NEW YORK. A decade and a half after its popular animated namesake was released comes the live-action remake “How to Train Your Dragon” (Universal). While the basic story and some of the personnel remain the same, the new arrival, although appropriate for a wide audience, falls short of the heights to which its predecessor soared.

NEW YORK. No pea soup was wasted in the making of the exorcism-themed horror movie “The Ritual” (XYZ).

NEW YORK. Tom Cruise takes his eighth turn as infinitely resourceful spy Ethan Hunt in the grand-scale adventure “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” (PG-13, Paramount). The stakes for which Ethan is playing this time are nothing short of global and the odds against him . . . well, seemingly impossible. Sound familiar

NEW YORK. Though it has the relationship between a teen girl and a cuddly creature at its core, “The Legend of Ochi” (PG, A24) is not a sunny children’s movie. In fact, this fantasy tale is a sort of infernal machine of confounding dark imagery, threats of violence and a mixed moral about honoring your parents while respecting nature.

NEW YORK. Over the course of several years in the 1840s, Charles Dickens, already renowned for his novels, penned a different kind of text. Entitled “The Life of Our Lord,” his version of the Gospel story was intended for a small and exclusive audience: the nine of his 10 children who survived infancy.