When a Roman General, Maximus Decimus Meridius (Russell Crowe) is betrayed, and his family murdered by an emperor's corrupt son (Joaquin Phoenix), he comes to Rome as a gladiator to seek revenge. In the final days of Marcus Aurelius' (Richard Harris) reign, the aging emperor arouses his son Commodus' anger when he makes known his wish that Maximus be his successor. Power-hungry Commodus kills his father and orders the death of Maximus. But the latter flees and hides his identity by becoming slave and a gladiator. Eventually, Maximus journeys back to Rome to confront his archrival.

After John Nash, a brilliant but asocial mathematician, accepts secret work in cryptography, his life takes a turn for the nightmarish. "A Beautiful Mind" is a 2001 American biographical drama film based on the life of John Nash (Russell Crowe), a Nobel Laureate in Economics. The film was directed by Ron Howard, from a screenplay written by Akiva Goldsman. It was inspired by a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-nominated 1998 book of the same name by Sylvia Nasar. The story begins in Nash's days as a graduate student at Princeton University. Early in the film, Nash begins to develop paranoid schizophrenia and endures delusional episodes while painfully watching the loss and burden his condition brings on wife Alicia (Jennifer Connelly) and friends.

An ingenue insinuates herself into the company of an established but aging stage actress and her circle of theater friends. - The film stars Bette Davis as Margo Channing, a highly regarded but aging Broadway star. Anne Baxter plays Eve Harrington, an ambitious young fan who subtly manuvers herself into Channing's life, ultimately threatening Channing's career and her personal relationships. The film co-stars George Sanders, Celeste Holm, and features Gary Merrill, Hugh Marlowe, Thelma Ritter, Marilyn Monroe (in one of her earliest roles), Gregory Ratoff, Barbara Bates and Walter Hampden."

"Murderesses Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart find themselves on death row together and fight for the fame that will keep them from the gallows in 1920s Chicago. "Chicago" is a 2002 American musical crime comedy-drama film based on the stage-musical of the same name, exploring the themes of celebrity, scandal, and corruption in Chicago during the Jazz Age. The film stars Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Richard Gere....

"Gandalf and Aragorn lead the World of Men against Sauron's army to draw his gaze from Frodo and Sam as they approach Mount Doom with the One Ring. "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" is a 2003 epic high fantasy adventure film produced, written, and directed by Peter Jackson based on the second and third volumes of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. It is the third and final instalment in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, following The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and The Two Towers (2002), preceding The Hobbit film trilogy (2012–2014).

The rise and fall of a corrupt politician, who makes his friends richer and retains power by dint of a populist appeal. - "All the King's Men" is the story of the rise of politician Willie Stark (Broderick Crawford) from a rural county seat to the governor's mansion is depicted in the film. He goes into politics, railing against the corruptly run county government, but loses his race for county treasurer, in the face of unfair obstacles placed by the local machine. Stark teaches himself law, and as a lawyer, continues to fight the local establishment, championing the local people and gaining popularity. He eventually rises to become a candidate for governor, narrowly losing his first race, then winning on his second attempt. Along the way he loses his innocence and becomes as corrupt as the politicians he once fought against. As he rises, Stark philanders and gets involved with many women, taking his PR man/journalist Jack Burden's own girlfriend, Anne Stanton, as his mistress."

"A determined woman works with a hardened boxing trainer to become a professional. Margaret "Maggie" Fitzgerald (Hilary Swank), a waitress from a Missouri town in the Ozarks, shows up in the Hit Pit, a run-down Los Angeles gym owned and operated by Frankie Dunn (Clint Eastwood), an old, cantankerous boxing trainer. Maggie asks Frankie to train her, but he initially refuses. Maggie works out tirelessly each day in his gym, even after Frankie tells her she's "too old" to begin a boxing career at her age. Eddie "Scrap-Iron" Dupris (Morgan Freeman), Frankie's friend and employee—and the film's narrator—encourages and helps her.

"Los Angeles citizens with vastly separate lives collide in interweaving stories of race, loss and redemption. produced, directed, and co-written by Paul Haggis. The film features racial and social tensions in Los Angeles. A self-described "passion piece" for Haggis, Crash was inspired by a real-life incident, in which his Porsche was carjacked in 1991 outside a video store on Wilshire Boulevard.

Prince Hamlet struggles over whether or not he should kill his uncle, whom he suspects has murdered his father, the former king. - "Hamlet" is a 1948 British film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play of the same name, adapted and directed by and starring Sir Laurence Olivier. The film was Olivier's second as director, and also the second of the three Shakespeare films that he directed. "Hamlet" was the first British film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. It is also the first sound film of the play in English.

Olivier's "Hamlet" is the Shakespeare film that has received the most prestigious accolades, winning the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Actor and the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. However, it proved controversial among Shakespearean purists, who felt that Olivier had made too many alterations and excisions to the four-hour play by cutting nearly two hours' worth of content."

An undercover cop and a mole in the police attempt to identify each other while infiltrating an Irish gang in South Boston. "The Departed" is a 2006 American crime drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by William Monahan. It is a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film Infernal Affairs.

Irish Mob boss Francis "Frank" Costello (Jack Nicholson) plants Colin Sullivan (Matt Damon) as a mole within the Massachusetts State Police; the two characters are loosely based on famous gangster Whitey Bulger and corrupt FBI agent John Connolly, who grew up with Bulger. Simultaneously, the police assign undercover state trooper William "Billy" Costigan (Leonardo DiCaprio) to infiltrate Costello's crew. ....