Movie Review - Cowboys & Aliens

Cowboys & Aliens  – (2011) Rated PG13, Intense sequences of western and sci-fi action and violence, some partial nudity and a brief crude reference,  118 Minutes

Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard had a couple lunches to talk about a movie “Cowboy & Aliens.” Spielberg had worked it for a while and shelved the concept. Unfortunately, Ron Howard pulled it off the shelf.

As Spielberg envisioned it, the movie was going to be a comedy on the order of Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles. Instead, it got made into a traditional Western with the 1979 movie Alien bolted on and an Independence Day theme emerging.

Did you follow that? Well, nor did the script writers.

A stranger with no memory of his past, Jake Lonergan (played by our current James Bond, Daniel Craig) wakes up sporting some unique wrist bling and stumbles into the Arizona desert town of Absolution in 1873 (although some sources suggest 1875). He quickly runs into the wayward son of Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford). As Jake starts to develop a relationship with the beautiful yet mysterious Ella Swenson (Olivia Wilde), Absolution is attached by a bunch of X Wing fighters (oops, this isn’t Star Wars. Harrison Ford rides a horse, not the Millennium Falcon. They are respectful of X Wing fighters). Jake discovers his wrist bling is actually a rocket launcher developed by the Q Branch. (Well, it is a wrist rocket launcher, but it didn’t get developed by the Q branch).

Is all of this preposterous?

Actually, very much so. Harrison Ford said he didn’t want to say much about the movie so audiences “could experience the events rather than tell them about it.” We suspect Harrison Ford told people they better not talk about the story; it is so farfetched as to be ridiculous.

OK…so what if you suspend belief for a couple hours.

If you put your mind in neutral and just take the movie in, you’ll be entertained and you won’t walk out saying, “that’s 118 minutes of my life I’ll never get back.” In fact, you might just enjoy it.

Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde and a large supporting cast do a nice acting job in the movie. Daniel Craig is like a Timex watch, he takes a licking and keeps on ticking. Harrison Ford plays an irascible character who grows likeable as he softens. Olivia Wilde, who lightens the big screen as nicely as she does the small as Thirteen on House, floats from scene to scene as arguably the bravest person in Absolution all the time wearing a (generally clean) light yellow dress. It’s OK, though, as you have already suspended belief.

For a $163 million film, it won't do big business at the weekend box office with predictions of around $40 million-$45 million this weekend. With all the talent behind it, including Spielberg and Howard, and companies like Universal, Imagine, and DreamWorks in the mix, one would expect a better movie.

We’d suggest waiting for Pay-Per-View or a rainy day.

Cowboys & Aliens gets an

       Amber Light – Use caution

About the RAG scale:

       Green Light – Go and enjoy

       Amber Light – Use caution

       Red Light – Save your time and money

The Author

Gary Kelley has lived in Westborough since 1994. His reviews are what he would tell friends, and are not an academic analysis.