Hollywood's golden year of 1939 found the Marx Brothers At the Circus, up to their usual mischief if not their usual standards. It's a lesser effort but still a rollicking good time, casting Groucho, Chico, and Harpo as the would-be saviors of a financially troubled circus. Of course, Groucho gets the lion's share of zingers as crackpot lawyer J. Cheever Loophole (especially when sparring with his quintessential straight-lady, Margaret Dumont), and Irving Brecher's zippy dialogue (with a last-minute polish by Ben Hecht) is custom fit to the Marxes' vaudeville roots. This was the Marxes' third movie for MGM, and the studio's insistence on sappy romantic subplots and a wimpy romantic lead (Kenny Baker) occasionally stalls the manic momentum. Fortunately there's ample compensation, including Groucho's signature performance of "Lydia, the Tattooed Lady," penned by Wizard of Oz songwriters Harold Arlen and Yip Harburg. Despite the racial stereotypes that populate Harpo's jazzy interlude, At the Circus is a three-ring showcase of fun. -Jeff Shannon.

Andrei Konchalovsky's expansive television mini-series production of Homer's epic poem gets off to clumsy start as he tries to squeeze the Trojan War into a mere half hour, but once the arrogant but honorable Odysseus (strikingly played by Armand Assante) and his loyal crew begin their doomed voyage home, this film turns into a fantastical adventure. Integrating often-stunning special effects with inventive art design, Konchalovsky achieves a beautiful look on a limited budget as he follows the 10-year ordeal of Odysseus from his battles with the Cyclops and the magical Circe (Bernadette Peters) to his secret homecoming and his confrontation with the treacherous Eurymachus (Eric Roberts). Isabella Rossellini appears as his spiritual guide, the goddess Athena, with Greta Scacchi as Odysseus's faithful wife and Vanessa Williams as the seductive Calypso. The rest of the cast includes Geraldine Chaplin, Jeroen Krabbé, Christopher Lee, and Irene Papas. The production was shot on location in and around the Mediterranean, making for a lush, lovely visual experience. -Sean Axmaker.

Tom is T. S. Eliot (Willem Dafoe), the St. Louis-born poet who tried to turn himself into an Englishman. Viv is his wife, Vivienne Haigh-Wood (Miranda Richardson). She's got money, which allows him to give up his job and focus on poetry. She urges him on, promotes him to the Bloomsbury group (which adopts him but looks down its nose at her), and begins to go slightly crazy. Is it Eliot's chilly demeanor (in a terrific repressed performance by Dafoe) that's driving her nuts, or something else? In fact, she suffers from misdiagnosed physical ailments, and a combination of drugs and alcohol send her around the bend. It's hard to get emotionally involved in Dafoe's Eliot or to really plug into this story, though Richardson's passion nearly pulls you in. -Marshall Fine.

Ending the most popular film epic in history, Star Wars: Episode III, Revenge of the Sith is an exciting, uneven, but ultimately satisfying journey. Picking up the action from Episode II, Attack of the Clones as well as the animated Clone Wars series, Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and his apprentice, Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), pursue General Grievous into space after the droid kidnapped Supreme Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid). The Star Wars Family Tree (click for larger image) It's just the latest maneuver in the ongoing Clone Wars between the Republic and the Separatist forces led by former Jedi turned Sith Lord Count Dooku (Christopher Lee). On another front, Master Yoda (voiced by Frank Oz) leads the Republic's clone troops against a droid attack on the Wookiee homeworld of Kashyyyk. All this is in the first half of Episode III, which feels a lot like Episodes I and II. That means spectacular scenery, dazzling dogfights in space, a new fearsome villain (the CGI-created Grievous can't match up to either Darth Maul or the original Darth Vader, though), lightsaber duels, groan-worthy romantic dialogue, goofy humor (but at least it's left to the droids instead of Jar-Jar Binks), and hordes of faceless clone troopers fighting hordes of faceless battle droids. But then it all changes. Star Wars Time Line (click for larger image) After setting up characters and situations for the first two and a half movies, Episode III finally comes to life. The Sith Lord in hiding unleashes his long-simmering plot to take over the Republic, and an integral part of that plan is to turn Anakin away from the Jedi and toward the Dark Side of the Force. Unless you've been living under a rock the last 10 years, you know that Anakin will transform into the dreaded Darth Vader and face an ultimate showdown with his mentor, but that doesn't matter. [+]