Pete's Dragon (2016)

Amid all the hype for How to Train Your Dragon, I thought I'd watch a different live-action remake of a family flick about a boy and his nonverbal, flying, fire-breathing, reptilian secret friend. It's not the most popular Disney remake, but it may be the only one more popular than its predecessor.

When Pete is five years old (and played by Levi Alexander), he loses his parents in a car crash on a woodland road. He wanders and meets a curiously friendly dragon (grunt-voiced by John Kassir) who can turn invisible at will. For the next six years, Pete (now played by Oakes Fegley) lives with Elliot in the woods, healthy but only slightly more civilized than another feral boy from a Disney remake that year. Fellow preteen Natalie (Oona Laurence) discovers Pete, and her lumberjack father Jack (Wes Bentley) and his ranger girlfriend Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard) try to give Pete a more normal life, by adopting him if necessary. They don't readily believe in Elliot, who doesn't take well to separation from Pete. And when Jack's unruly brother Gavin (Karl Urban) and coworkers see the long-rumored dragon of the area, they plan to capture Elliot for some means of profit.

Out of Africa (1985)

Of the 92 Academy Best Pictures I've seen, this was the one I remembered least -- mainly just that Meryl Streep's fake accent was so thick the DVD had subtitles on by default. You may take that as a reason not to rewatch it, along with its reputation as perhaps the weakest link in the weakest decade for Best Pictures. (Those who praise '80s cinema usually don't have award-winning dramas in mind.) But I wanted a refresher, especially now that I've visited the same area of Africa myself. This time, I forwent the subtitles, without trouble.

In 1913, Danish future writer Karen Dinesin (Streep) marries Swedish baron Bror Blixen (Klaus Maria Brandauer) for convenience, planning to start a dairy in the Nairobi region of British East Africa. Bror alters the deal to a coffee farm without consulting Karen, unaware of the difficulty of growing coffee at high altitude. This is one of many signs that they will never fully love or trust each other. As Bror is rarely home and Karen finds undeniable signs that he sleeps around, she herself strays to his fellow hunter, Denys Hatton (Robert Redford).

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 Old Man & the Gun (2018)

I had enjoyed many movies featuring Robert Redford, mostly from the Silver Age but up to Captain America: The Winter Soldier. These did not make me eager to see what's touted as the last time he'll appear on the silver screen. No, my main reason for watching this in a theater was a Meetup invitation; I hadn't accepted one of those in months.

Set mainly in 1981 in the western U.S., it follows Forrest Tucker decades after he made a name for himself as a prison escapee many times over. Now rather old (if much younger than Redford really is), he counts on people not knowing who he is when he robs banks, usually with two other old guys (Danny Glover and Tom Waits). He takes interest in a less criminal woman (Sissy Spacek) who isn't sure what to make of him. Nearly half the movie focuses on John Hunt (Casey Affleck), who doesn't care much for his police work until he gets the chance to, well, hunt the robbers, primarily Tucker.

Jeremiah Johnson (1972)

Confession: I skipped a review of the last western I watched, Fort Apache. It had been too soon after El Dorado, and while it was more distinctive in plot and possibly better overall, I just couldn't muster the motivation to write about it. Well, four months is plenty of time to get back in the mood, this time with a feature inherently more different, coming from the '70s.

Under the direction of mainstay Sydney Pollack, Robert Redford plays a mountain man in the Rockies. His story starts out as possibly the most episodic western I've seen, but patterns emerge. For all the loneliness of his lifestyle, certain people show up either for an extended period or repeatedly, as if for "bookends." Others die quickly, because there is a lot of tension on the frontier, particularly involving Crows. His victories allow him to pass into legend (based loosely on a real legend recorded in a few books).

The Candidate (1972)

Hard to believe it's not an election year, what with all the attention to who's running. In light of that, I moved the most obviously political movie to the top of my queue. I hear it's popular with politicians -- at least Democrats, seeing as the protagonist is one. (James Stewart declined a role because he disapproved of the opponent's portrayal.)

As grown-up as the focus is, the plot remains easy to summarize, as the laconic Netflix jacket reveals. Improbably named Sen. Crocker Jarmon (R-Calif.) seems to have a reelection in the bag. Election specialist Marvin Lucas (Peter Boyle) thinks the best he can do for the Dems is make a good impression, not secure a win. He chooses Bill McCay (Robert Redford), because McCay is both much younger than Jarmon and the son of a former governor (Melvyn Douglas), thus possibly appealing to different generations. Lucas tells McCay up front to say pretty much whatever he wants. This works out better than anyone predicted, which ironically leads to some pressure for McCay to start doing things more by the book....