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Released by: Universal Studios
Released on: December 6, 2011.
Director: John Favreau
Cast: Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde, Keith Carradine
Year: 2011
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The Movie:
There sure was a lot of build up for Cowboys & Aliens, and rightly so, at least on paper. The guy who made Iron Man was teaming up with James Bond and Indiana Jones to tell a story about aliens invading the old west - sounded great, right? Darn tootin' it did. Too bad the results are… well, they're so-so. The movie isn't awful by any stretch but it had soooo much potential, too little of which wound up on the big screen.
When the film, set in 1873, begins a 'Man With No Name' type character (Daniel Craig) wakes up with amnesia, his hand shackled inside some sort of strange electronic device. Not sure what else to do, he wanders into the small western Arizona town of Absolution where he's pegged by the sheriff, John Taggart (Keith Carradine), as a notorious gunslinger named Jake Lonergan. As the sheriff sets about to bring him in to stand trial, an alien spaceship appears out of nowhere and attacks the town, abducting the sheriff in the process and taking a few other townsfolk along for the ride. When Jake learns that what he thought was a shackle is actually an alien weapon, he winds up forming an uneasy alliance with a powerful cattle rancher named Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) and a beautiful woman named Ella Swenson (Olivia Wilde). As the story plays out, it turns out that Ella has more involvement with all of this insanity than it seems and that Jake's space weapon may hold the key to saving the world.
The problem with Cowboys & Aliens is that, although it starts off like a western it ends more like a typical big budgeted sci-fi action movie, complete with loads of (mostly very impressive) CGI effects and spectacular set pieces. Why is that a problem? Because along the way our cowboys turn from cowboys into pretty typical Hollywood action heroes, somehow managing to turn their technological disadvantage around and launching a ridiculous assault on the alien ship the likes of which no 1800s era cowboys would ever be able to launch. Maybe it's asking too much of a movie like this to require the characters act in accordance with the time period that the film is set in, but once you start thinking about it, this can be a bit of a sticking point.
To the credit of the cast, all involved are pretty good here, with Craig and Ford's uneasy alliance coming together as predictably as you'd expect and with Wilde's beautiful pseudo-femme fatale character vamping it up nicely. Carradine is always good in roles like this, as anyone who has followed his career will tell you, and he shines as the sheriff but doesn't get as much screen time as his 'marquee star' counterparts, though he makes the most of what he gets. As mentioned, the effects are also great, though almost completely digital in origin and as such, maybe a little at odds with the entire theme of placing this in the old west? Some pacing problems also affect the film, particularly in the middle stretch. As such, the summer blockbuster that should have wowed everybody is instead an entertaining enough piece that is no more memorable than similar pap like Independence Day.
It should be noted that the Blu-ray release of Cowboys & Aliens contains both the 119 minute theatrical cut of the movie and the 135 minute extended version which adds a bit more character development pieces and really only succeeds in padding out the running time.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Universal's AVC encoded 1080p high definition 2.40.1 widescreen transfer is as strong as you'd expect from such a recent big studio blockbuster. Detail is strong throughout, and generally the image is without fault. The arid landscapes look great, color reproduction is dead on and skin tones look appropriately lifelike and periodically weathered by the elements. There are no compression artifacts to note nor are there any problems with edge enhancement or aliasing - aside from some very minor ringing, this one earns full marks in the video department.
Even more impressive is the English language DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix. There's plenty of surround activity here, coming at you from every one of the speakers in your set up, with plenty of great low end rumble coming from the subwoofer as well. Dialogue stays crystal clear and the levels are always well balanced and there are no problems with hiss or distortion. This movie sounds every bit the expensive Hollywood summer blockbuster it is and the action scenes in particular are both immersive and impressive. Optional standard DTS 5.1 mixes are provided in Spanish and in French with subtitles available in those same two languages and closed captioning offered up in English only.
Extras on the disc kick off with a director's commentary courtesy of Jon Favreau, who, as usual, comes across as a genuinely nice, interesting, funny guy. He talks about the build up to the film, staging some of the more complicated set pieces, what it was like working with the cast and crew on the film and more. He doesn't really address the criticisms that were leveled at the film during its theatrical run, but then again, he doesn't really need to. All in all, this is a good and informative talk and it's complimented quite nicely by Universal's U-Control Picture-In-Picture technology which, when enabled, lets you dig into a whole bunch of behind the scenes clips, interviews, pre-production footage and more. There isn't enough content here to keep you playing with it through the entire duration of the film, but there's still a lot of material to sift through.
From there, jump into the first of the two lengthy featurettes that accompany the film, the forty minute Igniting The Sky: The Making Of Cowboys & Aliens, which is a thorough behind the scenes documentary that includes interviews with the cast and crew and some interesting footage from the production. Broken up into six different parts, it covers effects, scripting, locations, casting and much more. The second featurette is the eighty minute long Conversations With Jon Favreau in which the director sits down for movie related talks with the likes of Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde, Damon Lindelof, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, and Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer. The only extra on the disc in standard definition, it's only going to appeal to you insofar as how much you dig Favreau, but if you're a fan, you'll enjoy it.
Rounding out the extras is some Blu-ray Live connectivity, the Second Screen interactive technology that lets you monkey with the content on your portable device, and MyScenes bookmarking along with animated menus and chapter stops. A digital copy is also included as is a DVD copy which contains the same extras minus the U-Control technology.
The Final Word:
If brainless entertainment is your bag, with an emphasis on brainless, then step right up, this'll do the trick. Otherwise, this is a movie that should have been a lot more interesting than it was. It's far from awful, it's enjoyable enough even, but the movie never really catches on to the potential that was there. With that said, it's pretty tough to complain about the Blu-ray, which offers up a great selection of extras and audio and video quality that earns top marks across the board.
Click on the images below for full size Blu-ray screen caps!
