In the cinema: Cowboys & Aliens

Cowboys & Aliens. What an odd title. Who would come up with such a thing? What sort of combination is this? That was exactly what Jon Favreau in mind when he put this together: MEMORABLE. He did it!

When an expeditionary force of Aliens invade the Old West, it takes a band of Cowboys, Indians, and another alien in the form of a hot chick to prevent them from devastating the planet.

The story starts with Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) waking up in the middle of the Arizona desert with no memory or shoes, but did have a nasty wound in his side and an odd bracelet on his left wrist. He ends up in trouble in a nearby town that is under attack by aliens in search of gold and humans to run tests on.

The rest of the movie is a typical Western: men on horses traveling through the dusty Arizona desert, overcoming adversity, and finding allies that would normally be enemies until the final assault.

The movie clocks in at about two hours, but you would never know it. It moves at a steady pace and the journey is more of a tool to develop the characters. There's no wasted screen time. It's just a lot of fun. I definitely suggest catching it. Good movie!

More at IMDB:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0409847/

And, Cowboys & Aliens DID beat out Smurfs last weekend:

Box Office

1. Cowboys & Aliens $36.4M

2. The Smurfs $35.6M