Like Mike (2002)

Combining elements from different genres can be tricky. If the mixture isn't right, the final product will be a muddled pastiche. Like Mike begins as a tenderhearted orphanage story (like Boys Town) that throws in aspects of a push-to-victory sports saga (like Hoosiers) with a wish-fulfillment magical device (like Dumbo's magic feather). Director John Schultz and screenwriters Michael Elliott and Jordan Moffet cleverly stir it all together, creating a nice balance between laughter and tears. Calvin Cambridge (Lil’ Bow Wow) is a 14-year-old orphan who wins a raffle to shoot hoops with a professional basketball star, Tracy Reynolds (Morris Chestnut). With the help of a pair of magic sneakers, he beats Tracy and is signed to a season's contract with Tracy's team.

The two room together while on tour. Calvin's hungry for a supportive father figure, but Tracy doesn't seem interested. Together they must learn that there's more to life than fame, winning and magic sneakers.

Ice Age (2002)

Animated features continue to provide some of Hollywood's best entertainment for both children and adults. Ice Age combines lovable characters and well-executed slapstick with a densely textured evocation of the Paleolithic era of 20,000 years ago. The story is a clever (but unacknowledged) reworking of John Ford's classic 1949 western, Three Godfathers. As the harsh winter approaches, a colorful cast of prehistoric animals begins migrating south. A lazy, misfit sloth named Sid (voice of John Leguizamo) joins up with Manny (Ray Romano), a taci-turn woolly mammoth, to rescue a human baby from a predatory gang of saber-toothed tigers.

Sid and Manny don't really like each other, but they have to learn to work together to return the baby to its migratory tribe. When this odd couple gets lost, they're forced to depend on Diego (Denis Leary), a wandering saber-toothed tiger who can't be trusted. Director Chris Wedge uses inventive computer graphics to make us experience the dangers of the frozen environment in which his characters are trying to survive.

A Walk in the Sun (1945)

Nowadays the U.S. military is focusing on “lifting the fog of war” through the application of information technology. This means minimizing the confusion of combat for commanders and foot soldiers alike so that our troops can accomplish their objectives with more efficient lethal precision. A Walk in the Sun, based on Harry Brown's World War II novel, imaginatively captures the uncertainties and dangers of battlefield chaos that the top brass wants to eliminate.

The action begins with an infantry platoon landing on a Salerno beach in Southern Italy. Their lieutenant (Robert Lowell) is immediately killed by shrapnel and the first sergeant who takes charge (Hubert Rudley) cracks under fire. Sgt. Tyne (Dana Andrews) assumes command, and the unit cautiously makes its way to its objective, a farmhouse six miles inland. The soldiers' chatty conversations and innermost thoughts are randomly interrupted by deadly skirmishes. The enemy is never seen close up.