stainsteelrat

Cowboys & Aliens (2011). Directed by Jon Favreau. The story starts with a man (Daniel Craig) waking up in the desert. He has a wound in his side, and a peculiar machine on his wrist. Three bandits approach the man on horseback, but before they have a chance to capture him he manages to counter-attack and kill them all. It takes a fair while for Cowboys & Aliens to pick up the pace (about 1 hour and 10 minutes by my reckoning). Once it does it's a fun but unoriginal action film. All the cliché characters are there: hero, hero's gal, bad guy etc. Plus a bunch of aliens, and even some Indians, eventually. Arguably it does a better job than some Science Fiction Westerns (!) by keeping the story simple. There's more cowboys than aliens, so it's likely to appeal to those who like their Westerns but aren't turned off by the SF element. Equally anyone who likes a SF action film that's light on plot, and if they can cope with the slow start (and middle). 3/5 (Average)