M. Medved's Best and Worst Movies of 2003

Crosswalk.com ^ | 12/31/03 | Michael Medved

[L.A.Justice]

Michael Medved's Best and Worst Movies of 2003 Michael Medved Your Cultural Crusader

Best

1."In America"

2."Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World"

3."The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King"

4."The School of Rock"

5."Radio"

6."Bend It Like Beckham"

7."Gods and Generals"

8."Secondhand Lions"

9."Mystic River"

10."Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl"

Honorable Mention: "Pasionada", "Peter Pan", "American Splendor", "Looney Tunes: Back in Action", "Matchstick Men", "Finding Nemo", "Open Range" and "Lost in Translation."

Worst

1. "Gigli" (Bennifer in excelsis, with J. Lo delivering the immortal line: "It's turkey time —Gobble! Gobble!)

2. "The Order" (The odor — sulky, somber Heath Ledger tries to save the demonic Catholic church)

3. "Beyond Borders" (Beyond boredom — anorexic Angelina tries to feed picturesquely starving kids)

4. "Spy Kids 3D: Game Over" (Sly Stallone plays four different villians — all badly)

5. "View from the Top" (Gwyneth's career hits bottom in flight attendant flopperoo)

6. "My Boss's Daughter" (Wouldn't Ashton Kutcher actually be more interested in his boss's mother?)

7. "The Hulk" (existential idiocy in comic book adaptation by Ang Lee, as Nick Nolte auditions for his arrest)

8. "Hollywood Homicide" (Harrison Ford's career homicide)

9. "Dr. Seuss's Cat in the Hat" (Not nine lives — nine painful deaths)

10. "Kill Bill Vol. I" (Bill doesn't die — but more than 100 extras do)

[Big Horn]

My hat is off to anyone that can watch that many boring movies. What a waste of time.

[LS]

Agree on any Sean Penn movie. Never will I pay to watch anything he is in.

[tiamat]

I liked "Second-Hand Lions". The uncles were great. And I want to read "Walter and Jasmine".

Tia

[Central Scrutiniser]

Scarlet was in the fantastic "Ghost World" a few years back, a fantastic film, along with Steve Buscemi, one of my favorites...

[Tim Osman]

Kill Bill was great! Can't wait to see Vol. 2!

The fight scenes were great, and the violence was so over the top, it was just really cool.

[L.N. Smithee]

Gee, you think Michael Jackson saw this yet? Talk about timing. I think Michael Jackson watching this movie 500 times like he said he watched E.T. are pretty much set in stone.

I doubt Michael Jackson has seen Peter Pan. He's probably sulking about not being cast in it.

BTW, whatever happened to that Edgar Allan Poe biopic Jacko wanted to star in?

[L.N. Smithee]

My hat is off to anyone that can watch that many boring movies. What a waste of time.

In Hollywood vs. America, he says that the reason why critics praise disgusting, weird, profane, vile stuff when it is put on the screen by an innovative and skilled director is because they have to watch all the movies that are released, including the ones that all of us non-critics wouldn't think of seeing. It's their job.

That's why guys like Peter Greenaway (director of The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover and Prospero's Books, which has an opening scene with a naked young boy on a swing urinating in a pool) get kudos while Tom Shadyac gets relatively few.

[L.A.Justice]

Medved does not boycott films because of actors' political beliefs...
He's a critic...He watches movies that I will not want to watch.

A movie critic cannot only watch films he finds interesting...

[L.A.Justice]

-One that wasn't mentioned, and probably won't win any awards is "Confidence", a rather underrated movie in the tradition of "The Sting".-

I thought "Confidence" was an OK film...Two out of four stars.

-As for LOTR:ROTK, I'm reserving judgement till I see it again this weekend. My initial assessment was that while it was very good, it felt like something was missing. By that I mean, it's over 3 hours long, and towards the end, I was almost begging for it to end, but at the same time, it seemed like they didn't really explain how some things in the plot turned out like they did *cough*-Saruman!-*cough*-Eowyn and Faramir!-*cough*. I guess I'll have to wait for the director's edition DVD next November.-

I watched the LOTR...I enjoyed it. It was better than "In America". (Disagreeing with Medved on that point...) I thought that LOTR was too long...


-As I predicted on the 2004 FReeper Prediction thread though, I pick "The Last Samurai" to win Best Picture(it's entertaining, but the PC just oozes out of every pore in this movie), and "Return of the King", despite everything I've said here, while being deserving of the big prize, will get shafted by the liberals in Hollyweird again.-

Medved gave 2 1/2 stars to "Last Samurai"...

[L.A.Justice]

If you liked ENGLISH PATIENT, you will like COLD MOUNTAIN...
I have to admit that I got bored watching ENGLISH PATIENT.

[Lancey Howard]

Pirates of the Caribbean?
Fun, nice to have on DVD, the kids like it.
But one of the ten best of the year?

And what about the awesome 'The Last Samurai'?
Say what you want about Tom Cruise only playing Tom Cruise - - that movie is fantastic.

[Lancey Howard]

I haven't seen Kill Bill but my son, who goes to lots of movies and likes less than half of the movies he sees, thought Kill Bill was excellent. If he liked it, it must be good.

(By the way, my son just saw Paycheck (the latest Philip K. Dick adaptation) and he said it stunk up the joint.)

[Richard Kimball]

Thanks, so much. I have Son of Golden Turkey and it's in pieces from being read so many times.

[CMClay]

'Gods and Generals' actually sucked, a much as I wanted it to be good.
'Hulk' wasn't as bad as the critics say, a decent rental.
"Confidence' did suck.
'Pirates' should be in the top 3.
'Finding Nemo' should be in the top ten, but it's no Toy Story.
'X-Men2' & 'Matrix2' were sub-par.
'Holes' was a very good family flic.
May wait for LOTR3 to buy the bundle.
Haven't seen 'In America', 'Radio' 'Matchstick Men',
'Lost in Translation' or 'Mystic River',
will check 'em out for a rental

Waiting for 'Master and Commander' on DVD.
(No, I didn't see it in the theatre, but any Crowe movie is worth buying, and sitting in my own recliner with popcorn and my home theatre with surround sound, frankly,...is worth the wait.) :)

[CMClay]

oops, forgot about 'A Mighty Wind' with Eugene Levy.
it's 'Spinal Tap' does folk music, and if you grew up in the 60's,
you should get a kick out of it.

[Northern Yankee]

Affleck came off as an ungracious fool when he complained about the pilots who loaned out their planes during the filming of Pearl Harbor. (He chastised the pilots in a Newsweek interview because they hovered over the planes like mother hens.)

Affleck has no idea what these planes mean to these pilots, and the care that is involved in maintaining them.

What a creep!

[Non-Sequitur]

We're also looking ahead to the completion of Michael Sharaa's "Civil War" trilogy that began with "Gods And Generals", and which continues in "Gettsyburg."

I understand that "Gods and Generals" was such a flop that any consideration of doing "Last Full Measure" have been dropped.

[Non-Sequitur]

How could he not include "Seabiscuit" in the 10 best?

[Poohbah]

"Master and Commander" is outstanding.

[Skooz]

Bump for my DVD list.