From the cool special effects, to its top-notch acting and wickedly fun concept, Cowboys and Aliens is just that film that you may in fact hate to love. But it is really enjoyable.

| Original Score: B+ | Sep 8, 2017

It must be said upfront that, for all its problems and script deficiencies, Cowboys & Aliens is probably the most continually entertaining effort of director Jon Favreau's still relatively young career.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jan 27, 2012

There is nothing that fascinating about Favreau's treatment, nor his source material, but compared with similar blockbuster fare of recent months, this curious exercise in genre bending is very watchable.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Aug 19, 2011

If you can swallow the shameless set-up, it's all highly entertaining.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 19, 2011

Jon Favreau handles the big setpieces with competence if no great flair; whenever the plot backs itself into a corner something else will make a sudden, inexplicable interruption.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 19, 2011

Favreau ... allows the material's imaginative possibilities to flare up and fade away.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 18, 2011

The density of inanity at the conceptual core of this crass sci-fi western starring Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford pushes outwards, inflating fatuous substance and propelling bric-a-brac in all directions.

| Original Score: 0/5 | Aug 18, 2011

Yes, yes, cowboys punching aliens in the face can be funny. But it doesn't make this silly endeavour worthwhile.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 18, 2011

Craig is a bona fide action star who shouldn't be reduced to spitting out lines like "Demons took your gold" in a husky Southern drawl.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 17, 2011

What started as 'True Grit'-meets-'War of the Worlds' ends up closer to - whisper it - 'Wild Wild West'.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 17, 2011

A simple entertainment in a summer of overcomplicated disappointments. Also much harder-edged than you may have expected.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 15, 2011

Takes itself much too seriously, with acts of brutality outnumbering the gags.

Full Review | Aug 8, 2011

As its title indicates, this is a strange cross of movie genres, and lest any viewers get antsy, it doesn't allow much time to pass before we first encounter UFOs in the Old West. The film takes its time unraveling the rest of the story...

Full Review | Original Score: 2.1/2 | Aug 4, 2011

It's fun to think about what Cowboys & Aliens might have been if any creativity had crept past the title page.

| Aug 2, 2011

It's a straight bland whiskey drink of a western, with a garnish of aliens on top.

| Aug 1, 2011

Cowboys & Aliens is an agreeable time-killer, but I'll bet a couple of clever kids could make a livelier movie with a Woody puppet and a Predator doll.

| Jul 31, 2011

[A] phenomenally successful two-man war against narrative clarity and continuity.

| Jul 29, 2011

Reminiscent of 'Starship Troopers.' Just about everything in it is downright ridiculous, but it's such an amusing and enjoyable fantastical adventure, who cares?

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 29, 2011

Director Jon Favreau earns his Western bona fides with a sharp eye for casting and locations. The first characters we see, after Daniel Craig, are a trio of authentic-looking cowboys played by Western veteran Buck Taylor and his two sons...

Full Review | Original Score: 2.1/2 | Jul 29, 2011

As bland as as plate of frontier beans.

| Original Score: C- | Jul 29, 2011