Cowboys & Aliens (2011)

Don't Believe the Hype

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Well the title itself tells us all what to expect and if this is appealing to you you should enjoy this movie. Maybe one's expectations can be too high but even then one gets both elements of western and sci fi in it to be entertained.Western is pretty much a dead genre. One really doesn't see many of these movies being made. Maybe it is because so many have been done in the past and some feel it all has been shown. In this case just add some aliens to it. After all if one makes a sci fi movie about aliens invading the Earth it could have happened in the past centuries!So we get a lot of elements from the typical Western movies that we get to enjoy in a nostalgic way but then the aliens come and the movie becomes so much more entertaining.The casting is absolutely perfect. All actors fit perfectly to their part and act in a real Western style. Maybe one could make the aliens more sophisticated than just monsters attacking, but this would change the style of the movie. Make it a more philosophical sci fi/western. In my opinion it was best to leave it this way to make it feel more like a western with lots of action.

Was waiting for this film ,sadly disappointed ,aliens not to bad except they all had hands like the butler of scary movie 2 .cant say i can remember any memorable bits to discuss over a pint down the boozer ,just daniel craig walking about like cock of the roost,every camera angle he took the opportunity to pout ,look hard ,and pose ,to the point i nearly puked,almost quite funny in a massive hat ,sorry dude but clint eastwood you are not.still don't really know why the aliens were invading because i turned over before the end.crap story ,crap plot,.sorry guys its a no from me.

What did people really expect from a movie with a title like this? Some sort of intellectual treatise on the relationship between the mythological Old West and beings of extraterrestrial origin? The film moves at a consistently energetic pace, is well-acted, and yes... is totally predictable.I found its predictability the most refreshingly unpredictable thing about the film. I kept thinking, "Is this where the dog dies a heroically predictable death?" That was my spoiler... the dog makes it (and we care). The title is a bit misleading. The Apaches are an integral part of the alien resistance coalition and play a predictably unpredictable part in the movie's spiritual essence (i.e. they get the hero stoned).Even the preacher was perfect. Low-key, super-nice bloke and basically an all around good guy that found the essential good in all he encountered. To be a good person you need to (in no particular order) find God, be a hero and care about someone other than yourself. It's so simple!For what it is, this is a really good movie.

The problem with Cowboys and Aliens was that the Cowboys barely reacted to them. At first sight of the mechanized flying machines, zapping people off the earth, was met with no obvious comment, about the sheer quantum leap of the type of enemies that were presented. Daniel Craig's character was not likely to help because of his amnesia and the Harrison Ford Character gruffly headed off to head the aliens off at the pass. This despite the fact that guns had little effect on their new enemy and the only one with any fire power, wasn't really a friend. (Daniel Craig-he with the wrist beeper) All the scenes seemed massively improbable when the meeting of Aliens and Cowboys should have been shown to be one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. With the Aliens being made into only surrogate Native Americans the film sank into references to most other Cowboy films you have ever watched. (Was there an attempt at humour with Butch Cassidy and the Kid' copy scene?) Whatever