Film Review: Cowboys & Aliens, a Great Popcorn Flick that Kept Me on the Edge of My Seat

Film review: I took my kids to see "Cowboys and Aliens," and while it wasn't the best film I have seen in recent months, it was pretty decent and I am glad we went. For starters, Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig turned in some good performances. The main gist of the story is evident from the title, "Cowboys & Aliens." No surprise there. The film was overall very predictable, but hey, it was fun.

The film starts off with a cattle baron, played by Harrison Ford, who likes to let the town know he's large and in charge and he tries to intimidate the local sheriff, played by Keith Carradine, into releasing his immature, rotten-to-the-core son who shot a deputy and very unwisely picked a fight with the wrong man, Daniel Craig, who plays a fugitive with amnesia. When the aliens show up, Ford, who happens to be a Civil War veteran, is forced to team up with the fugitive and the townspeople to find his son and their missing kinfolk and come to blows with the aliens. While on the way, they meet up with the fugitive’s gang and a band of Chiricahua, who might kill them before the aliens do.

Predictably, the townspeople and the Native Americans find a way to work together to save the planet. Without giving the story away, the aliens were after gold and a damsel in distress gave her life to blow up their space ship in the end. A young boy becomes a man by using the knife given to him by the cattle baron, to kill an alien. All predictable but fun nonetheless.

All in all, Harrison Ford did his thing and Daniel Craig, not my favorite James Bond character, is menacing, but largely sympathetic because he couldn't remember a thing until the Native Indians took care of that problem. I wish they had magnified Keith Carradine's character a bit more. The pacing of the film was excellent and the action sequences had me on the edge of my seat. In short, this was a great popcorn flick and was well worth the money we paid to see it. I'll definitely get the DVD when it's released in the coming months.