Cowboys & Aliens

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Cowboys & Aliens

PG-13

2011

1h 58m

Sci-Fi

Western

Action

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

44%

Tomatometer

254 Reviews

43%

Popcornmeter

100,000+ Ratings

Bearing a mysterious metal shackle on his wrist, an amnesiac gunslinger wanders into a frontier town called Absolution. He quickly finds that strangers are unwelcome, and no one does anything without the approval of tyrannical Col. Dolarhyde. But when Absolution faces a threat from beyond Earth, the stranger finds that he is its only hope of salvation. He unites townspeople, outlaws and Apache warriors against the alien forces in an epic battle for survival.

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Critics Consensus

Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford are as dependably appealing as ever, but they're let down by director Jon Favreau's inability to smooth Cowboys & Aliens' jarring tonal shifts.

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Candice Frederick

Reel Talk Online

Sep 8, 2017

B+

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.

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Sara Michelle Fetters

MovieFreak.com

Jan 27, 2012

2.5/4

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.

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Ed Gibbs

Sydney Morning Herald

Aug 19, 2011

7/10

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.

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Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Jan 1, 2026

2/4

It’s apparent the writers merely plugged in conventional story devices that would have worked just as well in a movie named Cops & Barracudas or Doctors & Hornets or even Accountants & Amoebas.

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Bill Newcott

Movies For The Rest Of Us

Apr 1, 2023

4/5

If Sam Peckinpah had made Close Encounters of the Third Kind...(or)...if Steven Spielberg ...had directed The Wild Bunch, I could imagine it turning out a lot like this.

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Brian Eggert

Deep Focus Review

Mar 9, 2023

3/4

The film serves up a serious-minded genre experiment that works, despite some lingering feelings of disappointment for its lack of raw, popcorn-munching silliness.

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Jacob W

@RT17896586 3 days ago

The only thing that makes this film worth watching is the pairing of the then James Bond and Indiana Jones other than that it’s not really exciting

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Jane C

@JaneConquest Oct 8, 2026

One of the greatest movies of all time. Criminally underrated

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Michael T

@mgt46 Oct 5, 2026

entertaining as a movie should be

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R T

@RT56568518 Aug 15, 2026

Enjoyed the quirkiness of this movie! Fun acting and a different kind of western! Good actors too!

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Elektrodinosaur T

@ElektroDavidsaur Aug 4, 2026

James Bond and Indiana Jones in a western with aliens? B Movie gold! Lots of action with Spielberg and Favereu at the helm!

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Arthur B

@Arthur135 Jul 18, 2026

Seemed to be a lot of violence without any sort of plot so gave up on it

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Jon Favreau

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Daniel Craig

Jake Lonergan

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Cowboys & Aliens: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

Bearing a mysterious metal shackle on his wrist, an amnesiac gunslinger wanders into a frontier town called Absolution. He quickly finds that strangers are unwelcome, and no one does anything without the approval of tyrannical Col. Dolarhyde. But when Absolution faces a threat from beyond Earth, the stranger finds that he is its only hope of salvation. He unites townspeople, outlaws and Apache warriors against the alien forces in an epic battle for survival.

Director: Jon Favreau
Producer: Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Scott Mitchell Rosenberg
Screenwriter: Damon Lindelof, Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Production Co: Fairview Entertainment, Imagine Entertainment, K/O Paper Products, Platinum Studios, Paramount Pictures International
Rating: PG-13 (Some Partial Nudity|A Brief Crude Reference|Western and Sci-Fi Action|Western and Sci-Fi Violence)
Genre: Sci-Fi, Western, Action
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jul 29, 2011, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 26, 2013
Box Office (Gross USA): $100.2M
Runtime: 1h 58m
Sound Mix: DTS, Dolby SRD, SDDS

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