Cowboys and Aliens - 3 smiles

First of all, you have to like westerns and sci-fi to enjoy “Cowboys and Aliens.” When you get beyond this mix of genres, you’ll enjoy seeing Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford first butt heads and then join forces to rescue kidnapped people and defeat the aliens. Director Jon Favreau keeps the tone light, but never lets the humor interfere with the more serious elements. And Favreau demonstrates a deft hand at weaving familiar elements such as the Man With No Name, images borrowed from Alien and a final scene from Shane. This movie is also strong on a technical level with the CGI work on the flying space ships and the aliens although the alien close ups tend to be a little too shadowy. “Cowboys and Aliens” has a strong start and an action-packed climax, but there are times in the middle when it drags, especially during the scenes when Lonergan reunites with his old gang.

Lonergan (Craig) awakens in the middle of nowhere with a painful wound in his side, a strange metal bracelet on his left arm, and no memory of anything. But an encounter with a group of bounty hunters lets us know he’s a man to be reckoned with. When he arrives in the nearest town, he refuses to back down when Percy Dolarhyde (Paul Dano), the arrogant son of Col. Dolarhyde (Ford), insults him. This confrontation ultimately pits Lonergan against Dolarhyde until the aliens arrive in a blaze of noise and explosions and force the two into an alliance. Meanwhile, a townswoman named Ellie (Olivia Wilde) is unusually interested in Lonergan regaining his memory and it’s apparent she knows more than she’s saying about the ‘demons’ and the bracelet that Lonergan uses to destroy them. Several instances have surprising emotional impact to mark this movie as more than typical summer fluff. “Cowboys and Aliens” is solidly engaging and another reason to see it is it’s not available in 3D. 8/4/11.