Cowboys & Aliens

Jon Favreau has certainly come a long way since his independent film roots with Swingers (1996), the film he wrote and starred in. Over the years, he’s increasing spent more time behind the camera than in front, directing Made in 2001. The modest success of that film saw him transition to studio films with larger budgets like Elf (2003) and Zathura (2005). Then came Iron Man (2008), his most ambitious effort up to that point, and he rolled the dice with the casting of Robert Downey Jr. as his leading man. The gamble paid off and the film was a massive success, paving the way for the inevitable sequel. Rushed into production, the end result was a commercial triumph but a critical failure, which upped the stakes for his next film, Cowboys & Aliens (2011), an adaptation of the graphic novel of the same name by Scott Mitchell Rosenberg.


The premise is an intriguing hybrid of the science fiction and western genres with an alien invasion set in 1873 New Mexico. To hedge his bets, Favreau corralled Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford to headline his film, which caused epic seismic ripples through the fanboy community at the prospects of seeing the actors who played James Bond and Indiana Jones in the same film together. As a result, expectations were understandably high. Could Favreau and company deliver the goods or would this be another Wild Wild West (1999)?

A man wakes up in the middle of nowhere wounded and with a strange, futuristic device strapped to his wrist. He has no idea who he is or how he got there. Three men on horseback show up assuming he’s an escape convict and try to take him in. He quickly and brutally dispatches them, taking their gear and heading towards the nearest town – the former mining colony of Absolution. He eventually learns that his name is Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig), a notorious outlaw wanted by the law for a variety of offences. One of which was robbing local cattle baron Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) of his gold. When he learns that Lonergan is in Absolution, Dolarhyde and him men intend to lynch the outlaw in retribution.

However, a strange light appears in the sky just as Dolarhyde arrives into town. The device on Lonergan’s wrist activates and the light turns out to be several alien spacecraft that proceed to blast the town to smithereens and kidnap several of its townsfolk. Lonergan discovers that his wrist device is a weapon, which he uses to take down one of the alien craft. The film sets up Dolarhyde as a mean son of a bitch while Lonergan is a no-nonsense criminal. They represent two unstoppable forces of nature and one of the pleasures of this film is when they have to put aside their differences, repel the alien invaders and rescue the kidnapped townsfolk.

For years, Harrison Ford has made bad choices in the films he’s decided to be in and phoned in one-note performances, playing the same gruff character, but with Cowboys & Aliens acting against someone like Daniel Craig has inspired him to bring his A-game this time around. Ford actually looks interested and engaged in the material and the role. It’s great to see him go up against Craig and their scenes together crackle with intensity and tension. Best of all, Ford has two scenes that expose his character’s gruff exterior and reveal a more vulnerable side. They are poignant and heartfelt because we’ve become invested in these characters by this point. This is the best Ford has been in years and reminds one of when he used to play characters we cared about.

Craig adds another man of action to his roster. He excels at playing edgy tough guys and is well cast as the enigmatic outlaw. The only drawback is that Lonergan is underwritten and there isn’t much for Craig to work with except for some standard motivation for his character revenging a lost one. As a result, the character comes across as a one-note Man with No Name, at times. Favreau does a good job of surrounding Craig and Ford with a solid ensemble cast of character actors. You’ve got Clancy Brown as the upstanding town preacher Meachum, Sam Rockwell as Doc, the mild-mannered saloon owner, Keith Carradine as Sheriff John Taggart, the always watchable Adam Beach as Nat Colorado, Dolarhyde’s right-hand man, and Olivia Wilde as a mysterious woman named Ella whose exotic beauty gives her an almost otherworldly aura. Hell, Favreau even throws Walt Goggins in for good measure as a member of Lonergan’s gang.

Favreau has all the traditional western iconography down cold and the fun of Cowboys & Aliens is seeing these motifs clash with the science fiction elements. So, we see cowboys on horseback being chased by fast-moving alien spacecraft. This film doesn’t stray from the conventions of either genre or try to reinvent them but instead merges and fulfills them in a crowd-pleasing way. Cowboys & Aliens has impressive special effects, nasty-looking aliens, several exciting action sequences, and two cool heroes to root for. This may not be the classic that people were hoping for but it is a very entertaining film in its own right and sometimes that’s enough.

 

DVD of the Week: Galaxy Quest: Deluxe Edition

When Galaxy Quest was released in 1999, it was a modest success but it certainly didn’t light the world on fire. Over the years, it has quietly amassed something of a cult following who delight in the film’s affectionately satirical jabs at the Star Trek franchise and its fans, specifically the first incarnation with William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. With this new Deluxe Edition DVD, it is about time for Galaxy Quest to be revisited and re-evaluated.

Like Star Trek, Galaxy Quest was a popular science fiction television program featuring the adventures of the “intrepid crew” of the NSEA Protector. There’s Connie Madison as played by Gwen DeMarco (Sigourney Weaver), the requisite eye candy, Laredo as played by Tommy Webber (Daryl Mitchell), the ship’s pilot, Dr. Lazarus as played by Alexander Dane (Alan Rickman), the very Mr. Spock-like alien adviser, Tech Sergeant Chip as played by Fred Kwan (Tony Shalhoub), the ship’s chief engineer, and Peter Quincy Taggart as played by Jason Nesmith (Tim Allen), the two-fisted captain.

The show has been over for years but the cast still frequents fan conventions, signing autographs and reliving their glory days, which has gotten to be a tedious chore. Nesmith has a raging ego and is something of a glory hound, much to the chagrin of his castmates, but when he overhears two non-fans slam him, the show and its fans, he suffers a mighty blow to his ego and begins to question his lot in life. Along come four aliens, Thermians from the Klaatu nebula who plead for his help. They have seen the show, or “historical documents” as they call it, and think that Nesmith and his cast are the real deal. They implore for his help against another alien race that is systematically hunting down and exterminating their race.

Nesmith is beamed aboard an actual working, full-blown version of his spacecraft from the show. Of course, he thinks that it’s just another publicity gig through the haze of a brutal hangover, that is, until he’s teleported back to Earth via a wormhole. Pretty soon, his disgruntled castmates are recruited along with Guy (Sam Rockwell), a glorified extra who played Crewman #6 in one episode of the show and was promptly killed off. Everyone is going to have to put aside their gripes with one another if they hope to survive and prevail.

Galaxy Quest does a spot-on job poking fun at the archetypes from the Star Trek with Tim Allen playing the William Shatner/James T. Kirk type, Alan Rickman playing the Leonard Nimoy/Spock type, and so on. The way the cast plays their respective roles not only relies on our knowledge of their Star Trek counterparts, but also the people who played them. That’s not to say that you have to be familiar with Star Trek to enjoy Galaxy Quest but it certainly helps and you will enjoy the film even more.

All of the cast do an excellent job, in particular Tony Shalhoub as the perpetually mellow engineer – his Zen-like reactions to the various dangers that he and his fellow actors face are hilarious – and Sam Rockwell as the freaked-out crewman who is convinced that that he’s going to be killed at any moment, just like on the show – he plays the character with the same kind of hilarious paranoia as Bill Paxton’s memorable character in Aliens (1986). Look closely and you’ll see The Office’s Rainn Wilson in a small role as a Thermian and Live Free and Die Hard’s (2007) Justin Long as an uber fan.

Galaxy Quest is a fun film that pays an affectionate tribute to shows like Star Trek while also gently poking fun at some of its clichés. It is also rather ironic that the film sends up a show known for its clunky special effects with its own state-of-the-art (at the time) visual effects by Stan Winston and Industrial Lights and Magic. Galaxy Quest starts off lampooning science fiction and its more obsessive fan culture but then halfway through celebrates it. The film is just flat-out entertaining and fun to watch, while managing to accomplish what many thought impossible – actually getting a good performance out of Tim Allen.

Special Features:

“Historical Documents: The Story of Galaxy Quest” is a retrospective making of featurette that has key cast and crew members reminiscing about the experience of working on the film. They take us through its origins and we see how the original concept was quite different but was tweaked over time. In a nice touch, the main cast members return and tell all kinds of filming anecdotes, clearly looking back at this project with genuine affection.

“Never Give Up, Never Surrender: The Intrepid Crew of the NSEA Protector” takes a look at the cast of Galaxy Quest and they talk about how they approached their respective roles. The filmmakers talk about why they cast the actors that are in the film and everyone dishes more wonderful stories.

“By Grabthar’s Hammer, What Amazing Effects” takes a look at the film’s snazzy visual effects. They had Stan Winston do the aliens while ILM do the special effects. Winston speaks about his creations in archival footage.

“Alien School: Creating the Thermian Race” examines the alien race that enlists the help of the Galaxy Quest crew. Actor Enrico Colantoni talks about how he came up with his character’s voice.

“Actors in Space” takes a look at how the cast made fun of their profession and their character archetypes.

“Sigourney Weaver Raps” features a taped message that she made for her agent’s birthday where the veteran actress raps with help from her fellow castmates.

Also included are eight deleted scenes that feature more with Fred Kwan as he tours the ship’s engineering section with his Zen-like calmness. There is a scene where the cast are shown their quarters based on their characters’ personalities from the show. And we also get more of them bickering among each other on the alien planet.

“Thermian Audio Track” allows you to watch the entire film dubbed in the alien language, which is actually pretty funny but I don’t know if you would ever watch it more than once.

Finally, there is a theatrical trailer.