COWBOYS & ALIENS
Dir: Jon Favreau. Starring: Daniel Craig, Harrison Ford, Olivia Wilde.

It's got cowboys, it's got aliens – it's Cowboys & Aliens. Some concepts don't require a lot of explanation. What's surprising – and gratifyingly successful – is the approach of throwing a high-end cast at an idea more likely to be treated as Snakes on a Plane exploitation fare.

But here's Indiana Jones and James Bond along with a generous budget and the director of Iron Man. Paul Dano, Sam Rockwell, Keith Carradine and other familiar faces make for a classy ensemble doing good work on a tight and fairly tough story of, er, cowboys and aliens.

Craig is the amnesiac drifting hard-man, Ford the irascible cattle baron, and aliens are taking the townsfolk – time to get a posse together and save the world!

A lot of effort has gone into this. There are nine writers credited, including the creator of the original comic book, and the chunky ‘Extended Director's Cut' on blu-ray clocks in at two and a quarter hours. For all that they get it mostly right, riding the fine line between seriousness and self-awareness and with first class effects and action.

Don't expect anything too clever, but if you're a fan of cowboys, or aliens, or preferably both, this is the film for you.

Like every other ‘80s film, Conan The Barbarian is back. Born on a battlefield, the muscled one grows up on a quest to avenge his father's death at the hands of an evil warlord and his sorcerer daughter. While there was an almost surreal zaniness to John Milius' previous Conan, augmented by the cartoon-like presence of big Arnie, this adopts the grimier desaturated mud and spurting blood aesthetic currently popular. Although perfectly adequate, it lacks spark, possibly because Jason Momoa is a bit of a black hole as Conan. Say what you will about Schwarzenegger, he had presence.

Priest proposes a dystopian future ruled by an all-powerful church, in the aftermath of a centuries old war against vampires. But now vamps are back and Paul Bettany's titular fighter (retired since the war) must defy the church to save his niece from resurgent bloodsuckers. Off he goes at 250mph on his nitro-charged turbo-bike – he's on a mission from god! With creatures out of Resident Evil and a reoccurring Searchers riff this faux western should at least be gratuitous fun. But action is sparse, dull dialogue abounds, and Bettany underplays to the point of somnambulism, leaving only Karl Urban's underused villain for interest.

In Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale a drilling rig on the Russia/Finland border uncovers something strange: the long-buried grave of Santa Claus. But it's not the happy present-giving chap; this is an altogether more alarming incarnation. In no time reindeer are dying and the area's radiators have been stolen. Told from the perspective of young Pietari, there is a rich vein of deadpan black Scandinavian humour running through this and more than a hint of the darkness that Joe Dante brought to Gremlins. It's pretty laid-back stuff, likeable and delightfully off-kilter in its approach and attitude.

Star director Takeshi Kitano delighted many when he announced a return to the bloody yakuza crime genre that first made his name internationally. And Outrage doesn't disappoint, presenting a seething web of double-crosses and bloodletting as rival yakuza families are manipulated into a war of attrition by their duplicitous chairman. Barely a scene takes place outside the yakuza realm so this is total immersion in a world of severed-finger apologies, a strict, but strangely malleable moral code – betrayal is rife – and corruption. Complicated double-dealing and frequent violence is rarely so classy.