Cowboys & Aliens
Dir: Jon Favreau
2011
***
When I first heard about this film I immediately thought of my childhood and to those school lunch-break conversations I had with my mates like 'Who would win in a fight between Optimus Prime and He-man'? If I'm being completely honest, we're still having those conversations now, they still get heated and someone generally gets upset. The prospect of having Cowboys vs. Aliens was music to our ears, finally Hollywood was listening, a mainstream B-Movie staring James Bond and Indiana Jones (another great 'Who would win in a fight between' lunch-break debate of the 1980s). It got slated though, I've read nothing but bad reviews of it and now after watching it, I'm still not entirely sure why? It's first and foremost, a decent Western - and then it's a good sci-fi film. I suppose you either think the concept is silly or you think it's cool - if you think it's silly, you're never going to like it. Okay, so it could have been better, it should have been the coolest film ever, it's not but it was still pretty cool all the same. The 10 year old kid in me loved it and the 30 something in me agreed. Now that Hollywood is finally on my wavelength, could we please now have Mr T vs. Jaws (James Bond Jaws, not the shark - although that would be cool too) and maybe Care Bears vs. Gummy Bears for the girls?