Director Edward Zwick gives The Last Samurai a coat of deep-thought spirituality—and turns Tom Cruise into a haunted swordsman.

For Mel Gibson's "Patriot," the politics of revolution is personal; there's greater insight into American-British relations in "ChickenRun."

Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River is suffused with lives ruined by violence; in Kill Bill, Quentin Tarantino looks violence in the eye—and cackles.

In two earnest indies, Sean Penn and John Travolta aim for authenticity—and miss by a mile.

In The Human Stain—adapted from Philip Roth’s book—Anthony Hopkins plays a professor who has hidden his race from his family and peers.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Shallow Hal

The Sea Inside is a classy tearjerker, starring Javier Bardem as a quadriplegic with a case.

In "Pushing Tin", director Mike Newell takes on the less-than-wacky world of air-traffic controllers (with less-than-delirious results).

Christina Ricci is devastating as a malevolent teen vixen in "The Opposite of Sex."

The violence in City of God, about the crime-infested slums outside Rio de Janeiro, piles on numbingly; Adolf Hitler's secretary reflects on an unexamined life.