Film Review: Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford in Dull ‘Cowboys & Aliens’

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CHICAGO – Jon Favreau’s “Cowboys & Aliens” with Daniel Craig & Harrison Ford is a depressing snooze, a film with so many of the right elements but none of the personality to connect them into something memorable. With so many revisions from a number of writers, it feels like everyone added their own color to the piece until it all faded to gray.

HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 2.0/5.0
Rating: 2.0/5.0

“Cowboys & Aliens” starts promisingly largely due to the fact that the basic foundational premise of the piece is strong and the cast is entertaining in that “isn’t it cool to see James Bond and Indiana Jones in the same movie” kind of way. But that novelty wears off. Quickly. And by the time the posse has been formed and the cowboys are chasing off the aliens, the air has gone out of the piece rarely to return. There’s no edge to the movie, like something that has been focus-grouped down to absolutely nothing or a game of “pass the screenplay” where the writers simply pushed the plot forward instead of adding things like character, interesting dialogue, or even enjoyable action.

StarRead Brian Tallerico’s full review of “Cowboys & Aliens” in our reviews section.

Jake Lonergan (Craig) wakes up in the middle of nowhere with no memory of anything but the English language and a bizarre metal clamp around his wrist. After dispatching a few bad guys looking to take him in for ransom, he stumbles into a small town and upon an altercation between the obnoxious Percy Dolarhyde (Paul Dano) and the local barkeep Doc (Sam Rockwell). Percy has a powerful padre in Colonel Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) and is clearly one of those spoiled brats who thinks he can do anything because of it.

After Percy shoots an innocent man, Sheriff Taggart (Keith Carradine) is forced to arrest him and, soon after, he comes for Jake when he sees a wanted poster revealing that our hero is a hardened criminal. Someone else has been following Jake in the form of the wide-eyed Ella (Olivia Wilde). Why is she so fascinated with Jake? What’s her background? The obvious answers will come in obvious ways.

StarContinue reading for Brian Tallerico’s full “Cowboys & Aliens” review.

“Cowboys & Aliens” stars Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Sam Rockwell, Adam Beach, Keith Carradine, and Paul Dano. It was written by Robert Orci & Alex Kurtzman & Damon Lindelof and Mark Fergus & Hawk Ostby and directed by Jon Favreau. It is rated PG-13 and will be released on July 29th, 2011.

Cowboys and Aliens
Cowboys and Aliens
Photo credit: Universal Pictures

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