Cowboys and Tomatoes

By Bennett Owen

Credit: accessatlanta

It’s sitting on a 75% favorable rating on Rotten Tomatoes…no word yet on box office numbers but we can be reasonably sure Cowboys and Aliens is a smash! A sampling of reviews –

…”When the wonderfully grumpy, still Indy-fit Harrison Ford socks Daniel Craig on the jaw and Craig hits back even harder, it feels like a baton is being passed.”

Washington Post         

“It’s just big silly fun, the kind you’re supposed to have at a summer movie with a ridiculous title.”

Detroit News         

"Cowboys & Aliens has less to do with aliens and more to do with the relationships among the earthlings – cowboys, Indians, criminals, prostitutes, saloonkeepers, orphans and a mysterious, beautiful woman who come together to fight a common, extraterrestrial enemy.”

San Diego Union         

Credit Socialitelife

“Aliens abduct astonished townspeople in the Old West! A mysterious amnesiac gunslinger rides to the rescue! Extraterrestrials get lassoed and blown to bits in cool-looking ways! What’s not to like?”

New York Post         

“With this performance and his recurring role as James Bond, Craig may be the baddest man on the planet. To paraphrase a popular joke, ‘Daniel Craig is so bad that Chuck Norris has his poster on his wall.’”

Nolan’s Pop Culture Review         

“The Searchers meets Independence Day. Great fun.”

Chicago Sun-Times         

“It’s like a double feature but with all the boring bits taken out and all the fight scenes spliced together.”

Newark Star-Ledger         

“The actors seem truly invested in trying to convey what characters in a Western would do if confronted by aliens. That they succeed in taking the viewers on that journey with them is the precise extent to which Cowboys & Aliens becomes something special.

MSN Movies         

Hey. Nobody has even mentioned Olivia Wilde’s half-naked campfire scene. That must mean the rest of the movie is simply all kinds of awesome.  Let us know what YOU thought!

Credit: Socialitelife

Cowboys and Aliens – From Start to Finish

By Bennett Owen

OK, humor me. Just one more post after this and then it’s off to C&A Rehab. 

Cowboys and Aliens is a project that exists on the broad shoulders of its title alone. From its conception as a comic book, graphic novel and now summer blockbuster, it’s the title that’s lured investors, writers and A-List Hollywood talent.

Credit: seanpaune

Gone With the Wind may be the best-selling movie of all time but the name is not an instant grabber.  Think of the titles that will plant butts in movie seats on opening night no matter how good or bad the subject matter is:

• Strangers on a Train
• Snakes on a Plane
• A Fistful of Dollars
• A Streetcar Named Desire

And now, please add Cowboys and Aliens to the list. Here’s co-screenwriter and producer Roberto Orci admitting as much to SuperHeroHype:

SHH: What was it about the comic or the premise that got you interested in developing it?

Orci: Honestly, it was the title. We saw it on a list of development projects and we thought, "Why isn't that awesome title being actively turned into a movie?" Then we looked at the comic, and it was exactly what we hoped it would be…

Credit: Comic Book Resources

C&A started as a comic adventure, created by Comic Book King Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, based on a game he played as a kid.

But even as a comic, developers saw its future up on the silver screen. C&A is an alternate history concept. A "what if" story that turns warring Cowboys and Indians into grudging allies as they are confronted by an alien force.

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Rosenberg’s Platinum Studios released the  "Cowboys & Aliens" graphic novel in 2006 and it quickly rose to number one.

Credit:tradereadingorder

Insiders say the final movie script has little in common with the comic other than the premise. But the screenwriting team has a magnificent combined body of work behind it, so that bodes well for the finished product.

Credit: Tradereadingorder

John Nolte at Big Hollywood is just as excited to see the movie as I am. Here’s his take:

–’COWBOYS AND ALIENS’ OPENS TOMORROW–

For the first time in a long time, I’m drawn to see something in the theatre and will try to catch a matinee tomorrow. I like Daniel Craig, love director Jon Favreau, the title is awesome, the trailer even better, Westerns rule, and maybe — just maybe — after 15 disastrous years that culminated in the dreadfully embarrassing Indiana Jones IV, Harrison Ford will go back to being Harrison Ford again.

And finally, here’s yet another phenomenal Ford interview at Screen Rant:

And now if you’ll excuse me, it’s my turn to man the sleeping bag in front of the Multiplex.

Cowboys & Aliens Countdown

By Bennett Owen

Credit: Photo by Zade Rosenthal/Universal Studios and DreamWorks II – © Universal Studios and DreamWorks II Distribution Co. LLC

Come here often? Then you know I’ve been waiting for this moment ever since the last pixel of True Grit faded from the silver screen, so from now until Saturday it’s ‘C & A’ as far as the ‘I can C’.

So by now you’ve seen the trailers featuring the alien space ships …

Credit: Photo by Zade Rosenthal/Universal Studios and DreamWorks II – © Universal Studios and DreamWorks II Distribution Co. LLC

Harrison Ford …

Credit: Photo by Zade Rosenthal/Universal Studios and DreamWorks II – © Universal Studios and DreamWorks II Distribution Co. LLC

Daniel Craig …

Credit: Photo by Zade Rosenthal/Universal Studios and DreamWorks II – © Universal Studios and DreamWorks II Distribution Co. LLC

But this is the shot that has tongues wagging all across the blogosphere …

There’s some old fashioned smolder in that look and it belongs to up and comer Olivia Wilde. Director John Favreau knew he had gold when he got that shot …

Credit: Beyond Hollywood

Wilde tells MTV, “It was kind of strange because I was half-naked in front of a bunch of people, including the crew, a bunch of Apache warriors, a bunch of cowboys … AND Daniel Craig."

Credit: Photo by Zade Rosenthal/Universal Studios and DreamWorks II – © Universal Studios and DreamWorks II Distribution Co. LLC

And in the UK Daily Mail she confesses to a schoolgirl crush on Craig:

“He is so fine and he doesn't even know it,' she said. 'He's such a goof, but he has a confidence that allows him to shine in the way that Steve McQueen stole every single scene in The Magnificent Seven...“

Credit: Photo by Zade Rosenthal/Universal Studios and DreamWorks II – © Universal Studios and DreamWorks II Distribution Co. LLC

So Wilde, my sister and about a kazillion other women think Craig’s pretty magnificent himself ... what do they see in him?

Credit: Digital Journal

An accomplished horsewoman and all-round athlete, Wilde did much of her own stunt work on C & I, including a scene where she gets ripped from the saddle by a bungee cord. She told it all to Leno last night, the story starts about two minutes in:

At age 27, Wilde is just starting to creep onto the A-List but she’s had a recurring role on ‘House’ and took on a meaty role in ‘Tron Legacy.”

When she was 18, Wilde married an Italian aristocrat she met at the Burning Man Festival in Nevada. Alas, she’s suddenly single again.

“I got a divorce and self medicated with food,'” she said. “'But I figure that's better than self-medicating with crack cocaine.”

Wilde took her screen name as an homage to the Irish playwright. And who knows … at some Academy Award ceremony somewhere down the line, she might pick up his first name too.

Credit: Photo by Zade Rosenthal/Universal Studios and DreamWorks II – © Universal Studios and DreamWorks II Distribution Co. LLC

Django Unchained - QT Cooks Up Some Spaghetti

By Bennett Owen

 Credit: - © Touchstone Pictures; Photo: Chris Large

If all goes well, Kevin Costner will soon be back in the saddle and up on the big screen and that is good news because both he and the western genre are making a making a big time comeback. Hopefully Quentin Tarantino’s spaghetti western will do for Costner’s career what “Cowboys and Aliens” is about to do for Harrison Ford, namely, catapult him back to the top of his game.

Credit: The Golden Closet

Tarantino wants Costner to play ‘Ace Woody,’ a character described as a ‘sadistic bad guy.’  Sounds like a role made for Costner, doesn’t it? Christoph Waltz, the Oscar-winning Austrian actor from Tarantino’s ‘Inglourious Basterds’ reportedly also has a role, as do Leonardo di Caprio and Samuel L. Jackson. 

As one critic put it, “Like him or loathe him, Tarantino has the rare ability to reboot a genre.”  Put me in the loathe category, but hey … it’s a western with Kevin Costner … so it will get my money.

Costner gets a lot of flack for his wooden acting style but like Brad Pitt, give him the right role and he’s golden.  He first caught my eye as ‘Jake,’ a young buck full of mischief in Silverado…

Credit: idiotflashback

Credit: idiotflashback

Watch a scene from Silverado at MovieClips.com.

Then came “Dances With Wolves,” “Wyatt Earp” and “Tin Cup” …  well, OK, “Tin Cup” isn’t a western but it’s set in Texas and features Rene Russo  …  a star that has affected my life in ways she will never know.  Come to think of it Costner’s character is ‘Jake,’ reincarnated as a West Texas golf pro…

Costner also directed “Open Range,” and starred alongside the mighty Robert Duvall.  It’s one of my all time favorites.

As his film star status flickers, Costner’s is a rising country western talent, with his award-winning band, “Modern West.” They’ll be performing next week at the Cheyenne Frontier Days. He’s also teamed up with German pop legend Nena (remember 99 Red Balloons?) on an upcoming album. Here’s a recent Modern West performance at the Grand Ol’ Oprey.

Kevin Costner leads his band Modern West Thursday night at Showcase Live. Credit: Aram Boghosian for The Boston Globe

Well, OK, he’s no Waylon Jennings. But then again, Waylon probably wouldn’t have gotten too far with a gal like Rene Russo.

Over the Rim Part Two – Wide Open Outer Spaces

By Bennett Owen

Wow! Four days, 13-hundred miles and four states behind us, now that is a My-West road trip! Makes you wonder how many miles … make that light-years … these guys had to travel, just to get their butts kicked by Harrison Ford!

Whooo-peee-dooo, this is gonna be good watching!

But as I mentioned in my last post, there is nothing new under the sun no matter which solar system you wander into.  So happens that Sci-Fi Westerns have a long and illustrious history … just check out stardate 4358.3 when the Starship Enterprise, under command of Captain James T. Kirk makes contact with the ‘Melkotians’, only to find himself and his crew in a gunfight at the OK Corral …

Credit: Chicago Tribune

Credit: YouTube

Or, The Time Tunnel, 1967, where two time-traveling scientists get a birds-eye view of the Battle of the Alamo … (click here to watch the full episode)

And not to mention The Wild, Wild, West, with two government agents outfitted with gadgets just slightly ahead of their time …

Credit: Steampunk

Credit: Visual Feast

And the silver screen has a history of genre-creep as well with offerings such as:

-       Westworld

Credit: Michael Heilemann

-       Back to the Future Pt. 3

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-      Ghost Rider (featuring the mighty Peter Fonda)

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And many others, not to mention the iconic, the legendary, Jesse James Meets Frankenstein’s Daughter!

And of course the genre proved irresistible to Rod Serling in ‘The Twilight Zone.’  In this episode, a down-on-his luck pioneer takes a walk ‘100 Yards Over the Rim’ and encounters modern-day Arizona. Well. Modern as in 1961.  Here is all 25 minutes and it’s well worth the time.

Now if I could just transport myself ahead to July 29^th!

Credit: Beyond Hollywood