Now in its fourth season, Kevin Costner’s wildly successful Western melodrama “Yellowstone” is a powerful geyser that keeps spewing off sequels.

Created by Taylor Sheridan, the Paramount Network’s saga revolves around gruff Montana cattle king John Dutton (Kevin Costner) and his battle to keep his sprawling Yellowstone Ranch out of the hands of wealthy land developers. At his side are his hellcat daughter/lawyer Beth (Kelly Reilly) and her husband/foreman Rip Wheeler (Cole Hauser), who brands devoted ranch hands with a “Y.”

There have already been assassination attempts on John, Beth and John’s son/livestock commissioner Kayce (Luke Grimes), necessitating reprisals. Duplicity emanates from John’s adopted son, resentful Jamie (Wes Bentley), egged on by his bitter biological father, Garrett Randall (Will Patton).

Season five of “Yellowstone” will feature 14 episodes and air in two installments, beginning this summer.

Meanwhile in its inaugural season, Taylor Sheridan’s ‘origin’ prequel “1883” follows John Dutton’s great-grandfather, Civil War veteran James Dutton (country singer Tim McGraw), his wife Margaret (Faith Hill, McGraw’s real-life wife), their grown daughter Elsa (Isabel May) and much younger son John (Audie Rick). as they travel from Fort Worth, Texas toward Oregon in a wagon train. 

Many pioneers were Central and Eastern European immigrants who hired guides to take them across the Great Plains to the West, where they could claim ‘free’ homesteads. Most of the pioneers didn’t speak English, had never ridden a horse or held a gun. While they encountered Native Americans, the leading causes of death were falling off their wagons, disease (cholera) and marauding bandits.

Additional cast members include Sam Elliott, Marc Rissman, LaMonica Garrett and Billy Bob Thornton as a tough, terse U.S. Marshal. Tom Hanks appears briefly in a flashback to the aftermath of the Battle of Antietam (1862), which claimed nearly 23,000 lives but spared wounded James Dutton.

Coming up, there’s “1932,” which will chronicle a new Dutton generation during the westward expansion, Prohibition and the Great Depression in the early-to-mid 20^th century. Its central character will be John Dutton’s father.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “Yellowstone” and “1883” are both engrossing, highly entertaining 8s, streaming on the Paramount Network.

Oscar-nominated as Best International Film, Italy’s “The Hand of God” is Paul Sorrentino’s intensely personal coming-of-age story, set in Naples in the 1980s.

That’s when Argentina’s Diego Maradona was worshiped as the best soccer player in the world; the film’s title comes from a controversial goal scored by Maradona in the 1986 FIFA World Cup quarterfinal against England.

Although Fabietto Schisa (Filippo Scotti) is one of Maradona’s most avid fans, he also adores his sensual Aunt Patrizia (Luisa Ranieri), who dazzles menfolk when she sunbathes nude, much to the chagrin of her enraged husband, Franco (Massimiliano Gallo).

Fabietto’s best-friend is his older brother, Marchino (Marlo Joubert), an aspiring actor who once auditioned for Federico Felllini, who said: “Cinema is a distraction; reality is second-rate.”

The brothers still share a room in the home with their parents: Saverio (Toni Servillo), an outspoken Communist, and prank-playing Maria (Teresa Saponangelo). Fabietto’s extended family includes a cantankerous uncle and a foul-mouthed elderly aunt who wears a fur coat, even in the summer, as she chomps on a dripping burrata.

Sorrentino’s kaleidoscopic barrage of semi-autobiographical vignettes includes his erotic experience with The Baroness (Betti Pedrazzi), who lives upstairs and summons Fabietto for an intimate interlude in which he loses his virginity. In another episode, he takes off for Capri with Armando (Biagio Manna), a small-time crook who befriended him.

Of even greater significance, there’s his encounter in the Galleria Umberto with Neapolitan screenwriter/director Antonio Capuano (Ciro Capano), who becomes his mentor, encouraging his creativity. Sorrentino later co-wrote Capuano’s “The Dust of Naples” (1998).

Add to that Daria D’Antonio’s elegant cinematography and Lele Marchitelli’s score.

Paul Sorrentino, who won an Academy Award for “The Great Beauty” (2012), told the Venice Film Festival audience: “This is a film about sensibility – and hovering above everything, so close and yet so far, is Maradona, who seemed to sustain the lives of everyone in Naples, or at least mine.”

In Italian with English subtitles, on the Granger Gauge, “The Hand of God” is a poignant 7, streaming on Netflix.

If you missed Ryan Reynolds’ adventure/comedy “Free Guy” at theaters, it’s now streaming on Disney+.

Reynolds plays Guy, a mild-mannered bank teller who discovers he’s actually a background player in a popular, mayhem-filled video game called ‘Free City.’ When he falls in love with Molotov Girl, a spunky, sunglass-wearing, leather-clad biker-chick, he faces an existential crisis and decides to reinvent himself as a hero.

As Guy experiments with the concept of ‘free will,’ his friendship deepens with fellow N.P.C. (non-playable character) bank guard Buddy (Lil Rel Howery), although Buddy is reluctant to break from the restrictive pixel parameters of the game.

The franchise ‘Free City’ is owned by Soonami Studios, headed by avaricious Antwan (Taika Waititi). But the game is based on a code developed by Keys (Joe Keery) and Millie (Jodie Comer), as villainous Antwan blatantly stole their intellectual property.

Familiarity with video games would obviously enhance your enjoyment. Free City is based on Liberty City from “Grand Theft Auto III” (2001) and “Grand Theft Auto IV” (2008) games, although the opening aerial shot is of Pittsburgh, PA, and much of the filming took place in and around Boston, MA.

But – as a non-gamer – it was fun to envision “an algorithm who thinks he’s alive” or “the first real artificial intelligence,” assuming the avatar Blue Shirt Guy. And the glowing walls of Stash City may have been inspired by Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book Library, designed by Gordon Bunshaft.

As for laugh-out-loud dialogue, there’s Millie/Molotov Girl’s observation: “I sometimes forget that not everyone you meet here is a sociopathic man-child.”

Based on a screenplay by Matt Lieberman and Zak Penn, it’s directed by Shawn Levy (“Night at the Museum” series), who stuffs the fable with techno-chatter, special effects, ‘inside’ jokes known as Easter Eggs and celebrity cameos, including YouTube gamers.

Want more Ryan Reynolds? His “The Adam Project” streams on Netflix on March 11.

On the Granger Gauge “Free Guy” is an addictive 7, perhaps the most enjoyable video-game-inspired movie yet….on Disney+.