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Sunday, August 28, 2011

Cowboys & Aliens


Universal Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 118 minutes



Set in the old west, Universal Pictures Cowboys & Aliens has amnesiac Daniel Craig waking up with an alien weapon strapped to his wrist and soon comes up against aliens from space.

When Craig arrives in a frontier town, the townspeople realize he is a wanted criminal and the sheriff arrests him. Cattle rancher Harrison Ford wants revenge on Craig for what Craig did to his son and wants Craig for himself, but before Craig can get shipped off to a larger town for trial - aliens arrive and kidnap some of the townspeople, including Ford's son, the no good Paul Dano. Mysterious Olivia Wilde convinces Craig to go after the townspeople which would in the process help Craig recover his lost memory. Craig joins Ford as they go on a quest to bring Ford's boy and the rest of the townspeople home from the aliens.

This film is True Grit meets Battle Los Angeles with the film being mostly a western. There is hardly any hi-tech gadgetry aside from Craig's wrist gun and the foo fighters.

The reason the aliens are here is not really explained aside from the initial reason - nor the reason why the beastial aliens kidnapped people in the first place, although Craig looks like he was part of an experiment. With Ford turning out to be a former Army officer, the movie soon turns out to be an Indiana Jones meets James Bond movie, although I accepted British Craig as an American. Soon, all the various human groups - townspeople, cattle ranchers, stage coach robbers, and native americans - join forces against the aliens in a battle for survival.

I was upset the dog was not used more throughout the movie. What should be obvious with the dog, but then he would just be there, then disappear, then show up again and that was rather irritating for a such a neutral character. Other than those things, I thought this off-beat movie was pretty good.

The director Jon Favreau also insisted the film should only be shot on film since this is a Western, so I do not think there will be any 3-D versions of this film.

See UFO Bob's video review of Cowboys & Aliens:


Rated PG-13 for violence. Running time: 118 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same langauge.

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