I felt so badly burned by Prometheus that I began to wonder if Ridley Scott might be at the beginning of a downturn cycle in the same way that Alfred Hitchcock started to go downhill after The Birds. (There are some who today actually stand by the comically stilted Marnie, which opened 13 months after The Birds.) Writing off Scott sounds impulsive and ill-considered given his sterling track record, I realize, but I know for sure that I don’t trust him any more. He was great when he was great, but then he made Prometheus and the dye colored the water and Scott was suddenly Peter Hyams.

If Scott bounces back with The Counselor (20th Century Fox, 10.25), great. I will apologize in this space for floating the Hyams analogy.

Directed by Scott and written by Cormac McCarthy, The Counselor is a survival-in-the-drug-trade drama that costars Michael Fassbender, Javier Bardem, Cameron Diaz, Penelope Cruz, Brad Pitt and John Leguizamo.