Movie of the Week: Cowboys & Aliens

My real movie of the week is The Devil’s Double, but unfortunately I promised the gf I would wait to see what critics are calling the “Scarface of Arabia” so instead the review of the week is for Cowboys and Aliens.

 

The movie is solid, but by no means spectacular.  Here’s the breakdown:

THE GOOD

Daniel Craig is nearly perfect in the movie.  His few fights are well executed.  His few moments of humor are perfect and not cheesy.  And he seems to have the gravity to convey a cowboy, despite being in a sci-fi movie.

The action scenes are pretty well done and I will not specify how it ends, but at least it does not do that shameful “NOW WE HAVE TO HAVE A SEQUEL!!!!” moment.  Now if the movie is successful I am sure there will be a sequel and that is OK, but at least the movie does not conclude in a pandering and obvious way.

The supporting cast is largely solid, headlined by the alluring eyes of Olivia Wilde.

THE BAD

Harrison Ford.  He has officially announced his candidacy for the “Robert DeNiro – My Legacy Be Damned I need a Paycheck” club.  Watching Harrison Ford in this movie gave me the same feeling I had watching Karl Malone play his final season for the Los Angeles Lakers.  My thought in both cases was “You have earned the right to do this, but I still do not know why you did.”  Harrison Ford has one note in this movie – crusty old man.  It is as if he took the line from The Fugitive at the police station where he yells “You find this man!  You find this man!  He had… a mechanical arm!” and just delivered every line with the same grit.

From the middle of the movie on I felt like Favreau and the team that wrote the movie were veering into Michael Bay territory of cheesy jokes and excessive amounts of knowing smirks.  Be on the lookout for Favreau (after the quality of Swingers and Iron Man 1) to turn into the next Michael Bay.  Hopefully he does not, but I am sure with the money Bay’s crap makes it is tempting.

This movie does something that a lot of sports and action movies do.  In the beginning of the climactic battle between (spoiler) the cowboys and aliens the aliens are kicking the cowboys’ (and Indians) asses.  Then a character dies, which get the cowboys and Indians pumped up (as if the fate of the world and their own lives was not sufficient motivation to give it their all) and then, without any additional weaponry or manpower they start to turn the tide.  I hate that sh*t.  That is only the beginning portion of a pretty good conclusion of the film, so do not feel cheated by that description.

The Indians – why are Native Americans always extremely noble or extreme fu*k ups?  Just once I would like to see (even if not true) a group of apathetic Indians who just want to be left alone in a movie, rather than either fighting for the spirit warriors of the past or drunk in a gutter somewhere.

THE UGLY

This portion is dedicated to the black gentleman sitting behind me in the theater.  He represented his stereotype well, not allowing a single moment, whether funny, action-packed, tense or boring to go by without his inner monologue being expressed outwardly.  By my comment count here is the breakdown:

Oh wow’s – 19

Oh sh*t!s – 11

Ooooooo’s – 33

Miscellaneous – 114

And my personal favorite – “Use that knife to stab that nigga!”  And by “nigga” he meant alien.

Final Grade – B/B-