With the release of Rian Johnson’s Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, Daniel Craig continued his journey to turn Detective Benoit Blanc into his most iconic character, although James Bond still currently comes out on top. Nevertheless, for an actor of any caliber to have not one but two career-defining recurring roles is rare, and this achievement hasn’t come without a few missteps along the way. One such misstep came in 2011, when Craig starred as amnesiac outlaw Jake Lonergan in the sci-fi Western flick Cowboys & Aliens.
As of February 1, you’ll be able to catch this critically panned genre-blend on Starz in the U.S. Also starring Harrison Ford and Olivia Wilde, Cowboys & Aliens was directed by MCU alum Jon Favreau, 15 years before the upcoming release of his next directorial effort, The Mandalorian and Grogu. Receiving backlash from both critics and audiences upon release, Cowboys & Aliens earned just 44% from the former and 43% from the latter on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. The critics’ consensus on the site reads, “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.” A synopsis for this Western sci-fi reads:
“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.”
‘Cowboys & Aliens’ Was Also a Box Office Flop
A global haul of $176 million is usually a fair return for most movies at the box office. Alas, Cowboys & Aliens was produced on an enormous budget of $163 million, with much faith being put into the appeal of its lead stars in this adaptation of the 2006 Platinum Studios graphic novel of the same name. Although an additional $50 million in domestic video sales will help ease the pain for Universal and co., there is no hiding from the huge disappointment Cowboys & Aliens became.
Cowboys & Aliens will join Starz on February 1. Stay tuned to Collider for more streaming stories.
