Avatar (2009)
[8] James Cameron's first film since Titanic is a sci-fi/fantasy epic with a healthy sense of adventure and discovery. Sam Worthington stars as Jake Sully, a marine sent to the far off world of Pandora to help the military ravage…
The Mission (1986)
[8] Robert DeNiro and Jeremy Irons star in this historical drama from director Roland Joffé (The Killing Fields, City of Joy) and screenwriter Robert Bolt (Lawrence of Arabia, A Man for All Seasons). Irons plays Father Gabriel, a Spanish Jesuit…
Hugo (2011)
[8] In 1931 Paris, an orphaned boy named Hugo (Asa Butterfield) lives in a train station and gets caught up in a mystery involving a broken automaton and a cranky old toy-maker (Ben Kingsley). With the help of an adventurous…
Dune: Part One (2021)
[8] Director Denis Villeneuve (Blade Runner 2049, Arrival) takes a stab at delivering Frank Herbert's dense, complicated science-fiction novel to the big screen. Dune centers around a teenaged royal named Paul Atreides (Call Me By Your Name's Timothée Chalamet) whose…
Sinners (2025)
[7] In this period horror film from writer/director Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station, Black Panther), twin Chicago gangsters named Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B. Jordan) return to their Depression-era Mississippi home town to create a more legitimate life…
Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
[7] Writer/director Steven Spielberg follows up his immensely successful Jaws with this tale of extra-terrestrials and government conspiracy. Richard Dreyfuss stars as a family man whose encounter with a UFO brings him into contact with a grieving mother (Melinda Dillon)…
Shane (1953)
[8] George Stevens (A Place in the Sun, Gunga Din) directs this Western morality tale based on the novel by Jack Schaefer. Alan Ladd plays the title character, a drifting cowboy who wanders into a sprawling Wyoming valley in the…
Life of Pi (2012)
[7] Director Ang Lee (The Ice Storm) brings Yann Martel's novel to vibrant, cinematic life. Suraj Sharma plays the teenaged Pi, whose family is traveling by sea from India to Canada with all the animals from their family zoo. When…
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
[8] Russell Crowe stars as a British naval captain pushing his ship's crew to the breaking point in pursuit of the Acheron, a stealthy French vessel he's been ordered to track and destroy. The plot of Master and Commander isn't…
Legends of the Fall (1994)
[8] Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, and Aidan Quinn star in this sprawling, family melodrama set in early twentieth century Montana, where the Ludlow family works their ranch in the untamed wilderness. Hopkins plays the patriarch, a pacifist and single father…