Cowboys and Aliens (2011)

Mrs Tein and I went to see it last week.

It is what it is. A bit of escapism.

On the whole, we both enjoyed it.

Why they cast Jimmy Band as the main character is a mystery though.
 
Connavar said:
Dave its a SF/western there is nothing off putting about unless you want too realistic film.

Why watch a weird western and looking for realism ?

CyBeR said it was a fun film like i said.

Using the kind of logic that say why come to earth for gold there is no need for any film, story at all. You could find reasons why most fiction story shouldnt happen at all even.
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I'm glad you enjoyed it. However it's not a question of realism but coherent drama, in which Rule #1 is that your bad guy has to have a compelling reason to be bad or nothing works. Moreover, when you're spending $163 million to make a movie, and perhaps as much again to market it, you should be responsible for more than mere fun with gaping plot holes.

Compare this train wreck with the likes of Blade Runner, Alien, Star Wars... any good/classic sci-fi you care to name, and it comes up ridiculously short. Drama needs logic. Without that it's just a bloated budget version of a throwaway slasher flick, kids trapped in the house and who cares.
 
You expected SF classic from an action film ?

No wonder you didnt like it. I went in looking for good action with Craig,Ford and got it. Story wise it has some problems but it was fun,well acted as SF action and it was good western setting. Fun film with quality actors but no where near a great film.

Hollywood hasnt made a great SF in 20 years atleast. Still your criticism for why are they in earth for gold was funny to me, didnt make sense. Its like saying why is there always aliens who like human flesh so much in Alien films....
 
Connavar said:
You expected SF classic from an action film ?

No wonder you didnt like it. I went in looking for good action with Craig,Ford and got it. Story wise it has some problems but it was fun,well acted as SF action and it was good western setting. Fun film with quality actors but no where near a great film.

Hollywood hasnt made a great SF in 20 years atleast. Still your criticism for why are they in earth for gold was funny to me, didnt make sense. Its like saying why is there always aliens who like human flesh so much in Alien films....
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I haven't seen it, I'll probably wait for the DVD now, but I have to disagree with you on many levels:

Aliens go for human flesh because no other flesh is available. What Decker was suggesting was that supplies of Gold are ubiquitous. It is more believable when they come for our oceans.

You certainly can have action/SF films that are good - Total Recall, Inception, The Running Man, Terminator series, any 'Arny' film.

There has not been an absence of good SF films since 1991 either - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, District 9, Donnie Darko, Dark City, Inception.

I do agree that this probably won't make my list, the idea itself isn't too bad though - there is an episode of 'The Time Tunnel' that had aliens in the wild west, and 'The Wild, Wild West' was steampunk - so it isn't even a new idea either.
 
I think the one and only good part of this movie was the dialogue with Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford during the initial encounter. The rest of the movie I think was done badly. Dialogue, plot and pacing was sub-par, I couldn't bother to watch all of it.
 
"There has not been an absence of good SF films since 1991 either - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, District 9, Donnie Darko, Dark City, Inception."

Ah, a great list of films, all of which I really enjoyed. I found Dark City on DVD for $3 so snapped that up, haven't watched it yet (again) though.
 
TheTomG said:
"There has not been an absence of good SF films since 1991 either - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, District 9, Donnie Darko, Dark City, Inception."

Ah, a great list of films, all of which I really enjoyed. I found Dark City on DVD for $3 so snapped that up, haven't watched it yet (again) though.
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Out of those i would call Dark City, Spotless Mind great films only. Spotless i thought more as romantic drama, i didnt think it had too much SF elements.

Inception is overrated action film that was not as smart as people say imo. Darko is typical overrated indy hype. District 9 is interesting but not great imo.

I only regret forgetting mentioning Dark City which is a truly original, weird SF. Spotless Mind i also rate highly.

Reason i dont rate SF in hollywood last 20 years is they are often action films like Inception, District 9. Blockbuster action is rarely great films.
 
Dave said:
I haven't seen it, I'll probably wait for the DVD now, but I have to disagree with you on many levels:

Aliens go for human flesh because no other flesh is available. What Decker was suggesting was that supplies of Gold are ubiquitous. It is more believable when they come for our oceans.

You certainly can have action/SF films that are good - Total Recall, Inception, The Running Man, Terminator series, any 'Arny' film.

There has not been an absence of good SF films since 1991 either - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, District 9, Donnie Darko, Dark City, Inception.

I do agree that this probably won't make my list, the idea itself isn't too bad though - there is an episode of 'The Time Tunnel' that had aliens in the wild west, and 'The Wild, Wild West' was steampunk - so it isn't even a new idea either.
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Thanks, Dave. You said it perfectly, and in far fewer words than I!

And I agree with your list for the most part as well. C&A had a great setting, a great dog, some good actors and sets and a pleasant score... that's about all I can say in its favor. They would have done viewers a big favor if they'd simply worked with the original 1989 script instead of trying to rip it off and failing.
 
Dave said:
I haven't seen it, I'll probably wait for the DVD now, but I have to disagree with you on many levels:

Aliens go for human flesh because no other flesh is available. What Decker was suggesting was that supplies of Gold are ubiquitous. It is more believable when they come for our oceans.

You certainly can have action/SF films that are good - Total Recall, Inception, The Running Man, Terminator series, any 'Arny' film.

There has not been an absence of good SF films since 1991 either - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, District 9, Donnie Darko, Dark City, Inception.

I do agree that this probably won't make my list, the idea itself isn't too bad though - there is an episode of 'The Time Tunnel' that had aliens in the wild west, and 'The Wild, Wild West' was steampunk - so it isn't even a new idea either.
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Gold, coming out for our oceans, or for our flesh still dont make a difference in judging a SF films quality. Classic SF like Alien could have made stupid gold thing work too. The aliens monster thing is accepted because you expect to see them for no reason in Alien films.

Total Recall is 80s film, older than 20 years and Terminator 2 is great and from 1991 also 20 years old.

I said what i think of the rest to The TomG. Still i dont need this film to alltime fav like Alien, Terminator 2 to enjoy it. Still silly thing he had problem with Deckar imo.

Diss the actual film and not some small thing that you have to accept for no reason like every SF film.
 
I like any movie that plays with concepts of reality, so Inception was onto a winner there for me :) I liked the concept of being able to get into and manipulate people's dreams, that was novel enough to make it a winner for me, plus then the confusion of what is reality and what is not was icing on the cake. Reminded me somewhat of The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch in theme.

District 9 I liked because it was novel again, it wasn't really what I'd been expecting from the trailer. I liked the way the aliens were very different from what we usually see, the concepts of ghetto-isation, how we might treat and react to an alien species (all a metaphor of how we treat and react to other human beings anyway.)

Donnie Darko, again the whole twist on what is real and what is not, what is in the mind and what is reality, and the whole very bizarre and surreal nature of the rabbit character had great appeal to me, and I really liked it.

Now, as for those appearing in my top ten movies of all time, probably not. Not sure Dark City would either. Eternal Sunshine I believe would get into the top 10, it was a great mix of my beloved reality-bending theme with great directing and plot. Oh and I HATE Jim Carrey, but he was awesome in this movie.

So I do have a different reaction to those movies, and would still say they were great movies (e.g. compare to Cowboys and Aliens, for example, which is a fine piece of entertainment, but in no way had any topic to discuss, thoughts to provoke, or anything of that nature.)

When it comes to art of course, greatness is always subjective :) And me, I'm a sucker for "oh this is real, oh no it's not, oh yes it is, oh no look it isn't, ok this is really real this time - haha, no it isn't..."
 
One thing I would say about C&A.

The sad lack of finality.

Expect a sequel soon. Too soon probably
 
I have to say that I'm surprised this thread is still going. A summertime movie to amuse all the kids on summer vacation (PG-13) and it stirs all this angst?? You've got ugly aliens who lasso their victims, have a mother ship that looks like something from the industrial revolution and turn out to be just glorified interstellar claim jumpers. And we're worried about how Daniel Craig got his wrist rocket?

Sometimes I think it's best to just go with the flow. This isn't the best SF movie that was ever produced, but it certainly is far from the worst. And we should be able to tell when the film-makers are putting us on.
 
clovis-man said:
I have to say that I'm surprised this thread is still going. A summertime movie to amuse all the kids on summer vacation (PG-13) and it stirs all this angst?? You've got ugly aliens who lasso their victims, have a mother ship that looks like something from the industrial revolution and turn out to be just glorified interstellar claim jumpers. And we're worried about how Daniel Craig got his wrist rocket?
Sometimes I think it's best to just go with the flow. This isn't the best SF movie that was ever produced, but it certainly is far from the worst. And we should be able to tell when the film-makers are putting us on.
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Exactly people taking a summer blockbuster SF too seriously. Alien wrist rock, gold hunting aliens hehe.

It was just fun film for me. I get my quality, more serious films not from summmertime cinema but from DVD love film account.
 
clovis-man said:
Sometimes I think it's best to just go with the flow. This isn't the best SF movie that was ever produced, but it certainly is far from the worst. And we should be able to tell when the film-makers are putting us on.
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Ask the people who put up the millions for the budget and P&A if they're putting us on. Or the vast majority of filmgoers who've voted with their feet, i.e. stayed away.

There are very good reasons why it flopped. And sure, you can say about any movie shy of The Godfather and a few others that it's not the best, and we know there are legions of truly awful ones. I just expected a great deal more from the likes of Spielberg, Ford and the rest of the team.
 
I heard Cowboys and Aliens wasn't that great. Someone even mentioned it was as bad as the new Conan movie. Is that true?
 
I got to see this last week. I enjoyed it, which was a surprise as Im not really a cowboy movie lover. But the aliens did make it different enough for me to enjoy
I liked the look of the aliens too. One thing I did think - didnt the so called folks of that american era take on board aliens really easily!
 
I remember seeing the trailer for this movie and was watching it thinking, this looks interesting, great special effects, and then the name of the movie came up on the screen. The whole theater started laughing.

When I eventually got the chance to sit down and watch it, I was expecting something B-grade and cheesy. I'm happy to say I was pleasantly surprised, I thought it was really good.
 
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