Tenet (2020)

Christopher Nolan doesn't seem to have directed any unpopular features, and this was one of the more profitable of the (infamously off) year. But I haven't encountered people discussing it much, and its IMDb rating is relatively low for him, so I hesitated to watch. The 150-minute runtime didn't tempt me either. Only a Netflix notice that it would stop streaming at the end of the year prioritized it for me.

Like in Looper, the time machine hasn't been invented "yet," but its effects can already be seen. Unlike in Looper, it doesn't just send things back; it can send things backwards. Even inanimate objects behave differently that way, as by falling upward to be caught by a "dropper." The curiously unnamed protagonist (John David Washington), a CIA agent, comes across such effects on a mission and is then made privy to a still more secretive agency, Tenet (clearly named just for the palindrome), that tries to use time travel for the greater good. He and recruiter Neil (Robert Pattinson) are among a globe-hopping team out to neutralize the forces of the world's most dangerous time traveler, Russian oligarch Andrei Sator (Kenneth Branagh).

Now You See Me (2013)

When I picked this out, I did not know that it had a threequel coming this year. I just wanted something rather different from what else I'd been watching lately. This one has been moderately popular among the general viewership, but critics are almost evenly split on it.

An anonymous, faceless source assembles four magicians -- famous card trickster Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), blackmailing mentalist Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), escape artist Henley Reeves (Isla Fisher), and pocket- and lock-picking prestidigitator Jack Wilder (Dave Wilder) -- to pull off a series of heists in exchange for membership in an elite society. They're actually quite open about parts of it, working robbery into their stage shows and winning mass approval as Robin Hood types by paying the live audience; the authorities can't easily prosecute them without insinuating a belief in real magic. FBI Agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) is assigned to catch them somehow, with help from INTERPOL's Alma Dray (Mélanie Laurent) and possibly from long-time debunker Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman).

The Italian Job (1969)

When I selected this to follow a comedy, I had forgotten that it was another comedy. I must have known at one time, because I recognize the most famous (and IMO most overrated) moment from a YouTube excerpt. Only after a lot of humor had trickled in did I realize what I was in for. Kinda wish I'd do that more often, because humor is often funnier to me when I'm not primed for it.

Newly freed small-time Cockney crook Charlie (Michael Caine) learns that the Sicilian Mafia just offed his partner in crime (Rossano Brazzi), but that needn't stop him from carrying out the scheme the Mafia opposed. Eventually, he persuades still-imprisoned kingpin Mr. Bridger (Noël Coward, who had one foot in the grave) to lend his financial resources for a heist involving about as many people as Danny Ocean's. They are to engineer an enormous Turin traffic jam, take $4 million in gold from a scheduled convoy, and outmaneuver the police with multiple vehicles. Of course, the police aren't the only threat....

A Bridge Too Far (1977)

As often happens, I felt obliged to watch a movie featuring someone who recently died, in this case Sean Connery. He's one of the actors I've watched most, so there weren't many promising titles left. This one's pretty popular but has a bunch of other big names and countless speaking roles, so I wasn't sure it would showcase him well.

Based on a book that's at least partly based on reality, it tells of Operation Market Garden: In 1944, British, American, and Polish forces plan to use paratroopers and tanks to capture numerous bridges in the occupied Netherlands. Many soldiers doubt the feasibility of the mission, as it involves considerable travel along narrow roads, there's fog to consider, and even if the Germans don't send their best, they won't be pushovers. If you know this chapter of history, you know the doubts are correct.

The Cider House Rules (1999)

I had expected not to write this review. It's not that I don't care strongly about this movie. It just features an extremely controversial subject that may very well make or break your opinion of and/or desire to watch it, and I'd hate to ostracize a good chunk of my readership by indicating my own position. Maybe that's why I never heard anyone talk about the movie outside the context of the 71st Annual Academy Awards. Still, it got me thinking, and those who haven't seen it ought to make an informed decision.

Based on a John Irving book, the story follows one Homer Wells from his infancy in a rural Maine orphanage to his young adulthood (when he's played by Tobey Maguire), ending shortly after World War II. He never gets adopted or formally educated, instead becoming an unofficial apprentice to orphanage director Wilbur Larch (Michael Caine), who also serves as an obstetrician -- and abortionist. Tired of this claustrophobic life, he leaves with two friendly customers, Wally (Paul Rudd) and Candy (Charlize Theron), who help him gain employment as the only White laborer at a cider house. When Wally goes off to war, Candy strays toward Homer. But Dr. Larch won't accept that Homer will stay away for good.

Going in Style (2017)

I had not heard about this Zach Braff comedy when it was in theaters last year. The only reason I know about it now is that it was played on my tour bus. A few minutes in, I determined that it was one of those Hollywood pieces that doesn't bother trying to be better than run-of-the-mill, but the speaker was on too loud for me to tune it out, so I watched.

Friends Joe (Michael Caine), Willie (Morgan Freeman), and Albert (Alan Arkin) are all retirees in dire financial straits due to a seemingly unethical but fully legal move on the bank's part. I flashed back to I, Daniel Blake, up until a key difference arrived: the factor of armed robbery. Joe gets the bright idea to knock over the bank, and the others become desperate enough to go along with it. Of course, at their ages, they have more setbacks than average, so they need to practice first....

Get Carter (1971)

No, it's not the 2000 version with Sylvester Stallone. As with most remakes, the original (based on Jack's Return Home by Ted Lewis) remains more popular. We may have Michael Caine to thank for that; he was always a better actor than Stallone.

Jack Carter, a thug, hears that his non-thug brother died under personally suspicious circumstances, but it looks enough like an accident that the authorities will inspect it no further. As he starts asking around, he clearly hits a nerve when other thugs advise him to drop it. This only encourages him, of course. It's hard for him to know what answers to trust, but one thing is clear: The resolution will get ugly.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)

To my surprise, I realized that I hadn't seen anything with Steve Martin in it since before I subscribed to Netflix nine years ago. Sure, he hasn't made any promising flicks in that time, but it's not like I'd seen all his older hits. And while Christopher Nolan casts Michael Caine too often, I usually like Caine otherwise, so his presence opposite Martin intrigued me.

The title is accurate: Both leads play con men. The key difference is that Lawrence (Caine) has made quite a niche for himself in the French Riviera, whereas Freddy is a new tourist who comes to want what Lawrence has. Not welcoming competition, Lawrence agrees to train Freddy as an accomplice; but before long, Freddy decides he doesn't like Lawrence's style. To settle the question of who leaves, they bet on who can first collect $50,000 from another American tourist, Janet (Glenne Headly, who does well enough that I wonder why I know so little of her work). When Lawrence, who does have ethical standards, hears that Janet isn't as rich as they thought, they change the bet to whether the rather smitten Freddy can romance her before she leaves.

Interstellar (2014)

Christopher Nolan is so popular that today's top news on IMDb is that he'll direct a movie in 2017 -- with no word on the title, subject, or actors. Personally, I have very mixed feelings about his work. It's consistently admirable and entertaining but always contains bothersome elements that prevent me from loving it, such as an obsession with dead wives and girlfriends. (How does his wife feel about that?)

The protagonist of Interstellar -- identified somewhat confusingly by just his last name, Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) -- is a widower, but at least he's not loaded with guilt or vindictiveness. After all, in his time, crop blight has decreased the human population so dramatically that he fears that his daughter Murphy's generation will be the last. (For once, the disaster is not evidently the fault of humans or aliens.) A former astronaut, he's disappointed that schools now teach that the moon landing was a hoax so that kids will be less inclined to become anything other than farmers. Of course, he's not alone: The stealthy remains of NASA have been looking for a habitable world to reach before it's too late. As Cooper discovers, their methods now involve aid from a mysterious source to travel by extra dimensions. He's game to head a mission despite Murphy's protests, but no one can be fully prepared for what happens in the uncharted territory of physics....

The Ipcress File (1965)

Another golden anniversary airing, this time with a group invitation. Someone asked why we'd all come. Apart from the two above reasons, I thought of young Michael Caine and the Cold War spy subgenre, which I hadn't seen in a while. (Alphaville doesn't really count.) This entry even has producer Harry Saltzman of James Bond fame, tho the group leader had told us that it felt more like The Spy Who Came in from the Cold.

It actually brought several movies to mind, including Papillon and especially The Manchurian Candidate. Caine plays Harry Palmer (a name you couldn't use in seriousness today), a rather insubordinate secret agent assigned to investigate a curious "brain drain" of prize scientists that involves abduction -- and, as it turns out, nasty conditioning. As in many relatively heady spy stories, it's hard to know whom to trust even within the agency, including a female tail who seems interested in another kind of "tail." Things don't get easier with the CIA's ill-communicated involvement....