Cowboys & Aliens

Movie 🎥 Review: “Cowboys & Aliens”

Critics gave it a 44% the users an 43%.

Rated: PG 13 with a 2 hr run time and an IMDb of 6.0/10.

Cast: Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, Paul Dano, Clancy Brown, Keith Carradine, Noah Ringer, Adam Beach, Abigail Spencer, Ana de la Reguera, Walton Goggins, Julio Cedillo, David O'Hara, Toby Huss and Raoul Trujillo.

Bearing a mysterious metal shackle on his wrist, an amnesiac gunslinger (Daniel Craig) wanders into a frontier town called Absolution. He quickly finds that strangers are unwelcome, and no one does anything without the approval of tyrannical Col. Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford). But when Absolution faces a threat from beyond Earth, the stranger finds that he is its only hope of salvation. He unites townspeople, outlaws and Apache warriors against the alien forces in an epic battle for survival.

Cowboys & Aliens is a 2011 American science fiction Western film directed by Jon Favreau. The film is based on the 2006 graphic novel of the same name created by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg. The screenplay was written by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, based on a screen story by the latter two along with Steve Oedekerk. The film was produced by Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Kurtzman, Orci and Rosenberg, with Steven Spielberg and Favreau serving as executive producers.

The project began development in April 1997, when Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Pictures bought film rights to a concept pitched by Rosenberg, former president at Malibu Comics, which he described as a graphic novel in development. After the graphic novel was published in 2006, development on the film was begun again, and Favreau signed on as director in September 2009. On a budget of $163 million, filming for Cowboys & Aliens began in June 2010, in New Mexico and California.

Cowboys & Aliens premiered at the 2011 San Diego Comic-Con and was released theatrically in the United States and Canada on July 29, 2011. The film received mixed reviews, with critics generally praising its acting while criticizing other aspects.

I have to say that I put off watching this movie because from the name it just (to me) seemed to be questionable. Man was I wrong. When I finally watched it, I was surprisingly glad I did.

If you are a fan of westerns and Si-Fi this was the perfect match and has to be the first of its kind. The thing that stood out to me was how well they blend the two genres with the characters in such a manner that when the real threat manifests itself it catches you as off guard.

Surprisingly the cast is great. It reminds me of the films I used to enjoy about twenty years ago, that had a lively pace, but not frantic. The effects are good, but not overblown or overwhelming and they don’t detract from the storyline and characters.

The movie is an honest attempt to try something different for sure! (check out the trailer above).

I’ve said this before….”if your shut in because of COVID and looking for an entertaining movie, I’d give this a try”…….. you might be pleasantly surprised like I was. (p.s. I’ve seen it 3 time now with no regrets)!