Movie Malcontent / Best Movies and Biggest Disappointments of 2003

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The Best Movies and Biggest Disappointments of 2003

Best Movies of 2003:
1. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
The Lord of the Rings is the greatest fantasy trilogy ever. And The Return of the King is the trilogy’s crowning achievement.

2. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
A review in as many words as the title: Very human heroes. Riveting sea adventure. Majestic storytelling. Powerful.

3. Lost in Translation
If Sophia Coppola is not the year’s most promising new director, then she made the smartest casting choice of the year with Bill Murray.

4. School Of Rock
Jack Black delivers the comedic performance of the year. Just by being Jack.

5. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Pirates made my short-list mostly because of the element of surprise. Who expected a Bruckheimer movie based on a Disney-ride to be such a rollicking and just plain fun adventure? It’s also a nice surprise to see Johnny Depp finally getting the commercial success he has deserved for so long. What wasn’t so surprising: writers Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio, the creative team behind Shrek, deliver yet another hit. Keep an eye on these guys – Disney was wise to put them under contract. And lastly, I have to say, any film with British import Kiera Knightley has a good chance of making my year’s best list.

Biggest Disappointments of 2003:
1. Hulk
The movie that begat Movie Malcontent. (See FAQ) Childhood dreams of bringing the unique comic book character to life are dashed.

3. The huge domestic haul of movies such as Bad Boys II ($138 million) and 2 Fast 2 Furious ($127 million)
As much as I complain about Hollywood, I can’t place all the blame on the studio heads – the movie-going public sets the trends. The more money we drop on formulaic, unimaginative, and superficial movies, the more they get greenlit. As a resolution for 2003, work on being hype-resistant and celebrate movies that transcend the current trends. The consumer dollar is very powerful, wield it wisely.

3. The Cat in the Hat
First The Grinch and now The Cat in the Hat. It’s disappointing how Hollywood has decided to pillage the Dr. Seuss collection to produce special-effects heavy live-action drivel. And it’s especially soul-crushing when you consider how the Dr. Seuss stories are so gentle and lyrical on page. But what’s most disappointing is the unholy hybrid of Dr. Seuss and Hollywood will probably continue since the Cat earned close to 100 million.

4. American Wedding
The main disappointment here is not necessarily the actual content of the movie, poorly-written as it was, but how the power hierarchy of the original actors is so transparent. What could have been a nice coda to a series that started off as an ensemble comedy unfortunately becomes a celebration of Stifler, the uber-obnoxious character played by Hollywood high-roller (sad, but true) Sean William Scott. In American Wedding, Scott has twice as much screen time as his buddies; there's practically none of the sweet camaraderie displayed in the first American Pie. Clearly the driving force behind the third installment was Scott’s agent. Most of the original's leads barely have speaking parts.

Whenever a genuinely entertaining movie is followed by sequels that are clearly more about back-end deals and power-hungry agents vying for the biggest piece of the pie, it diminishes the joy of the original flick.*

5. The Matrix sequels: Matrix Reloaded and Matrix Revolutions
* Here's this year's other examples of this rule. Though for these disappointment, it looks like the ego-driven, fetishistic Wachowski brothers are to blame.

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