The 25 best movies of 2003

by Slampage | created - 21 Oct 2010 | updated - 21 Oct 2010 | Public
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1. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

PG-13 | 201 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

94 Metascore

Gandalf and Aragorn lead the World of Men against Sauron's army to draw his gaze from Frodo and Sam as they approach Mount Doom with the One Ring.

Director: Peter Jackson | Stars: Elijah Wood, Viggo Mortensen, Ian McKellen, Orlando Bloom

Votes: 1,978,479 | Gross: $377.85M

2. Big Fish (2003)

PG-13 | 125 min | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy

58 Metascore

A frustrated son tries to determine the fact from fiction in his dying father's life.

Director: Tim Burton | Stars: Ewan McGregor, Albert Finney, Billy Crudup, Jessica Lange

Votes: 458,809 | Gross: $66.26M

3. Love Actually (2003)

R | 135 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance

55 Metascore

Follows the lives of eight very different couples in dealing with their love lives in various loosely interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London, England.

Director: Richard Curtis | Stars: Hugh Grant, Martine McCutcheon, Liam Neeson, Laura Linney

Votes: 531,426 | Gross: $59.70M

4. Oldboy (2003)

R | 120 min | Action, Drama, Mystery

78 Metascore

After being kidnapped and imprisoned for fifteen years, Oh Dae-Su is released, only to find that he must track down his captor in five days.

Director: Park Chan-wook | Stars: Choi Min-sik, Yoo Ji-tae, Kang Hye-jeong, Kim Byeong-Ok

Votes: 635,503 | Gross: $0.71M

5. Finding Nemo (2003)

G | 100 min | Animation, Adventure, Comedy

90 Metascore

After his son is captured in the Great Barrier Reef and taken to Sydney, a timid clownfish sets out on a journey to bring him home.

Directors: Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich | Stars: Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Alexander Gould, Willem Dafoe

Votes: 1,113,064 | Gross: $380.84M

6. Control (2003)

R | 111 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama

72 Metascore

A tale about a strange young man, Bulcsú, the fellow inspectors on his team, all without exception likable characters, a rival ticket inspection team and racing along the tracks - and a tale about love.

Director: Nimród Antal | Stars: Sándor Csányi, Eszter Balla, Zoltán Mucsi, Csaba Pindroch

Votes: 27,069 | Gross: $0.24M

7. Bad Santa (2003)

R | 92 min | Comedy, Crime, Drama

70 Metascore

A miserable conman and his partner pose as Santa and his Little Helper to rob department stores on Christmas Eve. But they run into problems when the conman befriends a troubled kid.

Director: Terry Zwigoff | Stars: Billy Bob Thornton, Bernie Mac, Lauren Graham, John Ritter

Votes: 155,152 | Gross: $60.06M

8. Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)

R | 111 min | Action, Crime, Thriller

69 Metascore

After awakening from a four-year coma, a former assassin wreaks vengeance on the team of assassins who betrayed her.

Director: Quentin Tarantino | Stars: Uma Thurman, David Carradine, Daryl Hannah, Michael Madsen

Votes: 1,193,297 | Gross: $70.10M

9. Mystic River (2003)

R | 138 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery

84 Metascore

The tragic murder of a 19-year-old girl reunites three childhood friends still living in Boston--the victim's gangster father, a detective, and the disturbed man they both suspect of killing her.

Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Emmy Rossum

Votes: 485,738 | Gross: $90.14M

10. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

PG-13 | 143 min | Action, Adventure, Fantasy

63 Metascore

Blacksmith Will Turner teams up with eccentric pirate "Captain" Jack Sparrow to save his love, the governor's daughter, from Jack's former pirate allies, who are now undead.

Director: Gore Verbinski | Stars: Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley

Votes: 1,210,021 | Gross: $305.41M

11. X2 (2003)

PG-13 | 134 min | Action, Sci-Fi, Thriller

68 Metascore

When anti-mutant Colonel William Stryker kidnaps Professor X and attacks his school, the X-Men must ally with their archenemy Magneto to stop him.

Director: Bryan Singer | Stars: Patrick Stewart, Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen

Votes: 575,931 | Gross: $214.95M

12. School of Rock (2003)

PG-13 | 109 min | Comedy, Music

82 Metascore

After being kicked out of his rock band, Dewey Finn becomes a substitute teacher of an uptight elementary private school, only to try and turn his class into a rock band.

Director: Richard Linklater | Stars: Jack Black, Mike White, Joan Cusack, Adam Pascal

Votes: 330,743 | Gross: $81.26M

13. Lost in Translation (2003)

R | 102 min | Comedy, Drama

91 Metascore

A faded movie star and a neglected young woman form an unlikely bond after crossing paths in Tokyo.

Director: Sofia Coppola | Stars: Bill Murray, Scarlett Johansson, Giovanni Ribisi, Anna Faris

Votes: 488,705 | Gross: $44.59M

14. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)

PG-13 | 138 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

81 Metascore

During the Napoleonic Wars, a brash British captain pushes his ship and crew to their limits in pursuit of a formidable French war vessel around South America.

Director: Peter Weir | Stars: Russell Crowe, Paul Bettany, Billy Boyd, James D'Arcy

Votes: 237,847 | Gross: $93.93M

15. House of Sand and Fog (2003)

R | 126 min | Crime, Drama

71 Metascore

An abandoned wife is evicted from her house and starts a tragic conflict with her house's new owners.

Director: Vadim Perelman | Stars: Jennifer Connelly, Ben Kingsley, Ron Eldard, Frances Fisher

Votes: 72,587 | Gross: $13.01M

16. Elf (2003)

PG | 97 min | Adventure, Comedy, Family

66 Metascore

Raised as an oversized elf, Buddy travels from the North Pole to New York City to meet his biological father, Walter Hobbs, who doesn't know he exists and is in desperate need of some Christmas spirit.

Director: Jon Favreau | Stars: Will Ferrell, James Caan, Bob Newhart, Zooey Deschanel

Votes: 310,756 | Gross: $173.40M

17. Cold Mountain (2003)

R | 154 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance

73 Metascore

In the waning days of the American Civil War, a wounded soldier embarks on a perilous journey back home to Cold Mountain, North Carolina to reunite with his sweetheart.

Director: Anthony Minghella | Stars: Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Renée Zellweger, Eileen Atkins

Votes: 156,044 | Gross: $95.64M

18. The Rundown (2003)

PG-13 | 104 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy

59 Metascore

A tough aspiring chef is hired to bring home a mobster's son from the Amazon but becomes involved in the fight against an oppressive town operator and the search for a legendary treasure.

Director: Peter Berg | Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Seann William Scott, Christopher Walken, Rosario Dawson

Votes: 143,017 | Gross: $47.73M

19. 21 Grams (2003)

R | 124 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller

70 Metascore

A freak accident brings together a critically ill mathematician, a grieving mother, and a born-again ex-con.

Director: Alejandro G. Iñárritu | Stars: Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, Naomi Watts, Danny Huston

Votes: 245,834 | Gross: $16.29M

20. Bad Boys II (2003)

R | 147 min | Action, Comedy, Crime

38 Metascore

Two loose-cannon narcotics cops investigate the flow of Ecstasy into Florida from a Cuban drug cartel.

Director: Michael Bay | Stars: Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Gabrielle Union, Jordi Mollà

Votes: 267,091 | Gross: $138.61M

21. Azumi (2003)

Not Rated | 128 min | Action, Adventure, Drama

49 Metascore

Raised to deal in cold blooded death, the teenage assassin girl Azumi must defeat three evil warlords while also battling her own heart.

Director: Ryûhei Kitamura | Stars: Aya Ueto, Kenji Kohashi, Hiroki Narimiya, Takatoshi Kaneko

Votes: 15,158

22. Shanghai Knights (2003)

PG-13 | 114 min | Action, Adventure, Comedy

58 Metascore

When a Chinese rebel murders Chon's estranged father and escapes to England, Chon and Roy make their way to London with revenge on their minds.

Director: David Dobkin | Stars: Jackie Chan, Owen Wilson, Fann Wong, Aaron Taylor-Johnson

Votes: 112,510 | Gross: $60.48M

23. Paycheck (2003)

PG-13 | 119 min | Action, Mystery, Sci-Fi

43 Metascore

What seemed like a breezy idea that would net an engineer millions of dollars ends up leaving him on the run for his life and trying to piece together why he's being chased.

Director: John Woo | Stars: Ben Affleck, Aaron Eckhart, Uma Thurman, Michael C. Hall

Votes: 113,257 | Gross: $53.79M

24. Stuck on You (2003)

PG-13 | 118 min | Comedy

62 Metascore

Conjoined twins from Martha's Vineyard move to Los Angeles so that one of them can pursue an acting career.

Directors: Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly | Stars: Matt Damon, Greg Kinnear, Eva Mendes, Cher

Votes: 55,106 | Gross: $33.83M

25. Kopps (2003)

90 min | Action, Comedy

When a small-town police station is threatened with shutting down because of too little crime, the police realize that something must be done.

Director: Josef Fares | Stars: Fares Fares, Torkel Petersson, Göran Ragnerstam, Sissela Kyle

Votes: 22,877



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