This Weekend At The Movies

Surprisingly devoid of the humor one might expect from a film titled “Cowboys & Aliens,” director Jon Favreau’s science fiction-western hybrid is deadly serious and seriously flat.

The picture, which combines the storylines of Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name trilogy and “Independence Day,” is a fine example of Hollywood’s worst instincts. “Cowboys” is not as aggressively awful as the latest “Transformers” film, but is just as dubious in its willingness to be yet another exercise in big budget blandness.

To be fair, Daniel Craig makes a solid western hero – silent but deadly and occasionally noble. In the heyday of the spaghetti western, he could have modeled a career of playing Lee Van Cleef-style anti-heroes. In “Cowboys,” he manages to keep a straight face amid one ludicrous set piece after another.

In the film’s beginning, Craig’s Jake Lonergan awakens in the desert with no memory and a strange gadget strapped to his wrist. He rides into a small town and is met with disdain by the local ne’er do wells.

Thrown into the mix are a young beauty (Olivia Wilde), who appears to have met Lonergan in the past and harbors a secret that makes for the film’s most absurd plot twist, as well as a surly ranch owner played by Harrison Ford.

And then… aliens attack! Town folk are sucked into the sky and stolen away by the invading marauders. Explosions ensue.

Naturally, Lonergan must work together with the town’s residents, who had not paid him a warm welcome, to stave off the otherworldly enemies. Yawn.

The film might have been more tolerable had it not been played with a completely straight face. Favreau, who directed “Iron Man,” typically injects the characters in his pictures with more personality. But in “Cowboys,” they range from stoic to stern.

“Crazy, Stupid, Love” is the week’s more lively pick. The film is a respectable dramedy about the turbulence of divorce that manages to be funny and deliver a certain amount of pathos toward its characters.

Much of the picture’s success can be attributed to its able cast, who manage to remain charming and likably flawed even when plot twists threaten to derail the story.

The film opens with Julianne Moore telling her husband, Steve Carell, that she has been involved in a fling with a co-worker (Kevin Bacon) and that she wants a divorce.

“Crazy” follows several characters – Carell’s Cal, Moore, the couple’s love struck son (Jonah Bobo), a babysitter (Analeigh Tipton) and a young woman pursuing a law degree (Emma Stone) – as they sort through their messy lives and relationships. All of the characters eventually converge in a semi-unrealistic finale.

Carell’s performance proves that the comedian can handle more serious work, but nearly every scene in the movie is stolen by Ryan Gosling as an impeccably dressed lothario who schools the recently divorced man on the dating scene. His character manages to be equally ridiculous and sympathetic. Gosling’s performance also shows that the actor, who typically takes on heavier roles, has good comic timing.

The film is enjoyable and, for the most part, dramatically viable, especially during a sequence in which Carell and Moore talk in the hallway of their son’s school. “Crazy” is engaging even if its plot strands do not always completely fit together.

Miranda July’s “The Future” is one of the summer’s art house misfires. The director, who is responsible for 2005's lovely and offbeat “Me and You and Everyone We Know,” undermines her new picture’s stronger elements with moments that strain to be quirky.

The movie follows the adventures – or, the lack thereof – of Sophie (July) and Jason (Hamish Linklater), two middle aged hipsters who live in a colorful Los Angeles apartment.

The duo decides to adopt a dying cat, whose inner monologues are spoken in creaky voice by July. But the veterinarian tells the couple that they must wait a month before picking up the feline.

Sophie and Jason decide that they must do something meaningful with their lives within the 30-day period before they take on their new responsibility.

Jason decides to sell trees door to door in an attempt to be environmentally friendly, while Sophie takes up a seemingly random affair with a middle aged man. All of these actions are performed in the most blasé of manners.

July adds a surrealist element to the film as it progresses. Jason finds he can stop time and talk to the moon, while Sophie finds that her favorite T-shirt has a life of its own. These moments are strangely effective as stand-alone sequences.

July’s brand of quirkiness – deadpan monotone delivery of lines and oddball behavior, such as a series of scenes in which the actress/director performs “dances” on You Tube – works best in a straightforward narrative. At least, that was the case in “Me and You and Everyone We Know.”

But her sophomore movie feels as aimless as its characters. July has talent and I’m hoping she puts it to better use next time around.