Cowboys and Aliens (2011)

In my younger years, Sundays were always the day for Western marathons.  My father would hog the living room TV with old John Wayne and Glen Ford flicks.  I, on the other hand, secluded myself to my bedroom watching Alien and practicing my intense Power Rangers’ moves.  Director Jon Favreau seemed to have melded my childhood experiences into this year’s momentous Western/Sci-Fi film, Cowboys and Aliens.

Daniel Craig breaks momentarily from his James Bond adventures to play the leading lone-gunman, Jake Lonergan.  His velvety English accent is masked with a rough and muddled Southwestern strum.  Craig shows a different side of himself in this film, displaying immense versatility as a leading Hollywood actor.  He surprises and captivates us with his talents, all the way to the end credits.  The adventure begins when Jake wakes up in the middle of the desert naked and alone, without a clue to even his own name.  The mysterious cowboy throws a couple bad-ass moves on a shoddy passerby, and rides to town in a new pair of clothes and on a new trusty steed.

The accuracy with which this 19th Century Western village was rendered was completely on point.  Costumes, music, and even down to the lighting, which I believe to be above the average difficulty level on a Western set.   Westerns are also notorious for their use of stock characters, and Cowboys and Aliens made no exceptions.  The supporting cast includes Olivia Wilde as the unsuspected-strong female counterpart, Sam Rockwell as the compassionate doormat, Adam Beach as the token Native American, Paul Dano as the idiot bully, and Keith Carradine as the no-nonsense Sheriff.  Most notably, perhaps, is the largest supporting role played by Harrison Ford- the powerful, corrupted old dog that won’t be taught new tricks.  It’s good to see Ford still rocking the silver screen as he pushes into his seventies.  He has a ceaseless stamina as an actor, with much credit to this particularly charismatic performance.  Each character created for this film is from great influence of the typical characters seen in the films of the Old West.  The reality of this environment was truly believable.  I swear I could almost feel the hot desert sun and smell the stagnant cowboy sweat blanketing the smoky village bar.  And then they were invaded by aliens.

The invasion scene and the action that heartily follows to the very end is one of the most impressive and colorful fusions of genre in today’s cinematic melting pot.  The artists on set did such a good job bringing us back to the 19th Century, and took us to the next level with a completely opposing futuristic angle.  Favreau’s heaviest directorial projects prior to Cowboys and Aliens were Iron Man and Iron Man 2.  Both films showed his talent for action/adventure, and the impressive special effects followed faithfully into this movie as well.  The effects were top notch and the action scenes were suspenseful; all without ever losing sight of the time period. Kudos must also be given to the team of writers.  They really captured the perspectives of the Old West, down to the religious perspectives on alien invasions in that time period.  The invaders were never actually referred to as “aliens,” but instead as “demons.”  The writers bred each detail with precision, alongside the remaining cast and crew.

It’s reminiscent, yet innovative.  Cowboys and Aliens is imaginative and perfectly fuses the two most opposing genres into a whirlwind of remarkably novel entertainment.  It is the Reece’s Peanut Butter Cup of motion pictures.  Who doesn’t love Reece’s?

I rate this movie 4.5 out of 5 Laser-Sighted Lassos.

Devil (2010)

Among the falling autumn leaves and brisk bite in the air, Halloween season brings us the cluster of ever-anticipated Horror theatrical releases.  John Erick Dowdle’s newest thriller, Devil, hit the box office just before the tide came in, driven by a passable leading cast including Chris Messina, Logan Marshall-Green, Bojana Novakovic, Jenny O’Hara, Bokeem Woodbine, and Geoffrey Arend.  A close-quarters confinement horror story, this movie plays on the audiences’ sense of morality, religion, fears of the dark, and topped with a sweet glaze of claustrophobia.

The blanket statement of the story is nothing original.  The Devil walks the Earth in human form and agonizingly exterminates those who harbor intense sin.  Screenwriter Brian Nelson provides a bit of refreshment to this tale by placing our group of sinners in a broken elevator, knowing not who the killer is amongst them, but only that there’s absolutely nowhere to run.  Considering his past works, most memorably Hard Candy (highly recommended!) and 30 Days of Night, Nelson has a deep understanding and talent to exploit the extent of terror created by restricting the space between good and evil.  Adding to the growing sense of claustrophobia, shared by both character and viewer, is the unbearable detail that all the scary stuff happens when the lights go out.  My personal distaste for darkness accounted for relentlessly squeezing my husband’s hand to numbness.  These two prominent aspects of the story rub a shiny polish on the overused “Devil on Earth” concept.
The movie opens on a pan across the cityscape of Philadelphia.  Decorating the set-up is an offensively robust score by Fernando Valàzquez.  Cellos and Tympanis blaring superficial staccato rhythms, I thought I accidentally stumbled back in time to fifty years ago and walked into a showing of Hitchcock’s Psycho.  A modern-style horror in modern times should yield a more modern musical backdrop.  Now I don’t mean to undermine retro-horror or any of its significant aspects.  I adore the upbringing of the genre in all its ages.  I also enjoy much of its return stylistically, such as in the successful Grindhouse double-feature and Andrew Douglas’ 2005 remake of Amityville Horror.  But unless you’re Lady Gaga, you just don’t wear plaid with cheetah print.  
Sitting upon the top tier of the creative involvement are Director John Erick Dowdle and Writer-Producer M. Night Shyamalan, masters in their own genius’ of twisting reality and plot.  Emerging again from the box office hype of Quarantine (another “confinement” horror), Dowdle struts his seductively suspenseful knack for the uncanny.   Shyamalan stamps his signature on the film with the loveable yet sorrowful anti-hero, undertones of religious structures, and his most notable third act twist.   Though controversial in talent within popular culture, I am a Shyamalan fan.  I will defend The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable to my dying day – a topic I will subdue arduously until another time.  Though not nearly as poignant in character progression or story as his other films, this movie accomplished what I think its straightforward intention attempted.  It’s a good scare with an interesting enough story to sit through for eighty minutes.
Obligated to mention the on-screen talent, I find myself pausing for inspiration.  Not too bad, but not too good.  Excluding key players Chris Messina and Logan Marshall-Green, there isn’t much to say for the cast.  They played the shallow roles they were given.  Equally the fault of deficient character development and stale performances, I was resigned to slight disappointment and indifference.  Rescuing the viewers’ teetering emotional involvement, Chris Messina subtly (for the most part) forces his sorrow upon us.  The detective who lost everything must work through his personal life struggles and save this group of tormented elevator passengers from unknown peril.  Messina plays misery, temporal urgency, perplexing horror with a comfortable and charming sense of mature restraint and calculation, soothing the headache caused by overacted fright from the elevator tenants.  Among our group of detained sinners, Logan Marshall-Green highlights his superior talent.  Though at first a little banal (undoubtedly a factor of the “plot is priority over character” design), his character develops a little more than the others throughout the plot and Marshall-Green pursues it to the fullest.  By the end of the film, and especially in the gripping twist, I was attached to him.  A scene in particular where his character steps into the spotlight allows him the opportunity to show a certain depth and emotionality that is executed with authenticity and endearment.
All in all, Devil classified itself as an entertaining but potentially forgettable horror film.  Whether intentional or not, it might have been a smart move to release it as forerunner of this year’s horror season releases instead of alongside competing releases.  Followed by other enticing movies of its genre in October (Let Me In, My Soul to Take, Paranormal Activity 2, Saw 3D, etc.), this ordinary picture would have been a likely candidate to be overlooked otherwise.
I rate this movie 3 out of 5 "Hail Marys".

Grande Opening

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