"Are you not entertained?" DreamWorks cements its reputation - as does star Russell Crowe - with Ridley Scott's Gladiator, a May release that does blockbuster business and emerges as a surprise Oscar contender, ultimately winning five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Actor.

Steven Soderbergh, who burst to fame with sex, lies, and videotape and then faded into obscurity, resurfaces with a vengeance as his two 2000 movies, Erin Brockovich and Traffic, are box office hits and nab him dual Oscar nominations for Best Director, a feat not seen since 1938. Unlike Michael Curtiz back then, Soderbergh ultimately wins, for Traffic.

Hot off Gladiator, Russell Crowe grabs headlines for his next movie, Proof of Life, but not because of his performance - he's been having an affair with leading lady Meg Ryan, who as a result leaves husband Dennis Quaid. The relationship fizzles, and the movie flops.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the elegant action film/love story directed by Ang Lee, opens to rapturous reviews and puts the Hong Kong action genre on the mainstream map; it also becomes the highest-grossing foreign language film in the U.S. and wins four Oscars.

O Brother, Where Art Thou?, the Coen brothers' very loose adaptation of The Odyssey, spawns a hit soundtrack produced by T-Bone Burnett that becomes a runaway bestseller, surpassing the movie's success and winning five Grammys.

British director Christopher Nolan becomes an indie darling with Memento, the Sundance hit about a man (Guy Pearce) with short term memory loss tracking down his wife's killer. Oh, maybe we should have said first that it's told backwards.

Determined to prove his devotion to Scientology, John Travolta ponies up the big bucks to produce and star in an adaptation of L. Ron Hubbard's Battlefield Earth. The movie joins Ishtar, Showgirls, and Heaven's Gate as a synonym for film debacle.