'Cowboys and Aliens' is smart and lots of fun!

Cowboys & Aliens (2011)
Starring: Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde, Harrison Ford, Sam Rockwell, and Adam Beach
Director: Jon Favreau
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars

When an aliens start terrorizing an isolated area of the American Southwest in the 1870s, outlaws, cattle-ranchers, settlers, and Apache Indians join together with a mysterious woman (Wilde) and an amnesiac who has somehow gotten his hands on one of the alien devices (Craig) to defeat them before they conquer Earth.

"Cowboys & Aliens" is an action-packed genre-bending mix of Western and Sci-Fi as a landscape populated with Western archetypes becomes the setting for an epic adventure tale told through one of the smartest scripts I've witnessed in years.

Although this is a movie that's primarily about aliens blowing the hell out of cowboys and visa-versa, a lot of thought and care went into just about every character that appears on screen that's not just part of the background. Even minor supporting characters get little touches that give them more depth and life than some main characters in recent allegedly character-driven movies--including one of the alien invaders. And the actors all rise to the level of this superior material, with not a single bad performance among them.

The most remarkable character and performance in the picture is given by Harrison Ford. His Colonel Dolarhyde starts out as the stereotypical, psychotically evil ex-Army officer cattle-rancher strong man, but by the time the film is over, he is completely transformed into a sympathetic character who is the most fully developed of all of them.

Daniel Craig and Olivia Wilde are basically, well, Daniel Craig and Olivia Wilde. Both characters that they play are of such a nature that their physical appearances are very important, and both of them are perfectly cast in their roles... Craig for his craggy, weather-worn looks and Wilde for her ability to seem mysterious by just standing around. The fact that neither one of them was the first choice to play those parts is a sign that the Movie Gods were watching out for this film. They're both so perfect I can't imagine this film being as good if they hadn't been in it.

"Cowboys & Indians" deserves to be counted among this years best movies, whether measured by quality or box office receipts. I highly recommend going to see it, even if you're a stingy bastard like me who goes to matinee screenings. This is the kind of movie that Hollywood needs to make more of..

The Adventures of Captain Jack

I am depressed at being an American today, because it seems we have retards in charge of our nation.

With our co-called leaders in Washington doing their level best to obliterate what's left of the American economy and our financial dealings with the rest of the world, I felt the need to postr some upbeat songs with equally bright and upbeat videos.

There are some of the best songs and videos from the great Captain Jack, one of the 1990s premiere Euro-pop performers. I've arranged them so the videos tell a little story (well, in my mind anyway), but if you only watch one of them, check out the "Iko-Iko" cover.

(Captain Jack could probably do a better job at leading this country than any of the chuckle-heads and empty suits currently wasting oxygen in Washington, D.C.)

Help us, Captain Jack. You're our only hope!

Linda Christian dead at 87

I just heard that actress Linda Christian, the true first Bond Girl, passed away last Friday, July 22, after a battle with cancer. (Christian appeared with Barry Nelson and Peter Lorre in the 1954 version of "Casino Royale," giving one of the best performances of her career.)

Gaza film-makers decry Hamas censorship

From Reuters....

Four years into Islamist Hamas rule, cultural censors are fraying the already threadbare local movie industry. Culture Ministry director Mustafa al-Sawaf is quick to crack down on content that does not conform to Hamas edicts."

It's hard to get outraged, because their friends and neighbors (and possibly even these filmmakers themselves) elected these Hamas freaks to be their oppressors.

And Jimmy Carter says Hamas are great guys, so that's that.

(Yes... there is much sarcasm above. Jimmy Carter remains a prick of the highest order. And my guess is that many of the poor Palestinians were motivated to cast ballots for Hamas by the same impulse that drove many Americans to vote for Obama--they wanted anyone but the people that were in charge at the time. At least we didn't end up with a pack of psychopaths holding the reins of government.)

Even terrorists are suffering in the global economic downturn

Oh, the pain of the global economic crunch. Today, Jerusalem Post Online reports that the terrorist group chosen by election to lead the Palestinians haven't been making payroll.

Hamas also faces financial crunch

In other news, the Guardian reports that al-Qaida In Iraq has dropped all pretenses of being anything but a collection of psychopathic criminal thugs as they launch a fund-raising drive to solve their need for cash and turn to their sick admirers. Gotta pay for those male prostitutes after all. (Actually, cutting back on male prostitutes might solve some of Hamas's financial woes, too.)

Al-Qaida in Iraq explores new ventures in fundraising drive

Illo by Randy Pollack

Amy Winehouse dead at 27

I wouldn't know an Amy Winehouse song if it jumped up and bit me--I was only vaguely aware of her existence through entertainment feature headlines and Eminem mocking her in a song a year or two ago. But it's always a shame when someone young and apparently talented passes away... doubly so when it appears to be from something as avoidable as drug and alcohol abuse, something Winehouse did a lot of by all accounts.

It might also be that she was hounded to death by the cruelty of "fans"--her deterioration was chronicled on the Internet with posted videos and pictures.

A cause of death had not been announced at the time of this writing, but police stated she was pronounced dead at her home in Camden Square, having expired before the ambulance arrived on the scene.

The 27-year-old Winehouse was a five-time Grammy winner whose second album, "Back to Black", rocketed her and her mix of pop and jazz to global fame. The drugs, the drink, and a range of health and personal problems, cut that fame short.

Completed Collection: Psychotic Connections

This set features three horror movies on a single disk. The films are united by a shared theme of psycho killers and psychic phenomenon (or, at least, the appearance of psychic phenomenon). The quality varies widely with "Gothic" being the only picture here that is truly worthwhile (and even it might not be to the liking of many dedicated horror fans).

Click on the titles of the included movies to read reviews of each.

Psychotic Connections: 4/10 Overall Rating
Chiller (1985) 3/10
Gothic (1986) (7/10)
Maniac (1934) 3/10





When I got my copy of this set several years ago, I paid $3.95. That price is far closer to the right one than the present going rate. "Gothic" is the only worthwhile film here--aside from the curiosity value that "Maniac" has for those with an interest in the horror genre--and it's available in other, far more worthwhile collections.