The Throw-Caution-to-the-Wind Director's Epic

• The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Widely considered better than the first installment (which earned thirteen nominations and four wins), New Line's The Two Towers has mass appeal and gorgeous grand-scale filmmaking (fantasy landscapes, heroic battles, spectacular visual effects). The performances are stronger than the original's, especially those of Viggo Mortensen and the computer-enhanced Andy Serkis. Plus: Post-9/11, there's a resonance to the movie's mythic war between good and evil. Minus: Been there, done that.

• Gangs of New York. Martin Scorsese's nineteenth-century epic follows the dangerous precedent of such filmmakers as Michael Cimino (Heaven's Gate) and Francis Ford Coppola (Apocalypse Now): Brilliant filmmaker leaps into the budget abyss. Which way will it go? Plus: Academy voters will likely appreciate this $100 million–plus period gangster drama's cinematic virtues even if mainstream moviegoers don't, and Daniel Day-Lewis will be the man to beat for Best Actor. Minus: Oscar magician Harvey Weinstein's Miramax has recently lost much of its crack marketing team.