Five Autumn Films Worth Falling For

Did you have a good summer? Well Hollywood sure did, as rising temperatures and a bevy of sequels drove folks to the movies over the last four months, allowing the industry a healthy 14 percent increase over 2017, the worst May-August period in over a decade.

As usual, I caught a few of them and as usual nothing really stayed with me, although I did enjoy Christopher Robin. Now comes the time for more character-driven, thought-provoking fare, the films that will ultimately carry us to awards season come January. In other words, the flicks for boring old fogies like me.

In all, the studios will trot out more than 100 films between now and Christmas. Below are my five fall flicks worth leaving the house for.

The Sisters Brothers: An arthouse Western with John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix as Gold Rush contract killers? Even the wife is willing to try this one in the theater. (Today)

First Man: Damien Chazelle's follow-up to La La Land tells the story of Neil Armstrong and the Apollo moon landing. This one looks like The Right Stuff for a new generation, just as long as lead Ryan Gosling doesn't break into "City of Stars" after that "giant leap for mankind." (Oct. 12)

Bohemian Rhapsody: Although director Bryan Singer was fired before production was completed, you only need see the trailer for this Freddie Mercury/Queen biopic to know that we're in for one hell of a ride and that star Rami Malick will have a reserved seat at the Oscars come February. (Nov. 2)

Widows: It's been five years since 12 Years a Slave and director Steve McQueen returns with a Chicago-set, politically charged heist film concerning a fallen crew and the wives who pick up where they left off. Works for me. (November 16)

Welcome to Marwen: Robert Zemeckis' tale of a victimized artist (Steve Carell) who creates a miniature land and introduces it to the world through photographs may sound like a bit of a snoozer, but I innately know a film from the director of Back to the Future and Forrest Gump will prove to be anything but. (Dec. 21)

Five More That Should Be On Your Radar: A Star is Born (Oct. 5); Galveston (Oct. 19); Halloween (Oct. 19); Outlaw King (Nov. 9); Creed II (Nov. 21)

Remembering Burt Reynolds

As a child of the 1970s, I never knew a world without Burt Reynolds....until yesterday.

I'm pretty sure the first time I ever saw the charismatic, mustached leading man was as bootlegger Bo Darville in 1977's Smokey and the Bandit.

I was six and as usual on Saturday afternoons my mom and I caught a movie after our weekly errands. She loved both Burt (said he reminded her of my dad) and Sally Field (they were born in the same year) so I really didn't have a choice on what flick we were catching that opening weekend. But the preview promised plenty of car chases and laughs so I was game and by the end of the film I became a life-long fan of the smooth-talking smart aleck with the devilish grin and one-of-a-kind laugh.

The next year came Hooper, then Smokey and the Bandit II and the Cannonball Run films. They were fun, often silly, usually politically incorrect and I loved each and every one of them. Still do.

Not every Burt film carried a PG rating when I was a kid but I usually found a way to catch gritty adult titles like Sharky's Machine (an ON-TV staple a buddy and I watched incessantly after school) and Stick (a New Year's Eve VHS rental my mom was more than willing to sanction).

By the late '80s Burt's star had begun to fade, but I was always interested in what he was doing. Whether he was playing an aging safecracker in the character-driven Breaking In, Wood Newton in the CBS series Evening Shade, Jack Horner in Boogie Nights or Vic Edwards in this year's The Last Movie Star, I kept tabs on Burt Reynolds and was always glad to see him staying relevant, still making people smile.

Burt Reynolds was one of a kind, not just an actor, but a personality. Someone who indelibly weaves themselves into the fabric of society and our lives. And when we lose them, it's like losing a piece of ourselves. But at least we still have his films to help us fill that void. The Last Movie Star, indeed.