Our Top 10's of 2003: Time To Throw Down! - Page 3

Placeholder. I need to catch myself up on a few films before I can make my list.

1. Lord Of The Rings ROTK

2. Seabiscuit
3. The Last Samurai
4. Kill Bill
5. Underworld
6. The Hulk
7. Master & Commander
8. Mystic River
9. Open Range
10. X-2

say... will that gentleman and his fancy spreadsheets that weighed all our choices be back this year/ doing them this year? Just curious.

That would be Dana Filhart, and based on the following from his list above, I would say yes:

Great to hear. I must have missed the info upon first scanning the thread. Thank you.

Top 10 of 2003


1. Open Hearts (Elsker dig for evigt)
2. Lost in Translation
3. Shattered Glass
4. And Now. . .Ladies and Gentlemen
5. Spider
6. Mystic River
7. Love Actually
8. Last Samurai
9. Lilja 4-Ever
10. Charlotte Sometimes

(By the criteria, "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not" and "Nowhere in Africa" would be eligible, but I'm pretty sure I included them on my 2002 list.)

Honorable mentions:

Thirteen
Magdalene Sisters
Open Range
Melvin Goes to Dinner
The Station Agent

Most puzzlingly overpraised: American Splendor
Most disliked: Morvern Callar, Once Upon a Time in the Midlands

Have yet to see: Big Fish, Monster, Gerry, Seabiscuit, Kill Bill Volume 1, Irreversible, Capturing the Friedmans

1. LOTR: ROTK Concluding chapter of the greatest film trilogy of them all(IMO) is also the best of the 3.
2. The Last Samurai A pleasant surprise for me.
3. Kill Bill Looking forward to volume 2.
4. Mystic River Terrific acting all around.
5. X2 Another sequel that was better than the original.
6. Master and Commander Russell Crowe has mastered the period epic.
7. Love Actually My wife wanted to see it and i'm glad she dragged me with her.
8. Open Range Love a good western.
9. Pirates of the Caribbean Depp in top form.
10.Matrix Reloaded Hey i liked it.

1. American Splendor
2. Mystic River
3. The Station Agent
4. Matchstick Men
5. Radio
6. The Italian Job
7. Lost in Translation
8. Gigantic: A Tale of Two Johns
9. Master and Commander
10. Secondhand Lions

1. Master and Commander: Far Side of the World
2. Cold Mountain
3. The Last Samurai
4. Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
5. Open Range
6. Pirates of the Caribbean
7. The Hulk
8. Whale Rider
9. A Mighty Wind
10.Kill Bill: Vol. 1

Spider and Irreverible were released in 2002,so they dont make my list.

Havent seen:
21 Grams,American Splendor,Thirteen,Twilight Samurai,Lilya 4 Ever,Dirty Pretty Things,Master & Commander......,The Barbarian Invasions,House of Sand and Matchstick Men

So heres my current list, which can change:


1. Seabiscuit
2. LOTR:Return Of The King
3. Lost in Translation
4. X2
5. Last Samurai
6. Finding Nemo
7. Kill Bill
8. Monster
9. Bad Santa
10.Big Fish

Biggest Suprise of the year:
T3(saw it last weekend and was suprised it didnt totally suck)Bad Santa,Seabiscuit(Didnt want to see it,G/F dragged me to it and it was still the film I enjoyed most this year)

Biggest Disappointment:
Intolerable Cruelty (Which is extra heartbreaking since its a Coens Film)

Is the qualifications for this list - released theatrically in North America in 2003? If that's the case "Irreversible" is eligible as it only played outside North America and in festivals prior to 2003. "Spider" I'm still not sure it's exact release dates...thus it's on my list.

Spider was going to be 'wedged' into a quick late-'02 release for awards qualification, but Sony Pictures Classics opted to hold it for a 2/28/03 release.

I count it as a 2003 release, and I'm pretty finicky about having accurate release dates on my lists.

Good to hear, as I'd hate to delete it from it's current #3 spot on my list.
Thanks for the info.

Here's my current top 20 of 2003. There are still a great number of films I have yet to see ("Mystic River", "Monster", "Triplets of Belleville", "Tokyo Godfathers", "Man Without a Past", "Gerry", "The Son", "All the Real Girls", "Capturing the Friedmans"... the list goes on and on.) My list consists of films that gained their first US theatrical release in 2003.

1. Irreversible
2. Ichi the Killer
3. 21 Grams
4. A Mighty Wind
5. May
6. Lost in Translation
7. Morvern Callar
8. Swimming Pool
9. The Shape of Things
10. House of Sand and Fog

11. Elephant
12. Millenium Actress
13. The Return of the King
14. Dracula: Pages From a Virgin's Diary
15. Kill Bill Vol. 1
16. 28 Days Later
17. Owning Mahowny
18. Bubba Ho-Tep
19. Big Fish
20. Carnage

Honroable mention to: "Party Monster", for putting Macauly Culkin in plaform shoes and dressing Seth Green as a troll, and to "Spun" for making me laugh at a woman being tied to a bed for days on end.

Disappointed by:
"Flower of Evil" - I was hoping for something delightfully dark and humorous, but instead the film was quite bland.

Worst of the year:
"Bruce Almighty"
"The Matrix Revolutions"
"The Matrix Reloaded"
"Ken Park" (Although I guess this is now a 2004 release?)

Biggest guilty pleasures:
"Charlie's Angels 2: Electric Jiggleloo"
The remake of "Freaky Friday"

Worst film I didn't even bother to see:
Remake of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre"

I still have a lot of films to see, but here is my temporary list.
[list=1][*]The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King[*]Kill Bill: Vol. 1[*]21 Grams[*]Elephant[*]My Life Without Me[*]Irréversible (Irreversible)[*]In America[*]Lost in Translation[*]Cidade de Deus (City of God)[*]The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara[/list=1]

Ugh, one bad keystroke wiped out everything I'd written. I'll update at a later time. The following list is tentative and far from final.

1. Gerry
2. House of Sand and Fog
3. All the Real Girls
4. Capturing the Friedmans
5. Kill Bill Volume 1
6. Matchstick Men
7. City of God/Bus 174 (tie)
8. Whale Rider
9. In America
10. Dirty Pretty Things

That was tough enough. Limiting honorable mentions to ten wasn't easy either:

28 Days Later
The Company
Down with Love
Finding Nemo
Lost in Translation
Mystic River
The Secret Lives of Dentists
The Shape of Things
Shattered Glass
So Close
Taking Sides

Not quite making the cut:

American Splendor
Bad Santa
Bend It Like Beckham
Better Luck Tomorrow
Big Fish
Charlotte Sometimes
Daredevil
Demonlover
Elf
The Flower of Evil
He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not
The Hulk
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Mondays in the Sun
Phone Booth
Raising Victor Vargas
The School of Rock
Seabiscuit
The Son
Stone Reader

And a tentative worst of the year:

1. Marci X
2. It Runs in the Family
3. Super Sucker
4. The Real Cancun
5. House of 1000 Corpses
6. Boat Trip
7. Gods and Generals
8. Bad Boys II
9. Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat
10. From Justin to Kelly

Just missing the worst:

Bringing Down the House
Cradle 2 the Grave
Grind
My Boss's Daughter
Thirteen

.

I'm sure it'll be worth the wait Dana! Good luck.

My top 10:
The Barbarian Invasions
Raja
Laurel Canyon
Happy, Here and Now
Bright Leaves
Dogville
L'Histoire de Marie et Julien
City of God
Lost in Translation
Ken Park

I may edit this to add more info later, but don't forget the wonderful thing that is the IMDB 2003 was a good year, there were plenty of other top 10 worthy films.

Ted

My top 10, as of 1/14/04. Please note that I have constructed my list with films that I had the most fun watching. There are other films that most people would consider to be "better" than some on my top 10, and I would probably agree. I just prefer a list with highly-entertaining films. The list may need revision at some point because there are quite a few 2003 films I plan to check out on DVD.

The top four are definate:

1) The Triplets of Belleville
2) Lost in Translation
3) American Splendor
4) LOTR: Return of the King

I had a hard time ranking the remaining six:

5) Shanghai Knights
6) Looney Tunes: Back in Action
7) Phone Booth
8) Matchstick Men
9) Hulk
10) Russian Ark


Honorable mentions, great and significant films:
Finding Nemo, In America, Last Samurai, Master & Commander, Mystic River, Seabiscuit, Station Agent

Honorable mentions, entertaining popcorn films:
Bubba Ho-Tep, Down with Love, Pirates of the Caribbean, Rundown, T-3


My biggest disappointments of 2003:
Big Fish, Kill Bill Volume One (may change mind when I see v.1 and 2 together as one film), Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions

NOTE: I did not hate these films, I just did not think they were as good as I was expecting. They are NOT my choice for the worst films of 2003.


The worst of 2003:
The only film I saw that was truely terrible was Christmas Vacation 2, which was a made-for-TV-movie and doesn't really count. I do have a slight interest to see the bomb that is Gigli, though!

My top ten:

1) Finding Nemo
2) Lord of the Rings: Return of The King
3) Matrix Revolutions
4) Lost in Translation
5) Master and Commander
6) Seabiscuit
7) Kill Bill: Volume 1
8) Matrix Reloaded
9) X2
10) Mystic River

looking great Dana, thanks for all your efforts.

I wonder if City of God's votes were split between last year and the present...

Nice work

Top 10 for 2003
1.The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2.Lost in Translation
3.Kill Bill, Vol. 1
4.Finding Nemo
5.Whale Rider
6.All The Real Girls
7.He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not
8.Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl
9.Raising Victor Vargas
10.Nowhere in Africa

Not seen yet: 21 Grams, Elephant, Bad Santa, Triplets of Bellville...I'll add others once I look at the lists.


Current top 10 (30) as of Feb 6, 2004

1. Return of the King
2. City of God
3. In America
4. Master and Commander: TFSotW
5. Mystic River
6. American Splendor
7. Monster
8. Cold Mountain
9. X2: X-Men United
10. Pirates of the Carribean

11-20
Whale Rider, Seabiscuit, House of Sand and Fog, Matrix 3, Finding Nemo, Lost in Translation, Matrix 2, Bend it Like Beckham, School of Rock, Better Luck Tomorrow

21-30
28 Days Later, Italian Job, Kill Bill Vol 1, The Cooler, Big Fish, Elf, Bubba Ho-Tep, Thirteen, Animatrix Series, Lost in La Mancha


Notes: I was in the "loved em" camp of the Matrix sequels. Sorry haters, I thought they were both interesting and exciting films and I enjoyed the direction they took the plot.

Not such a big fan of Kill Bill. I liked it and appreciated some of the artistry to it, but mostly it felt like QT riffing on himself, an homage to his own homages.

I had several action and comedy pieces in my top 20-30, including X2 in my top 10. I really do love that film, I enjoy the character motivations driving the plot lines, the acting is top notch as you would expect with the talent involved, and man does the action look great...straight out of the comics just like Spider-Man was last year.

Pirates was there too, a total shocker to me but a great reminder that outstanding films needent be serious only. Adventure, action and comedy can be done with great talent as well and I generally do have at least one or two comedies somewhere around my top 10 (like Jay and Silent Bob last year).

All 5 Best Pix nominees made my top 15. My 4 faves all did extremely well with the Oscar noms, so I certainly will be glued to the show (like I wouldn't be).

Top Ten not in any particular order.

1.) The Rundown - a very overlooked and well done action film. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this film. An adventure flick that is every bit as good as Pirates of the Carribbean.

2.) The Hulk - Im surprised to see how many people actaually put this film in their top ten. I thought I was the only one who appreciated what Ang Lee was trying to do. The film has it's problems to be sure but it was a noble effort on the director's part and it does not deserve the backlash it recieved.

3.) Radio - What can I say it was a well done "feel good" film with good performances, especially by Cuba Gooding Jr. It is sad that he hasn't been recognized for his performance.

4.) Seabiscut - same comments for Radio apply to this film as well.

5.) Open Range - Damn good western, Kevin Costner should nominated for best director, but Peter Jackson should win.

6.) The Last Samurai - A very well done historic epic. Cruise performance is every bit as good as Wantanbe's, I don't care what most of you on the forum say. Many of you people will find any excuse not to give Tom his due.

7.) Bad Santa - The funniest damn movie, I've seen in a while. Billy Bob Thornton and Tony Cox should both be up for best actor and supporting actor.

8.) The Matrix Reloaded - I'll never understand why so many people complained about this film. The stunts were better, the story expanded to where it had to logically go, it had some problemms but overall a good sequel.

9.)Pirates of the Carribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl - Once again Jerry Bruckhiemer proves he is the man.

10.) The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - I just have one word: Shelob.

I, almost forgot to mention Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. - Like the Last Samurai, a well done historic epic with very good acting.

I haven't seen "Out of Time" yet but from what I've heard Im quite sure it will make my list.