Cowboys and Aliens

by Matt Slick

Alright everyone, if you want a thrilling ride into the Old West with lots of grotesque, mean aliens, completely believable dirty, dusty cowboys, and no real plot development, then Cowboys and Aliens is for you. Did I like it? Absolutely yes. You see, I don't go to science fiction movies for plot and character development. I go to see aliens -- and special effects. The more the better. I'm not interested in whether or not the main guy-hero will get the prerequisite babe. I'm not interested in deep character development about the inner workings of someone's psyche and how bugs (from this world or another) give them the creeps. Heck, don't waste screen time with people's feeeeelings (unless they are screaming while they are running), oh, and forget their inner-child-problems. I don't care!  Aliens! I want more aliens -- along with explosions and cool weapons fire!  Well, okay, I have to admit I want a little bit of a plot to justify all the action. Anyway, there was enough of a story line to hold things together for it to make sense. 

The special effects were excellent. The aliens were believable. And the cowboys...well, they were a mix-matched patchwork of human debri who worked together to fight the evil horde from outerspace...and they got their collective butts kicked in the process. Heck, all they wanted to do was rescue some town folk. Yeah, it was cool.

The acting was great. Harrison Ford delivered his usual excellence. The latest British James Bond actor, Daniel Craig, pulled off a very convincing cowboy role as the main hero - with perfect Western style. Olivia Wilde was great. And the corral of greasy, sweaty cowbows seemed to have been transplanted straight from the dusty 1800's American wilderness and plopped right onto the big screen, along with their uncultured, unbathed, and uncouth behavior.

There is no frontal nudity, but there is one scene where Olivia Wilde is naked - but you only see her backside. Other than that, there's little foul language. But there's a lot of violence, a lot of shooting, and some pretty intense scenes with aliens, particularly the occasional close-up of the hiddeous creatures, which is some of the best special effects I've ever seen for aliens. They were totally disgusting and believable. Good stuff.

Would I recommend someone to go see it? Yes, but only if you don't mind seeing lots of violence between humans and aliens, some intense action, a bare backside of a woman, and hearing a few swear words.  Sequel anyone?