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.

The evening of art and music will take place from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the gallery, 325 N. Main Street, Lakeport.

New works from the following local artists will be introduced: Richard Seisser, landscape scenes in pastel; Ron Snider, figures with the “old master’s touch”; Jim Aldridge, fantastic wildlife photo collection and landscapes ; Walter Dreis, landscape oils, mostly in miniature ; Leonora McKenzie , colorful photo collection of landscapes; Karen Whittington , acrylic wildlife paintings, up close and personal; and Ray Farrow , alkyd and oil landscapes with a knife .

Currently showing at the gallery are Bruce Vandraiss – colored pencil; Terry Durnil – pastels; Wanda Quitiquit – turn-of-the-century Pomo design, hand-painted gourds; Bill Rose – stained glass, fused glass, carved eggs of the ostrich, emu, duck and rhea; Colleen La Plante – artistic, colorful fused glass table settings and more; George Waterstraat – one-of-a kind burl wood (maple, redwood, walnut, bay laurel), redwood, ash vases and bowls; Curtis Westfall – handcrafted, tooled leather goods; and Lois Feron – acrylic on canvas and boards.

There will be finger food, a chance to meet the artists, music by Drew Tritchler and wine poured by Red Lava Wines.

For more information contact the Main Street Gallery at 707-263-6658.

Mike Wilhelm & Hired Guns will play at the Blue Wing Saloon in Upper Lake, Calif., on Monday, Aug. 8, 2011. Courtesy photo.

UPPER LAKE, Calif. – Mike Wilhelm & Hired Guns will play at the Blue Wing Saloon on Monday, Aug. 8, from 6 p.m. until 9 p.m.

Personnel are regulars Wilhelm and Randy Hare, guitars; Jim Leonardis, tenor sax; Jamie Webber, bass and Slammin' Scott Slagle, drums.

The Blue Wing Saloon & Cafe is located at 9520 Main St., Upper Lake, California.

Reservations are recommended for parties of six or more.

Accommodations are available at the historic Tallman Hotel adjoining the Blue Wing. Telephone is 707-275-2233.

Further information is available at www.bluewingsaloon.com and www.tallmanhotel.com.

LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Lake County Arts Council and former Lake County Poet Laureate Mary McMillan have again been awarded a grant to fund the Writers Circle, a free public workshop held at the Main Street Art Gallery at 6:30 p.m. on the first Thursday of each month.

The grant supporting the Writers Circle comes from Poets and Writers Inc., through a grant it has received from the James Irvine Foundation.

Many emerging writers, as well as more seasoned authors, come to the Writers Circle to build their skills and connect with other writers.

People from all over the county, aged 19 to 90, have benefited from the opportunity to listen to other writers and share their own work.

Some people come only one or two times, and others show up every month.

Many participants have been writing books and other long works.

Others share short stories, memoirs, essays or poems.

The event begins at 2 p.m. at the Soper-Reese Community Theatre, 275 S. Main St., Lakeport.

The show has a lineup of all new artists to the festival this year.

The Lake County Singer Songwriters Guild produces this annual event with all proceeds going to support KPFZ 88.1 FM, Lake County Community Radio.

Tickets are $15 for general admission, $12 for KPFZ members and kids under 11 may attend for free.

Tickets are available at Watershed Books in Lakeport, at the theater box office on Thursdays and at www.soperreesetheatre.com.

Ted Kooser, US Poet Laureate from 2004 to 2006. Photo by UNL Publications and Photography.

It is estimated that one out of five Americans enjoys spending time bird watching, or birding, and here’s a poem for some of those people by Kathleen M. McCann, who lives in Massachusetts. I especially like the way she captures the egret’s stealthy motion in the second stanza.

Lone Egret

Classically stagy, goose-neck

elegant, river’s third eye.

Pencil thin head. S

for a throat. Skeleton of a saint.

Plodder, preening posturer.

One foot,

another.

Up from the dank weeds.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation, publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2010 by Kathleen M. McCann, whose most recent book of poetry is A Roof Gone to Sky, Carpenter Gothic Publishers, Inc., 2010. Reprinted from South Dakota Review, Vol. 48, no. 1, 2010, by permission of Kathleen M. McCann and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2011 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. They do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.