COWBOYS & ALIENS (Rated PG-13)

If Steven Spielberg and Sergio Leone teamed up to create a film blending science-fiction with classic Western themes, the result might be something like “Cowboys & Aliens.”

As it stands, this shrewd merger of two distinct genres is the genius work of director Jon Favreau (“Iron Man”) and a bunch of screenwriters too numerous to mention by name.

The film’s title, succinct and to the point, is the best truth-in-advertising for the terrific gimmick of amped-up action that is sure to flow from this offbeat mix.

The brilliance of “Cowboys & Aliens,” respecting its setting of late 19th century New Mexico territory (or is it Arizona?), is its primarily Western genre put under siege from an alien invasion that consumes about a third of the action.

The hybrid film opens with a dazed and wounded cowboy (Daniel Craig) wondering why he is bleeding from a stomach gash and sporting a strange metal device firmly attached to his wrist.

Craig’s cowboy, suffering from amnesia, does not recall the circumstance of his ending up abandoned in the middle of the desert, let alone the fact that he can’t recall his own name.

At this point, it would have been great if Sergio Leone were still alive so as to revive his character, the Man with No Name, in a new “Spaghetti Western,” befitting his glory days of having directed Clint Eastwood.

But then we in the audience, as well as a trio of highway robbers, learn very quickly that Craig’s laconic stranger, an updated Man with No Name, is not one easily pushed around or manhandled by wicked ruffians.

Still unaware of his identity, the stranger rides into one of those iconic, lawless frontier towns, where the gentle townsfolk live in perpetual fear of a tyrannical cattle baron with an outsized sense of entitlement.

The local tycoon, Colonel Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford), doesn’t so much run roughshod over the town as he condones the odious behavior of his obnoxious, overbearing son (Paul Dano), who terrorizes the locals for sheer amusement.

Into the breach steps the Man with No Name, a hardened gunslinger unafraid of lurking danger and not intimidated by a gutless punk who hides behind his father’s army of goons.

Meanwhile, the town’s stressed-out sheriff (Keith Carradine) normally crumbles in the face of Colonel Dolarhyde’s eagerness to throw his weight around.

Upon discovering that the stranger is actually a wanted criminal named Jake Lonergan, the sheriff mistakenly thinks that locking up both Dolarhyde’s son and the mysterious gunslinger is the answer.

The sleepy town of Absolution is then rudely awakened and greatly disturbed by an alien attack from low-flying aircraft that alternately strafes the village with rockets and snatches random victims like cattle being lassoed at the rodeo.

Inevitably, of course, Lonergan and Dolarhyde become reluctant allies who must find a way to mobilize the villagers and make peace with a local Indian tribe in order to fight a common enemy.

Director Favreau cleverly develops his human characters with keen dialogue and an earnest mission to save the Old West from extraterrestrial forces.

To his considerable credit, the director minimizes the obvious default to a surfeit of special effects nonsense involving the aliens that might have emerged from an inferior endeavor.

In a nod to the famous roles played by Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford, much will be made of the teaming of James Bond and Indiana Jones. This is totally irrelevant save for the fact that these guys are bona fide action heroes.

Now that these two great actors have established their authenticity in Western roles, I’d pay good money to see them together again in the setting of the post-Civil War Western frontier without the science-fiction angle.

Nevertheless, “Cowboys & Aliens” mixes two genuine and identifiable film genres into a nearly seamless action picture for the sheer fun of delivering a wonderfully entertaining summer pleasure.

Indeed, from slimy, malformed and bug-eyed alien creatures to hardened range-roaming bandits, “Cowboys & Aliens” does not lack for warring parties in full-tilt battles that are exciting and thrilling.

DVD RELEASE UPDATE

In this space, it is our frequent intention to highlight independent films that may not have been noticed elsewhere.

Premiered at last year’s Toronto Film Festival, the gripping family “Trust” is now on DVD.

At its core, this is an unsettling film, in which 14-year-old Annie (Liana Liberato) meets her first boyfriend online, only later to discover in person that he is not what he claimed to be. No, this guy is a monster who brutally and too graphically rapes the young teen.

The best thing about the movie is the girl’s parents, played by superb actors Clive Owen and Catherine Keener, who are great to watch.

But the subject matter is disconcerting, to say the least, and the reactions of the rape victim’s peers are patently offensive.

A sexual predator preying on an underage girl is disturbing enough that “Trust” is the type I would prefer to avoid altogether.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.