Franklin J. Schaffner (Patton) directs this true story of Henri Charriere (better known as "Papillon" or "the butterfly"), a prisoner so determined to escape the notorious Devil's Island, he attempted it multiple times until he reached old age. Steve McQueen plays Charriere, and Dustin Hoffman is very good as the hero's anxious, defenseless friend. Based on Charriere's own memoir and uncompromisingly adapted by screenwriters Dalton Trumbo (Johnny Got His Gun) and Lorenzo Semple Jr. (Three Days of the Condor), the film is tough going (it is set, after all, on Devil's Island) but not gratuitously violent. There are sequences that stay with one for a long time, such as Papillon's brief stay at a leper colony and the long periods of starvation and solitary confinement he endures after each attempted flight. -Tom Keogh.

As he proved with The Black Stallion, Never Cry Wolf, and Fly Away Home, director Carroll Ballard has a gift for creating exhilarating movie experiences. And although Wind received only mixed reviews when released in 1992, it's a technically astonishing film that does for yacht racing what The Black Stallion did for horse racing-it puts you right into the action with breathtaking camerawork and gripping excitement. Matthew Modine and Jennifer Grey star as experienced sailors determined to win the prestigious America's Cup yacht race. Their love for each other is put to the test when she's removed from the crew and joins up with a maverick designer (Stellan Skarsgård) whose new boat design represents the cutting edge of sailing competition. Eventually Modine leaves his millionaire sponsor (Cliff Robertson) and reunites with Grey, and their race against the Australian World's Cup champion leads to a thrilling climax on the high sea. Cinematographer John Toll (who later won back-to-back Oscars for Legends of the Fall and Braveheart) takes his cameras where no sailing movie had ever gone before, and the results are nothing less than spectacular. -Jeff Shannon.

While most movie buffs are likely to call Halloween the best movie from John Carpenter, others-die-hard romantics and anyone who cried while watching E. T. -might vote in favor of the director's 1984 hit Starman. It's easily Carpenter's warmest and most beguiling film, and the only one that ever earned an Oscar nomination. That honor went specifically to Best Actor nominee Jeff Bridges for his performance as an alien visitor to Earth who is knocked off course and must take an interstate road trip to rendezvous with a mothership from his home planet. To complete this journey he assumes the physical form of the dead husband of a Wisconsin widow (Karen Allen) who responds first with fear, then sympathy, and finally love. Carpenter's graceful strategy is to switch the focus of this E. T. -like film from science fiction to a gentle road-movie love story, made believable by the memorable performances of Bridges and Allen. It's a bit heavy-handed with tenacious government agents who view the Starman as an alien threat (don't they always?), but Carpenter handles the action with intelligent flair, sensitivity, and lighthearted humor. [+]

The ambitious TV event War and Remembrance was the final opus in the golden age of the maxi-miniseries. This six-disc set offers the first half (seven episodes) of ABC's mammoth 30-hour production of Herman Wouk's bestseller-itself a sequel to the landmark Winds of War-mixing fictional and real characters around the events of World War II. It starts a week after the attack on Pearl Harbor and abruptly stops in July 1943 with the fall of Mussolini. Only half of the first series' lead actors return, including Robert Mitchum as the patriarch Captain "Pug" Henry. Although Mitchum is too old and less dashing than he should be, his presence is exactly what the series needs as it wavers between pop entertainment and a graphic look at the atrocities of war. The series' multiple storylines branch from the Henry family tree, from his sons' naval battles to his daughter-in-law's (Jane Seymour) harrowing flight through Europe with her famous father (John Gielgud), witnessing firsthand the collapse of European Jewish life in the grip of Nazi power. Director Dan Curtis said that after The Winds of War, the opportunity to show the Jews' plight led him to take on another daunting production. He takes the viewer into Auschwitz with unflinching realism (producer and former internee Branko Lustig returned to the subject a decade later with Schindler's List) and is just as deft with a few massive battle sequences combining models with colorized footage. Sometimes the soap opera of the characters' affairs seems pretty sappy, especially with some uneven acting. The DVD set also contains two featurettes from 1988 and 2002. [+]

If you haven't seen the original Dragonheart, never fear-this story doesn't have much to do with it. Geoffrey (Chris Masterson) is a stable boy at a monastery, with dreams of knighthood-dreams that seem out of reach until he discovers a young dragon living in the monastery's dungeon, a scaly but kindly faced fellow named Drake (voiced by Robby Benson). Unfortunately, the king of the realm has fallen under the spell of an evil adviser, who has plans for this dragon. Fortunately, an old Chinese man and his ward-a very attractive girl with a stunning kung-fu kick-have arrived to keep the dragon from harm. The story is straightforward and clearly aimed at a younger audience, with an uncontroversial moral about friendship. The special effects are capable and at times expressive. Dragonheart: A New Beginning is kid-friendly and will probably be kid-appealing. -Bret Fetzer.

Warrior woman Lana Clarkson (Deathstalker) survives the massacre of her little village (on the eve of her marriage to a tribal prince) and vows revenge. Surrounding herself with an estrogen brigade of female fighters, she makes quick work of the marauders before moving on to the city to lead the brewing rebellion against the evil king. Don't think for a second that this is about empowered women: every female character is raped or molested in the picture. Ostensibly directed by Héctor Olivera (Funny Dirty Little War), this silly, badly dubbed, shot-in-Argentina production is full of gratuitous nudity and slapdash but serviceable action and is enlivened largely by Clarkson's charisma and energy. Much of the marvelous music is cribbed from James Horner's lush Battle Beyond the Stars score. Clarkson returns in the sequel, Barbarian Queen II: The Empress Strikes Back. -Sean Axmaker.