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Cowboys & Aliens isn't a deep movie with a critical moral plot. It is, however, good enough to waste a couple hours on. The plot itself is pretty cookie cutter. Aliens invade the old west, because they want gold or something. And they start kidnapping people, too, so they can study our weaknesses as they plan to wipe us off the map completely at some point. Sound familiar yet? Daniel Craig plays a guy who wakes up in the middle of nowhere with a metallic doodad on his wrist that won't come off and a bad case of amnesia. Harrison Ford is some kind of hardass military man turned rancher, and together the two of them along with a pussy bartender fellow, a kid, an illegal immigrant, and a hot chick go off to fight the aliens and rescue the people that got kidnapped. They're aided by Craig's wrist doodad which turns out to be the only weapon they have powerful enough to seriously challenge the aliens. Craig manages to pull off the strong silent cowboy type of role pretty well, and Harrison Ford is equally good bringing lots of personality to his role. The rest of the supporting cast fills in their roles well enough so the acting is fair enough. There are some cheesey moments like when the alien that the hero mauled in his flashback, gets him on the rack and motions that he is going to likewise maul him, and god some of the cgi work is not so good the closing shot on the town. There's only the barest hint of a romantic subplot, so I'm not really sure why they even bothered sticking those bits in, although to be fair she is pretty hot and its shame they didn't make this R rated. The movie could have seriously benefited from some more sex and foul language. 3 maybe 3.5 good for wasting time on, but its not gonna win any awards this year. Satone fucked around with this message at 01:47 on Jul 30, 2011 |
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Jul 30, 2011 00:46
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| # ? Apr 23, 2024 08:09 |
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When I saw the preview for this movie, I did not care how cheesy or horrific the movie would turn out to be. Why? Come on! It's Cowboys! It's Aliens! The only way they could have made this better would be to add "... And Whores". I honestly thought this movie would end up being as great and horrible as "Ahhh! Zombies!" -- great idea, executed by three dudes and their steady cam. With that in mind, I was thrilled that the movie did not suck at all. Even the fauxmance and romance flashbacks didn't get in the way of the level of awesome that was being handed out by this movie. While it may not be an R-rated movie, I could imagine Mel Brooks smacking his head wondering why he didn't think of this first. There was comedy, there was action, and the characters developed enough that you sort of cared about them if they died. The special effects were also par. Unlike the other reviewer, nothing really jumped out as obviously computer generated. I was a little surprised that the aliens closely resembled the Cloverfield alien - like - was that intentional - like leading to a franchise or something? I've never seen a movie where Harrison Ford played the bad guy. This was a refreshing change. The inevitable defeat of the aliens (what, you REALLY think that should be in spoiler tags?) was handled perfectly, the battle was fun and believable. While this is no Reservoir Dogs or Platoon, it was a poo poo-ton of fun. At no point did I stop and think "oh bullshit that just makes no sense". If a movie about cowboys and aliens can get me to suspend my disbelief for that long, I'd say they did a pretty drat good job. 4/5
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Aug 18, 2011 01:07
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This was a visually awesome movie. The sets, the costumes, the designs, it looks great. I just found it deeply disappointing that it was as shallow as it was. There is a lot of allusion to some really interesting story, you constantly get the feeling there is so much more to this story and these characters that seeing them act as basically pure caricatures made it very hard for me to give a drat about any of them and consequently much of the film. The whole two sets of aliens, our female from a ruined planet, and our invaders thing was fine, but this is a prime example of how nearly everything in the film left me wanting more from it. There just wasn't enough to really grab me and pull me into it. The actors all do a fine job, but again it just never feels like they have much to work with. They do their thing, and I just didn't care for any of them really. Its a good action film, the sequences are fun, it doesn't really lag at any point and as far as summer fare goes its solid. I just felt like there was a much more developed film, or story or something hidden inside this brush across the surface. It's fun, but ultimately I left the theater feeling a bit disappointed about what I didn't get to see and find out. I'm not sure any of that should matter, but it dragged the film down for me. Shallow is the impression it left and while it isn't bad I think it could have been great. 3/5
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Sep 1, 2011 02:17
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It's a fun movie if you like cowboys or aliens, but without the cliche of the two we usually expect. It's not going to raise any major philosophical questions, but it's a good action movie and it has a good tone, certainly one of the better action movies in recent years. My only major problem is how in the previews I saw Harrison Ford being made up as a "bad guy" in the film, I thought it would be interesting to see a man who has played some great heroes be a villain. But, spoilers, he still turns out rather heroic despite his initial moments, it's certainly well done but it would have been nice to see him be a real villain, at least in my opinion. All in all, a fun film, 3.5/5
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Oct 2, 2011 01:25
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The first 20 or so minutes of this movie showed a lot of promise. A mysterious stranger with Jason Bourne-like fighting abilities and an alien weapon attached to his arm. Paul Dano as the resident town "tough guy." Harrison Ford playing a villain. All of these elements piqued my interest. I was ready for fun and clever action movie. I really wanted to like this movie. I enjoyed Favreau's work on both Iron Man films and thought that Zathura was a pretty good family action movie. But everything after the first act of this film was disappointing. Harrison Ford's character quickly changes from a villain to a heroic guy who's just a bit of an rear end in a top hat sometimes. Daniel Craig's near super-human abilities are never explained. I never really cared about any of the characters. All of the character tropes that work so well in the classic John Ford westerns are here, but they seem forced and unbelievable. The sense of geography that is so important to classic westerns is missing here as well. I never felt any sense of the distance they were travelling or the layout of the land. I guess my biggest disappointment with this movie was the wasted potential. The use of flashback scenes lent the story some mystery, and I hoped they would reveal something meaningful about the hero's back story. Instead, the back story revealed just about what you would expect from a movie about an alien invasion. Some of the interior locations seemed like they would be a great fit for some real suspense. Instead, the action scenes felt like a collection of cliches. Despite a few fun action sequences toward the end, the movie was just too shallow to really engage me and suspend my disbelief at some of it's sillier moments.
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Nov 11, 2011 20:46
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I went in expecting this to be stupid, and it didn't disappoint. Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford started out well, and it just makes you think that a film with the 2 of them in these roles, but without the godawful aliens, would actually be really decent. These two, the sheriff, and Ford's spoiled son have an interesting dynamic that could have made for a great film in it's own right. I came away wishing I saw that film, instead. The hot girl is sufficiently hot, to the point my wife and I both agreed we would have liked to see a bit more of her (and without irony, this is seriously a case where a bit of nudity could be artistically justified, there is a scene where we see this female character nacked from the back bathed in firelight that should have been a full-frontal, it felt wrong that it wasn't). The rest of the film was mindless fun, and I enjoyed it for what it was. But it's hard to come away from it without thinking of the promise it held that it never saw through. There is a touching moment between Ford and his man-servant that could have been much more explored. The aliens with an interesting weekpoint that is seen once and never revisited. A mindless fun film that, with an extra 20 minutes and a little more though, could have been less mindless and a legitimately good film. 3/5
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Nov 25, 2011 11:08
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| # ? Apr 23, 2024 08:09 |
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A new take on a classic western formula. Except the evil claim squatters are now aliens. And hell, it works. 4/5
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Dec 14, 2015 23:01
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