With an epic-sized budget and featuring some serious eye candy, “Troy” hits theaters with a lot of expectations to live up to, not the least of which is whether or not today’s audience will relate to the story. That issue - the relevance of Homer’s “The Iliad” in today’s world - is addressed pretty much immediately. Boiled down to its basics, “Troy” is a love story immersed in a world of burly men battling to restore their King’s wounded pride while capturing more land for their country to rule, set in a time when the world was run by men who worshiped mythic Gods such as Apollo and Zeus. That’s an easy enough story for contemporary moviegoers to get into. So fear not, if you can’t recall which Greek God is which, you won’t feel lost in the world of “Troy.”

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A movie about Electronic Voice Phenomena? It sounds interesting enough. Voices from beyond the grave come through on TV sets or radios tuned to stations that aren’t broadcasting. We’re talking about what could be some very spooky stuff here. Unfortunately, everything “White Noise” dishes out we’ve seen before. And in most cases, we’ve seen it done much, much better.

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Whatever you’re expecting from “Alexander,” the odds are high you’ll be in for a huge surprise. Oliver Stone’s Alexander the Great story is more about the man himself and his relationships with the men in his life, than it is about Alexander’s conquests and life as a ruler.

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Director Peter Jackson had big shoes to fill in creating “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” - his own (albeit in reality said shoes were most often missing, exposing feet that have been described as ‘hobbit-like’). With the first film garnering 13 Academy Award nominations, picking up American Film Institute and Screen Actors Guild Awards, doing boffo business at the box office, and accomplishing the near impossible - exceeding many Tolkien fanatics’ fantasies of a live action trilogy - Jackson set the bar incredibly high. Fortunately, this short, stout, visionary director turns out to be quite a high jumper.

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On their way to Riker’s and Troi’s honeymoon, the Enterprise is sent near the neutral zone to Romulan space, and picks up a prototypic twin of android Data. Immediately they are further sent to Romulus, where a new praetor, Shinzon, a human cloned from Captain Picard who lives on the slave planet Remus, appears to want peace with the Federation. But then the crew detects a break-in on their computer systems, and Picard is captured by the Remans because Shinzon needs him as his only matching supplier of genetic material. Picard and the Enterprise can escape, only to find themselves battling Shinzon’s completely cloaked Warbird, who is after the complete destruction of earth. Written by 42/103

Based on Joseph Conrad’s Heart Of Darkness, this is a controversial addition to the multitude of Vietnam war movies in existence. Set in 1969 Vietnam, we follow U.S. Special Forces Captain Willard on his mission up a river into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade Green Beret who has set himself up as a God among a local tribe. Written by Colin Tinto {cst@imdb.com}

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“Million Dollar Baby” was a last minute addition to the list of 2004 Oscar contenders. In fact, Clint Eastwood’s critically acclaimed boxing drama was so late upon the scene that when brought up in conversation as a possible Best Picture nominee back in early December, the response usually was something along the lines of, “Clint Eastwood has a new movie?”

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Maximus is a powerful Roman general, loved by the people and the aging Emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Before his death, the Emperor chooses Maximus to be his heir over his own son, Commodus, and a power struggle leaves Maximus and his family condemned to death. The powerful general is unable to save his family, and his loss of will allows him to get captured and put into the Gladiator games until he dies. The only desire that fuels him now is the chance to rise to the top so that he will be able to look into the eyes of the man who will feel his revenge. Written by Chris “Morphy” Terry

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