Starring: Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Oliver Reed, Richard Harris

Summary: A big-budget summer epic with money to burn and a scale worthy of its golden Hollywood predecessors, Ridley Scott's Gladiator is a rousing, grisly, action-packed epic that takes moviemaking back to the Roman Empire via computer-generated visual effects. While not as fluid as the computer work done for, say, Titanic, it's an impressive achievement that will leave you marveling at the glory that was Rome, when you're not marveling at the glory that is Russell Crowe. Starring as the heroic general Maximus, Crowe firmly cements his star status both in terms of screen presence and acting chops, carrying the film on his decidedly non-computer-generated shoulders as he goes from brave general to wounded fugitive to stoic slave to gladiator hero. Gladiator's plot is a whirlwind of faux-Shakespearean machinations of death, betrayal, power plays, and secret identities (with lots of faux-Shakespearean dialogue ladled on to keep the proceedings appropriately "classical"), but it's all briskly shot, edited, and paced with a contemporary sensibility. Even the action scenes, somewhat muted but graphic in terms of implied violence and liberal bloodletting, are shot with a veracity that brings to mind--believe it or not--Saving Private Ryan, even if everyone is wearing a toga. As Crowe's nemesis, the evil emperor Commodus, Joaquin Phoenix chews scenery with authority, whether he's damning Maximus's popularity with the Roman mobs or lusting after his sister Lucilla (beautiful but distant Connie Nielsen); Oliver Reed, in his last role, hits the perfect notes of camp and gravitas as the slave owner who rescues Maximus from death and turns him into a coliseum star. Director Scott's visual flair is abundantly in evidence, with breathtaking shots and beautiful (albeit digital) landscapes, but it's Crowe's star power that will keep you in thrall--he's a true gladiator, worthy of his legendary status. Hail the conquering hero! --Mark Englehart

Starring: Jack Lemmon, Al Pacino, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, Kevin Spacey

Summary: Like moths to a flame, great actors gravitate to the singular genius of playwright-screenwriter David Mamet, who updated his Pulitzer Prize-winning play for this all-star screen adaptation. The material is not inherently cinematic, so the movie's greatest asset is Mamet's peerless dialogue and the assembly of a once-in-a-lifetime cast led by Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, and Alec Baldwin (the last in a role Mamet created especially for the film). Often regarded as a critique of the Reagan administration's impact on the American economy, the play and film focus on a competitive group of real estate salesmen who've gone from feast to famine in a market gone cold. When an executive "motivator" (Alec Baldwin) demands a sales contest among the agents in the cramped office, the stakes are critically high: any agent who fails to meet his quota of sales "leads" (i.e., potential buyers) will lose his job. This intense ultimatum is a boon for the office superstar (Pacino), but a once-successful salesman (Lemmon) now finds himself clinging nervously to faded glory. Political and personal rivalries erupt under pressure when the other agents (Alan Arkin, Ed Harris) suspect the office manager (Kevin Spacey) of foul play. This cauldron of anxiety, tension, and sheer desperation provides fertile soil for Mamet's scathingly rich dialogue, which is like rocket fuel for some of the greatest actors of our time. Pacino won an Oscar nomination for his volatile performance, but it's Lemmon who's the standout, doing some of the best work of his distinguished career. Director James Foley shapes Mamet's play into a stylish, intensely focused film that will stand for decades as a testament to its brilliant writer and cast. --Jeff Shannon

Starring: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Richard S. Castellano, Robert Duvall, Sterling Hayden, John Marley, Richard Conte, Al Lettieri, Diane Keaton, Abe Vigoda, Talia Shire, Gianni Russo, John Cazale, Rudy Bond, Al Martino, Morgana King, Lenny Montana, John Martino, Salvatore Corsitto

Summary: Generally acknowledged as a bona fide classic, this Francis Ford Coppola film is one of those rare experiences that feels perfectly right from beginning to end--almost as if everyone involved had been born to participate in it. Based on Mario Puzo's bestselling novel about a Mafia dynasty, Coppola's Godfather extracted and enhanced the most universal themes of immigrant experience in America: the plotting-out of hopes and dreams for one's successors, the raising of children to carry on the good work, etc. In the midst of generational strife during the Vietnam years, the film somehow struck a chord with a nation fascinated by the metamorphosis of a rebellious son (Al Pacino) into the keeper of his father's dream. Marlon Brando played against Puzo's own conception of patriarch Vito Corleone, and time has certainly proven the actor correct. The rest of the cast, particularly James Caan, John Cazale, and Robert Duvall as the rest of Vito's male brood--all coping with how to take the mantle of responsibility from their father--is seamless and wonderful. --Tom Keogh

Starring: Brando, Pacino, De Niro, Francis Ford Coppola

Summary: Some of the greatest masterpieces in cinema history, "The Godfather Collection" is the saga of the generations of successive power within the Corleone crime family, told in three films of staggering magnitude and vision, masterfully exploring themes of power, tradition, revenge and love. "The Godfather" (1972, 175 min.) - Adapted from Mario Puzo's best-selling novel, Francis Ford Coppola's epic masterpiece features Marlon Brando in his Oscar-winning role as the patriarch of the Corleones. Director Coppola paints a chilling portrait of the Sicilian clan's rise and near fall from power in America, masterfully balancing the story between the Corleone's family life and the ugly crime business in which they are engaged. Winner of three Academy Awards, including Best Picture. "The Godfather, Part II" (1974, 200 min.) - This brilliant sequel continues the saga of two generation of successive power within the Corleone family. Coppola tells two stories: the roots and rise of a young Don Vito (Robert De Niro), and the ascension of Michael (Al Pacino) as the new Don. Winner of six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. "The Godfather, Part III" (1990, 170 min.) - Now in his 60's, Michael Corleone is dominated by two passions: freeing his family from crime, and finding a suitable successor. That successor could be fiery Vincent (Andy Garcia), but he may also be the spark that turns Michael's hope of business legitimacy into an inferno of mob violence. This special collection also includes an additional disc containing over 3 hours of bonus material.

System Requirements:

Starring: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Robert DeNiro, Lee Strasberg, Andy Garcia, and Sofia Coppola.

Directed By: Francis Ford Coppola.

Running Time: 545 Min., Color.

This film is presented in "Widescreen" format.

Copyright 2001 Paramount Pictures.

Format: DVD MOVIE

Starring: Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Robert De Niro, John Cazale, Talia Shire, Lee Strasberg, Michael V. Gazzo, G.D. Spradlin, Richard Bright, Gastone Moschin, Tom Rosqui, Bruno Kirby, Frank Sivero, Francesca De Sapio, Morgana King, Marianna Hill, Leopoldo Trieste, Dominic Chianese, Amerigo Tot

Summary: Francis Ford Coppola took some of the deep background from the life of Mafia chief Vito Corleone--the patriarch of Mario Puzo's bestselling novel The Godfather--and built around it a stunning sequel to his Oscar-winning, 1972 hit film. Robert De Niro plays Vito as a young Sicilian immigrant in turn-of-the-century New York City's Little Italy. Coppola weaves in and out of the story of Vito's transformation into a powerful crime figure, contrasting that evolution against efforts by son Michael Corleone to spread the family's business into pre-Castro Cuba. As memorable as the first film is, The Godfather II is an amazingly intricate, symmetrical tragedy that touches upon several chapters of 20th-century history and makes a strong case that our destinies are written long before we're born. This was De Niro's first introduction to a lot of filmgoers, and he makes an enormous impression. But even with him and a number of truly brilliant actors (including maestro Lee Strasberg), this is ultimately Pacino's film and a masterful performance. --Tom Keogh

Starring: Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Andy Garcia, Eli Wallach, Joe Mantegna, George Hamilton, Bridget Fonda, Sofia Coppola, Raf Vallone, Franc D'Ambrosio, Donal Donnelly, Richard Bright, Helmut Berger, Don Novello, John Savage, Franco Citti, Mario Donatone, Vittorio Duse, Enzo Robutti

Summary: Sixteen years after Francis Ford Coppola won his second Oscar for The Godfather II (his first was for the 1972 Godfather), the director and star Al Pacino attempted to revive the concept one more time. Despite an elaborate plot that involves Michael Corleone seeking redemption through the Vatican while simultaneously preparing his nephew (Andy Garcia) to take over the Corleone family, the film fails to take shape as a truly meaningful experience in the way the preceding movies do. Still, Pacino is very moving as an elder Michael, filled with regret and trying hard to make amends with his wife (Diane Keaton) and grown children (one of whom is played, and not all that well, by the director's daughter, Sofia Coppola). --Tom Keogh

Starring: Sam Allen, Henry Bergman, W.S. Dobson, John Eagown, Georgia Hale, Bob Kelly, Geraldine Leslie, Margaret Martin, Ruth Milo, Tom Murray, George Neely, Donnabelle Ouster, Jack Phillips, Lillian Rosine, Frank Stockdale, Mack Swain, Nina Trask, Armand Triller, Malcolm Waite

Summary: After the box-office failure of his first dramatic film, A Woman of Paris, Charlie Chaplin brooded over his ensuing comedy. "The next film must be an epic!" he recalled in his autobiography. "The greatest!" He found inspiration, paradoxically, in stories of the backbreaking Alaskan gold rush and the cannibalistic Donner Party. These tales of tragedy and endurance provided Chaplin with a rich vein of comic possibilities. The Little Tramp finds himself in the Yukon, along with a swarm of prospectors heading over Chilkoot Pass (an amazing sight restaged by Chaplin in his opening scenes, filmed in the snowy Sierra Nevadas). When the Tramp is trapped in a mountain cabin with two other fortune hunters, Chaplin stages a veritable ballet of starvation, culminating in the cooking of a leathery boot. Back in town, the Tramp is smitten by a dance-hall girl (Georgia Hale), but it seems impossible that she could ever notice him. The Gold Rush is one of Chaplin's simplest, loveliest features; and despite its high comedy, it never strays far from Chaplin's keen grasp of loneliness. In 1942, Chaplin reedited the film and added music and his own narration for a successful rerelease. --Robert Horton

Starring: Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, Leslie Howard, Olivia de Havilland, Thomas Mitchell, Barbara O'Neil, Evelyn Keyes, Ann Rutherford, George Reeves, Fred Crane, Hattie McDaniel, Oscar Polk, Butterfly McQueen, Victor Jory, Everett Brown, Howard C. Hickman, Alicia Rhett, Rand Brooks, Carroll Nye, Marcella Martin

Summary: David O. Selznick wanted Gone with the Wind to be somehow more than a movie, a film that would broaden the very idea of what a film could be and do and look like. In many respects he got what he worked so hard to achieve in this 1939 epic (and all-time box-office champ in terms of tickets sold), and in some respects he fell far short of the goal. While the first half of this Civil War drama is taut and suspenseful and nostalgic, the second is ramshackle and arbitrary. But there's no question that the film is an enormous achievement in terms of its every resource--art direction, color, sound, cinematography--being pushed to new limits for the greater glory of telling an American story as fully as possible. Vivien Leigh is still magnificently narcissistic, Olivia de Havilland angelic and lovely, Leslie Howard reckless and aristocratic. As for Clark Gable: we're talking one of the most vital, masculine performances ever committed to film. --Tom Keogh

Starring: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco, Paul Sorvino, Chuck Low, Frank DiLeo, Frank Sivero, Tony Darrow, Mike Starr, Frank Vincent, Frank Adonis, Catherine Scorsese, Gina Mastrogiacomo, Suzanne Shepherd, Debi Mazar, Margo Winkler, Welker White, Julie Garfield, Christopher Serrone

Summary: Martin Scorsese's 1990 masterpiece GoodFellas immortalizes the hilarious, horrifying life of actual gangster Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), from his teen years on the streets of New York to his anonymous exile under the Witness Protection Program. The director's kinetic style is perfect for recounting Hill's ruthless rise to power in the 1950s as well as his drugged-out fall in the late 1970s; in fact, no one has ever rendered the mental dislocation of cocaine better than Scorsese. Scorsese uses period music perfectly, not just to summon a particular time but to set a precise mood. GoodFellas is at least as good as The Godfather without being in the least derivative of it. Joe Pesci's psycho improvisation of Mobster Tommy DeVito ignited Pesci as a star, Lorraine Bracco scores the performance of her life as the love of Hill's life, and every supporting role, from Paul Sorvino to Robert De Niro, is a miracle.

Starring: screenwriting

Summary: The opening of your screenplay is your most powerful weapon for acquiring an agent or securing a deal. Hollywood executives seldom read past page 10 if theyre not immediately involved in your story. Using examples from award winning, blockbuster screenplays, as well as from writers wanting to launch their careers, this DVD shows you how to create amazing opening scenes. MICHAEL HAUGE, author of Writing Screenplays That Sell, has consulted with screenwriters or producers on projects for Warners, Disney, New Line, CBS, Lifetime, Morgan Freeman, Jennifer Lopez and Julia Roberts. He is producing several films based on screenplays by former clients, and has presented his screenwriting seminars and lectures to more than 30,000 writers and filmmakers throughout the US, Canada and Europe. Michael is on the Board of Directors for the American Screenwriting Association. He is a STAR Speaker of the Screenwriting Expo.

Starring: Anne Bancroft, Dustin Hoffman, Katharine Ross, William Daniels, Murray Hamilton, Elizabeth Wilson, Buck Henry, Brian Avery, Walter Brooke, Norman Fell, Alice Ghostley, Marion Lorne, Eddra Gale, Mike Farrell, Buddy Douglas, Lainie Miller, Richard Dreyfuss, Jonathan Hole, Harry Holcombe, Elisabeth Fraser

Summary: Few films have defined a generation as The Graduate did. The alienation, the nonconformity, the intergenerational romance, the blissful Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack--they all served to lob a cultural grenade smack into the middle of 1967 America, ultimately making the film the third most profitable up to that time. Seen from a later perspective, its radical chicness has dimmed a bit, yet it's still a joy to see Dustin Hoffman's bemused Benjamin and Anne Bancroft's deliciously decadent, sardonic Mrs. Robinson. The script by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham is still offbeat and dryly funny, and Mike Nichols, who won an Oscar for his direction, has just the right, light touch. --Anne Hurley

Starring: Rudolph Anders, Chester Conklin, Henry Daniell, Carter DeHaven, Eddie Dunn, Emma Dunn, Reginald Gardiner, Billy Gilbert, Paulette Goddard, Bernard Gorcey, Eddie Gribbon, Grace Hayle, Hank Mann, Esther Michelson, Maurice Moscovitch, Jack Oakie, Nita Pike, Paul Weigel, Florence Wright

Summary: Since Adolf Hitler had the audacity to borrow his mustache from the most famous celebrity in the world--Charlie Chaplin--it meant Hitler was fair game for Chaplin's comedy. (Strangely, the two men were born within four days of each other.) The Great Dictator, conceived in the late thirties but not released until 1940, when Hitler's war was raging across Europe, is the film that skewered the tyrant. Chaplin plays both Adenoid Hynkel, the power-mad ruler of Tomania, and a humble Jewish barber suffering under the dictator's rule. Paulette Goddard, Chaplin's wife at the time, plays the barber's beloved; and the rotund comedian Jack Oakie turns in a weirdly accurate burlesque of Mussolini, as a bellowing fellow dictator named Benzino Napaloni, Dictator of Bacteria. Chaplin himself hits one of his highest moments in the amazing sequence where he performs a dance of love with a large inflated globe of the world. Never has the hunger for world domination been more rhapsodically expressed. The slapstick is swift and sharp, but it was not enough for Chaplin. He ends the film with the barber's six-minute speech calling for peace and prophesying a hopeful future for troubled mankind. Some critics have always felt the monologue was out of place, but the lyricism and sheer humanity of it are still stirring. This was the last appearance of Chaplin's Little Tramp character, and not coincidentally it was his first all-talking picture. --Robert Horton

Starring: Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, Bruce Dern, Karen Black, Scott Wilson

Summary: This adaptation of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, scripted by Francis Ford Coppola, puts costume design and art direction above the intricacies of character. It's certainly a handsome try, and perhaps no movie could capture The Great Gatsby in its entirety. Robert Redford is an interesting casting choice as Gatsby, the millionaire isolated in his mansion, still dreaming of the woman he lost. And Sam Waterston is perfect as the narrator, Nick, who brings the dream girl Daisy Buchanan back to Gatsby. No, the problem seems to be that director Jack Clayton fell in love with the flapper dresses and the party scenes and the Jazz Age tunes, ending up with a Classics Illustrated version of a great book rather than a fresh, organic take on the text. While Redford grows more quietly intriguing in the film, Mia Farrow's pallid performance as Daisy leaves you wondering why Gatsby, or anyone else, should care so much about his grand passion. The effective supporting cast includes Bruce Dern as Daisy's husband, and Scott Wilson and Karen Black as the low-rent couple whose destinies cross the sun-drenched protagonists. (That's future star Patsy Kensit as Daisy's little daughter.) The film won two Oscars--not surprisingly, for costumes and musical score. --Robert Horton

Starring: Lillian Albertson, Lyle Bettger, Robert Carson, Antoinette Concello, Cucciola

Summary: The Greatest Show on Earth is a heaping helping of flapdoodle served up by one of Hollywood's canniest entertainers: producer-director Cecil B. DeMille. This overripe melodrama purports to be life inside the Ringling Brothers Circus; maybe it's not, but the circus ought to be like this. The actors wrestling with the purple dialogue are: early-career Charlton Heston, as the tough-as-nails circus manager; Cornel Wilde and Betty Hutton as trapeze artistes; and Gloria Grahame (who won an Oscar), dangling from elephants. Best of all, James Stewart plays a clown who--for mysterious reasons--never removes his makeup. (Stewart took the supporting role simply because he'd always wanted to play a clown.) This is a fried-baloney sandwich of a movie: it ain't sophisticated, and probably isn't good for you, but once you start you can't stop. It was the box-office champ of 1952, and it shocked everybody by winning the best picture Oscar. --Robert Horton

Starring: Carol Bivins, Ken Hudson Campbell, Brian Doyle-Murray, Rick Ducommun, Robin Duke, Chris Elliott, Willie Garson, Marita Geraghty, Andie MacDowell, Tom Milanovich, Bill Murray, Rick Overton, David Pasquesi, Angela Paton, Les Podewell, Peggy Roeder, Rod Sell, Stephen Tobolowsky, John M. Watson Sr.

Summary: GROUNDHOG DAY (SPECIAL EDITION)

Starring: Rosanna Arquette, James Gandolfini, Peter Horton, Tom Wright, Chaim Girafi

Summary: An intriguing premise and a stellar group of participants both in front of and behind the camera propel Gun, a three-disc collection of six short films that originally aired in 1997 on ABC-TV. Creator James Sadwith (who also wrote and/or directed some episodes), along with big name directors like Robert Altman (Short Cuts, The Player), James Foley, and the late Ted Demme, oversaw these comical, tragic, tawdry, and sometimes compelling tales, most of them involving murder, adultery, betrayal, and other sins and all of them triggered (so to speak), driven, and sometimes resolved by the same handgun. While the gun is often totemic more than an active participant (indeed, in some episodes it's not even fired), it is the single element that ties them together. It's a provocative idea, but one that fails to fully live up to its promise. For one, while the gun often changes hands within a given story, we never see how it gets from one episode to the next; there's no overall connecting tissue here. And while there are enough stars on hand to populate your average TV awards show (James Gandolfini, Rosanna Arquette, Randy Quaid, Jennifer Tilly, Kirsten Dunst, Martin Sheen, and Edward James Olmos, to name but a few), there isn't a lot that any of them can do if the script they're working with is as tepid as some of Gun's are. "Columbus Day," with Gandolfini and Arquette, builds a fair amount of tension, with a nice little twist at the end. Altman's own "All the President's Women," with Quaid, Tilly, Daryl Hannah, and others, is silly and over the top. "The Shot," featuring a loud, whiny lead performance by Daniel Stern, does a decent job of satirizing the media's obsession with 15-second celebrity but falls prey to a way-too-facile ending. "Ricochet," with Sheen as a detective on the verge of retirement who's living out the "just one last case, I swear" cliché, is simply unconvincing in just about every way. And so it goes. Gun certainly has its moments (as well as a trailer and a photo gallery among its extra features), but for the most part, this qualifies as a missed opportunity. --Sam Graham