Cowboys & Aliens
Universal Pictures | Release Date: July 29, 2011 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
50
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 41 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
20
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallJul 28, 2011
This movie, saddle sores and all, is a lot of fun. Read full review
80
EmpireDan JolinAug 1, 2011
A simple entertainment in a summer of overcomplicated disappointments. Also much harder-edged than you may have expected. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterKirk HoneycuttJul 24, 2011
The key to its success lies in the determination by everyone involved to play the damn thing straight. Even the slightest goofiness, the tiniest touch of camp, and the whole thing would blow sky high. But it doesn't. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeJul 24, 2011
While Cowboys & Aliens offers little in the way of sociological insight (except perhaps giving the white man a taste of his own resource-stealing medicine), it's still a ripping good ride. Read full review
75
New York PostLou LumenickJul 29, 2011
This midsummer crowd-pleaser from the ateliers of Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard is still a great deal more rip-roaring fun than, say, the campy movie version of "The Wild Wild West." Read full review
75
Portland OregonianM. E. RussellJul 28, 2011
The movie is plainly entertaining, with a terrific cast and a fast-moving story helping you overlook the dialogue's frequent failure to crackle. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleJul 28, 2011
Take a cowboy movie, add space aliens. That's a gimmick that could easily have exhausted itself after 20 minutes, but director Favreau, a team of screenwriters and some well-cast actors keep it alive, and the result is a crowd-pleasing summer movie with more wit than most. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 28, 2011
Director Jon Favreau keeps the tone light but, aside from the occasional low-key gag or one-liner, the humor is never allowed to upstage the more serious elements. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJul 28, 2011
The component genre parts coexist, excitingly, without veering into camp or facetious desperation. Alien-invasion aficionados should be pleased. Western nostalgists may be pleasantly surprised. Fans of cowboys-versus-aliens movies, well, it's been a long wait and here's your movie. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertJul 27, 2011
Cowboys & Aliens has without any doubt the most cockamamie plot I've witnessed in many a moon. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrJul 27, 2011
A hell-for-leather action film with a healthy serving of scares. It really is "Aliens" on the open plains, "Independence Day" for the nation's centennial, and what the movie lacks in originality and stick-to-your-ribs Western authenticity, it makes up for in pell-mell multiplex entertainment. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzJul 27, 2011
Exactly what it sounds like: a cowboy movie and an alien movie thrown together, a genre mash-up that's more fun than good, but pretty good nonetheless. Read full review
63
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottJul 29, 2011
A film that is neither great nor horrible. Favreau does enough things right in Cowboys & Aliens to churn out a mostly enjoyable bit of mindless summertime action, just not enough to come close to rivaling his 2008 crowd-pleaser "Iron Man." Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayJul 28, 2011
A loving throwback to the classic westerns and sci-fi adventures of yore, this celebration of two of cinema's most revered genres doesn't stint in lavishing their most cherished conventions with even-handed affection and respect. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaJul 28, 2011
Neither fish nor fowl (nor extraterrestrial), and that's a problem. Craig, handsomely craggy, plays it straight, and like Eastwood's Man With No Name, he doesn't have much to say. Read full review
63
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreJul 27, 2011
That it lacks the snap, crackle and kapow of the summer's better comic book blockbusters isn't surprising. With all this effort riding on a big, expensive and rushed studio summer picture, the real miracle is that any of them come to life. Read full review
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