Best Movies of 2003
Ranked by our critic's grades, best first.
Kal Ho Naa HoThe film that taught a generation of Hindi cinema how to be funny and devastating in the same scene, and still the best case anyone has made for Shah Rukh Khan.Read the review
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the KingJackson lands the dismount, staging Pelennor Fields as the last great practical-effects battle.
OldboyA revenge tragedy that turns the knife on the avenger, and on the audience.
Finding NemoPixar at the moment its technology catches up with its writing, and still the studio's most purely enjoyable film.
Memories of MurderA police comedy that curdles into a national indictment, and the last shot puts it on you.
The Best of YouthSix hours, thirty-seven years and two brothers: Giordana makes postwar Italian history feel like family news, and it never drags.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black PearlA theme park ride turned into a genuinely witty swashbuckler, half an hour too long and rescued again and again by the strangest star turn Disney ever allowed.
The Last SamuraiA handsome, sincere epic that is far better than its premise deserves, carried by Ken Watanabe rather than by its star.
Kill Bill: Volume 1A pure delivery system for style, and the House of Blue Leaves justifies the whole enterprise.
X2: X-Men UnitedThe sequel that proved a comic book film could carry a real political argument, and it is still far too crowded to breathe.