The Last Stop in Yuma County

...I was really surprised the movie was this good. Its premise is simple. Small diner in middle of nowhere. Where nothing really happens. Life is a cup of coffee and you live on.

The assemblance of character cast was interesting. No big names, just simple people that made it work. They are good at what they do. They entertain us, that made the difference. It gave the moments grit from all sides of life. Crooks, geeks, elderly, blue collars..etc.

Directer did great job, keeping us idling along just right. It never got boring. Kept us waiting for what could or would happen next.

Ambiance worked great. Dry, hot, desolate weather. How can anyone live here? But they do.

Very enjoyable, flick.

You've seen this movie before, this doesn't really do anything new that those haven't done. It's well acted, tightly and competently written, and rather predictable. They try to throw a wrench at the end, but eh, I've seen enough of these types of movies before. The "sweater unraveling movie".

You start out with a loose thread, and the initial pull on it; "No Gas at the Gas Station, since they're in a super remote area, and no gas for the next 100 Miles." Then more and more people come to pull on that loose thread speeding up the destruction of that sweater, 'til it's a pile of yarn. There's your movie.

Its strength is in the acting, and doing CRISP, CLEAN, BELIEVABLE DIALOG and ACTIONS. No one really behaves in a way that doesn't make sense, all actions taken in this movie makes sense and the results of those choices also makes sense. It's a tight and clean script. Which also what makes it mediocre. It's a little too by the books and safe. They realize that by the end and TRY, but fail, TRY to throw a slight curve ball, but you as a wise audience member calls it from a mile away.

You watch this once, and you're good. You won't feel like you were robbed of your time, but ONCE is more than enough. There aren't clever clues foreshadowing the next move in the series of events, hidden in the scenery. It bears everything out in the open.

Short review: I enjoyed 'The Last Stop in Yuma County', however I feel like there was room for me to enjoy it even more. I typically love these single-setting mystery/thrillers. I felt like the film was consistently good throughout, but it was never quite able to take a step up and reach that next level to make it something truly great.

The film is a lot of fun though. There are all the usual rag-tag misfits in terms of characters. Some nice dashes of humour along the way and some good menacing villains that are not to be messed with. The ending was also pretty wild and made sure things ended on a reasonably memorable note. 7/10.

Summary: The movie is entertaining with a theme of western slow burner. But does not go beyond a good one time watch.

Details:

• The western vibe with desert, dust, heat, guns, bad guys, is all spot-on and gets you hooked into the story

• In the beginning the slow-burn is good but soon the movie picks up pace and there are lot of small twists and turns

• But you dont really feel bad for any character or emotionally moved/attached(except maybe for the scenes with baby) or have deep philosophical state of mind at any point in the movie or in the end.

• it has traces of Tarantino style western, coenesque theme of idiocy meeting evil with surprising coincidences/accidents but fails to match up to their level.

• Basically its a movie about greed which keeps you glued when its on but after watching the movie you are underwhelmed and forget this movie quickly.

... and i mean this in a far more positive way than it sounds!

A slow-burning B-movie with a single-setting scenario and American Rust atmosphere, Yuma County introduces lovably one-dimensional characters (again I mean well, they are so by design) - right until the plot decides to have a lil bit of macabre fun and put them in the most complex, unresolvable, dilemmatic (most often life or death) situations. The second half of the movie recompenses for the viewer's patience with the first: it is dark and hilarious and sad and unnerving, and more; there's twists and turns worthy of a James Patterson novel, and soon enough it all escalates faster than you can say -escalation-...

In short: One can see where the good ratings throughout come from. This is an enjoyable little gem of a movie that also doesn't overstay its welcome. Technically and acting-wise it does a fine enough job as well.