MTV Is Dead: The 9 Best Movies of 2003

Sunday, January 16, 2022

The 9 Best Movies of 2003

The best movies of 2003 run the gamut from documentaries to comedies to comic book flicks to gritty social dramas. Here are the best:

9. Out of Time

Chief of Police Matthias Lee Whitlock finds out the hard way that exes are usually better left in the past when his high school sweetheart Anne Merai-Harrison turns up dead and he finds himself at the center of a murder mystery and a DEA investigation.

8. Bad Boys II

Miami PD narcotics detective Marcus Burnett has put in for a transfer away from his trigger-happy partner, Mike Lowrey. But in the meantime, their last assignment pits them against violent Russian gangsters and a murderous Cuban drug ring. When Marcus' sister, Sydney, is kidnapped, the estranged partners' rescue op leads all the way to Guantanamo Bay.

7. Love Me If You Dare

Love Me if You Dare does something that you don't often see in movies about romantic relationships (outside of dark comedies) -- it highlights the ways in which lovers sometimes intentionally hurt each other.

6. The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen?

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is quite possibly the model for 2012's The Avengers. Actually, the movie is adapted from a comics series which was originally intended to be a story about the Justice League in Victorian England. The assembled team of classic literary heroes and anti-heroes comprised of Allan Quartermain (of "King Solomon's Mines"), Tom Sawyer, Captain Nemo ("Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea"), Dr. Henry Jekyll, Dorian Gray, the Invisible Man and Mina Harker embarks on a globe-trotting mission to prevent a world war. The various members of the team are handpicked because of their unique abilities but they have to learn to work together before they can get anything accomplished. There's an expert marksman (Think: Hawkeye), a scientist who occasionally transforms into an enormous monster (Think: Banner and the Hulk), a technological genius (Think: Tony Stark), an immortal guy (Think: Thor) and a redhead with a penchant for wearing black (Think: Black Widow).

The only sour note is the inescapable fact (which the movie makes clear during Quartermain's introduction) that the story is set during the time of England's colonization of Africa.

5. Love Actually

This movie is kinda like the Pulp Fiction of chick flicks -- except British. There are too many stories going on for you to get bored and it's funny. Nobody has a "Bad M-----------" wallet but you can't win 'em all. If it makes you feel any better, both Liam Neeson and Hans Gruber make appearances. For the past few years, Hollywood has tried to imitate Love, Actually's formula by switching out Christmas for other holidays. There was Valentine's Day, New Year's Eve and the latest -- Mother's Day. None of them come close to recapturing the magic of the original.

4. City of G*d

Long thought of as an idyllic, tropical paradise and vacation destination for the 1% crowd, Rio de Janeiro's best-kept secret has always been that the vast majority of its own citizens live far below the poverty line. City of G*d exposed the extreme poverty and gang violence of Rio's favelas to the rest of the world.

3. National Security

Image result for national security martin lawrence gif

Private security guard Earl Montgomery achieves his lifelong dream of becoming a police officer due to a settlement agreement stemming from a comical misunderstanding in which he's mistakenly thought to be a victim of police brutality. National Security isn't star Martin Lawrence's first, or last, cop movie -- but is his funniest.

2. Hulk

Though not a part of the MCU, Hulk is the only movie to provide an origin story -- a logical and compelling one, at that -- for the big, green monster. It's also a far superior film to the one named for the character that is an official installment of the MCU. That movie, 2008's The Incredible Hulk, is so disappointing that both Marvel and Disney have downplayed its existence almost since the moment that it was released.

Hulk explains how maverick scientist David Banner conducted experiments on himself which resulted in an alteration to his DNA, which was passed on to his son Bruce. Years later, this genetic abnormality allows an adult Bruce to survive a lab accident in which he's bombarded with radiation. However, this same accident combined with his unique genetic make-up transform him into a gigantic and invincible monster during times of stress.

1. Tupac: Resurrection

If you're one of the millions of people who were disappointed by the 2017 Tupac Shakur biopic All Eyez on Me, you should check out Resurrection. This innovative documentary presents Tupac's life story in his own words via narration culled from the various interviews given by the actor and rapper throughout his lifetime.

Originally Posted 10/1/18

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