Cowboys & Aliens (2011)

Featured Audience Ratings

• John M

  
  Daniel Craig was great. Ford had his moments. But this movie could have been so so so much better!

• Anthony L

  
  When I first heard about this film I immediately thought of my childhood and to those school lunch-break conversations I had with my mates, 'Who would win in a fight between Optimus Prime and He-man'?. If I'm being completely honest, we're still having those… More
  When I first heard about this film I immediately thought of my childhood and to those school lunch-break conversations I had with my mates, 'Who would win in a fight between Optimus Prime and He-man'?. If I'm being completely honest, we're still having those conversations now, they still get heated and someone generally get upset in the end. The prospect of having Cowboys vs. Aliens was music to our ears, finally Hollywood was listening, a mainstream B-Movie staring James Bond and Indiana Jones (another great 'Who would win in a fight between' lunch-break debate of the 1980s). It got slated though, I've read nothing but bad reviews of it but then after watching it, I'm still not sure why. It's first and foremost, a decent Western - and then it's a good sci-fi film. I suppose you either think the concept is silly or you think it's cool - if you think it's silly, you're never going to like it. Ok, so it could have been better, it should have been the coolest film ever but it was still pretty cool. The 10 year old kid in me loved it and the 30 something in me agreed. Now that Hollywood is finally on my wavelength, could we please now have Mr T vs. Jaws (James Bond Jaws, not the shark)? Maybe Care Bears vs. Gummy Bears for the girls?

• Josh M

  
  I expected action/special effects popcorn munching fun, but Cowboys and Aliens is one of the most disappointing let downs in recent memory. With all the right elements and $$ to make a terrific piece of entertainment, Director Jon Favreau and the whole Spielberg led team blows almost… More
  I expected action/special effects popcorn munching fun, but Cowboys and Aliens is one of the most disappointing let downs in recent memory. With all the right elements and $$ to make a terrific piece of entertainment, Director Jon Favreau and the whole Spielberg led team blows almost all their advantages to make something weak and unsatisfying. Why? 1. 90% Cowboys, 10% Aliens: The cowboy story is set up with stock characters with some interesting conflicts. It has all the visual and musical hallmarks of a classic Western in the Magnificent 7 style. It also has a dream cast who all turn in good performances, including Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig, Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood), Adam Beach and the stunning Olivia Wilde. BUT The aliens are character-less special effects, who pop in towards the end of the picture, with no personality - adding no intrigue in the plot. The reasons for the abductions were unclear to me, since the Aliens were supposedly after gold. Maybe I wasn't paying attention. 2. Dull aliens: ... yet, when the aliens appear, it's blah and done with NO imagination. They look like early drafts of the monsters from the ALIEN franchise, but are not as scary, mysterious or interesting. Ditto for their spaceships and equipment. 3. Ball dropped on storytelling: The committee of credited writers (never a good omen) have managed to create potentially interesting relationship ideas and don't pay any of them off. i.e. A: Powerful rich dude Harrison Ford has a degenerate son, Paul Dano who torments the town and gets away with it. He gets abducted by Aliens, turns nicer and the ball is dropped. Ford has a real father and son relationship with the young native man he has saved (Beach). It's established and the ball is dropped, we never hear about it again. i.e. B: Amnesiac bandit Daniel Craig has flashbacks about a wife who he loved that was abducted by those dull aliens. We never find out where she is and what that even means. Then, he also has a budding relationship with mysterious Oliva Wilde (spoiler alert) who is actually another type of nice Alien in a beautiful girl costume who has been abducted by the evil aliens. After some form of 'sexual sparks' she blows herself up to save the humans and the story ends. Huh? 4. No chemistry, OR no opportunity to have any: Ford and Craig, a potential dream buddy team, have barely any chance to interact with each other. No - the filmmakers need the time to trot out more lifeless Alien CGI effects! Craig and Wilde have no chance to make it, and the story ends confusingly just as the romance could have been blossoming. This film has enough diverting stuff to look at that you might enjoy it on a long plane trip where you don't notice all the stuff that's missing, because you fell asleep on the paper pillow. Or a house party watching someone's new state of the art home theater where everyone is chatting and drunk. However, it's amazing so many smart film people with money to throw at the screen could have overlooked all my above comments and produced such a dud.

• jay n

  
  The germ of a good idea is present in this film but the execution of that thought is totally mishandled. Murky and dull with characters you know nothing about and care for even less it is easy to see why this tanked worldwide. When did Hollywood forget that to engage the audience you… More
  The germ of a good idea is present in this film but the execution of that thought is totally mishandled. Murky and dull with characters you know nothing about and care for even less it is easy to see why this tanked worldwide. When did Hollywood forget that to engage the audience you have to have people to care about and root for? It's obvious a lot of money was spent on the effects but it was wasted on what ended up being shiny junk.

• Tim S

  
  I must admit that when I first heard about Cowboys & Aliens and saw bits of the trailer and TV spots, I was scratching my head. I didn't know what to make of it being that it had such a blatant and cheesy title. Fortunately, the film itself turns out to be much better than… More
  I must admit that when I first heard about Cowboys & Aliens and saw bits of the trailer and TV spots, I was scratching my head. I didn't know what to make of it being that it had such a blatant and cheesy title. Fortunately, the film itself turns out to be much better than its title. It stars Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford, with smaller parts for Olivia Wilde and Sam Rockwell and is directed by Jon Favreau. I really appreciate this kind of movie. Tonally, the movie is pure western, and once the sci-fi elements kick in, it's still a western. It's a bit of a genre bender, but it's suprisingly really well-made. It features lots of big canvas shots of areas in (I'm assuming) Montana and Arizona, ala John Ford, so the movie looks very authentic with actual landscapes and real backgrounds. The CGI is used to enhance the sci-fi elements and it all blends perfectly together. All of the real world elements are practical and the alien elements are computer generated, which makes perfect sense to me. The movie also has a lot of good character development and some nice surprises story-wise, as well as not being afraid to go dark. The final scene of the movie is a bit off to me and some of the CGI can be a bit jarring in a few areas, but overall, it's a good looking western/sci-fi film, and I'm happy to be eating my words about how good it could be. You should definitely check out.

• Chris W

  
  For the setting of this epic genre mashup, the time is 1873, and the place is the Arizona Territory. The story begins as an outlaw wakes up to discover he has amnesia, is injured, and has an odd device shackled around one of his wrists. The man makes his way to the town of Absolution… More
  For the setting of this epic genre mashup, the time is 1873, and the place is the Arizona Territory. The story begins as an outlaw wakes up to discover he has amnesia, is injured, and has an odd device shackled around one of his wrists. The man makes his way to the town of Absolution (I love that name) where things go from bad (it is revealed he is a wanted outlaw named Jake Lonergan) to worse when the town comes under attack by extra-terrestrials. From there, Jake begins his quest to recover his memory as well as aiding the townspeople in their fight to survive this otherworldly threat. Based on the title and the concept, it's clear that this film could have easily run the risk of being absolute campy, silly, schlock. Thankfully though, this is not the case, and the film is more or less a classic style western that just happens to have aliens in it. I loved that they play it pretty straight, and it is quite fun and novel to see cowboys duking it out with aliens, especially since the characters have fairly realistic reactions to the situation given the context, which is vital to the film escaping the schlock route. When the film is purely a western though, that's where it is at its best. Take away the aliens, and this would still be a top-notch badass genre film. Blending genres makes it more unique, but genre mashups are extremely hard to pull off, and pull off well. This film is mostly pretty successful, though some major plot twists sorta took me out of things and were a tad hard to swallow (even with a concept like this). They don't wreck the film, but it does end up becoming a major case of telling instead of showing, which is unfortunate because it would have been awesome to see the characters forced to figure things out without being told straight up. Still though, this film is pretty damn enjoyable, even if somewhat lopsided. Favreau is a smart man, so he knew he'd need a powerhouse cast to bring the story to life, and the casting choices don't disappointment. Daniel Craig, despite an unfortunate struggle with the accent, is a stone cold bad ass as Lonergan. It's basically his take on James Bond, but with a cowboy hat, and it works quite well. As the wealthy cattle rancher who reigns supreme in Absolution, Harrison Ford proves he's still got it when it comes to being a rough, tough authority figure, and watching him and Craig interact is a real treat. Olivia Wilde is solidly decent as the mysterious Ella who plays a crucial role in helping Jake regain his memory. Various other supporting roles are rounded out by the likes of Sam Rockwell, Paul Dano, Clancy Brown, Adam Beach, Noah Ringer, and John Carradine, all of whom do nice jobs as well. Even though the sci-fi elements are a little underwhelming, they blend far better with the western material than I thought they might, making for a fairly satisfying genre mashup that's a lot of fun. Give this one a shot.

• Dean !

  
  A decent western, up there with some of the better ones. Once you add the aliens though it went a bit down hill. Great if you like no brainer action blockbusters, which is the category this fall's into more, but I felt with the production and good cast this could have been way… More
  A decent western, up there with some of the better ones. Once you add the aliens though it went a bit down hill. Great if you like no brainer action blockbusters, which is the category this fall's into more, but I felt with the production and good cast this could have been way better. The SFX are pretty good on the whole, not a fan of the alien creature design though. Overall a good fun film, full of action and a fine cast.....just a slightly silly story line.

• Thomas J

  
  This was an interesting concept, but it sure feel short. It is not a BAD way to kill a couple of hours when bored.

• Mark H

  
  It's unclear whether the filmmakers meant this to be a silly, light hearted adventure or a serious sci-fi adaptation. Either way, the picture fails to captivate. Jon Favreau is a talented director. A string of his productions: Elf, Zathura and Iron Man, were all superior… More
  It's unclear whether the filmmakers meant this to be a silly, light hearted adventure or a serious sci-fi adaptation. Either way, the picture fails to captivate. Jon Favreau is a talented director. A string of his productions: Elf, Zathura and Iron Man, were all superior successes under his guidance. Oh yeah, some guy named Steven Spielberg is one of the executive producers. The fact that seven (!) writers are credited with the disorganized screenplay supports the old adage "too many cooks". A simplified, more singular vision would have been preferable. The best special effects extravaganzas are able to work in an engaging objective that makes the endeavor interesting, irregardless of eye catching embellishments. Here, the CGI is the story. It's telling that when key people die in the end, it causes no emotional reaction. It's just business as usual and off to the next adventure. >Yawn< http://fastfilmreviews.wordpress.com/2012/01/13/cowboys-aliens/

• Albert K

  
  "Snakes on a Plane", "Blood and Chocolate"........ "Cowboys & Aliens". What's up with these horrible titles? Not only does this movie have a horrible title, but a horrible premise as well. I get it & even Jon Favreau said it himself -- he… More
  "Snakes on a Plane", "Blood and Chocolate"........ "Cowboys & Aliens". What's up with these horrible titles? Not only does this movie have a horrible title, but a horrible premise as well. I get it & even Jon Favreau said it himself -- he wants to merge two different genres that are entertaining into one... but isn't the Western genre and sci-fi contradict each other? I onno, but anyways, despite all the cringing preconceived thoughts about the movie, "Cowboys & Aliens" surprised me with its short but engaging introduction. I've always liked Daniel Craig; he carries a subtle but extremely effective quality that is behind his performance and does the same here. But after the intro, everything falls apart. Action is all over the place in terms of structure, and the plot's engaging quality is all banked on "mystery" which is revealed about 40 minutes in. It's an average movie though the moral that lies underneath all the action and absurdity is pure and quite a treat when discovered.

• Roy G

  
  The cowboys: great. The aliens: not so much. There's fun to be had here, but it falls way short of the pulp classic it could have been.

• Cynthia S

  
  All star cast, and great scenery, but the magic just wasn't there in this movie. There was some humor, however, and some decent action. I just couldn't seem to get on board with the storyline that they went with, I guess. Being that this was directed by Jon Favreau, I really… More
  All star cast, and great scenery, but the magic just wasn't there in this movie. There was some humor, however, and some decent action. I just couldn't seem to get on board with the storyline that they went with, I guess. Being that this was directed by Jon Favreau, I really had high hopes. Apparently too high...sigh...

• Nate Z

  
  Never as good as a film should be given the talent involved, nor as bad as its detractors might have you believe, Cowboys & Aliens is an entertaining genre mash-up that's about 60 percent Western, 30 percent alien thriller, and 10 percent naked Olivia Wilde, which is too… More
  Never as good as a film should be given the talent involved, nor as bad as its detractors might have you believe, Cowboys & Aliens is an entertaining genre mash-up that's about 60 percent Western, 30 percent alien thriller, and 10 percent naked Olivia Wilde, which is too small a percentage in my opinion. For a solid hour, the movie follows the rhythms of classic Westerns and Daniel Craig has a face vividly made for the Western canvas. The sci-fi elements feel well integrated in small doses, however, when the movie goes all-out intergalactic gun slinging is when the narrative gets swallowed whole by the crude blockbuster nature of this beast. The plot is pretty standard Man with a Dark Past stuff, and can we put a moratorium on people suffering amnesia and choosing to be better people? The characters never really feel real but they feel believably stock for their genre. For a PG-13 movie, the violence can get pretty gruesome, especially in its gooey disembodiment of the alien invaders. You almost feel sorry for these nefarious gold-hoarding (yes, you read that right, the aliens are after our gold - Glen Beck was right!) creatures. The action sequences are a notch above average, the emphasis on practical effects is appreciated, and the movie takes some darkly comic turns, which kept me amused even when the movie's IQ was dropping at a precipitous rate for the last act. Cowboys & Aliens never pretends to be anything more, or smarter, than its blunt title. Nate's Grade: B-

• Letitia L

  
  It's a Choose Your Own Adventure with Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde and Sam Rockwell (whom I mistook for a young Gary Oldman, my bad). The character development was surprisingly satisfying (like Ford's relationship with the young Indian), and the ridiculousness… More
  It's a Choose Your Own Adventure with Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde and Sam Rockwell (whom I mistook for a young Gary Oldman, my bad). The character development was surprisingly satisfying (like Ford's relationship with the young Indian), and the ridiculousness made great joke fodder for me and my equally ridiculous co-watcher. Was a fun outing. Would NOT see again.

• Michael M

  
  Good chemistry between the leads and the old fashioned western style of Cowboys and Aliens can't make up for it's utter cheesiness. Starts good, but the alien side of the story kills it.

• Manu G

  
  A spaceship arrives in Arizona, 1873, to take over the Earth, starting with the Wild West region. A posse of cowboys and natives are all that stand in their way. Good movie. It's very different from everything you ever seen but that's about it. The movie is a little boring… More
  A spaceship arrives in Arizona, 1873, to take over the Earth, starting with the Wild West region. A posse of cowboys and natives are all that stand in their way. Good movie. It's very different from everything you ever seen but that's about it. The movie is a little boring at times but in others is quite exciting. I hope you enjoy it. The Old West.. where a lone cowboy leads an uprising against a terror from beyond our world. 1873. Arizona Territory. A stranger with no memory of his past stumbles into the hard desert town of Absolution. The only hint to his history is a mysterious shackle that encircles one wrist. What he discovers is that the people of Absolution don't welcome strangers, and nobody makes a move on its streets unless ordered to do so by the iron-fisted Colonel Dolarhyde (Ford). It's a town that lives in fear. But Absolution is about to experience fear it can scarcely comprehend as the desolate city is attacked by marauders from the sky. Screaming down with breathtaking velocity and blinding lights to abduct the helpless one by one, these monsters challenge everything the residents have ever known. Now, the stranger they rejected is their only hope for salvation. As this gunslinger slowly starts to remember who he is and where he's been, he realizes he holds a secret that could give the town a fighting chance against the alien force. With the help of the elusive traveler Ella (Olivia Wilde), he pulls together a posse comprised of former opponents-townsfolk, Dolarhyde and his boys, outlaws and Apache warriors-all in danger of annihilation. United against a common enemy, they will prepare for an epic showdown for survival.

• Summer W

  
  I think people were a little to hard on this one. No, it's not a terrific movie. But I thought it was decent. A little silly and muddled at times, but not bad.

• Nathan H

  
  A genre mixture for sure, cowboys and aliens is an enjoyable film. Despite several blatant plot-holes, and a couple of rough patches in moods, one will be pulled into the seemingly ridiculous premise. Most of the help comes from the acting of two of hollywood's manliest actors,… More
  A genre mixture for sure, cowboys and aliens is an enjoyable film. Despite several blatant plot-holes, and a couple of rough patches in moods, one will be pulled into the seemingly ridiculous premise. Most of the help comes from the acting of two of hollywood's manliest actors, and a director who knows what fun is. Enjoyable and creative, cowboys and aliens will certainly be a cult classic within the following years.

• Lewis C

  
  I liked Cowboys & Aliens (probably more than most), but it has flaws that can't easily be ignored. It's longer than it probably needs to be, and there are lengthy stretches that are outright boring. Serious is fine, boring is not. The focus on Jake's (Daniel Craig)… More
  I liked Cowboys & Aliens (probably more than most), but it has flaws that can't easily be ignored. It's longer than it probably needs to be, and there are lengthy stretches that are outright boring. Serious is fine, boring is not. The focus on Jake's (Daniel Craig) lost memory isn't exactly the most exciting way to tell the story, and the aliens themselves aren't that memorable or fearsome. Like I said, though, I still enjoyed it. Primarily because of the cast, which is full of some of my favorite actors (even though none of them really stretch themselves in their roles). And I won't lie, I'm predisposed to liking almost any movie that Olivia Wilde is in. Add her to Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig, Sam Rockwell and Paul Dano, and it's one of the better casts of the year. The movie looks great, too, and when things do get interesting, it's a fun time. The potential was here for a great movie instead of one that was merely okay, and that's a shame. More memorable characters and a tighter, more imaginative script that gave all those quality actors more to work with would have gone a long way towards accomplishing that. Still, Cowboys & Aliens is far from a bad movie, and I'd recommend watching it at least once to anyone who's interested.

• Jason R

  
  Some solid acting by Craig -- he owns the renegade bad boy role -- and Olivia Wilde is a solid choice for 'mysterious hot girl,' but there was something tedious and boring about this Action/Adventure. The beginning was slow while it tried to milk the whole amnesia thing and… More
  Some solid acting by Craig -- he owns the renegade bad boy role -- and Olivia Wilde is a solid choice for 'mysterious hot girl,' but there was something tedious and boring about this Action/Adventure. The beginning was slow while it tried to milk the whole amnesia thing and the overarching "we have to work together" made me grimace a few times. All in all, kinda tried to be Independence Day but didn't nail the human interest part; kinda tried to be Firefly, but without immersing the audience in a strangely familiar but awesomely different world. Daniel Craig nailed the role, but his stoic personality can't carry a film. Sorry Favreau, you'll need to do better if you think you can do without Downey Jr.

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