Cowboys & Aliens

I had not heard good things about Cowboys & Aliens, but now that I've seen it I think the reports I heard were much too harsh. It's great fun to watch. This 2011 science fiction/western stars Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford and is directed by Jon Favreau. Also starring are Sam Rockwell, Olivia Wilde, Keith Carradine and Adam Beach (who plays Jim Chee in the PBS mystery series based on Hillerman's books).

trailer:


Slant Magazine gives it one grudging star and finds fault with everything, opening by saying,

Brandishing a literal-minded title as laughable as the rest of its action, Cowboys & Aliens mashes up genres with a staunch dedication to getting everything wrong, making sure that each scene is more inane than the one that preceded it.

Rolling Stone doesn't like it and closes with this:

The mash-up of cowboys and aliens doesn't do either camp any favors. How are we supposed to work up a rooting interest when both sides are shooting blanks?

Roger Ebert says, ""Cowboys & Aliens" has without any doubt the most cockamamie plot I've witnessed in many a moon" and wishes it had been a straight western.