There’s something about European actors doing American accents, good or bad, that always pulls me in. Hugh Laurie on "House M.D." was first, Dominic West surprised me with his terrible-at-first Baltimore accent in "The Wire" and now Daniel Craig pulls it off without doing too much of a John Wayne impression in "Cowboys & Aliens."
I rode a roller coaster of thoughts leading up to "Cowboys & Aliens." At first I was excited by the concept and the knowledge that Jon Favreau was directing it.
The trailer made me less excited since it looked hokey and a little silly. Seeing some of the supporting cast I started to feel better thanks to the involvement of Sam Rockwell, Paul Dano, Olivia Wilde, and Keith Carradine.
"Cowboys & Aliens" opens as a straight western with Craig as the stereotypical bandit with amnesia. In the best scene of the movie, Craig knocks the spoiled rancher’s son down a peg. The rancher’s son, played by Dano, is a perfect role for Dano and he plays it to a tee. His father, played by co-star Harrison Ford, is a wealthy rancher, and at first his character reminded me of Mr. Potter from "It’s a Wonderful Life."
Craig’s chemistry with Ford was surprising, as their pairing was one of the biggest questions I had going into the movie. The character’s already strained relationship and lack of trust in do-or-die situations pulled the movie together in some of its otherwise less intense confrontations.
The plot is obviously pretty thin, the title really says it all. Set in the post-Civil War 1800s, a group of aliens is on earth looking for, of all things, gold. In the meantime, they figure they’ll study up on humans to exploit their weaknesses.
When the sleepy ranching town of Absolution is targeted and a number of citizens are relieved of their loved ones, the unlikely heroes rally together behind Ford’s Woodrow Dolarhyde. Dolarhyde apparently has a lengthy past as a Colonel in the Civil War, but kills anyone who calls him "Colonel." The contradiction is not lost in his character.
Our plucky crew of humans goes on the hunt to track down the aliens and their ship. The battle scenes are predictably silly, the aliens with far more advanced technology don’t use weapons and the cowboys only have knives, rifles and pistols with apparently unlimited ammunition.
Knowing this isn’t supposed to be realistic, however, should go without saying. This is what a summer blockbuster should be. Yet the characters still have more nuance and story behind them than Michael Bay has given to Shia LaBeouf in three "Transformers" movies.
Given his experience in the action-adventure genre, "Cowboys & Aliens" is a quintessential Favreau movie. The pace is fast, the backstory is concise but complete, and no character is taken too seriously. Perhaps the most notable Favreau trait, the movie is only in 2-D. The 3-D backlash is in full swing now, and Favreau has led the charge in his face-offs with studios for both "Iron Man 2" and again with "Cowboys & Aliens."
What "Cowboys & Aliens" is really missing is the tongue-in-cheek self-awareness that most Favreau films have. The plot is obviously ludicrous, but while none of the characters are taken too seriously, the movie as a whole is. For that reason, it just didn’t "click." "Cowboys & Aliens" is definitely worth checking out, but it falls just short of what it could, and probably should, be.
Alex is a student at UW-Milwauee and lives on Milwaukee's East Side. When he's not working at OnMilwaukee.com, he writes for the UWM Post sports section and plays devil's advocate to a fault in conversation.
Alex strongly believes that if the reason not to change is, "because we've always done it this way," then change is almost certainly necessary.
In Alex' free time he enjoys catching a movie at the Oriental or iPic, video games, creating arbitrary top-five lists, lobbying President Obama to follow-back via Twitter, messing with Chairman Meow (the resident apartment cat) and continuing his crusade to have Yuengling Lager brought to Wisconsin.
After graduating with degrees in marketing and journalism, Alex plans to continue writing and enjoying all of the adventures that life has to offer. If you see him around, stop and say "malarkey," as he never expects anyone to read these bios ... so he'll probably be surprised.
