Cowboys and Aliens

Movie, 2011, dir. Jon Favreau

The key to enjoying this movie is managing expectations.  I went into this movie expecting something akin to Snakes on a Plane in terms of tongue-in-cheek-itude, and was pleasantly surprised to find it was a fun little Western instead.

If you are expecting something new and genre-bending a la Black Swan (dance/horror!) or anyting by Tarantino, you will be disappointed.  It's basically just a standard Western, but the shoot-outs happen to be with aliens.  And the Indians are the allies.  I was sort of hoping that we would get the aliens' perspective on things too, but it was indisputably good guy = humans, bad guy = aliens.

Here's Harrison Ford's third appearance on my short blog, and probably my favorite of the three.  He's great as a tough guy cowboy (what?? Ford as a tough guy?? inventive casting!) who is the big man in town because's he's rich, but has to deal with the tomfoolery of his weirdo son (the teenager from Little Miss Sunshine, who was also good) and the arrival of a new tough guy in town--Daniel Craig.  They don't get much touger than Daniel Craig, so that's a definite challenge to your manhood.  Luckily Craig and Ford band together to work on the movie's central plot--chasing down the aliens who have abducted some of the townspeople.

It's worth mentioning that there are some great supporting actors as well--Sam Rockwell and Keith Carradine were both good, but they played a distant second fiddle to the leads in terms of material.  The male-dominated theater I was in on Friday night approved highly of Olivia Wilde as well.

A warning to all you sensitive types: this movie was, for lack of a better word, scarier than I was expecting.  There are a few make-you-jump moments, and a lot of loud noise and generally startling fight scenes.

The bottom line on this one is that if you're looking for a fun summer shoot-em-up, you'll be satsified.  If you were hoping for more, lower your expectations.