Cowboys & Aliens

Jon Favreau’s Cowboys & Aliens is what you expect: a sci-fi action movie set in a lawless world of saloons and guns. An amnesiac cowboy wearing a digitized wristband that shoots stuff (Daniel Craig) ambles about wreaking havoc, killing some nasty looking aliens who’ve taken people hostage. The town’s head honcho (Harrison Ford), a mysterious woman (Olivia Wilde) and a team of Apaches help Craig save the planet. Despite the millions of explosions and gunshots it takes to kill a posse of aliens, it drags on as the badass-ery wears off, exposing the movie’s absurdity. I imagine Favreau, realizing stranger movies exist, thought "Why not marry a Western with the otherworldly?" In practise, he could’ve ditched the aliens or the West: not even the Craig-Ford combo can make this gel. –Molly Segal