Cowboys & Aliens.

Like most people, when I first heard about this movie, I had no idea what to think. It sounded like it could be either the most idiotic movie you'll ever see, or the most fun. It's most definitely the latter. It was incredibly stupid, but in a good way. It never tried to do anything extremely serious with its absurd premise. It had its flaws, some major ones even but I never felt like they took away from the movie. This is a movie that I can easily put on at anytime and have a good time.

The basic premise is that a man named Jake Lonergan (played by Daniel Craig) wakes up in the middle of the desert with no recollection of his past or name with a strange device attached to his wrist. After warding off a few slave drivers/scalpers, he steals one of their horses and rides off to Absolution. Once there, he catches the eye of Ella Swenson (played by Olivia Wilde), a local girl who seems to know something about Jake's past. Soon after, he runs into trouble with the local bandit Woodrow Dollarhyde (played by Harrison Ford) after getting his son arrested. Suddenly, aliens attack the town and capture many of the townspeople including Dollarhyde's son. They then form a ragtag group and venture off to rescue everyone.

My favorite part about the story is how silly it is. It's full of cheesy dialogue, and plotholes the size of Texas (no pun intended), but it all fuels the classic Western B-movie feel the creators were going for.

The ragtag group is filled with your typical cliche heroes. Your typical amnesia hero and love interest (Craig and Wilde), your gruff anti-hero (Ford), your local village idiot who is always looked down upon (Doc, played by Sam Rockwell), a kid who wants to prove himself (Emmet played by Noah Ringer), and your motivational speaker/priest (Meacham played by Clancy Brown) who's only purpose is to die heroically and give the main heroes a motivational speech about not giving up. Finally, you can't have a western without an Indian tribe who despise the heroes but eventually learns to trust them and fights by their side. All of the actors did a fantastic job. Much like the story, you could tell that everyone had fun. Craig and Ford stand in particular because they play well of each other. Wilde was the only weak point, but that's only because of the other actors she was up against, and not due to bad acting.

The score was fantastic. Harry Gregson Williams skillfully combines the sound of your classic Westerns with the heavy and fast paced score of sci-fi flicks. The main theme is a combination of fast paced violins with some guitar riffs thrown in.

Despite complimenting the plot holes earlier, there a few that stood out as being bad. But they never hurt the movie as a whole and it was easy to look past them. The aliens themselves are getting lots of criticism for their designs, but I really liked it. I laughed at first, but they were unique and original.

I recommend this movie. It's the perfect brainless action flick.