The Best Film of 2003........

Joe Brody

Well-known member
Seabiscuit

[Jokingly] I have my suspicions that all the great lids in Seabiscuit are to some degree the cause of Mr. Fisk's zealous advocacy of this picture.
 

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
Re: Every single movie is about redemption?

Joe Brody said:
That's a pretty broad statement, and I wonder what you mean by 'redemption'?

Do you mean redemption as in 'change for the better' or 'atone for past wrongs' -- or both.

Considering the classic plot structure of story telling, most films will have the audience believeing in a character the has to find redemption of something.
 

VP

Moderator Emeritus
I haven't seen PotC, so I can't say about it.

But I liked LXG, Nemo and RotK. But I think that RotK wins.
 

Joe Brody

Well-known member
This thread is starting to languish, so in hopes of opening things up, here's my favorites (so far) for 2003:

Favorites/Best
(1) Lost in Translation
(2) X2
(3) Pirates
(4) RotK
(5) Freaky Friday
(6) 28 Days Later
(7) Last Samurai
(8) Mystic River
(9) Matchstick Men*
(10) Finding Nemo*

"*" indicates that film is temporary filler until I see remaining films (listed below) for the year.

Decent/Middling/Renters -- roughly in order:
(1) Master & Commander
(2) 2 Fast 2 Furious
(3) Brother Bear
(4) Charlie's Angel's II
(5) Seabiscuit
(6) Tomb Raider II
(7) Bruce Almighty
(8) Matrix Reloaded
(9) Anger Management

Yet to View (but likely to fall in the above 2 categories)
Big Fish
Cold Mountain
Open Range
School of Rock
Kill Bill
Bad Santa
House of Shadow & Fog

All the Rest:
Terminator 3
Daredevil
Maid in Manhattan
The Recuit
Holes
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
Tears of the Sun
Hulk
 

Kate

New member
best movie of the year? "Girl with a Pearl Earring" gets my vote.

the cinematography was just wonderful!
 

Kate

New member
not in my state, but in New York it was. It was nominated for an oscar so it means it HAS to been released in '03. Have you seen it?
 

Gilles V

Administrator Emeritus
Here follows my list of better & best films of 2003. In random order!

- Lost in Translation
- LotR: The Return of the King
- City of God (!!!)
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Matchstick Men
- Master & Commander
- Seabiscuit
- X-Men 2
- Kill Bill
- Narc
- Finding Nemo

And the list of 2003 films I hope to see soon:
- The Last Samurai
- Thirteen
- Open Range
- Mystic River
 

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
Kate said:
not in my state, but in New York it was. It was nominated for an oscar so it means it HAS to been released in '03. Have you seen it?

I haven't yet. Which state are you in, if it's not too intrusive to ask?

Denial? lol :D

Gilles V said:


And the list of 2003 films I hope to see soon:
- Thirteen
- Open Range
- Mystic River

I would be interested to hear if anyone has a review of Thirteen. There is a sociology side of me that wants to see it.
 

Strider

New member
Ain't the internet great! Kate lives in New Mexico and I live in Massachusetts and we can talk to each other! :)

As for best movie... That's hard. I want to say X2 becouse I'm a big Wolverine fan, but I was facenated by The Return of the King (athough they screwed up the ending). Pirates was very fun...Oh blast It! This is to hard!!! I'll guess I'll go with X2.
 

Kate

New member
I thought "Lost in Translation" was a bit slow-moving, but I'm a big Scarlett Johanssen fan. I think she's awesome, and a great actress. She would have made a good Indy girl.
 

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
Yeah, there was something about the timing of the film that seemed strangely wrong, but appropriately right. Ans as for Scarlet, you mentioned GwaPE earlier in this thread. I will probably have to wait for DVD (rental) on that one, unless someone advocates that it is necesary to see in on something bigger than a 40" TV.
 

Aaron H

Moderator Emeritus
1. Pirates & RotK (a complete tie in my book)
2. X2
3. Peter Pan
4. T3
5. LxG
6. Daredevil
7. Nemo
8. Matrix Revolutions
9. Matrix Reloaded
10. Holes

And as far off my list as possible: Tomb Raider II. I've never fallen asleep at a movie theater until I saw this very poorly written, acted, and lame effect film.
 

Joe Brody

Well-known member
Lost In Translation

apalehorse said:
Joe Brody said:
'Lost in Translation'

I was pretty disappointed in this, especially after all the hype. Why do you like it?

There?s nothing that I like more than a small film that captures a little piece of reality [I say "small film" because 'Lost in Translation' was made for about $4M and shot in twenty odd days]. For me, there is the way stories unfold in movies and the way things really happen in real life. Once every so often a movie nails what I perceive to be real life (Sean Penn?s ?The Indianrunner? being the last one). I love how ?Lost in Translation?s? narrative is built on the small-scale hand-to-hand aspects of regular (usually dull) human interaction like missed connections, misunderstandings, dead-on observations and snap judgments, self-doubt (loathing?), dead time, awkward moments, things left unsaid but clear for all to see, and the intimacy of the moment. Coppola takes all this and slides us perfectly into the lives of what could be two very dull (practically stereotypical) characters ? all against the much talked about jetlagged and ?dreamlike? Tokyo backdrop ? and delivers something unique. A lot of films try to deliver something so simple and they almost always fail.

True, the film doesn?t tackle much, but at $4M . . .coming as it does from an extremely talented individual with more resources at her fingertips that anyone has a right . . . why should it? The film is practically an autobiographical whim. I saw the film early on because I had read a good article on Sophia Coppola so I had no pre-conceived notions and more importantly I didn?t have any real expectations -- so it was much easier for me to like the film (in fact, I was went into the theatre looking to dislike it). For example, I loved the slowness/timing (which I agree was right for the film) ? which I might not have been so accepting of if I had come at the picture with high expectations.

As for the movie itself, I won?t gush over the performances (which I think were very good but not great or profound), the camera/editing gimmicks, the perfect kick*ss music, and location details ? but taken together these key parts of the film come together as a coherent, very complete perfectly wrapped package that add to the appeal.

<<<<<>>>>>>

Also, I recommend 'Thirteen'. As a parent of two young girls, it made very, very afraid. Watching it, I was like, 'this is what I've got to look forward to?' Holly Hunter was O.K. The girls were good. On teen-angst stories, I'd give it a solid 'B', 'B+'.

[Edited by Joe Brody on 02-25-2004 at 07:36 am]
 

Tennessee R

New member
Out of the entire list that Giles V and Aaron H posted, I've only seen:
Matchstick Men (On an airplane on my way to Israel) and
X-men 2 (I think I saw ten mins. of this)
 
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