Cowboys and Aliens is Dumb but Fun

Science fiction is one of the most marketable and profitable genres today. The western used to be one of the most beloved and successful genres ever. Can the two combine to appeal to a modern audience, or do they end up mostly as a mishmash of tonal dissonance and cheese?

2011’s Cowboys and Aliens is about an amnesiac cowboy (Daniel Craig) who wakes up in the middle of the desert. He stumbles upon a former mining town, wherein he immediately find trouble with the son of the town’s sole financier, Colonel Dollarhyde (Harrison Ford). He also meets a strange woman (Olivia Wilde) who seems to know more about him than he does, and she especially seems to know more about the strange shackle on his wrist. After getting arrested, he ends up being one of the people left behind after a group of unknown predators from the sky attack and kidnap half of the town’s population. Will this man discover his past and who he is, as well as save the day?

Directed by Jon Favreau, Cowboys and Aliens is visually impressive but wholly stupid. And honestly? I think that’s a good thing. I wouldn’t have enjoyed this movie nearly as much if the cast hadn’t just gone “Well, we’re in a movie called Cowboys and Aliens. Might as well go hard or go home.” If anyone in the main cast had either phoned it in or played it hokey, it wouldn’t have worked nearly as well for me. That being said, I completely understand the complaint of the movie’s tone being inconsistent with it’s premise. It can be jarring sometimes, especially when meaningful declarations of loyalty and passion are followed up by aliens being shot in explosions of green blood.

That being said, Iron Man alumni Jon Favreau is no amateur when it comes to beautiful shots. I was genuinely impressed with how easy it was to pick important, individual characters out in a wide shot. Whether their hat be a different color from the others, or their horse being a lighter shade of brown, the main characters were always very easy to locate in fight scenes or every time they were shown galloping across the American desert.

The characters are standard fair, but the performances are incredibly dedicated. You’ll probably find that as either clashing with the plot or necessary for enjoying the movie. I was the latter. Daniel Craig stands out as an amoral mercenary who does a better American cowboy accent than Probable-Actual-Cowboy Harrison Ford, who abandons his faux-southern accent for his usual midwestern one three scenes in.

Cowboys and Aliens also does not seek to challenge any preconceptions about what is the status quo for westerns. While the Native American characters are portrayed sympathetically, they are still portrayed as hostile (although with completely good reason). It’s standard popcorn fair, with the biggest message about the old west being “Hey, if the cowboys and Indians were about to be completely wiped out by aliens, all forms of bigotry would be called off in favor of, you know, not dying.”

It’s not for everyone, but if you’re in the mood for something cheesy and light, Cowboys and Aliens might be a decent pick. If you’re a Favreau fan, the DVD release offers an audio commentary with him, along with interviews between him and the cast.

Cowboys and Aliens was an understandable box office flop. I mean, even from the title it’s obvious that it’s not going to be the most mind-blowing movie you’ve ever seen. That being said, I loved this movie. It was dumb and cheesy and I am painfully aware of it’s faults, but I loved it. I completely understand if you would choose to skip it, however. In terms of personal enjoyment, I’d probably give Cowboys and Aliens an A- leaning into a B+, but knowing it’s flaws, I do have to rank it lower.

Grade: C+
11/15/2017

“Alien” is Spooky, Suspenseful, and Slightly Disappointing

Ridley Scott’s Alien has solidified its place in science fiction history. The film has been parodied and payed homage to countless times in the nearly forty years since its release. It also has one of the most recognizable movie monsters outside of Jaws. 

This sci-fi/horror combo is about the crew of the starship “Nostromo.” After being awakened from hibernation to investigate what they believe is a distress call, a part of the crew sets out to investigate the alien ship they believe sent the call. However, when a nest of eggs is disturbed, one of the crew members accidentally ends up bringing aboard a terrifying predator that is determined to kill the entire crew. Will Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), Dallas (Tom Skerritt), and the rest of the crew be able to defeat the alien, or will they all be destroyed?

Alien is an incredibly creepy entry into the science fiction genre. The film very much echoes what audiences could later come to expect from Scott: dark, atmospheric, and slow-paced. Very little happens for the first thirty minutes of the film, when the plot is suddenly ejected onto a character’s face. After the plot kicks in, though, the film actually moves very quickly. Despite its slow start, Alien is action packed until the end.

While most of the performances are well-done, Sigourney Weaver’s really does stand out. Her character was the only one I really remembered the name of by the end of the film. The others serve their purpose, mostly as background characters, but I couldn’t really tell you anything about them.

Alien is not a children’s movie. It is a hard-earned R rating. While the language rarely gets harsher than what would be in a modern PG-13 film, the violence and gore certainly makes up for that. One of the most iconic scenes from Alien is a guy getting his chest ripped open, after all. There is also some brief partial nudity both at the beginning and the end of the film. Along with the harrowing tone, this is definitely not one to put on for family movie night with small children. The best audience for this film would definitely be at least fourteen and up, possibly even older for easily frightened younger teenagers. And, a warning to epileptics and others with similar illnesses: strobe effects and other flashing lights are common all throughout the film.

I can greatly appreciate how groundbreaking Alien was. Its creepy monster designs, twisting plot, and excellent cinematography and sound design are worth checking out if you’ve never seen it before. That being said, the (relatively) weak characters and boring first act really drag the movie down. Alien is excellent in all of its technical aspects, but falls flat on character dynamics and pacing.

Grade: B
11/1/2017

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Alien’s suspenseful sci-fi drags but mostly succeeds. Sigourney Weaver and excellent atmosphere outshine a serviceable cast and slow pace.

Blade Runner 2049 Is A Futuristic Masterpiece

Thirty-five years after the release of the original, Blade Runner 2049 had a tough act to follow on all accounts. 1982’s Blade Runner has been hailed as one of the most visually impressive and well written science fiction films of the past fifty years, not to mention the huge gap in time between the two films. So, does Blade Runner 2049 hold up to the legacy of it’s predecessor, or does it fall flat?

Officer K (Ryan Gosling) lives in the always-rainy, overcrowded Los Angeles of 2049. He is a blade runner: a police officer specially designated to track down and “retire” (read: kill) robots known as replicants, which are virtually identical to human beings. These replicants have a complex history, first being created by the Tyrell Corporation, before being outlawed, and then brought back by Ninder Wallace (Jared Leto). He lives with his hologram girlfriend, Joi (Ana de Armas), and generally tries to scrape by. While out on his job one day, he uncovers a mysterious set of remains on the property of a replicant he has retired. These remains lead him on a journey to find former blade runner Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford), who disappeared over thirty years ago. Along the way, K begins to suspect that there is more to replicants and himself than he ever thought possible. Will K discover both his own past and Deckard, or will he fail his mission?

The obvious first thing to point out about Blade Runner 2049 is its stunning visuals. The first movie was praised highly for this, and it’s clear that its sequel lives up to to the hype. With cinematography by Roger Deakins, who worked on films like The Shawshank Redemption and The Big Lebowski, the visuals in 2049 are absolutely gorgeous. Individual shots get across so much information to the audience without any kind of dialogue or even actors being on screen. The cinematography presents the sci-fi world of Blade Runner to the audience in a way that no other part of the film could. The colors, lighting, and camera angles all serve to make the movie both beautiful to look at and progress plot.

The special effects were also very well done. As mentioned before, one of the characters is a hologram, and the CGI used to turn a real person into a hologram was really beautifully done. The best part of Joi’s character, though, was that the actors all interacted with her like she really wasn’t there, and she interacted with things as if she really were a hologram. Nobody touches her, and she doesn’t ever touch anything, their hands hovering around either around her or her hands hovering over whatever she was trying to “touch.” However, none of the special effects feel inconsistent with the special effects of the first movie. This really helps to make both Blade Runners feel like they take place in the same universe.

The acting is spectacular. Ryan Gosling’s performance as K goes from controlled to highly emotional in a very believable way. I loved K’s chemistry with Joi; it seemed like they looked at the relationship between Rick Deckard and his love interest, Rachael, in the first movie and said “we can do that, but better.” Also, this is easily one of Harrison Ford’s best performances. I didn’t like his character in the original Blade Runner, but both his performance and the writing really made him much more sympathetic and likable.

In a world of Hunger Games-esque, PG-13 science fiction, it’s refreshing to have an R-rated movie with actual adult themes. Blade Runner 2049‘s exploration of environmentalism, technology, and what it truly means to be human is beautiful, tragic, and well-executed. While the three-hour runtime makes some people nervous, I was actually shocked that it was over as soon as it was. While it can never be as influential as the original, it definitely is just as fantastic.

Grade: A+
10/18/17

Movies With Popcorn

My dad, Alvin (Al) Toney, was born December 9, 1960. He’s always been the first person in my life to show me movies (The Wizard of Oz, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail stand out in my mind) and shares my appreciation for the arts; he’s a bassist who played in a band during college. He’s currently an engineer living in Bostic, North Carolina.

This is the only picture I have of us together post-2008.

QUESTION: What was the first movie you ever remember seeing?

Al: Cinderella, the Disney version.

QUESTION: What kind of movies did you watch when you were a kid? Like, what genres do you remember seeing in theaters a lot?

Al: Lots of Disney movies. It was Snow White, and Herbie the Love Bug, and Bambi, and all that. That’s what I watched.

QUESTION: Because seeing movies is so expensive nowadays, do you think that you saw movies more back then? Or was it still kind of an inconvenience to drive that far, considering you lived kind of far out growing up (and still do, really)?

Al: Not much has changed, really. We didn’t have any money then and we went and we don’t have any money now and we still go.

QUESTION: Did the availability of rental movies/VCR/DVD change how you watched movies?

Al: Not really, never was a really big movie renter. VCR and DVD somewhat. Going to the movies was the big deal more so than the movie itself, I think. I didn’t watch a whole lot on VCR when it came out. Or beta [laughs].

QUESTION: How often do you go to theaters now to see films? Has it changed from when you were younger?

Al: Once a year or so now. It definitely has changed. When I was in college, once a week, we would go to B-Movie night, since it was cheap.

QUESTION: We saw Star Wars for the first time at the same age; we were both sixteen. Do you remember how movies changed after that and Jaws and some of the other big deal blockbusters came out?

Al: Sci-Fi didn’t really exist in the movies at the time Star Wars came out. It was kind of a dead genre. There was an explosion of Sci-Fi after that.

QUESTION: Has your taste in movies changed as you’ve gotten older?

Al: No, not really.

QUESTION: What is your favorite movie?

Al: Harvey, with Jimmy Stewart.

QUESTION: What genres do you like and dislike?

Al: Sci-Fi; comedy. I hate chick flicks.

QUESTION: What is the worst movie you’ve ever seen and why?

Al: Uhhh… What was the name of that movie? I’ll have to google it.
[My mom, through the door: Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!
Al: No, that’s not it. That was so bad it’s good]
I don’t remember. We would go to B-Movie night and ask for the worst one. There was one we saw that we couldn’t even get through. I think it was the original Demons.

QUESTION: What’s the last film you watched in a movie theater?

Al: Rogue One.

QUESTION:  Any other comments about your movie going experience/history that you think is important, or that you’d like to share?

Al: You always gotta have popcorn. It’s not a movie without popcorn. Butter optional.

Interview from 9/13/17.