{"id":15651,"date":"2011-08-21T16:36:23","date_gmt":"2011-08-22T00:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=15651"},"modified":"2011-08-21T18:47:45","modified_gmt":"2011-08-22T02:47:45","slug":"cowboys-and-aliens-jon-favreau-2011-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=15651","title":{"rendered":"Cowboys and Aliens (Jon Favreau, 2011): USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy<\/a>.\u00a0 Viewed at Metro 4, Santa Barbara, CA.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0 Cowboys and Apaches become allies battling aliens,\u00a0in\u00a0Jon Favreau’s cross-genre, Cowboys & Aliens<\/a>.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n

Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) is alone in the middle of the desert, minus\u00a0his memory,\u00a0when three strangers approach and attempt to overpower him.\u00a0 With gunslinger reaction he takes control of the situation, and soon finds himself teaching manners to a mealy-mouthed punk, named Percy Dolarhyde\u00a0(Paul Dano)\u00a0in the middle of a mining town.<\/p>\n

Cattleman Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) is painfully extracting the truth from one of his cowhands, after\u00a0coming upon\u00a0his entire herd torched to death.\u00a0 The victim, with one leg and one arm tied to two separate horses,\u00a0pleads for mercy but Dolarhyde doesn’t listen.<\/p>\n

Jake is simultaneously recognized\u00a0on a\u00a0wanted poster by Sheriff Taggert (Keith Carradine), when suddenly a mysterious woman named Ella (Olivia Wilde)\u00a0arrives and seems familiar\u00a0with Jake.\u00a0 Taggert takes Jake into custody and all hell breaks loose in the town, when\u00a0aggressive spaceships rush in and accost random victims.<\/p>\n

Of the remaining survivors a posse is formed, including rivals Jake and Dolarhyde, with intent\u00a0to track aliens and rescue their kin, ultimately joining forces with the Apaches.<\/p>\n

Cowboys and Aliens<\/em> is loosely based on a graphic novel of the same title, and although the lead female\u00a0character is placed in the plot to help vanquish the aliens (in\u00a0Ripley fashion), in this instance it feels forced and deliberate.\u00a0 SPOILER QUESTION:\u00a0 why didn’t she warn the townspeople\u00a0prior to\u00a0the first attack, instead of standing around looking pretty?<\/p>\n

Along with the redundant (and expected)\u00a0close-up shot of scary alien vs. kid, found in many a Spielberg produced film, there are interesting, though typical, overhead angles\u00a0and shotglass reflections, boasting an ubiquitous camera, including distorted POVs from the aliens’ perspective.<\/p>\n

The film is fun, especially if you are a fan of westerns as I am, though I can’t help but feel I wish it had stayed a western, sans the sci-fi aspect.\u00a0 Daniel Craig is great as the lowbrow gunslinger, who makes satisfying use of a nifty alien gun.\u00a0 The obvious theme of enemies joining forces to battle a mutual enemy – dubbing the alien as the demon, makes for good entertainment.<\/p>\n

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Reviewed by Kathleen Amboy.\u00a0 Viewed at Metro 4, Santa Barbara, CA. \u00a0 Cowboys and Apaches become allies battling aliens,\u00a0in\u00a0Jon Favreau’s cross-genre, Cowboys & Aliens.\u00a0 Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) is alone in the middle of the desert, minus\u00a0his memory,\u00a0when three strangers approach and attempt to overpower him.\u00a0 With gunslinger reaction he takes control of the situation, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15651\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}