Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!: 2003 in films and TV-series

The Top 10 of the Year

1. Finding Nemo - Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich + Best Adventure Movie of the Year + Best American Movie of the Year + Best Family Movie of the Year + Best Mega-hit Movie of the Year + Best Poster of the Year + Most Profitable Movie of the Year: 282.12 mil. $ range

2. School of Rock - Richard Linklater + Best Big Hit Movie of the Year + Best Breakthrough Performance of the Year: Jack Black + Best Music Movie of the Year

3. Elephant - Gus Van Sant + Best High School Movie of the Year + Best Societal Critique of the Year + Best True-Crime Movie of the Year + Best Youth Movie of the Year + Most Deserved Hit of the Year

4. The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (documentary) - Errol Morris + Best Biopic of the Year + Best War Movie of the Year

5. Six Feet Under - season 3 - Alan Ball, creator + Best Continuing TV-series of the Year + Best Drama of the Year + Best Los Angeles Title of the Year

6. Anything Else - Woody Allen + Best Huge Flop Movie of the Year + Best New York Movie of the Year + Best Romcom of the Year + Most Under-appreciated Movie of the Year

7. Memories of Murder/살인의 추억 (Sarinui chueok) - Bong Joon Ho + Best Crime-Drama of the Year + Best Serial Killer Movie of the Year + Best South Korean Movie of the Year

8. Elf - Jon Favreau + Best Christmas Movie of the Year + Best Huge Hit of the Year

9. 24 - season 3 - Robert Cochran, Joel Surnow, creators + Best Action Title of the Year + Most Suspenseful Title of the Year

10. Monsieur Ibrahim/Monsieur Ibrahim et les Fleurs du Coran - François Dupeyron + Best Adaptation of the Year + Best Coming-of-age Movie of the Year + Best Paris Movie of the Year

Other great 2003 movies (in alphabetical order):

21 Grams - Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu

Bad Santa - Terry Zwigoff + Best Dark Comedy of the Year

Casa de los Babys - John Sayles + Best Low-Budget Movie of the Year

Coffee and Cigarettes - Jim Jarmusch + Best B/W Movie of the Year

Dogville - Lars Von Trier + Best Big Flop Movie of the Year + Best Danish Movie of the Year + Best Ensemble of the Year: Nicole Kidman, Ben Gazzara, James Caan, Lauren Bacall, Harriet Andersson, Chloë Sevigny, Patricia Clarkson, Paul Bettany, Stellen Skarsgård, Zeljko Ivanek + Best Epic of the Year + Best Experimental Movie of the Year

The Five Obstructions/De Fem Benspænd - Jørgen Leth, Lars Von Trier

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl - Gore Verbinski + Best New Franchise of the Year + Best Pirate Movie of the Year

Reconstruction - Christoffer Boe + Best Art Film of the Year + Best Copenhagen Movie of the Year + Best Debut Movie of the Year + Best Romance of the Year

Something's Gotta Give - Nancy Meyers + Best Screen Couple of the Year: Jack Nicholson & Diane Keaton

The Triplets of Belleville/Les Triplettes de Belleville/Belleville Rendez-vous - Sylvain Chomet + French Movie of the Year + Most Undeserved Flop of the Year

Good, recommendable 2003 movies (in alphabetical order):

American Splendor - Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini

Beyond Re-Animator - Brian Yuzna + Gore Movie of the Year + Best Horror Comedy of the Year + Best Spanish Movie of the Year

Bruce Almighty - Tom Shadyac

The Company - Robert Altman + Best Dance Movie of the Year + Best Mega-flop of the Year

The Cooler - Wayne Kramer + Best Las Vegas Movie of the Year

Freaky Friday - Mark Waters + Best Fantasy Movie of the Year

The Green Butchers - Anders Thomas Jensen + Best Comedy of the Year

Matchstick Men - Ridley Scott

Mona Lisa Smile - Mike Newell + Best Massachusetts Movie of the Year

The Skeleton Key - Iain Softley + Best Louisiana Movie of the Year

Song for a Raggy Boy - Aisling Walsh + Best Box Office Disaster of the Year + Best Irish Movie of the Year

The Station Agent - Tom McCarthy + Best Independent Movie of the Year + Best $ Return of the Year: 17.2 + Best Dramedy of the Year + Best Shooting Star Actor of the Year: Peter Dinklage

Swimming Pool - François Ozon + Best Erotic Movie of the Year

The Bottom 10 of the Year

1. Rapid Exchange (video) - Tripp Reed

2. Freddy vs. Jason - Ronny Yu + Most Undeserved Hit of the Year

3. Gothika - Mathieu Kassovitz

4. My Life Without Me - Isabel Coixet

5. Marci X - Richard Benjamin + Career-Killer of the Year: Richard Benjamin + Worst $ Return of the Year: 0.08

6. The Core - Jon Amiel + Most Ridiculous Movie of the Year

7. Dreamcatcher - Lawrence Kasdan + Most Expensive Flop of the Year: 37.72 mil. $ range

8. The Recruit - Roger Donaldson

9. Runaway Jury - Gary Fleder + Worst Poster of the Year

10. Angels in America (miniseries) - Mike Nichols + Most Overrated Title of the Year

Other failed, poor and/or mediocre 2003 movies and TV-series (in alphabetical order):

Carnivàle - season 1 - Daniel Knauf

Final Destination 2 - David R. Ellis
Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring/Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring/봄 여름 가을 겨울 그리고 봄/Bom yeoreum gaeul gyeoul geurigo bom - Kim Ki-duk

[46 titles in total]

Notes:

The first updated lists of 2003 in films and TV-series brings the title count up with 14 to 46 pieces. There are 3 new entries in each of the two lists: The Top 10 boasts an impressive 6 masterpieces now: Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich's universally beloved oceanic adventure fable Finding Nemo reigns supreme and is the only 2nd animated film to rank 1st so far, (after Pixar's Inside Out (2015)), and in a rare occurrence also the year's most profitable film. 2nd best is new entry Richard Linklater's rock 'n roll family music comedy School of Rock; and 3rd is Gus Van Sant's Columbine High massacre-inspired true-crime drama Elephant. The Top 10 list goes on with Errol Morris's dizzying Robert S. McNamara documentary biopic Fog of War; the 3rd season of Alan Ball's poignant funeral home drama Six Feet Under; Woody Allen's hilarious, incisive New-York-set relationship comedy Anything Else; new entry Joon Bong Ho's astounding serial killer crime-drama Memories of Murder; Jon Favreau's Christmas cheer laugh-fest Elf; the 3rd season of Robert Cochran and Joel Surnow's suspenseful action series 24; and rounds off with new entry François Dupeyron's warm, erotic coming-of-age drama Monsieur Ibrahim. The 3 great films that get pushed out of the distinguished list in this update are Lars Von Trier's staggering US examination, drama epic Dogville; Christoffer Boe's Copenhagen-set love art film Reconstruction; and lastly Sylvain Chomet's eccentric, original animation delight, The Triplets of Belleville.
Among the other great gems of the year are Terry Zwigoff's anti-Christmas comedy Bad Santa, Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu's fate-crossing heavy drama 21 Grams, John Sayles' adoption drama Casa de los Babys and Gore Verbinski's swashbuckling family favorite Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
Among the merely good outputs are Robert Altman's ballet portrait The Company, Anders Thomas Jensen's outrageous and hilarious macabre comedy The Green Butchers, and Mark Waters' body-swap comedy Freaky Friday.
On the year's bottom of the barrel list are now a full 10 titles, still led by Tripp Reed's action video banality Rapid Exchange. 2nd place is taken by new entry Ronny Yu's loud, inane Freddy vs. Jason, and 3rd place also goes to a new entry, namely to Mathieu Kassovitz's awful horror Gothika. The year's other 2 new bottom entries also squeeze in near the top, as the list goes on: New entry Isabel Coixet's depressing bore My Life Without Me; new entry Richard Benjamin's class and race comedy disaster Marci X; Jon Amiel's deeply inane disaster/sci-fi movie attempt The Core; Lawrence Kasdan's career-crippling, expensive flop horror Dreamcatcher; Roger Donaldson's dull agent thriller The Recruit; Gary Fleder's showy courtroom thriller Runaway Jury, and finally Mike Nichols' too opulent AIDS miniseries Angels in America. Pushed out of the unenviable list this time are the 1st season of Daniel Knauf's impressive but unfocused Carnivàle, David R. Ellis' entertaining but self-serious Final Destination 2, and Kim Ki-duk's meditative, religious nature movie Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring.
Cementing their names in 2003 were Lars Von Trier, who also released evocative artist competition documentary The Five Obstructions (with Jørgen Leth), Johnny Depp, who broke through as a major A level marquee star with Pirates of the Caribbean, - and Jim Carrey, who proved his staying box office power again with Bruce Almighty. On the other end we saw diminishing returns from senior stars like Dustin Hoffman (Runaway Jury), Al Pacino (The Recruit), Julia Roberts (Mona Lisa Smile) and Nicolas Cage (Matchstick Men) and a wobbly, mega-budgeted new venture from HBO in Daniel Knauf's Carnivàle TV-series.

On the 2004 Oscars:

Billy Chrystal hosted the night, which became the most-watched telecast in 4 years with incredible 44 mil. viewers. The night had one overwhelming winner in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, which won the 11 Oscars it was nominated for, tying most wins ever with Ben-Hur (1959) and Titanic (1997), and becoming the largest sweep for a single film in Oscar history.

LoTR 3 took home Best Picture, Director (Peter Jackson), Adapted Screenplay (Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens and Jackson), Score (Howard Shore), Song (Walsh, Shore and Annie Lennoxi's Into the West), Sound Mixing, Art Direction, Makeup, Costume Design, Editing and Visual Effects. The other films nominated in the Best Picture category were Lost in Translation, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Mystic River and Seabiscuit.

Mystic River won Best Actor (Sean Penn) and Supporting Actor (Tim Robbins). Charlize Theron won Best Actress for Monster; Renée Zellweger Supporting Actress for Cold Mountain. Sofia Coppola won Best Original Screenplay for Lost in Translation; Finding Nemo Best Animation, Denys Arcand's French The Barbarian Invasians Best Foreign Language Film; Errol Morris and Michael Williams' The Fog of War Best Documentary. The short Oscars went to Chernobyl Heart (doc.), Two Soldiers (live action) and Harvie Krumpet (animation). Russell Boyd won Best Cinematography for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, which also won for Sound Editing. Blake Edwards won an honorary award.

Biggest flops of the year:

[The loss is based solely on the cost and box office earnings for the films. Marketing costs and additional revenue (home video, TV rights and other auxiliary profits) are not taken into account]

1. Dreamcatcher - 37.72 mil. $ range

2. Matchstick Men - 35.8 mil. $ range
3. The Core - 30.64 mil. $ range

4. Marci X - 19.36 mil. $ range

5. Mona Lisa Smile - 15.78 mil. range
6. Anything Else - 12.6 mil. $ range
7. The Company - 12.44 mil. $ range

8. The Skeleton Key - 6.24 mil. $ range
9. The Recruit - 5.56 mil. $ range

10. Song for a Raggy Boy - 3.78 mil. $ range

= Combined losses: 179.92 mil. $

Biggest hits of the year:

[The gain is based solely on the cost and box office earnings for the films. Marketing costs and additional revenue (home video, TV rights and other auxiliary profits) are not taken into account]

1. Finding Nemo - 282.12 mil. $ range
2. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl - 121.68 mil. $ range
3. Bruce Almighty - 112.8 mil. $ range
4. Elf - 55.16 mil. $ range
5. Freaky Friday - 44.32 mil. $ range

6. Something's Gotta Give - 26.68 mil. $ range

7. School of Rock - 17.48 mil. $ range

8. Gothika - 16.64 mil. $ range

2000 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

What do you think of the 2003 lists?
Which 2003 titles would make it to your top and bottom lists?
Which worthwhile 2003 titles are missing on the watch-list?

Film Excess - Free Ukraine - Stop Putin - End the war NOW!!

12/04/2020

2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]

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