![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2011\/07\/cowboys_and_aliens_poster-300x211.jpg\" "\\"cowboys_and_aliens_poster\\"")
<\/a> Mixing things can be good.\u00a0\u00a0 Put a little lime in your ice tea, and it can enhance its flavor.\u00a0\u00a0 Hot fudge sauce on ice cream is a great combination.\u00a0 On the other hand,\u00a0 mixing orange juice with milk just doesn\u2019t work\u2014 it curdles the milk.\u00a0\u00a0 What then should one say about a mixed genre movie like Cowboys and Aliens?<\/p>\nOn the one hand, it comes with the star power of both Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford, and they don\u2019t look out of place in cowboy outfits in the New Mexico territory in the 1870s.\u00a0\u00a0 No one plays ornery or the curmudgeon with the heart of gold better than Ford, and Craig has shown he can jump from one genre of film to another with style and grace.\u00a0\u00a0 There is nothing wrong with the casting of the male leads in this movie,\u00a0 and it\u2019s nice to finally see Keith Carrradine again.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Olivia Wilde is not hard on the eyes either, and Paul Dano of \u2018There will be Blood\u2019 fame (remember the young Pentacostal preacher?) is well cast as the son of Col. Dollarhyde (Ford).<\/p>\n
And who could ask for more than a combination of Stephen Sp. with Jon Favreau?\u00a0\u00a0 Ah but when you do a mixed genre movie that basically hasn\u2019t been tried before,\u00a0 you\u2019d better get the story and script straight or the things that don\u2019t seem to fit, or seem very out of place stick out like a very sore thumb.\u00a0\u00a0 And sadly, the script for this movie leaves much to be desired.\u00a0 For one thing, the dialogue needs some punching up.\u00a0 Don\u2019t you just hate it when one of the best, most humorous\u00a0 lines of the movie, which is in the trailer, somehow gets left out of the movie itself?\u00a0\u00a0 To say the story is a jumble is to put it mildly.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the premise\u2014 aliens have come to New Mexico to steal all it\u2019s gold.\u00a0\u00a0 And as Col. Dollarhyde asks at one juncture (though he is referring to the Indians in the territory)\u2014 \u2018What are they going to do with it?\u00a0 Spend it!\u2019\u00a0\u00a0 I don\u2019t think so.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Then there is the whole deal of the aliens stealing human beings\u2014- lassoing them and dragging them into their space planes and taking them back to their space ship.\u00a0 But for what?\u00a0 When we finally get inside the alien space ship we find a bunch of humans blinded by the light shining on them, which causes them to lose their memories,\u00a0 which in fact is what had already happened to Jake Lonergan (an outlaw played by Craig).\u00a0\u00a0 But what\u2019s the point?\u00a0\u00a0 We are never told.\u00a0 I\u2019m willing to suspend my disbelieve in a creative movie as much as the next person, but this script stretches credulity past the breaking point.<\/p>\n
On the other hand,\u00a0 the scenery is grand,\u00a0 the music is even better, and I really wanted to like this movie.\u00a0 It\u2019s basic framework is a classic Western, about the little town of Absolution,\u00a0 which has been losing its people to the aliens.\u00a0 Into town comes \u2018the man with no name\u2019\u00a0 (no not Clint Eastwood,\u00a0 Daniel Craig) only this man literally can\u2019t remember who he is.<\/p>\n
Westerns are basically morality plays,\u00a0 and sure enough we have the usual wild west preacher in this film\u2014 spouting Pelagian notions like\u2013 \u201cyou have to earn God\u2019s presence, then experience it, then God expects you to do things for yourself\u201d.\u00a0 And we have the usual spitting contests, fights, drinking in the saloon, weak lawmen, a domineering cattle rancher,\u00a0 a damsel apparently in distress,\u00a0 frightened towns people, a\u00a0 loyal dog,\u00a0 a bad outlaw gang.\u00a0 The works.<\/p>\n
With all these classic elements the movie keeps trying to be promising, until the aliens come on the scene, and all Hell breaks lose.\u00a0 Sometimes this is about as disconcerting as if you went to see\u00a0 the Smurfs movie and the Blue Man group showed up instead. \u00a0\u00a0 And of course when it comes to aliens there are only two sorts\u2014 cute and loveable (think E.T.)\u00a0 and ugly as Hades and mean as a snake.\u00a0 This movie has the latter.<\/p>\n
As my wife said,\u00a0 while there is some resolution to some story lines in this film\u00a0 (the town does get some of its people back, and Col. Dollarhyde recovers his son Percy),\u00a0 the main character\u2019s story is not properly resolved.\u00a0\u00a0 He just rides off into the sunset.<\/p>\n
For an hour and 58 minutes I wanted to like this movie.\u00a0 But honestly, if the aliens showed up in 1875, do you really think they could take down Battlestar Gallactica with the guns they had back then?\u00a0 I don\u2019t think so. \u00a0 Nice try boys, but no cigar. \u00a0 Watch the DVD of True Grit if you want to see a good Western, or for that matter,\u00a0 watch\u00a0 Super 8 if you want to see a better and current Alien movie. \u00a0 It\u2019s too bad\u2014- Craig and Ford need to do another film together with a much better script.\u00a0 I\u2019m o.k. with the Wild Wild West.\u00a0 But this film is too wild, and is like the sun setting in the west\u2014 its pretty to watch for a moment, but then its gone.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mixing things can be good.\u00a0\u00a0 Put a little lime in your ice tea, and it can enhance its flavor.\u00a0\u00a0 Hot fudge sauce on ice cream is a great combination.\u00a0 On the other hand,\u00a0 mixing orange juice with milk just doesn\u2019t work\u2014 it curdles the milk.\u00a0\u00a0 What then should one say about a mixed genre movie […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a> Mixing things can be good.\u00a0\u00a0 Put a little lime in your ice tea, and it can enhance its flavor.\u00a0\u00a0 Hot fudge sauce on ice cream is a great combination.\u00a0 On the other hand,\u00a0 mixing orange juice with milk just doesn\u2019t work\u2014 it curdles the milk.\u00a0\u00a0 What then should one say about a mixed genre movie like Cowboys and Aliens?<\/p>\n