DVD Review: Cowboys & Aliens

When you put "cowboys" and "aliens" in the same film title it's fair to say thoughts of B-grade spaghetti westerns flood your mind.

It is a rather odd combination but director Jon Favreau manages to pull it off.

Set in 1873 in the desolate township of Absolution in the Arizona desert, gunslinger Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) wanders into town with no memory of who he is, where he is, or what the strange metal shackle on his arm is.

Lonergan is a hard man and has many enemies in town who soon find their way to him.

But before they can exact their revenge aliens attack the town and abduct some of the residents.

Bullets are harmless to the spaceships and the strange ape-like aliens that inhabit them.

The only thing that can stop them is the weapon on Lonergan's arm.

He soon forms an unlikely alliance with town hard man Colonel Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) and mysterious beauty Ella (Olivia Wilde).

As Lonergan's memory returns, he realises he is the only man with the means to stop these invading monsters.

Using the combined powers of the local Apaches and the know-how of townsfolk and a criminal gang, Lonergan and Dolarhyde come up with a plan to send these aliens back from where they came.

Cowboys & Aliens

(M), Universal

Stars: 3.5/5