I thoroughly enjoyed Cowboys and Aliens and, like bkitty, I loved the preacher character. Also, I thought the last battle scene was an homage to the kids game “Cowboys and Indians” which somehow fit for me. I remember playing that game as a kid and someone wanting to be a stormtrooper (or some other sci-fi critter). It often became a Cowboys, Indians, and Aliens for us in the proverbial sandlot.
And Wolverine. From the trailers, he seems to be the main character.
Love the redisign. I saw Cowboy & Aliens and I thought it was good. I was entertained, but Ford’s character seemed to be inconsisted.
I’ve listened to about 15 minutes of the cast and just wanted to be informative, if you rate each season as a single year of dr who (that’s the way I’ve got it stored on a hard drive) then the eccleston dr who is season (or to be more precise series, bbc shows have series, American ones have seasons) then this is series 27, tennant came in for series 28.
As I may have hinted at, me and pernnfan will be kicking off a cast covering the enirety of dr who, starting with series one, episode one, an unearthly child (the first Doctor, william Hartnell) . suggestions place for podcast titles to gatecastpodcast at gmail dot com or we’ll try and come up with one on our own.
Phaze
on the “will comment on more of this thing when i hear it plus of course once i’ve actually seen cowboys and aliens” ID
I saw Cowboys and Aliens last night, and Ms. Kitty, I’m going to have to go ahead and agree with you somewhat. Here’s what I see happened with this one.
As Chuck stated, the aliens weren’t important. However I think they screwed up there, they should have been. I say that because they made them more interesting than most of the other characters in the movie. Other than Jake the most interesting things in the movie were all aliens, Ella and the gold-diggers.
My personal opinion was that this was a good flick, I liked it and will see it again… on DVD. For me it was like Star Wars, but beginning from the Endor net trap and told from Wicket’s point of view. You get the sense that the cooler more interesting shit went down somewhere else and that this story is way bigger than the part you and your furry clan are seeing here.
^ What he said. I liked it. I think people are being hard on it. But it has some flaws. Worth seeing on the big screen.
Olivia Wilde, though, wow.
So, yeah, I read this is as Cowboys, Indians, Aliens and Wolverine. I know the posts were unrelated, but this created a mash-up of awesomeness in my head.
Early SciFi Television:
Agreed, 60’s-70’s SF Television suffered from near perpetual Cheesiness; TV Producers did not understand Science Fiction or its intended audience. Hence in the 60’s we were subjected to corny SciFi like Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Land of the Giants and Lost in Space… Yes there were a few gems in there thank the Gods but in was hidden amongst a sea of Cheese… And in the 70’s the likes of…Buck Rogers, Space 1999 and the short lived Logan’s Run assaulted our sensibilities. Cinema was not much better, I remember how after the success of Star Wars everybody wanted to hop on-board the SF Bandwagon and quickly churned out SF movies to make a buck. Unfortunately nobody knew anything about SF and they unleashed a tidal wave of bad SF Movies, which was painful because many of the movies were based upon very good books, but the movies themselves were crap.
Your Emotional state and Movies:
Your mood can greatly affect your viewing pleasure. And it can effect the type of film or show that you are ‘in the mood’ for,
I take this very seriously and make my selections accordingly. Think back to the days of the Video Store, and how we used to peruse the racks of DVDs, there were many good choices but often we made our selections based upon the mood we were in. Sad or lonely, we chose a comedy. Angry an action flick. Pining for a loved one, a romantic film. Trapped at work and seeking escape, an adventure film in exotic locations. Also the theater and the audience around you can enhance or sour your experience. I waited 3 years before viewing Schiendler’s List, I just wasn’t emotionally ready it until that one particular day I stood in front of it and it felt right. I did not want to open myself up to it until I felt I could properly receive it’s contents and message.
Cowboy’s and Aliens:
The main reason I think I enjoyed this film so much was because my expectations were so low, it looked so superficial from the trailers. And yet it had some decent characters in it and flirted with their relationships just enough to make it interesting. I was hooked right away by the cinematography and the opening music, and when the preacher arrived I was sold; and went along for the ride and had a good time. I just hope that a director’s cut will be available when it comes to DVD, it had a good cast and I would like to think he had made good use of them while they were available, but cut the film down for time reasons for its initial release at the request of the producers. I would like to see more of the casts interactions.
It is funny that Chuck brought up Iron Man when talking about this film because there are some parallels if you think about it. Both were slow burns, both had the main character going through major changes because of a tragic incident and rethinking their lives, both have strong female characters that help them. Both lead characters have some special tech on their side but in the end it is resourcefulness, perseverance and strength of will that determine the final outcome.
As for the ending, the reappearance of the hummingbird (the one from the Indian Ceremony) while he revisited the abandoned homestead made me think that something good was coming his way as a reward for his driving away the invaders.
Reading the first paragraph of Omra posting reminded me of a story by Gene Roddenberry on the Inside Star Trek album (packaaged with the soundtrack to Star Trek The Motion Picture), he talks about getting a pilot on a certain network that hr pitched Star Trek to and was turned down because they went with their Sci/Fi show Lost in Space. His pilot (Genesis II I think it was called) had decent ratings but the network aired a now classic Sci/Fi film you all may have heard of Planet of the Apes. Apes scored a much higher rating and the network saw that Sci/Fi was apes and could they be incorporated into Gene’s show. Being sarcastic he suggested a Turtleman and waited for the laugh that never came and Gene realised that it was all over for his show.
Great cast this week.
Convinced me to go see cowboys and aliens with my free movie ticket. wasnt interested in it as a blockbuster alien movie with a little weatern squeezed in , but a well done western, with some aliens squeezed in that just might work. small difference but good enough to convince me.
new Cosmos with Mr. Tyson well that’s just perfect. Can’t wait, will bring up our previously request to see if we can get him on the cast. Cause damn that man is my hero.
YES! I am not 100% sold on it being done by Fox rather than PBS or Discovery, but I am thrilled that it’s happening (fingers crossed) and really glad that Neil DeGrasse Tyson is involved.
I actually shook Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s hand. And it involves a strange story that I would be glad to share in person.
I had lunch with a friend of mine two days ago and he mentioned the new Cosmos with NDT. I knew about it already so we had a mutual Squee moment. My third friend just looked at us, confused.
Yub-Yub!!
I had a great time watching it, too! I just wished it could have been fleshed out more. I’ll definitely watch it again when it comes out on dvd or streaming.
Does anyone else see the similarities in the construction of the aliens across the recent films involving J.J. Abrams? Cloverfield (filmed in BARFcam!), Trek 2009, and now Cowboys & Aliens- all the creatures have head bladders that expand and contract, ominously reflecting the KILL emotions within. All have those gelatinous flappy openings that reveal nasty maws or appendages. Similar musculature. Is it the same FX house or is it the artistic hive mind at work? Artists out there, can you speak to this? I find it intriguing.
Also, I felt cheated this 'cast. Chuck raised my hopes of 3+hrs, and I got one that clocked in only a few ticks over 2hrs49. sad face
Y’all keep bringing the joy and fun and content- I’ll just hang over here and be your junkie!
PS: Frakkin toys is frakkin toys- to each his/her/? own! Saddle up and bring on the KY! LOL!
Cowboys and Aliens unfortunately isn’t out here yet. I thought worldwide simultaneous releases was standard these days. I’ll catch it in a couple of weeks.
Also I can confirm at least one Opera user, me. I’ve been using it for several years now on my various PCs and mobile devices. It’s by far my favourite browser, yes I’ve tried Firefox, Chrome and IE. On a semi-related note, the company who supplies our computers at work only supplies Windows XP. Surely they can’t keep that up forever. But there are only 2-3 pharmacy dispensing software packages available and the one we have is probably the best. A couple of weeks ago, I was working in a pharmacy that for some reason kept a Windows 98 PC with very old dispensing software. It was painful to use. But 10-12 years ago I doubt I would have had a problem with it.
Loved this…so I looked for more from the show and came up with one that shows him surprising the rest of the guests and Maher too:
The spousal unit and I saw Cowboys and Aliens this afternoon, and we both loved it! Neither of us are big fans of straight-up Westerns, but we both really enjoyed the film. I was a bit disappointed that Ella turned out to be not an actual human woman, but Audra makes a good point that the movie, in its gender stuff, is very much of (one of) its genre. We had a great time watching the film, and really enjoyed the interactions between Jake and Dollarhide (Woodrow, I think his first name is? :eek:). We’ll be watching it again when it comes to Netflix 
I’m a sucker for parent/child interactions (do I project my own closeness with my parents onto them? Probably), so I didn’t notice their lack of development. I do agree with Dollarhide’s inconsistency - he’s supposed to be such a dick but except for the very start, he’s not at all.
In terms of the humor, I was trying to articulate to the spousal unit that it was funny without being laughing funny, and settled on the idea that it was amusing, in a funny way.
Whereas I groaned a bit to myself upon seeing that they were yet again buglike aliens, I was hoping for something a bit less… typical? But I agree with Chuck and Audra that the lack of focus on them made sense in that they weren’t really key characters, just plot devices. I did love the gold symbolism, though. I wanted more of Ella’s story, but we didn’t get it, so that’s that.
Fist post w00t!!
Listing to the cast, and you guys talking about Cowboys & Aliens (I haven’t seen it yet, so I’m going on C&A chat, & the trailers), and describing Jake as just that guy who takes on anything life thows at him. That guy who kicks butt and takes names, etc, and how the movie comes across as a tragedy, esp for his character.
It reminded me of Bruce Willis’ character John McClaine in the last Die Hard move (Live Free or Die Hard), when he’s talking to the hacker he’s trying to protect about being that guy. I’m paraphrasing here, but essentially he said that it sucks being that guy. Being that guy means you’re out there “taking care of business” instead of being with the woman you love. Being that guy means facing up to things everyone else looks away from, no matter what it costs. No one in their right mind would choose to be “that guy.” As much as we like seeing these guy in the action films, I think at some level they’re all tragedies for those characters.