Shield Reviews: Cowboys and Aliens
The Shield Reviews the western Sci-Fi blend-up.
Please be aware that I do my best to not spoil films for readers that haven’t seen the specific film yet, but sometimes, I let too much slip out, so if you haven’t seen this yet, be alert of some spoilers I put in this review. You’ve been warned.
Cowboys and Aliens is one of those films that isn’t made to be great although it was certainly hyped ever since it’s Super Bowl ad, but since the box office results and the critics’ ratings have been disappointing up to this point, as if it wasn’t what you call a “popcorn” movie already, it certainly is now. It’s one of those movies that you can’t take seriously - just expect it to be entertaining at most, but to be honest, it was more than entertaining for me. The critics were way too harsh on this. I didn’t even know what they are talking about. Now the critics weren’t terrible on it, but they certainly could’ve gave it a higher score since it deserved better in my opinion. The movie is flat-out enjoyable. The acting lead by Daniel Craig as Jake Lonergan and Harrison Ford as Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde are both rock solid in their roles - Craig who is more British, was not at all noticable as his cowboy accent isn’t exactly obvious in the film, but it wasn’t exactly obvious he’s a British man, either. Ford is amazing in every film I’ve seen it seems like. Whether it is Indiana Jones, Star Wars, or this, he never fails to amaze. Olivia Wilde is also good in the film as Ella Swenson, her character was a little odd where she almost seemed like a hitchhiker stalking Lonergan (his name is hilarious - lone-again) and her character’s development was a little shallow, but you can put the blame on the directors and producers of the film for her shallow character development, not Wilde. Wilde isn’t the best in the movie, but she still manages to deliver a very solid performance. Paul Dano is kooky as Ford’s son in the film, Percy - he is nothing special by any means, but he’s a goofy character that brings some humor to the mix. Sam Rockwell is great as Doc while Noah Ringer is excellent as the kid of the cowboys, Emmett Taggart, and Clancy Brown does good as Meacham. The cast is very well-rounded and the flaws aren’t too high other than Ella’s development, but that’s not Wilde’s wrongdoing.
The action is pretty cool and the sci-fi special effects are awesome. Whether it’s the alien dock or the aliens themselves to Lonergan’s mysterious weapon on his arm’s technology-created blaster is also cool and kind of brings back memories of the Star Wars days. The movie can be pretty intense at times and the action is at times relentless including a epic final battle between the cowboys and the aliens for the battle of peace. The movie is directed by Jon Favreau who did the Iron Man films and executive producers/producers included Ron Howard and yes, Steven Spielberg. The movie seems to be a mix of three movies: any old western film, Star Wars, and Super 8 with a slight taste of Indiana Jones in it, as well.
For me, I thought the movie was underrated considering the harsh box office results and critics ratings, and I think the movie deserves more than it was given. I loved it and think it receives a 4.5/5.
http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/ ... s/?a=43828
A
Paper reviews and other reactions
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Germangirl
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Look what my favorite New Yorker - the toughest of the toughs- has to say: (the critic published his review on August 8 and came back to add on August 9 - so it made him think 
) Its a good review, I think, he actually blames a spoiled taste of young moviegoers.
THE FRONT ROW
« “The Future”: It’s About TimeMainHowdy, Pilgrim »
AUGUST 8, 2011
SEEING STARS
Posted by Richard Brody
I’m sorry to see a clever popcorn movie such as “Cowboys & Aliens” fail to reach a wider audience; it plays wittily with Western conventions, establishes clear rules to render the impossible meaningful, features a terrific set of monsters, and doesn’t go over the top until it needs to. It’s not an especially good movie, but it’s a satisfying diversion; I assume that nobody under forty wants to see a movie about cowboys unless it features a teen-aged cowgirl, and that nobody over forty wants to see a movie about aliens, and so, far from reaching the whole demographic, the movie is left with none. In any case, those who weren’t scared off by either genre were doubtless not going to make a special trip to see Daniel Craig or Harrison Ford. The movie’s concept and its execution are the stars—and this seems to be the case with most of the movies that find wide audiences these days. There are lots of recognizable names, but few whose presence in a movie is a good indicator of success—and most of those are comedians, because comedy, unlike dramatic acting or “action” acting, is judged on a binary scale: funny or die.
Yesterday, a provocative tweet by Michael Nordine, asking:
Blanket statement: Italian neorealism > French New Wave. Discuss.
got me thinking about stars. I’ve always thought that there are two strands to neorealism. One is the adaptation of populist melodrama to location shooting—and there, it converges to Hollywood’s post-war film noir tradition. The other is a one-man strand, Roberto Rossellini—his blend of analytical intellectualism and documentary-style investigation. And I think that his work rose to an even higher pitch—and, especially, inspired the future filmmakers of the French New Wave all the more—when he teamed up with Ingrid Bergman (whom he would also marry) to make the great run of dramas that included “Stromboli” and “Voyage to Italy.” These films taught the young French critics that, with scant resources and simple means, they could make films at their own high intellectual pitch, with stories that would arise from their own experience, in the very places where they lived—and also to attain a Hollywood-like allure, a sort of third dimension of charismatic wonder. They learned that they needed stars—but that they would do just fine with rising stars and falling stars.
The traditional luminosity of the movie star results not from the mastery of technique but from a kind of involuntary fission that’s sparked by the inner drama that they carry along and the outer drama that their presence provokes. That’s why, unlike theatre actors, movie actors have been found at a drugstore counter. And the French New Wave—especially Jean-Luc Godard—recognized, with their attention to documentary films, that people whom they found interesting in life would likely be interesting in movies. The result was the discovery of performance style (such as that of Anna Karina, Jean-Pierre Léaud, and Juliet Berto) that stays close to life and that depends on the impulsiveness, the awkwardness, and the uncertainty that non-actors often convey on-camera.
The style has become all the more common in the age of the Internet, with the rise of the YouTube video and reality TV, and is important in independent filmmaking (where, when theatricality makes its appearance, it often does so precisely as an exaggeration and a form of play). This is why the nature of movie stardom has changed—it has become more common and therefore rarer—and why, to respond to Michael Nordine’s suggestion, the New Wave is greater than neorealism: its subject is the cinema itself.
And that’s why it’s harder and harder for movie studios to make money with the kinds of naturalistic dramas that traditionalist critics keep calling for them to make: it’s justifiably hard for younger viewers to take them seriously. The wings and the feathers in “Black Swan” are surprisingly strong markers of a generational divide. And Natalie Portman’s Oscar—for a performance that is peculiarly, brilliantly chilled, more a matter of presence than of interpretation (a performance surprisingly similar to that of Tippi Hedren in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Marnie”)—suggests youth being served.
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/m ... z1UfWKwTSL
THE NEW YORKER
« Seeing StarsMainGod Is a Character »
AUGUST 9, 2011
HOWDY, PILGRIM
Posted by Richard Brody
One thing I should have mentioned yesterday regarding “Cowboys & Aliens” is the natural connection of the genres: both Westerns and space-invaders movies are about the arrival from afar of unwelcome conquerors. Had Jon Favreau’s film made more of the similarities between the Westward and the Earthward expansions, it might have been more than a clever amusement—and, in making those connections, might have appealed to viewers of both genres, rather than turning off those who dislike one or the other.
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/m ... z1UfTUU29C
) Its a good review, I think, he actually blames a spoiled taste of young moviegoers.THE FRONT ROW
« “The Future”: It’s About TimeMainHowdy, Pilgrim »
AUGUST 8, 2011
SEEING STARS
Posted by Richard Brody
I’m sorry to see a clever popcorn movie such as “Cowboys & Aliens” fail to reach a wider audience; it plays wittily with Western conventions, establishes clear rules to render the impossible meaningful, features a terrific set of monsters, and doesn’t go over the top until it needs to. It’s not an especially good movie, but it’s a satisfying diversion; I assume that nobody under forty wants to see a movie about cowboys unless it features a teen-aged cowgirl, and that nobody over forty wants to see a movie about aliens, and so, far from reaching the whole demographic, the movie is left with none. In any case, those who weren’t scared off by either genre were doubtless not going to make a special trip to see Daniel Craig or Harrison Ford. The movie’s concept and its execution are the stars—and this seems to be the case with most of the movies that find wide audiences these days. There are lots of recognizable names, but few whose presence in a movie is a good indicator of success—and most of those are comedians, because comedy, unlike dramatic acting or “action” acting, is judged on a binary scale: funny or die.
Yesterday, a provocative tweet by Michael Nordine, asking:
Blanket statement: Italian neorealism > French New Wave. Discuss.
got me thinking about stars. I’ve always thought that there are two strands to neorealism. One is the adaptation of populist melodrama to location shooting—and there, it converges to Hollywood’s post-war film noir tradition. The other is a one-man strand, Roberto Rossellini—his blend of analytical intellectualism and documentary-style investigation. And I think that his work rose to an even higher pitch—and, especially, inspired the future filmmakers of the French New Wave all the more—when he teamed up with Ingrid Bergman (whom he would also marry) to make the great run of dramas that included “Stromboli” and “Voyage to Italy.” These films taught the young French critics that, with scant resources and simple means, they could make films at their own high intellectual pitch, with stories that would arise from their own experience, in the very places where they lived—and also to attain a Hollywood-like allure, a sort of third dimension of charismatic wonder. They learned that they needed stars—but that they would do just fine with rising stars and falling stars.
The traditional luminosity of the movie star results not from the mastery of technique but from a kind of involuntary fission that’s sparked by the inner drama that they carry along and the outer drama that their presence provokes. That’s why, unlike theatre actors, movie actors have been found at a drugstore counter. And the French New Wave—especially Jean-Luc Godard—recognized, with their attention to documentary films, that people whom they found interesting in life would likely be interesting in movies. The result was the discovery of performance style (such as that of Anna Karina, Jean-Pierre Léaud, and Juliet Berto) that stays close to life and that depends on the impulsiveness, the awkwardness, and the uncertainty that non-actors often convey on-camera.
The style has become all the more common in the age of the Internet, with the rise of the YouTube video and reality TV, and is important in independent filmmaking (where, when theatricality makes its appearance, it often does so precisely as an exaggeration and a form of play). This is why the nature of movie stardom has changed—it has become more common and therefore rarer—and why, to respond to Michael Nordine’s suggestion, the New Wave is greater than neorealism: its subject is the cinema itself.
And that’s why it’s harder and harder for movie studios to make money with the kinds of naturalistic dramas that traditionalist critics keep calling for them to make: it’s justifiably hard for younger viewers to take them seriously. The wings and the feathers in “Black Swan” are surprisingly strong markers of a generational divide. And Natalie Portman’s Oscar—for a performance that is peculiarly, brilliantly chilled, more a matter of presence than of interpretation (a performance surprisingly similar to that of Tippi Hedren in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Marnie”)—suggests youth being served.
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/m ... z1UfWKwTSL
THE NEW YORKER
« Seeing StarsMainGod Is a Character »
AUGUST 9, 2011
HOWDY, PILGRIM
Posted by Richard Brody
One thing I should have mentioned yesterday regarding “Cowboys & Aliens” is the natural connection of the genres: both Westerns and space-invaders movies are about the arrival from afar of unwelcome conquerors. Had Jon Favreau’s film made more of the similarities between the Westward and the Earthward expansions, it might have been more than a clever amusement—and, in making those connections, might have appealed to viewers of both genres, rather than turning off those who dislike one or the other.
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/m ... z1UfTUU29C
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Sylvia's girl
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Good review from Empire
Cowboys & Aliens 4/5
Review
Cowboys & Aliens is the second of two mavericks among 2011’s summer-blockbuster herd — the other being its Paramount-funded, Spielberg-produced sibling Super 8 (which, interestingly, also centres around retro-smalltown alien abduction). While based (loosely) on a comic book, Cowboys & Aliens hardly has the following Marvel-movie newcomers Thor and Captain America enjoy, and even poor old Green Lantern was a better-known title. This is neither sequel nor reboot, bravely striving for rear-ends on multiplex seats with barely any ‘brand awareness’ (ugh) and a negligible built-in audience.
It also comes as part of a distinctly dodgy subgenre: the weird Western. Wild Wild West (steampunk Western) failed big back in ’99; Jonah Hex (supernatural steampunk Western) died on its prosthetics-marred ass only last year. You’d have to go back as far as Near Dark to find a satisfying and successful example. Nope, summer 2011 seems hardly the smartest time to go West.
So here’s some good news: Cowboys & Aliens is no turkey in a ten gallon hat. Whether it finds its audience remains to be seen, but in a world where charmless robots fisting each other break box-office records, it sure deserves to. Directed by Jon Favreau, as much harking back to 2005’s overlooked Zathura as his Iron Man, the film puts its not-too-many human characters front and centre, offering a straightforward, linear plot, lean rather than bloated and which, while skipping over a few gaping holes, largely makes sense. It delivers, along the way, pleasing action sequences during which you can actually make out what’s going on — mainly because it’s not in murky, motion-blurring 3D. The visual effects meanwhile assist rather than burden the storytelling, adding to the atmosphere rather than sucking it out. It’s not groundbreaking, it’s not perfect, but it’s traditional and charming, and that counts for a lot.
It also feels refreshingly unsterilised. The lead character smokes. There is a scene in which a child is given a knife as a gift, and later uses it to stab an alien to death (er, hooray for knives!). The whole thing has a gritty, sweaty, blood-smeared look, recalling the revisionist oaters of the late ’60s onwards rather than the crisper offerings of the genre’s golden age. This ain’t aliens versus Shane; it’s aliens versus The Man With No Name and The Wild Bunch.
There are also, at times, moments of horror. One scene involves a conscious woman being dissected by one of Favreau’s slimy monsters (think weaponised frog crossed with cockroach), before it incinerates her from the face down. That’s the most surprising thing about the film: it’s more gritty and harsh than the daft but enticing title suggests. Bullets, arrows, spears, teeth and claws puncture flesh with gouts of blood, wounds need sewing up and spent gun barrels sear skin. One action beat even sees an alien being messily offed by dynamite… tethered to a dagger.
As Clint-esque amnesiac bad-hat Jake Lonergan, Daniel Craig is an intense presence, laconic, simmering and brutal, a creature of bone-snapping action rather than whip-smart wit. Alongside him we have Harrison Ford’s town-bullying ranch-man who gear-shifts from leathery grump mode at the film’s start to something with a glimmer of his Dr. Jones twinkle. His occasional interjections prove welcome, including one which it’s tempting to suggest was the actor’s own reaction to the script, when it’s revealed at a campfire conflab that the green, bug-eyed interlopers are on Earth because there’s gold in that thar planet: “That’s ridiculous,” he growls, “what are they gonna do with it? Buy things?”
Even so, it’s a dour pairing, both characters defined by loss, tragedy and inky-dark pasts rather than upbeat, go-get-’em swagger. There’s none of the Iron Man films’ sense of irreverence here — just grim people dealing with a grim situation. There’s little lightness from the supporting cast, either. Olivia Wilde is a shimmering, otherworldly presence in a multi-layered yet underwritten romantic-interest role (see also: Tron Legacy), Sam Rockwell jitters and whines as a rattled barkeep and Adam Beach pines for a father-figure as one of Ford’s stooges. We’d never ask for a mugging comic-relief character to be shoe-horned in, or that everyone should play it with their tongue in their cheek, but a bit more levity from the edges would have complemented the hard core well.
Verdict
A simple entertainment in a summer of overcomplicated disappointments. Also much harder-edged than you may have expected.
Reviewer: Dan Jolin
http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/rev ... FID=136721
Cowboys & Aliens 4/5
Review
Cowboys & Aliens is the second of two mavericks among 2011’s summer-blockbuster herd — the other being its Paramount-funded, Spielberg-produced sibling Super 8 (which, interestingly, also centres around retro-smalltown alien abduction). While based (loosely) on a comic book, Cowboys & Aliens hardly has the following Marvel-movie newcomers Thor and Captain America enjoy, and even poor old Green Lantern was a better-known title. This is neither sequel nor reboot, bravely striving for rear-ends on multiplex seats with barely any ‘brand awareness’ (ugh) and a negligible built-in audience.
It also comes as part of a distinctly dodgy subgenre: the weird Western. Wild Wild West (steampunk Western) failed big back in ’99; Jonah Hex (supernatural steampunk Western) died on its prosthetics-marred ass only last year. You’d have to go back as far as Near Dark to find a satisfying and successful example. Nope, summer 2011 seems hardly the smartest time to go West.
So here’s some good news: Cowboys & Aliens is no turkey in a ten gallon hat. Whether it finds its audience remains to be seen, but in a world where charmless robots fisting each other break box-office records, it sure deserves to. Directed by Jon Favreau, as much harking back to 2005’s overlooked Zathura as his Iron Man, the film puts its not-too-many human characters front and centre, offering a straightforward, linear plot, lean rather than bloated and which, while skipping over a few gaping holes, largely makes sense. It delivers, along the way, pleasing action sequences during which you can actually make out what’s going on — mainly because it’s not in murky, motion-blurring 3D. The visual effects meanwhile assist rather than burden the storytelling, adding to the atmosphere rather than sucking it out. It’s not groundbreaking, it’s not perfect, but it’s traditional and charming, and that counts for a lot.
It also feels refreshingly unsterilised. The lead character smokes. There is a scene in which a child is given a knife as a gift, and later uses it to stab an alien to death (er, hooray for knives!). The whole thing has a gritty, sweaty, blood-smeared look, recalling the revisionist oaters of the late ’60s onwards rather than the crisper offerings of the genre’s golden age. This ain’t aliens versus Shane; it’s aliens versus The Man With No Name and The Wild Bunch.
There are also, at times, moments of horror. One scene involves a conscious woman being dissected by one of Favreau’s slimy monsters (think weaponised frog crossed with cockroach), before it incinerates her from the face down. That’s the most surprising thing about the film: it’s more gritty and harsh than the daft but enticing title suggests. Bullets, arrows, spears, teeth and claws puncture flesh with gouts of blood, wounds need sewing up and spent gun barrels sear skin. One action beat even sees an alien being messily offed by dynamite… tethered to a dagger.
As Clint-esque amnesiac bad-hat Jake Lonergan, Daniel Craig is an intense presence, laconic, simmering and brutal, a creature of bone-snapping action rather than whip-smart wit. Alongside him we have Harrison Ford’s town-bullying ranch-man who gear-shifts from leathery grump mode at the film’s start to something with a glimmer of his Dr. Jones twinkle. His occasional interjections prove welcome, including one which it’s tempting to suggest was the actor’s own reaction to the script, when it’s revealed at a campfire conflab that the green, bug-eyed interlopers are on Earth because there’s gold in that thar planet: “That’s ridiculous,” he growls, “what are they gonna do with it? Buy things?”
Even so, it’s a dour pairing, both characters defined by loss, tragedy and inky-dark pasts rather than upbeat, go-get-’em swagger. There’s none of the Iron Man films’ sense of irreverence here — just grim people dealing with a grim situation. There’s little lightness from the supporting cast, either. Olivia Wilde is a shimmering, otherworldly presence in a multi-layered yet underwritten romantic-interest role (see also: Tron Legacy), Sam Rockwell jitters and whines as a rattled barkeep and Adam Beach pines for a father-figure as one of Ford’s stooges. We’d never ask for a mugging comic-relief character to be shoe-horned in, or that everyone should play it with their tongue in their cheek, but a bit more levity from the edges would have complemented the hard core well.
Verdict
A simple entertainment in a summer of overcomplicated disappointments. Also much harder-edged than you may have expected.
Reviewer: Dan Jolin
http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/rev ... FID=136721
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Sylvia's girl
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- Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2009 11:57 am
The Daily Star - a popular trashy UK tabloid gives C&A 3/5.
Particularly likes the casting of DC and HF
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/posts/view/2 ... iens-12A-/
Particularly likes the casting of DC and HF
http://www.dailystar.co.uk/posts/view/2 ... iens-12A-/
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Sylvia's girl
- Posts: 11961
- Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2009 11:57 am
SalRowb Sal Rowberry
@PatchMcScratchy Did you spy Daniel Craig at the premiere?
@SalRowb I did indeed. Get ready for your boner: http://t.co/JfYaeVD
@PatchMcScratchy hihuaiehbaebjalivuhalergvjawbvywvgwfhjwbgwvuhvwvwvhjwefhfbvfvjewvn. That is all
@PatchMcScratchy Did you spy Daniel Craig at the premiere?
@SalRowb I did indeed. Get ready for your boner: http://t.co/JfYaeVD
@PatchMcScratchy hihuaiehbaebjalivuhalergvjawbvywvgwfhjwbgwvuhvwvwvhjwefhfbvfvjewvn. That is all
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Germangirl
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Sylvia's girl
- Posts: 11961
- Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2009 11:57 am
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Germangirl
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What does it mean?Sylvia's girl wrote:HAHA...sorry about that...its supposed to be in the twitter thread! It a twitter convo. I'll put it in the right place.Germangirl wrote:Sylvia's girl wrote:hihuaiehbaebjalivuhalergvjawbvywvgwfhjwbgwvuhvwvwvhjwefhfbvfvjewvn. That is all
The top notch acting in the Weisz/Craig/Spall 'Betrayal' is emotionally true, often v funny and its beautifully staged with filmic qualities..
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Sylvia's girl
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- Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2009 11:57 am
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Germangirl
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Like she cannot talk straight anymore?Sylvia's girl wrote:You have to read the whole conversation. Her mind's blown when sheGermangirl wrote:What does it mean?Sylvia's girl wrote: HAHA...sorry about that...its supposed to be in the twitter thread! It a twitter convo. I'll put it in the right place.
sees the pic.
The top notch acting in the Weisz/Craig/Spall 'Betrayal' is emotionally true, often v funny and its beautifully staged with filmic qualities..
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Sylvia's girl
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SmittenDramaKitten
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No word of a lie... 
Unfortunately C&A is opening to some mediocre reviews in the UK. However, most are complimentary about Daniel's performance. Here is a review from the Daily Telegraph
Cowboys & Aliens, review
By Sukhdev Sandhu
The title of Cowboys & Aliens makes it sound like a Snakes on a Plane one-liner comedy. Cowboys? Hanging out or knocking the bejeesus out of aliens? Surely, this has to be some kind of spoof. But for the first and best half of Jon Favreau’s deviant Western, things are kept pretty straight.
Set in 1875, a stranger (Daniel Craig) arrives in an Arizonan desert town called Absolution with no memory of how he got there. It’s a tough place, and he’s a tough guy — whacking or shooting down any would-be pistol packer who tries to better him. Things get hairy though after he humiliates Percy, the wastrel son of powerful rancher Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford).
Then, just as the mother of all confrontations between the two alpha men is about to kick off, along come spaceships, strafing Absolution with explosives and reeling up its inhabitants, whom they whisk off to some kind of experimental laboratory in the mountains.
The stranger — his identity now known — forms an uneasy alliance with Woodrow, the remaining townsfolk, and, in what is a very utopian take on 19th-century American history, local Apaches. Together with other-worldly beauty Ella (Olivia Wilde), they set out to rescue their loved ones.
Craig is terrific as the Eastwood-like outsider. He’s laconic, pitiless, beguilingly bored. Even when he’s aiming the chunky iron bracelet around his wrist at oncoming spaceships or outsize monsters, he never plays the action for cartoonish laughs. But what could have been a pleasingly combustible cross-generational duel with Ford comes to nothing: they shares too few scenes and the Indiana Jones star more closely resembles a grumpy village postmaster than he does a fearsome cattle baron.
Favreau, who also directed Iron Man and Iron Man 2, ensures the fight sequences have a flinty dynamism all the more effective for not being in 3D. Matthew Libatique’s cinematography conveys a powerful sense of the harsh desert landscapes that, in their own way, are almost as inhuman as the extraterrestrials who have touched down there.
Yet the aliens themselves are a letdown. Visually they owe too much to the gooey, grey-skinned look of Ridley Scott’s Alien. Dramatically they’re given too little back story, characterisation or even screen time.
Five writers have laboured on turning Scott Mitchell Rosenberg’s 2006 graphic novel. They seem to have had competing ideas about what its real story is. Is it a loose allegory about the treatment of Native Americans by white settlers? A cosmic-tinged romance between Jake and Ella? A mighty, bullets-pinging ballistic thriller?
Cowboys & Aliens could have been a new Starship Troopers, Paul Verhoeven’s hysterical political satire that doubled as demented B-movie trash. Favreau, though, allows the material’s imaginative possibilities to flare up and fade away.
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film ... eview.html
In today's edition of the paper, Times critic, Wendy Ides, comments that 'Daniel Craig looks good in chaps - and he's the saving grace of Jon Favreau's ponderous yarn'.
Cowboys & Aliens, review
By Sukhdev Sandhu
The title of Cowboys & Aliens makes it sound like a Snakes on a Plane one-liner comedy. Cowboys? Hanging out or knocking the bejeesus out of aliens? Surely, this has to be some kind of spoof. But for the first and best half of Jon Favreau’s deviant Western, things are kept pretty straight.
Set in 1875, a stranger (Daniel Craig) arrives in an Arizonan desert town called Absolution with no memory of how he got there. It’s a tough place, and he’s a tough guy — whacking or shooting down any would-be pistol packer who tries to better him. Things get hairy though after he humiliates Percy, the wastrel son of powerful rancher Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford).
Then, just as the mother of all confrontations between the two alpha men is about to kick off, along come spaceships, strafing Absolution with explosives and reeling up its inhabitants, whom they whisk off to some kind of experimental laboratory in the mountains.
The stranger — his identity now known — forms an uneasy alliance with Woodrow, the remaining townsfolk, and, in what is a very utopian take on 19th-century American history, local Apaches. Together with other-worldly beauty Ella (Olivia Wilde), they set out to rescue their loved ones.
Craig is terrific as the Eastwood-like outsider. He’s laconic, pitiless, beguilingly bored. Even when he’s aiming the chunky iron bracelet around his wrist at oncoming spaceships or outsize monsters, he never plays the action for cartoonish laughs. But what could have been a pleasingly combustible cross-generational duel with Ford comes to nothing: they shares too few scenes and the Indiana Jones star more closely resembles a grumpy village postmaster than he does a fearsome cattle baron.
Favreau, who also directed Iron Man and Iron Man 2, ensures the fight sequences have a flinty dynamism all the more effective for not being in 3D. Matthew Libatique’s cinematography conveys a powerful sense of the harsh desert landscapes that, in their own way, are almost as inhuman as the extraterrestrials who have touched down there.
Yet the aliens themselves are a letdown. Visually they owe too much to the gooey, grey-skinned look of Ridley Scott’s Alien. Dramatically they’re given too little back story, characterisation or even screen time.
Five writers have laboured on turning Scott Mitchell Rosenberg’s 2006 graphic novel. They seem to have had competing ideas about what its real story is. Is it a loose allegory about the treatment of Native Americans by white settlers? A cosmic-tinged romance between Jake and Ella? A mighty, bullets-pinging ballistic thriller?
Cowboys & Aliens could have been a new Starship Troopers, Paul Verhoeven’s hysterical political satire that doubled as demented B-movie trash. Favreau, though, allows the material’s imaginative possibilities to flare up and fade away.
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film ... eview.html
In today's edition of the paper, Times critic, Wendy Ides, comments that 'Daniel Craig looks good in chaps - and he's the saving grace of Jon Favreau's ponderous yarn'.
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Sylvia's girl
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Sylvia's girl
- Posts: 11961
- Joined: Thu Oct 08, 2009 11:57 am
Nice review
Suck My Film Theory
News, Reviews, Interviews, Opinions and StuffReview- COWBOYS and ALIENS Posted on 08/19/2011 by thehollywoodsmackdown
0
-COWBOYS and ALIENS-
*****
Directed by Jon Favreau (Iron Man) and produced by Steven Spielberg, Cowboys and Aliens hasn’t exactly been well received by the critics and has done less than well at the world Box Office- with its first weekend being equalled by, wait for it, The Smurfs. Frankly, this is all nonsense because I know which of the two is a better movie.
Cowboys and Aliens is the best blockbuster of this summer by a mile or more. Of course its broadly true that nobody really goes to see Westerns anymore, it’s also true that aliens are the new black and so this was a fair bet for a summer tentpole release. It will probably recoup its budget but obviously its not going to turn into the cash cow the studio had hoped, especially with two big stars attached and several more A-listers filling out the expansive cast.
The film is however a total knockout and, for want of a better phrase, does exactly what it says on the tin. It’s good fun, at times honestly brutal and flawlessly executed. The camera work is visually exciting, with the audience being treated to lots of views of giant vistas and wide angled sweeping shots of our heroes upon horseback. The action scenes are well choreographed and the film avoids becoming confusing even though our heroes are fighting large alien beings. Favreau cuts for clarity and never to disguise mistakes, or at least he gets away with it beautifully if it has happened.
Daniel Craig excels as the leading man, with his chiselled features and iconic look defining the character and, with the quality of the material he’s given to play with, Craig even manages to bring some emotion into the proceedings. Harrison Ford is also good here. I had initially been nervous of his age and the impact it might have on his appearance and performance however I must stress that the man himself performed admirably, even excellently, in a turn that far outweighs the inconsistencies of the fourth Indiana Jones installment.
Olivia Wilde is great in her role here, as is the ever brilliant Sam Rockwell- who probably has the most obvious character arc in the picture.
The aliens are scary, if not that original, and whilst their fortress resembles a giant space penis- their cause remains believeable and the action scenes they provide dazzle the viewers.
You should go and see this movie- not because its a Western or because it has aliens. You should go and see this movie because its brilliant- everything Hollywood should be and a little bit more.
http://thehollywoodsmackdown.com/2011/0 ... nd-aliens/
Suck My Film Theory
News, Reviews, Interviews, Opinions and StuffReview- COWBOYS and ALIENS Posted on 08/19/2011 by thehollywoodsmackdown
0
-COWBOYS and ALIENS-
*****
Directed by Jon Favreau (Iron Man) and produced by Steven Spielberg, Cowboys and Aliens hasn’t exactly been well received by the critics and has done less than well at the world Box Office- with its first weekend being equalled by, wait for it, The Smurfs. Frankly, this is all nonsense because I know which of the two is a better movie.
Cowboys and Aliens is the best blockbuster of this summer by a mile or more. Of course its broadly true that nobody really goes to see Westerns anymore, it’s also true that aliens are the new black and so this was a fair bet for a summer tentpole release. It will probably recoup its budget but obviously its not going to turn into the cash cow the studio had hoped, especially with two big stars attached and several more A-listers filling out the expansive cast.
The film is however a total knockout and, for want of a better phrase, does exactly what it says on the tin. It’s good fun, at times honestly brutal and flawlessly executed. The camera work is visually exciting, with the audience being treated to lots of views of giant vistas and wide angled sweeping shots of our heroes upon horseback. The action scenes are well choreographed and the film avoids becoming confusing even though our heroes are fighting large alien beings. Favreau cuts for clarity and never to disguise mistakes, or at least he gets away with it beautifully if it has happened.
Daniel Craig excels as the leading man, with his chiselled features and iconic look defining the character and, with the quality of the material he’s given to play with, Craig even manages to bring some emotion into the proceedings. Harrison Ford is also good here. I had initially been nervous of his age and the impact it might have on his appearance and performance however I must stress that the man himself performed admirably, even excellently, in a turn that far outweighs the inconsistencies of the fourth Indiana Jones installment.
Olivia Wilde is great in her role here, as is the ever brilliant Sam Rockwell- who probably has the most obvious character arc in the picture.
The aliens are scary, if not that original, and whilst their fortress resembles a giant space penis- their cause remains believeable and the action scenes they provide dazzle the viewers.
You should go and see this movie- not because its a Western or because it has aliens. You should go and see this movie because its brilliant- everything Hollywood should be and a little bit more.
http://thehollywoodsmackdown.com/2011/0 ... nd-aliens/