10. 3:10 to Yuma
I wasn’t completely sure that this remake would even manage to end up remotely watchable, at first. Even with people like Christian Bale and Russell Crowe, I couldn’t muster up enough enthusiasm to be optimistic, and yet, watching it left me utterly stunned. I’m a huge fan of the original film, so it took a great deal of raw acting talent and keen storytelling to stand apart from the original and somehow emphasize the struggle of morals and greed and add a sense of complex morality provocations for the audience and force our imperfect characters into a situation that required a great deal of courage and some stupidity.
Mangold doesn’t give us too many polished heroes and villains even if he edges slightly toward grind house atmosphere and gives our hero a perfectly flawed personality paired with a beaten down and pathetic personality, as well as our antagonist who is a charming, likable and incredibly evil sheep in wolf’s clothing. He’s the incarnation of the devil, a dapper and tempting individual who provides all the sins to everyone he comes across such as greed, lust, envy, and murder, and takes great pride in doing so. Paired with the rousing performances, and incredible action scenes, this is one of the best remakes of all time.
“Halloween” will be and must be compared to the original, because it’s a pale imitation, it’s a botched job on every meaning of the word. At the end of the day, while “Halloween” is still one of my all time favorite horror films, “Black Christmas” is by far the better and creepier picture. But the remakes are basically the same. They’re just so bad they’re embarrassing and Zombie fails to inspire an influence and creates what can simply be known as “The Devil’s Rejects: Haddonfield.” Zombie continues with his demonizing of the poor and lower class, while also treading over the same crap we were given in “The Devil’s Rejects.” Is this better than “Halloween: Resurrection”? Sure, but so is smashing your head into a wall.
