Daves‘ 1957 western about a cattle rancher forced into the role of getting a dangerous killer out of town finds new life on home video as 3:10 to Yuma is the latest classic to get the Criterion treatment.

Dan Evans (Van Heflin) is a struggling rancher with a wife (Leora Dana), two sons (Barry Curtis, Jerry Hartleben), and cattle who are dying of thirst during one of the worst droughts in recent memory. When Ben Wade (Glenn Ford), the leader of an outlaw gang who has terrorized the territory for years, is caught, Dan accepts an offer of $200 to escort Wade to a nearby town and put him on the 3:10 train to Yuma for trial.

With only the town drunk (Henry Jones) at his side, Evans tries to keep Wade hidden and put him on the train before the rest of his gang can find them and release their leader.

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Tarantino Unchained

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Django Unchained
  • IMDB: link

django-unchained-posterWith Inglourious Basterds writer/director Quentin Tarantino strode a fine line between between drama and revenge fantasy in his depiction of a select group of Jewish soldiers taking on the Nazis during WWII.

With his latest, Tarantino returns to the well of his revenge fantasy, the theme he’s been stuck on for nearly an entire decade (since 2003’s Kill Bill Vol. 1), to push the envelope even farther with a blaxploitation western that leaves good taste in the dust. If there’s ever a film that so thoroughly argues for a director to be shackled to studio pressure it’s the inarguable trainwreck that is Django Unchained.

Jamie Foxx stars as Django, a slave freed by a bounty hunter (Christoph Waltz) in need of his help to hunt down and kill the Speck brothers (James Remar, James Russo). After Django shows promise, Shultz (Waltz) agrees to train the newly freed slave in the art of bounty hunting and help retrieve Django’s wife (Kerry Washington) from a ruthless plantation owner (Leonardo DiCaprio).

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The Lone Ranger #3

/ / Comics

 

 

lone-ranger-vol-2-3-coverWhere the first two issues had focused primarily on Westerners in need of the Lone Ranger’s help, issue #3 puts the masked man and his Indian companion center stage.

The Lone Ranger and Tonto are approached by the United States Government to help track down a vicious gang of railroad robbers. The Ranger reluctantly takes the job, and he and Tonto are able to find the gang with relative ease.

However, their victory is short lived as they discover the thieves have the protection of a local sheriff and an entire town. The comic ends with Tonto gut-shot and bleeding out in the desert and our hero about to have a noose placed around his neck.

The pacing here is much better than in the first couple of issues and, despite the unnecessary use of flashbacks, it works very well by delivering the series’ best issue to date. I’ve also got to throw a shout out to Francesco Francavilla for a very cool cover. Worth a look.

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Wyatt Earp’s Revenge

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Wyatt Earp’s Revenge
  • IMDB: link

wyatt-earps-revenge-dvdMost know Wyatt Earp for his time as a Marshall in Tombstone, Arizona, and the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Wyatt Earp’s Revenge, the new film by director Michael Feifer and screenwriter Darren Benjamin Shepherd, takes a look at a three-day period during Earp’s role as sheriff of Dodge City, Kansas, and the manhunt which changed his life forever.

The movie opens in 1907 in San Fransisco where an elderly Wyatt Earp (Val Kilmer) recounts to a Kansas City Star reporter (David O’Donnell) the events that led him to form “The Best in the West” gang and go after outlaw James “Spike” Kennedy (Daniel Booko), the man responsible for several murders including the woman Earp loved – Dora Hand (Diana DeGarmo).

The flashbacks, which take place in 1878 in the Oklahoma Territory, show the younger Wyatt Earp (Shawn Roberts) and Charlie Bassett (Scott Whyte) investigating the murder of the woman he fancied.

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The Lone Ranger #1

/ / Comics

 

 

the-lone-ranger-v2-1-coverThe Lone Ranger rides again! I’m a fan of Dynamite Entertainment’s previous Lone Ranger series by writer Brett Matthews and artist Sergio Cariello (with some terrific covers by John Cassaday). I even own the Definite Edition hardcover. The new series gets off to a bit of a shaky start coming off very much like the poor B-Western from which the character sprang (that frankly we don’t want to be reminded of).

The Lone Ranger and Tonto are supporting characters for a story centered on a farmer and his family terrorized by a local band of outlaws which, before the issue’s end, will have the Ranger looking back on the similarities to his own past.

The first issue isn’t bad, and a one-issue story opening was a good choice, but it’s far from the rousing call to adventure I’d been hoping for. I’ve missed seeing a Lone Ranger on the comic stand. There’s a fair share of clunky dialogue from Ande Parks and the art of Esteve Polls lacks the larger than life quality of Sergio Cariello’s take on the character, but I’m willing to give the title another issue or two to see if it finds its way. Hit and Miss.

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