Spider-Man (2002)

Franchise event-films ruled the summer of '02. Spider-Man, based on Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's comic strip, was the season's biggest success story. The good news is that there's nothing in it to offend family viewers. Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) is a nerdy outcast rejected by his high school's in-crowd and ignored by the pretty girl next door (Kirsten Dunst). When he's bitten by a genetically engineered spider, he develops the ability to spin gigantic spider webs. He also becomes super-strong and super-quick.

Director Sam Raimu and screen-writer David Koepp chart Peter's progress in learning how to deploy his unique gifts for the service of the greater good, and he turns himself into the scourge of New York City's worst criminals. The film is an enjoyable roller-coaster ride even though some of its pleasures seem too calculated. Good and evil are clearly defined, but parents should be warned that some of the violence in the action sequences may be too intense for younger viewers.

Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken (1991)

American culture encourages people to live out their dreams no matter what obstacles fate may throw in their way. Disney dramatizes this theme in a heart-warming, coming-of-age story set in the 1930s. Sonora Webster (Gabrielle Anwar), a tomboy orphan, runs away from her aunt's farm to seek her fortune in a traveling carnival owned by a crusty old cowboy named Dr. Carver (Cliff Robertson). She aspires to be the rider of a “diving horse” that leaps from a high platform into a tank of water.

Carver's son, Al, teaches her how to perform the stunt, falling in love with her in the process. The young man gets into a fight with his father and leaves, but Sonora becomes the show's star anyway. When tragedy strikes, the young couple is reunited and works against impossible odds to help her realize her dream.

The Gold Rush (1925)

Silent-movie comedy is one of the glories of film history, but far too few present-day buffs have sampled its delights. The era's most popular character was Charlie Chaplin's Little Tramp, with his black mustache, bowler hat, twirling cane and penguin-like walk. Numerous short films humorously pitted this populist underdog against a sometimes-cruel world filled with unyielding, hostile obstacles.

The Gold Rush, written and directed by Chaplin, was the char-acter's first successful feature. The Little Tramp travels to Alaska during the gold-rush fever and struggles for survival in a desolate Yukon cabin with two grizzled prospectors.

He also falls for a dance-hall girl whose intentions at first seem untrustworthy.

The most famous sequence is the Thanksgiving dinner with Big Jim where the Tramp cooks one of his outsized boots, pretending it's a feast fit for a king.

Equally hilarious is the scene in which the Tramp is trapped inside a cabin that's teetering on the precipice of a cliff.