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Paul Greenwood presents
1. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King:The magnificent final chapter of the Lord of the Rings cements its place as not only the finest trilogy ever filmed, but one of the greatest achievements in the history of cinema. Anyone who says it’s not is just looking for attention.
2. Finding Nemo:Pixar outdo themselves with this glorious animated adventure.
3. Etre et Avoir:A touching documentary following a year in the lives of a teacher and his small class in a rural French school.
4. Mystic River:Easily Clint Eastwood’s best film since Unforgiven, this is a devastating drama, stunningly acted.
5. About Schmidt:Just when you thought Jack Nicholson couldn’t get any better, he acts his age and gives possibly his best ever performance.
6. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World:Bookended by terrific battle scenes, it’s the character driven mid-section that makes this nautical yarn stand out.
7. Adaptation:Hugely inventive comedy drama written by Charlie Kaufman and his imaginary twin brother, Donald.
8. Far From Heaven:This emotional and superbly acted film far outshone Julianne Moore’s other period drama, the stilted The Hours.
9. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl:Great fun and Johnny Depp’s show all the way – it might only have been half the film it was without him.
10. Chicago:Moulin Rouge started the musical revival and Chicago finished the job.
2003 – Bottom Ten
1. The Master of Disguise:Seriously, you have no idea how bad this is.
2. Dreamcatcher:The worst Stephen King film ever made. And that includes Maximum Overdrive.
3. National Security:Why is Martin Lawrence still allowed to make films?
4. The Truth About Charlie:King of atrocious remakes, Mark Wahlberg, is up to his usual standards in this honking reworking of Charade.
- (DVDfever Dom adds: “Is this even worth watching for babe-amongst-babes Thandie Newton?” 🙂
5. The Tuxedo /The Medallion:Jackie Chan makes a terrible film then makes it again with an ever so slightly different plot. It’s hard to say which one is worse.
6. Dumb and Dumberer:If I’m being completely honest, I slept through almost half of this. I think that tells its own story.
7. The Sin Eater:Nonsensical religious thriller.
8. Charlie’s Angels 2: Full Throttle:Botched sequel to a fun original.
9. In The Cut:Meg Ryan takes her kit off, the audience take their own lives.
10. The Jungle Book 2:Shameful re-hash of the classic original that doesn’t even have adequate animation going for it.
Review copyright © Paul Greenwood, 2004.E-mail Paul Greenwood
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.