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Movie Review: Cowboys & Aliens

    Wow! This is going to be a tough review. This movie has an identity crisis. It wants to be a western. It wants to be science fiction. At times it is well directed and at times it seems to fall a bit short. At times visually stunning and at times unpredictable. For a few minutes you are saying, hey this is pretty good and at times you are thinking maybe it's not so good.
    Let's start by saying that this movie has some stars. Harrison Ford plays Woodrow Dolarhyde, who owns the town of Absolution. He is a cantankerous old coot with a decent side hidden in there somewhere.
     Daniel Craig, Mr. Bond to you, is tasked with playing the part of a gun-slinger and robber named Jake Lonergan. Jake awakes in the desert with amnesia. He has a funny looking bracelet on his left wrist, which he can't remove. He has no boots and few clothes. He fixes that problem when three hardcases try to mess with him. He kills all three of them and takes their stuff, including a badly needed horse and some coin of the realm. (Money)
    Jake quickly runs afoul of the law. He is about to be hauled away to prison when aliens attack the town in what appears to be a craft like unto the old X-Wing flyers from Star Wars. They are snatching a few of the townsfolk away so that they can conduct experiments on them. Jake uses his fancy bracelet to help repel the attack and earns the right to accompany the town folks on an expedition to recover their loved ones.
     The coolest part of the show is when this chick starts following Jake around. Some problem for him, right? He can't figure out her agenda but knows she is a bit strange. He figures this out when she is killed and these Indians throw her body in a fire. She goes in wrapped in blankets and then she starts to rise from the flames, unclothed and in perfect health. At this point, the Apaches are ready to do whatever she wanted, as would I. (This role is well played by Olivia Wilde) By the way, the fire episode is tastefully done and there is no nudity. When I took my boys to the movies, many moons ago, I wanted to know about these things; now I want to know for other reasons. Ha, ha.
    Let me make a few more points before I tell you too much. First, the guns in this movie sound like cap guns. A .44 or .45 caliber pistol will darn near deafen you if you are close to it when they go off. This is a bad error because it kills the mood. But hey, I make tons of mistakes. Secondly, when Jake runs across his old gang of cut-throats, who should appear but the guy that plays my man, Boyd, on Justified; Walter Goggins. Man, I love this guy as an actor.
     I do not regret going to see this show. It is pretty good, not great. I would rate it as 3.5 stars out of 5. Harrison Ford is like me, he is at an age that when you have a chance to see him, you better take advantage of it. With him, Daniel Craig and Walter Goggins in the same show, I would probably watch them make a quilt.
    From the author's green retreat, I'm CE Wills.

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