Cowboys & Aliens

Directed by Jon Favreau

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$29.98

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$17.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

Availability: Not yet released
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com

Average customer review:
(44 customer reviews)

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #138 in DVD
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: NTSC
• Running time: 118 minutes

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Cowboys & Aliens fuses rip-snortin' horse opera with some whiz-bang sci-fi, melding dry and austere badlands with slimy, mucusy aliens. Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig, of James Bond fame) wakes up in the midst of sagebrush with a mysterious gadget around his wrist and no idea who he is--but he sure does remember how to take care of the bounty hunters who want to bring him in. His path soon crosses with a ruthless cattle baron named Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford, of Indiana Jones fame), who's not too happy with Lonergan, who got Dolarhyde's son in trouble. But their fracas becomes beside the point when spaceships descend and start lassoing people like cattle. The humans, including a mysterious woman (Olivia Wilde, Tron), a Native American tribe, and some snaggletoothed outlaws, band together to fight off this invasion from another world. The first two-thirds of Cowboys & Aliens is peppy fun, with its tongue-in-cheek Wild West-ness and colorful supporting cast (including Sam Rockwell, Keith Carradine, Paul Dano, and Walton Goggins) and fairly understated CGI. The last third, with the obligatory assault on the alien vessel and a mess of clichés and inconsistencies, deflates a bit, which isn't surprising given that six screenwriters were involved. Director Jon Favreau (Iron Man) does what he can to keep things lively. Fortunately, the good spirits of the first two-thirds will carry most viewers through to the end. --Bret Fetzer

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Customer Reviews

Most helpful customer reviews

45 of 54 people found the following review helpful.
Very Enjoyable Movie!
By J. Windham
I'm not going to go into a lot of details of the movie - other reviews have done that. I will just say that this was a very enjoyable summer movie! The dialog wasn't bad, there was a lot of action, Ford and Craig played well off each other. Craig especially did a good job of playing the hard-bitten cowboy. It may not win any Emmys, but it was really fun to watch! I for one thought there was plenty of action to keep your attention fixed -( and if you're one of those reviewers who said you were falling asleep during this movie, I'd suggest the problem lies with you, not the movie. Perhaps you need more sleep, or better taste in movies)
I don't know why the nay sayers didn't like it, or exactly what they were expecting - but I for one would recommend this movie as a good family movie for the summer.

55 of 72 people found the following review helpful.
Spoiler-Free Review
By SciFiChick
A man awakens in the desert to complete memory loss. The only clue to his past is a picture of a young woman and a metal contraption locked around his forearm. When he arrives in a nearby town of Absolution, trouble isn't far behind. But when strange lights from the sky arrive and begin shooting up the town and abducting its residents, the survivors decide to risk all to hunt the kidnappers and find their loved ones.
Daniel Craig plays the amnesiac who comes to be known as Jake Lonergan. Craig is a stoic, hard man with a soft heart. When his past is revealed it's a bit of a shock, since it seemed to be against his nature. Harrison Ford also stars as Woodrow Dolarhyde, a tough war veteran, now rich and feared by the town and his employees. Sam Rockwell is Doc, a saloon owner who tries to toughen up to save his wife from abduction. And Olivia Wilde is the mysterious and beautiful Ella who seems to know something about Jake. The acting is solid and believable. Each character stands out and made the film worth watching.
The characters and their stories are really what made the film. While the men had rough and tough exteriors, there was still plenty of heart. The feel was definitely a Western meets Alien, with plenty of violence and intense suspense and action. Clever one-liners throughout gave the film some much-needed laughs and light-hearted moments. Fast-paced, edge-of-your-seat excitement from beginning to end, Cowboys & Aliens certainly lives up to the hype.
The story is only roughly based on the original graphic novel. This is a different story, yet still has riveting characters, a mystery, and non-stop adventure. This was the film I was looking forward to most this summer. And I'm happy to say I wasn't disappointed. The Old West setting was charming yet gritty. And the aliens are brutal and extremely powerful, but underestimate humans, so it's not a completely hopeless situation, nor silly. Both genres are treated with respect. Flawlessly blending Western action and gun-slinging with a high-tech alien invasion, this summer blockbuster is completely unique and altogether fantastic.

23 of 29 people found the following review helpful.
A well-made, generally entertaining film
By Steve
"Cowboys & Aliens" is a film with a simple plot with a few surprises. It takes place a few years after the Civil War and Harrison Ford is still complaining about the Union generals at Antietam, as well as having to deal with a spoiled, drunken son. Daniel Craig has amnesia and a strange bracelet clamped on his wrist. And Olivia Wilde is a beautiful, gun-toting woman who seems to know what's going on with Craig, as alien spacecraft start blowing up a town and the area's cowboys, and later robbers and Apaches. The film meanders along for quite some time, but heats up in the second half, as humans band together to try to save humanity from extinction.
"Cowboys & Aliens" has some good action sequences and photography, and the aliens are ugly and scary. The main actors all do a good job, as does Keith Carradine as a sheriff and Sam Rockwell as a non-violent saloon owner who learns to shoot a rifle.
All in all, this is a well-made film, which is generally entertaining, especially in its latter stages. Three and one-half stars.