Cowboys and Aliens and Movie Trailers...

I love western movies. I also like the Alien movies (just the 1st two) and scifi movies in general. Combine those two elements and you get a fascinating, action-packed movie right? Uh...no.

I had such high hopes for this movie. I mean, Daniel Craig! I do like him but not so much in this one. Aside from looking good in a vest and out of it, his character came across as two dimensional. The other big name was Harrison Ford who lately seems like the same character, just a different movie.

*Some spoilers*

The plot is your basic aliens capture humans to study them for any weaknesses while they exploit Earth's resources, namely gold. Daniel Craig's character managed to get away but he now has amnesia. He also has a shiny bracelet that he can't remove. Okay, the bracelet was pretty cool. So, Craig's character, Jake Lonergan (a romance hero name if I ever heard one!), Jake heads into town after waking up in the middle of nowhere with no memory of how he got there. He has a confrontation with the local bully who also happens to be the son of a wealthy rancher aka Harrison Ford's character Woodrow Dolarhyde (yes, that's his name). It turns out Jake is a wanted man. Oops. I'll bet it would have been nice to remember that little fact.

But no worries, he won't be in jail for long because the aliens are coming to town. They come, they blow things up, they abduct townsfolk and generally scare the crap out of everyone. One alien does crash land and after killing one of the townsfolk, heads out of town, leaving alien tracks behind. Well, you know what's coming next - it's posse time! It's time for everyone to work together to rescue the family and friends who were abducted. I think there was just about every western cliche you could think of in this movie. Except for the whole alien thing. :)

As the posse tracks the big bad alien they travel through what is suppose to be the Arizona territory of 1873. I don't know if it was filmed in Arizona but it does look like very rugged terrain. Not a soul in sight, or so you'd think. First they run into Jake's old gang. Now at the this point I had lost track of how many times I'd yawned. But I perked up as soon as I saw Walton Goggins. Who you say? He plays Boyd Crowder on one of the best shows on TV - Justified. So with renewed interested I held out hope that things would pick up. Yeah, there was some alien fighting and more abductions then another cliche pops up in the form of the Apaches. This is when things got really weird. LOL

Eventually we get to the big showdown with the aliens. Things get blown up, people die, aliens die. Jake sheds his outlaw persona and becomes a hero. Sacrifices are made and the ones who survive have a new appreciation for life and become better people for it.

Not much else to say, except the aliens were pretty cool and gross in that alien way that all aliens are. Big and gooey with alien hands that pop out of their middles. That was pretty cool. :)

My verdict - unless you're a real diehard Craig, Ford or cowboy and/or alien fan, save your money and wait for the DVD.

Trailers...

One thing I like about going to the movies is seeing the trailers. I was in for a treat since I got to see the Conan trailer again. Nothing like a bigger than life Jason Momoa to put a smile on your face. :)

There was also a trailer for the movie Battleship, release May 2012. Not sure how I feel about this one. It has Taylor Kitsch which is a positive. (Still can't believe no more Friday Night Lights), Liam Neeson and that guy from True Blood, Alexander Skarsgård. It's the plot that has me thinking this might be a wait for the DVD kind of movie. It's basically transformers at sea. So, I guess we'll see. :)

And speaking of Friday Night Lights (still missing it) Brad Pitt has a new movie coming out next month called Moneyball. I'm not a big Brad Pitt fan and I'm not crazy about baseball but this looks really good. It has a Friday Night Lights feel to it and it's based on a true story. And there was even a book about it. It's about the Oakland A's and how they went from being really, really bad to being a winning team. I might actually go see this one.

Geez, just how many times can I mention Friday Night Lights in one post? Apparently a lot! Still missing it. :(