Hello Posse,
Today's flick is very different from what I normally talk about. As you may have noticed, I'm very fond of old 1940's westerns but today we make a jump into 2011. This flick is something very different from the typical western and that is what I have always loved about it. It's traditional western characters mixed with an invading alien race, something like Independence Day set in the wild west. I'm referring to Cowboys and Aliens starring Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, and Olivia Wilde.
I will admit, I was not too keen to see this movie when I first heard about it. While I love many of the actors in this flick, it would have been so easy for this premise to go way off the rails (thinking about Wild Wild West starring Will Smith and Kevin Kline) but the fact that it was directed by Jon Favoreau (Iron Man) convinced me to give it a chance. It turned out to be an engaging and fun movie. Not only did I enjoy watching it, I have seen it at least five times now. While that is not really a lot for me, it's still not bad.
This movie is another western inspired by a graphic novel by the same name. The studio gave Faveau a budget of $163 million but with only $174.8 million in box office receipts the film was considered to be a financial disappointment. The reviews for the movie were also mixed. Many critics praised the performances of the actors but found fault with any other aspects of the film.
Personally, if you can go into a movie with just the desire to be entertained for two hours, I think you will enjoy this movie. If you tend to pick apart movies for not following traditional formats, you might want to skip this one.
I hope you'll give it a chance.
Stephen