Chak De India!!!

16 ladies who were converted to being household names 4 years back (will be 4 years in 1 week) - Vidya Sharma (Malavade), Balbir Kaur (Tanya Abrol), Gul Iqbal (Arya Menon), Nethra Reddy (Sandia Furtado), Soimoi Kerketa (Nisha Nair), Rachna Prasad (Kimberly Miranda), Raynia Fernandes (Raynia Mascerhanas), Nichola Sequiera (herself), Rani Dispotta (Seema Azmi), Bindia Naik (Shilpa Shukla), Gunjun Lakhani (Shubhi Mehta), Mary Ralte (Kimi Laldawla), Molly Zimik (Masochon V Zimik), Aliya Bose (Anaitha Nair), Komal Chautala (Chitrashi Rawat) and Preety Sabharwal (Sagarika Ghatge). It will take a while before people are able to forget these names which probably go us closest to a victory in a world cup hockey. Shimit Amin’s second movie was an even bigger block buster than his first one (Ab Tak Chhappan) and went on to cement his position as one of the better directors in Indian Cinema.

Shimit’s capability to generate enough enthusiasm to deflect the audiences attention from the really finer details is what makes him a solid movie maker. What he does beautifully is creating the excitement from the first shot of the movie where Kabir Khan (Shah Rukh) misses the penalty stroke in the final few seconds and so the world cup. Every few minutes he ensures that the movie actually touches an emotional chord with every viewer – and he does so beautifully with almost every Indian through Chak De India!!! Such as when Nethra Reddy is asked, “Tamil” and she says “Tamil aur Telegu mein utna hi farak hota hai jitna Punjabi aur Bihari mein” (The difference between Tamil and Telegu is identical to that between Punjabi and Bihari) Or when Mary Ralte and Molly Zimik say, “Aap apne hi Desh mein mehmaan banke rahoge”? (Would you like to stay as a guest in your own country) A Superb way to touch the regional sentiments and then get the nationalist sentiment also up and running with “Vidya Sharma. India”. Very slick movie making Mr. Amin.

Each character is clearly defined in terms of origin, aspirations, problems and what she expects to achieve from the campaign to win the world cup. Whether it is Komal’s desire never to be in a kitchen or Preety’s wish to prove her boyfriend wrong or Vidya’s need to win the world cup so that people at home let her live her life or Gul’s family’s legacy which she must live upto. Every single person with the exception of probably Nichola Sequeira, Rachana Sharma and Raynia Fernandes have been given their due.

Having said that, there are enough and more gaffes which would be visible to one if and only if s/he were to watch the movie through the eyes of a critic who wants to find mistakes. And even there Shimit would have a decent explanation to offer. The inspirations from Miracle on Ice are unmistakable though. The only place where I could question Shimit on his complete “originality”.

It is exceptionally difficult to review a movie that the entire world has seen and without doubt is completely in love with. Chak De is definitely the best sports movie made in India to date and could compare with some of the better ones world over for sure. If we were familiar with Ice Hockey or American Football I am certain we would find the same consistency errors that we do in Chak De. But the fact that Shimit has made this move as true to field hockey as possible is all credit to him. I would still give it an 8 on 10. Cant give more because I am aware of the flaws. But for those who haven’t seen it, you have definitely missed something. Add this to your MUST WATCH list.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NWwrarwqPE

She's Out of My League

There are movies that you watch because they ought to be watched. There are movies that you avoid because they ought to be avoided. And then there are movies that you watch because there is nothing better to do in life. Sitting @ home in Goa with no one around weekend before last, I had to kill time for about 30-40 minutes because Pizza was on its way and Juhi & Ashley (my friends in Goa) were out for some work. The couch potato (and u must see me these days – I look like a potato only) that I am, channel surfing took me to “She’s Out of My League” (SOML). Those who read my blog would know that I am a sucker for chick flicks. But what really got me to watch this movie was that I switched it on at just the right time – When the stunning Alice Eve makes her entry at the airport and heads turn. Jokes apart – I actually sat up and stared. Now here was a stunning beauty to say the least who had just walked into screen and I was so hoping that she doesn’t say something stupid and ruin the entire moment. Thankfully she did not. And therefore, I was resigned to watch SOML for the next 90 mins or so much to the chagrin of my hosts – my sincerest of apologies to Juhi and Ashley who are probably the nicest hosts to have tolerated my whim to watch such a lousy movie.

Because after that moment of Alice Eve’s entry, it is perfectly downhill. Kirk Kettner (Jay Baruchel - The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Tropic Thunder) is your average everyday boy next door (read LOSER). He typically spends his time with 3 of his friends who are also boy next doors (read LOSERs). Stainer (T.J. Miller), Jack (Mike Vogel) & Devon (Nate Torrence) are Kirk’s closest buddies – Chaddi Buddies type. They are your lower middle class folks for whom, getting a job is good enough. Now Kirk has the hots for Marnie (Lindsay Sloane) but she has dumped him 2 years back. The trouble is she continues to stay in his face coz Kirk’s parents think the world of her and Kirk’s elder brother and Marnie’s current are good friends. No one would have expected Kirk to get anywhere in life. That he had a job as an Airport Security person, was good enough. But that’s what gets Kirk to meet Molly (Alice Eve) and love happens along with some really bad slapstick American so called comedy.

Watch SOML only if you are suckers for punishment. If you believe American Pie was a 10 on 10 then SOML would be right up your alley. Anything lower than that and you have a problem on your hands. I am sure there is a separate genre for these kind of movies and I am quite certain that director Jim Field Smith is an expert of sort in this genre of movie making. In his first full length feature, Smith doesn’t quite leave much of a mark honestly. But I guess there is a market for crappy movies and he was just making the most of it. Why blame him. The only way you can sustain SOML is to fast forward to every scene that has Alice Eve in it – and there are lots. She is confident and awesome looking to boot. A tad short but who cares when you have a 10 on 10 otherwise. Avoid the movie like the plague cos it is playing on one of the movie channels. 3 on 10. Everything because of Alice Eve’s looks.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi870384665/

Letters to Juliet

Gary Winick is the director of chick flicks such as 13 going on 30 and Bride Wars. Both of which were movies that would barely manage to make the cut. He also did Charlotte’s Web which was more in the kiddie genre and 6 other movies that I haven’t seen or heard of. But with Letters to Juliet, he kind of gets his direction to the proverbial next level. He does get it soppy and a bit hard to believe in between but gets the movie to feel quite good overall.

The first thing he does is get the story right. Now how many of us would have heard about the Secretaries of Juliet? I know I did not know about them. I am not a shining example of knowing everything (although I would love to believe so) but it would be fair to assume that most people did not know about the concept and it was therefore a novel story in the first place. People from all over the world can send letters to Casa di Giulietta / Juliet’s House, Via Cappello, 23, Near Piazza delle Erbe, Verona, Italy and a team of volunteers sit down at the end of every day to answer each one of them. A practice that has been in place for over 70 years today.

Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) bumps into the concept and therefore into Isabella (Luisa Ranieri), Francesca (Marina Massironi), Donatella (Lidia Biondi), Maria (Milena Vukotic) & Angelina (Luisa De Santis) who have been volunteering as the secretaries of Juliet for quite some time now. Sophie is visiting Verona for a pre-honeymoon of sorts with her husband to be – Victor (Gael García Bernal) – a superb chef but a person who doesn’t really know how to take care of Sophie. Needless to say, Sophie starts drifting away from him. The secretaries offer her an avenue to take her mind off Victor and she bumps into a letter that was left in the wall 50 years back. She does take a chance to reply to the letter – just to check on what could happen. And before you know it, Claire (Vanessa Redgrave) who is pushing 70 currently, arrives in Verona with her grandson Charlie (Christopher Egan). Thus begins the search for Lorenzo Bartolini – Claires long lost love of 50 years.

Letters to Juliet is a lovely movie to catch up with on a lazy, rainy Sunday afternoon when you are all cuddled up in bed with your boyfriend. As mentioned earlier, it does get a bit soppy in between and the love story between Chris and Sophie is expected but comes in a bit too fast for my comfort. But Gary Winick, more than makes up in the other parts. There is a good bit of Italian humour thrown in and the performances are also quite good. Vanessa Redgrave is stunning in her role of Claire. And I have previously sung enough praises of Amanda Seyfried who continues to be one of the better actresses in recent times. Worth a dekko for sure. 6 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1896810265/

Did You Hear About The Morgans?

Paul Morgan (Hugh Grant) and Meryl Morgan (Sarah Jessica Parker) are married to each other for a while now. Paul is a successful lawyer and Meryl is in real estate. All is not well with the Morgans because they have been separated for 3 months now thanks to Paul having cheated with his secretary – something that he deeply regrets and has been since trying to repair. But Meryl doesn’t want to see his face (atta girl!!!). Paul is however quite persistent and is making a very genuine effort to try and make things better. Things are however about to get worse for the Morgans because after a conference, as Paul is walking Meryl back to her home, the 2 witness a murder – and also the murderer – Vincent (Michael Kelly). But the bad news is that the murderer has also seen them and in a situation like this, 3 letters cross your mind first – R-U-N!!! Run is what the Morgans do. Not just from the crime scene but from New York thanks to the FBI insisting that they both join a witness protection programme. Paul and Meryl and transported to the back of the beyond – where no one would imagine looking for them – Ray, Wyoming. They find themselves in the care of Clay Wheeler (Sam Elliott) and Emma Wheeler (Mary Steenburgen) who are Sheriff and presumably Deputy of the town. They not only teach the Morgans a thing or two about living within ones means but also about relationships in general.

Did You Hear About the Morgans (DYHATM) is your average everyday Romantic Comedy and is currently playing on one of the movie channels. It is the kind of movie that you would watch when you are working on your laptop and clearing your mail or doing something else that is equally important. You would not miss much if you step out of your seat to get something to eat like a bag of chips or even for that matter brew yourself some tea. Its nice and easy paced and ideal for home viewing (I do remember having seen it on the big screen though – but then that’s me :P). Director Marc Lawrence is quite clear that his favourite actor is Hugh Grant. He has made 3 movies including this one and has cast Mr. Grant in each one of them. In fact Hugh Grant is also coincidentally the right person for the role as well. He is always on tenterhooks, feeling very edgy, unsure about whats going to happen next and sarcastic to the core – atypical Hugh Grant character. SJP continues to amaze me as to how someone who is as far away from good looking as can be, can actually look so hot every single time. It’s the SATC effect that continues on her. Meryl Morgan as a character is not too different from Carrie Preston. Decent performances from the couple. Reasonable direction to keep the movie as tight as possible. Well packaged end product. You would not have missed anything if you did not see it. But you would not feel bad if you saw it. 5 on 10 I say.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3008890137/

Khap

There was a 30 minute segment in a movie that released last year (or was it year before last). A movie that was not taken very well by the masses because most of the audience didn’t understand it at all. I had, on my blog, described Love Sex Aur Dhokha as a very brave movie. But more importantly, the treatment of the super sensitive topic of Honour Killings by ace director Dibakar Banerjee was simply brilliant. In sharp contrast, Ajai Sinha makes a mockery of such a strong topic. It doesn’t take too much time to realize why Mr. Sinha was without a movie for over 6 years. His last one was this obscure movie called Stop! Now I haven’t see Stop! yet but the direction in Khap doesn’t inspire me at all to watch it.

What Dibakar Banerjee took less than 30 minutes to communicate, Ajai Sinha could not achieve in over 2 hours. Primarily because he spends truck loads of time to show us a useless love story between 2 barely legal kids (as per the movie they have just entered college). An extremely corny and of course predictable story unfolds through part of the movie between Ria (Yuvika Chaudhry) and Kush (Sarrtaj). Ria’s parents Madhur (Mohnish Bahl) and Komal (Anuradha Patel) have moved to the city 16 years back after Madhur fights with his father Chaudhary Saheb (Om Puri) over ways that can only be described as Jungle Law. Chaudhary Saheb is the President of the Khap – a collection of 40 villages where everyone is related to the other in some convoluted manner. A boy and a girl from the same Khap cannot get married. And if they are of the same “Gotra” then it is sacrilegious and calls for the death penalty – remember what I said about Jungle Law. Needless to say, Madhur had to run away because the rest of the clan refused to change its ways. But 16 years later, he returns as the lead of a Human Rights Commission group to try and find evidence. Easier said than done right?

Pathetic acting is the hallmark of Khap. And what beats me is that the likes of Om Puri and Govind Namdeo seem to have forgotten how to give any kind of performance. Doesn’t take much to figure out that Yuvika Chaudhry cannot act no matter how hard she tries. Add the ridiculous name of Sarrtaj to the same list that Yuvika is part of. Alok Nath comes in with a cameo about how the Khap also does lots of good (which is true by the way), falls flat with his acting, makes a fool of himself even with only 2 minutes of screen time and runs away with his tail between his legs – exceptionally embarrassing performance. He should stick to being the doting daddy of a girl child (which he has been doing forever). Direction, Editing, cinematography, screenplay, music and all the other aspects of good film making were all but absent throughout the 2+ hours. Horrible way to spend a Saturday morning. Sorry for posting the review late (if you saw the movie between Saturday afternoon and today). 2 on 10 and that’s only because it isn’t as bad as Milenge Milenge.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hE7T4rrBCi

Layer Cake

When was the last time you saw a movie on VCD? I just did last weekend. Was browsing through a friends collection of movies and found L4yer Cake. I had been looking for the DVD for a long time now but had not found it. So it wasn’t the least surprising that I was thoroughly excited at the prospect of watching it. But then it turned out to be a VCD – I don’t remember the last time I had seen one. The worry with watching a movie like L4yer Cake is that it is extremely dialogue intensive. And VCDs don’t have subtitles. Lowly mortals like yours truly are unfortunately not blessed with a capability of being able to listen to dialogues on media that has truly low quality audio (excuse to ignore the 3 pegs of whiskey that was already in the blood stream ). So it is with great difficulty that I managed to push myself through one whole CD of L4yer Cake. Needless to say, I was hooked and had to watch the 2nd as well (in case you have forgotten, VCDs come in 2 discs and not one like DVDs do :D:D:D)

This is the 2nd Matthew Vaughn movie I am reviewing in as many months, the previous one being X Men First Class. The only complaint I had about XMFC was the lack of consistency between the Bryan Singer version and the versions all through. However, there was no such worry in L4yer Cake for certain. Matthew Vaughn makes his debut in Hollywood in 2004 with L4yer Cake. An exceptionally strong movie to start one’s career with for certain. Guess it merits giving his other 2 movies – Startdust and Kick Ass – due consideration.

Based on a JJ Connolly novel of the same name, L4yer Cake tracks the life of an un-named drug dealer, called XXXX (Daniel Craig) in the credits who decides to call it quits but is convinced to run a couple of more jobs by his supplier Jimmy Price (Kenneth Cranham). X doesn’t quite like the idea but is pushed to accept the assignment. As if it wasn’t bad enough. His last deal with an extremely shady character called Duke (Jamie Foreman) goes woefully wrong. Duke is trying to palm off a million ecstacy tablets to X. The trouble is that these tablets have been stolen from Serbian war criminals led by a guy called Slavo (Marcel Iureş).

L4yer Cake offers just the right heady mixture for a thriller that takes Guy Richiesque proportions. Its pacy and with barely any drops in excitement levels, makes for a wonderful watch any day of the week. The only complaint one may have is that Sienna Miller isn’t shown enough during the movie. There is enough of action though to compensate for the lack of any women in the movie. Be prepared for edge of the seat British action. 7 on 10 for this one.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2510946585/

Gandhi To Hitler

Gandhi to Hitler is a movie that seems to have been made purely on a whim of the director / producer whose sole intent seems to have been to strike this off their bucket list. The line item would have said – “Must make movie which has Hitler and Gandhi in the title”. So technically since these 2 names are in the title, it would mean mission accomplished. That it has very little or almost nothing to do with Gandhi and loads to do with Hitler is a mere coincidence. In fact, the movie has more to do with Subhash Chandra Bose that with the father of the nation – and I am reminded of Alanis Morisette “Isn’t it ironic? Don’t you think”?
Very rarely does one come across a movie that is as disjointed or aimless as Gandhi to Hitler. The premise of the movie is a few letters that Gandhi (Avijit Dutt) had written to the Fuhrer (Raghuvir Yadav) from 1939 to 1945 (with several chronological errors shown during the movie). However, in fact, the movie centres only around Hitler’s last days in his bunker facing imminent loss in World War II. It shows the degeneration of Adolf Hitler from a position of supreme command and one of immense power / respect / fear to that of a hyperactive, powerless, dimunitive and helpless man whose only support system is his mistress of several years – Eva Braun (Neha Dhupia). It shows how his closest aides and associates of the likes of Himmler, who desert him in the last days of the war thanks to the Fuhrer’s inability to accept defeat even when it is staring at him in the face. All these events lead to his alleged suicide because he would rather die than fall into the hands of the allied forces and be subject to humiliation. A story that most of us are familiar with if we paid any attention to history in school.

What gets to you is the complete disregard to any concept of movie making that is present in the world. As mentioned earlier, the first word that comes to mind is “Disjointed”. The movie wanders aimlessly and through the 2 hours subjects you to 3 severely confusing storylines none of which are done any justice to. Rakesh Ranjan Kumar is a first time director – a very fashionable concept of late – who flatters to deceive. Most disappointing is the worst performance ever delivered to date by most of the star cast led by Raghuvir Yadav who does nothing but make a mockery of himself. Neha Dhupia who showed signs of acting with Phas Gaye Re Obama comes crashing down like a lead ball and is back to square one. The only other person who had a reasonable role was Aman Verma in the role of a soldier in the Indian National Army who is leading a bunch of soldiers back home. Not one performance from the lead or the supporting cast is memorable even for a few seconds after you walk out of the hall.

Don’t waste your time or money even on a DVD unless you have way too much of either and more importantly unless u are a sucker for boring and bad movies who claim to be arty cinema but are basically a sham. 2 on 10 for this one. And I do think I am being really nice about it.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Suw_gDL1tdc

Leap Year

Heard about Leap Year quite a while back and missed it when it hit the screens last year sometime I guess. But the fact that it had Amy Adams in it was sufficient for me to feel really bad about missing it the first time. And therefore the HBO premiere wasn’t to be missed for certain. I knew it was just a standard Romantic Comedy and was not expecting anything better. But then Amy Adams is Amy Adams and was a sufficient driving force to be glued to the TV for the 9 pm prime time telecast. Unfortunately it was an insipid 90 odd minutes in front of the screen and turned out to be quite disappointing eventually.

There was nothing terribly wrong with Leap Year actually. It was reasonably well made but nothing that you have never seen before. The usual questions about “what would you take with you if your house was burning down and you had only 60 seconds to take whatever you wanted”. It is an old way to get across the message of true love – but in a new movie. It is a question that has dogged a whole lot of us over the ages and which most of us are familiar with the answer to as well.

Girl and guy are apparently well and truly in love. Girl i.e. Anna Brady (Amy Adams) who is in a very unique profession of getting houses ready for sale / lease and guy Jeremy (Adam Scott) who is a cardiologist. They have been seeing each other for 4 years now but the dimwit hasn’t popped the question yet. So Madam Brady is being tested for her patience for certain. She is hoping that Jeremy will pop the question tonight but instead he gives her super expensive “Ear” rings instead. Ha ha. And then after all of it, he runs off to Ireland to attend some cardiologist meet. A frustrated Anna is surfing the net and surprise surprise – there is a weird custom in Ireland that allows a girl to propose marriage to a man on the 29th February in a Leap Year. And so madam decides to pack her Louis Vuitton suitcase and takes off to Ireland but standing in her way are a huge storm that has stopped all flights and Declan O’Callaghan (Matthew Goode) a gorgeous Irish man who runs a pub and is nursing a broken heart. The rest of the story is obviously very predictable frame by frame and therefore quite boring.

Director Anand Tucker (fancy name at that) does a reasonable job with Leap Year but the story is too darn predictable for him to really make much of a difference. Having said that, he is not the hottest property in Hollywood for certain even if he builds a niche for himself in “predictable” RomComs. Amy Adams rocks as always and this time around it is the guys who provide the eye candy. This one is a chick flick in the true sense of the word and should be watched either on DVD or on HBO when u really have nothing else to do with your lives 5 on 10 from my side.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2052654361/

Bubble Gum

It is very rarely that one comes across a weekend where there is absolutely no movie that was really great. My weekend started with Smurfs which was OK followed by Khap and Gandhi to Hitler which were both quite bad. @ noon on Sunday, a casual look at the PVR listings and I was glad that I woke up on time to see Bubble Gum – glad because I would have missed it and that would have meant one review lesser on the blog *sigh*. So it had to be the 1410 hrs show of Bubble Gum to kick start Sunday for me followed by the creepy Cowboys & Aliens which I wasn’t too optimistic about. The trailer of Bubble Gum and its posters scream out, “Its hard to be 14”. Seemed interesting. And I was hoping to get 4th time lucky as well considering that there were 1 average movie and 2 bad movies done and other than Bubble Gum there was 1 expectedly average movie to come up. I wasn’t about to be disappointed – thankfully.

Bubble Gum traces the story of a bunch of kids who are predictably – around 14 years old. Jamshedpur seems to be the flavor of the decade with quite a few movies in the recent past based out of the steel city – the more popular one being the Rajat Barmecha starrer Udaan. Nevertheless, Vidur (Sohail Lakhani) and Vedant Rawat (Delzad Sanjay Hiwale) are the sons of Sudha (Tanvi Azmi) and Mukund Rawat (Sachin Khedekar). Vidur, the elder one @ 16 I would guess, is a deaf mute and stays in a hostel. Vedant is the pesky and irritable 14 year old who believes that his parents are partial to his elder brother and hates the situation that he is in. There is a continuous comparison on how everything is oriented only around Vidur and no attention is paid to him. The frustrations of an average 14 year old actually. And to make matters worse Vedant falls in love – puppy love – the worst of its kind. The kind that leaves indelible scars on anyone who has been through it. The kind that at times haunts you for the rest of your life and leaves you incapable of falling in love again :D:D:D:D. And the girl is Jenny aka Cookie (Apoorva Arora), the daughter of the local commissioner of police. In between all of this is our 14 year old villain – Ratan (Suraj Singh) who also has a big thing for Jenny.

Bubble Gum tracks the emotions that go through a 14 year old in all of the situations described above. It talks about how parents should learn to let go and not be too protective about their children, about how people who we consider to be disabled may actually be far superior to us in many a way and about how at the end of the day the people who stand by us are invariably family amongst other messages. The movie is well made and reminds you of both Udaan and Do Dooni Chaar. However, it does have a strong star cast missing. Tanvi Azmi and Sachin Khedekar are as always solid and continue to be under-rated. The kids turn in a decent performance but turn out robotic many a time and therefore give the movie a feel that is not quite natural. But full marks to the overall story and treatment. Full justice given to the subject matter. Could have done with a few cuts and better music. Definitely watchable and entertaining. 6 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.top10bollywood.com/2011/07/bubble-gum-trailer.html

Cowboys & Aliens

It may seem like ages that we have seen Harrison Ford on screen but when you look at his filmography, there are 10 movies starring what Hollywood has described as, “The Most Bankable Star” which have released including What Lies Beneath in 2000. And there have been only 3 years where a movie has not been released. Now lets look at this gentleman called Daniel Craig for whom it has definitely been the first release since Defiance since 2008. But, he has 4 movies already signed up, 3 of which are in post production and due to release this year – Dream House, Adventures of Tintin and Girl with a Dragon Tatoo – all of which are supposedly solid movies. And if they were not sufficient, Bond 23 is due to release next year. Lastly there is Jon Favreau who is not really the best director in the world but did quite a good job with Iron Man 1 and 2. More importantly, he also has his acting to fall back on. Why then would three people who are reasonably well off sign up for a movie called “Cowboys and Aliens” which has absolutely nothing different to offer in their lives. We are talking about Indiana Jones, James Bond and Iron Man who I am certain can offer and have offered enough and more thrills to Ford, Craig and Favreau respectively – so doing something different is crossed out. And then there is the question of money which the world is quite certain these 3 do not have any less of. So the only conspiracy theory which would hold good are the existence of some photographs in certain compromising positions which involve our 3 stars. I cannot find any other explanation for their presence in this movie.

I am actually struggling a lot to complete this review because I really don’t have much to say. And it is definitely not because of writers block. There is definitely nothing new in Cowboys and Aliens that you have not seen in any other Alien movie. In fact most other movies offer much more. The movie is littered with really bad screenplay and very average direction at best – probably the makers really did not pay Favreau enough. Ford and Craig keep the movie at a reasonable level and full credit to their acting talent. Without them the entire experience would have been really crappy to say the least.

One would see a few “flying machines” in 19th Century USA (when flying was unheard of) whose only business is to run sorties over the topography picking up unsuspecting villagers for research. You would also be privy to some well done special effects which are the only high points of this movie. And yes, the aliens look a bit different. They continue to be ugly and have retractable hands around their hearts – I mean other than 4 appendages that they are normally provided with. Net Net, nothing you haven’t seen before or would miss if you don’t see this one. 4 on 10 is what I would give this at best.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi161586201/