The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

I liked the Coen Brothers' remake of True Grit, tho I later learned to prefer the original. This other western has sat on my list for a while; I hesitated because it's only moderately popular and these guys are a gamble to me. Kind of an ugly title, too. But the continuing use of the "First time?" meme increased my curiosity.

Buster (Tim Blake Nelson) actually doesn't appear for long, because this is an anthology of six stories, each with completely different characters and actors (among them Liam Neeson, Tom Waits, James Franco, Stephen Root, Clancy Brown, Tyne Daly, and Brendan Gleeson). Two of them are based on literary short stories. The others seem to pay more homage to movies. Apart from the Old West setting, the main unifying theme is death.

Taken (2008)

I had no interest in this flick when it was new. Only after seeing repeated references to it more than a decade later did I think it might be worth my time. Even then, I wasn't exactly eager.

In modern California, Bryan (Liam Neeson) has retired from the CIA, not because he's past his prime but because his job got between him and his family: His wife (Famke Janssen) divorced him, and teen daughter Kim (Maggie Grace) lives with her and a rich stepdad (Xander Berkeley). Kim's love for Bryan is precarious enough that he reluctantly agrees to let her go to Paris with only peer Amanda (Katie Cassidy) for company. But his honed paranoid instinct was right: During Kim's call to him, strangers kidnap her and Amanda. Bryan gets the recorded portion of the call analyzed and learns that the kidnappers belong to a gang of human traffickers lately with a sexual focus, bound to sell their captives who knows where within four days. Obviously, he won't rely on the authorities for that turnaround time....

The Prophet (2014)

I read the Kahlil Gibran book long enough ago that I don't remember much of it, but I know I liked it. It presents some pretty unusual takes on philosophy, and even in the few places where I disagreed with title character Al Mustafa, I could enjoy the poetic presentation. Of course, there isn't much of a plot to the book, so any screen adaptation would have to add to it.

Indeed, Mustafa (Liam Neeson) isn't even the primary focal character in this movie. That honor goes to Almitra (Quvenzhané Wallis), a prepubescent girl who has said nothing in the two years since her father's death. Feeling unwelcome at school, she stubbornly follows her mother, Kamila (Salma Hayek, also a producer), whose job is to care for Mustafa during his house arrest. It's fortunate that Almitra didn't wait any longer to make his friendly acquaintance, because a surly sergeant (Alfred Molina, again with Hayek) shows up to usher him to a ship to his homeland, essentially changing the sentence to exile from his present environs. Many villagers slow their travel to the harbor, expressing gratitude to Mustafa and listening to any wisdom he has to offer. But Almitra overhears that the sergeant has a nastier plan for him....