Cowboys & Aliens
Regal Union Square, August 10, 2011
Movie #59 for 2011
It’s true that Cowboys & Aliens suffered from following Attack the Block in a double feature, but mostly it suffered from being a bit shite. Has there ever been such a promising high-concept blockbuster idea in the history of the world? Well, yes, probably there has, but Cowboys & Aliens is right up there. Shame the execution was so badly bungled.
Jake (DANIEL CRAIG, who can sometimes be seen wandering around my neighborhood) is a bad-guy cowboy. Well, that’s what everyone seems to think, but he himself can’t remember. He beats people up like a bad guy, though. He wakes up alone in the desert and wanders into town - a poor and grim place that relies on the local mean rich guy (HARRISON FORD, pictured, left, with Craig) and is terrorized by his son (PAUL DANO). Various good-hearted townsfolk include the saloon owner/doctor SAM ROCKWELL, the preacher CLANCY “There can be only one!” BROWN, the sheriff KEITH CARRADINE (who also played Wild Bill Hickock in the first season of “Deadwood”) and OLIVIA WILDE (The Change-Up, Tron: Legacy), a stranger who fixates on Jake. Aliens descend, townspeople get snatched and everyone else tries to get em back.
It feels like it was written by committee because it was (members of which are variously responsible for some decent screenplays like Children of Men and Iron Man, and some abominable ones like Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Patch Adams) and oddly, it feels like it was directed by committee too, but that was just JON FAVREAU (Iron Mans). There are jumbled and unfortunate messages about faith, masculinity, self-sacrifice and indigenous relations and well more than a few groan-making scenes. And - even worse - the action scenes are not very interesting.
Most cumbersome and confusing of all is the insistence that this be an ensemble piece. An ensemble action movie? Whoever thought that would work? The writers try both too hard and not hard enough to establish characters out of their archetypes - the sheriff, for example, buried his daughter in the town and is now raising his young grandson who doesn’t really like it there. Big deal. The characters are not developed enough beyond archetype to be interesting, but way too much time is spent on backstory that is supposed to make us care. It just doesn’t work. But that’s only one of many things that undermines the awesomeness of the high-concept conceit.
