Years Completed:
2003
It's taken a few years, but finally, the first sign of winding down my
Club 50 project.
I finished a year! I saw all 50 of the highest grossing movies in a
single year. For the purpose of this project, that's a big deal. And, I
couldn't be more pleased that the first year is this one.
2003 was a spectacular year for the box office and fans of big movies. It saw the beginnings (
Pirates of the Caribbean) and ends (
Lord of the Rings,
The Matrix) of several franchises. Be it superhero fare (
X2,
Hulk,
Daredevil), over the top comedy (
Old School,
Bad Santa), or Rom Coms (
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,
Love Actually), there really was something for everyone.
To
wind down each year as I complete them, I'm going to hand out a few
superlatives or anecdotal awards to highlight some of the highs and lows
of the year's top 50 box office earners.
First Seen: X2: X-Men United
This
is the first year back that I lack my ticket stubs for, but I know I
saw
X2 in theaters and it began the summer. This had to be first. Maybe
it was
The Matrix Reloaded. Either way, it's hard to believe that it
took me five months to see something in theaters given my current
pacing.
Something has to be last. I didn't dislike it, but it's certainly missing the elements that made the original such a success.
Happiest Surprise: Seabiscuit
It's
long as hell. It's painfully aware that it's prestige type of movie.
It's about horse racing. I was not excited to see this at all. I have to
credit a lot of free time and a persistent HBO repeat schedule for
finally getting me to watch this and boy am I glad I did. It takes a
while to get going, but once it does it is a real treat. It's filled
with great performances from Tobey Maguire to Chris Cooper to Jeff
Bridges and it's one of the finest underdog stories you're going to
find.
Biggest Disappointment: The Matrix Revolutions
The
Matrix was a phenomenon when it came out in 1999.
The Matrix Reloaded
was fun, albeit unsubstantial.
The Matrix Revolutions was simply
underwhelming. It turns out that opening back up the
Matrix universe
only made the story too muddled to keep anyone's interest. Where at
least
Reloaded was dense with good fight scenes,
Revolutions was simply
disappointing on all levels, including a final battle with Agent Smith
that didn't match what we'd seen before. I saw the movie once in
theaters and was so disappointed that I haven't watched it again.
It
made $111 million in the box office, so someone had to have see it.
Maybe the 3-D was interesting at the time. All I know is that this is
one of the cheapest looking movies I have ever seen and it's only going
to look worse the older it gets.
Looks Better Now: Elf
Ok,
this made $173 million in the box office and instantly found itself in
the holiday rotation. It's an absolute holiday staple now and still
plays exactly as well as it did a decade ago, so it looked pretty good
at the time. What looks better now is when you also consider how good
cast is, included pre-
Anchorman Will Ferrell, pre-New Girl Zooey
Deschanel, and pre-Game of Thrones Peter Dinklage.
Favorite: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Like
I'm going to pick something else? The final
Lord of the Rings movie
pulls off the hat trick of Oscar winner, highest grossing movie of the
year, and the movie I liked the best. It's the epic conclusion to
arguable the biggest movie event of my lifetime.
2nd Favorite: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Let's
be honest, depending on the day, this might be my favorite movie of
2003. The main thing holding it down is the thought of the sequels that
followed. I take for granted how much of a revelation Johnny Depp is in
this and how well the movie balanced the action and comedy.
3rd Favorite: Love Actually
Isn't
that cast remarkable enough? Richard Curtis cemented his legend with
this movie that is too damn amiable to speak ill of. It's charming in
just about every way. And I'm paraphrasing here: to me, it is perfect.
Honorable Mention:
Finding Nemo
If
Toy Story opened the door for Pixar,
Finding Nemo kicked the door down.
It's one of those rare movies that I can't understand people who hate
it.
The Matrix Reloaded
I
don't care. I really enjoyed this movie. It was as much a narrative
mess as
Revolutions, but that doesn't matter. This movie is a collection
of big fight scenes that money was thrown at by the bushels to make.
The Matrix is not a place for showing restraint and
Reloaded embraced
that.
The Last Samurai
There's
no good way to excuse the last samurai being a white guy. Other than
that though, I love the setting, story, and battle scenes. In hindsight,
it made the quietest $100 million of the year.
Old School
This
introduced the world to the "Frat pack". For all the credit that Judd
Apatow gets for changing the comedy landscape, one has to wonder if
there would've been
The 40 Year Old Virgin or
Knocked Up without
Old
School making slackers cool again first. Oh, and the movie is still
hilarious to watch.
Bad Santa
I
love when a movie so thoroughly follows through on it's title. Billy
Bob Thorton is a bad Santa Claus and there's little more to it than
that. Thorton is perfectly cast and this features a rare movie
appearance by the always lovely Lauren Graham and, I believe is the
final movie appearance by John Ritter.
X2: X-Men United
Arguably
the best of the
X-Men movies. Remember how much promise the series had
after watching this? It's a shame that
The Last Stand had to kill all
that momentum.
I
hate the franchise and I hate all the people who made it a success by
buying tickets and DVDs. The jokes are lowest common denominator and not
in a remotely clever way. There's no trace of wit or effort in any of
it. I can't even fathom how much I'd dislike the movie if it didn't even
have Anna Faris (who I love) in it. That would reach
Borat levels of
hate.
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