By MILAN PAURICH

By MILAN PAURICH
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
THE YEAR'S BEST FILMS
1. "American Splendor," "Capturing the Friedmans" and "Elephant" as a group put HBO films, a division of cable TV giant HBO, in the top spot for having produced the year's three best theatrical releases: For their artistry, bravery and uncompromising vision, these movies represent American cinema at its finest. Bravo.
2. "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King." What more is there to say? The feverishly anticipated conclusion to Peter Jackson's magnificent J.R.R. Tolkien trilogy was everything fans were hoping for and more. Even if Jackson never directs another movie, his "Rings" cycle earns him a permanent spot on the "all-time-greats" list.
3. "Mystic River." Clint Eastwood's classically structured character piece about three childhood friends was a haunting and haunted masterpiece with a profound understanding of why death matters. The ensemble cast -- led by a never-better Sean Penn -- was the year's strongest.
4. "The Fog of War." Groundbreaking documentarian Errol Morris' utterly riveting portrait of former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara was his strongest, most important nonfiction work since 1988's "The Thin Blue Line." Morris was given extraordinary access to McNamara, who at the age of 87 is both remarkably lucid and astonishingly candid about his controversial past.
5. "In America." Irish immigrants Paddy Considine and Samantha Morton journey to Manhattan to begin a new life in this first U.S. production from director Jim Sheridan ("My Left Foot"). Joyful and triumphant, it featured miraculous child performances by real-life sisters Sarah and Emma Bolger that were worthy of a vintage Steven Spielberg movie.
6. "Raising Victor Vargas" and "Sweet Sixteen" (a tie). The difficulties of accepting responsibility and learning how to be a man are the twin subjects of these two remarkable films, both of which feature teenage male protagonists. New York indie "Victor Vargas" marks the astonishingly assured directing debut of Peter Sollett, New York University class of '98; the Glasgow-set "Sixteen" is the latest humanist triumph from veteran British filmmaker Ken Loach. Warm, inclusive and powerfully moving, both deserved to be seen by a much larger audience.
8. "Lost in Translation." Sofia Coppola's achingly lovely tale about a washed-up movie star (Bill Murray in a performance sure to be remembered at Oscar time) who befriends an American newlywed (Scarlett Johansson) while shooting a whiskey ad campaign in Tokyo. The Japanese setting was apt because Coppola's low-key beauty was a lot closer to a cinematic haiku than it is to current Hollywood or even indie fare.
9. "Finding Nemo." Pixar's latest computer-animated wonder was their greatest achievement to date: a witty dazzler that proved as satisfying to grown-up tastes and sensibilities as it was for every kid on the planet.
10. "Kill Bill, Vol. 1." The first half of Quentin Tarantino's howlingly gruesome love letter to Hong Kong martial arts flicks -- "Vol. 2" opens Feb. 20th -- rocked like no other movie released this year. Spectacularly entertaining and so ridiculously, extravagantly over the top that it was just about perfect.
RUNNERS-UP (in alphabetical order): "The Good Thief," "House of Sand and Fog," "Hulk," "In the Cut," "In This World," "Intolerable Cruelty," "Irreversible," "The Last Samurai," "Lilya 4-Ever," "Love Actually," "The Man Without a Past," "Matchstick Men," "My Architect," "Nowhere in Africa," "Phone Booth," "The Secret Lives of Dentists," "The Son," "Spellbound," "Spider," "Stevie," "To Be and To Have," "Winged Migration."
BEST ACTOR: Sean Penn, "Mystic River," "21 Grams"; Bill Murray, "Lost in Translation"; George Clooney, "Intolerable Cruelty"; Colin Farrell, "Daredevil," "Phone Booth," "The Recruit," "S.W.A.T.," "Veronica Guerin"; Javier Bardem, "The Dancer Upstairs"; Jack Black, "School of Rock"; Franky G, "Confidence," "The Italian Job," "Manito," "Wonderland"; Ralph Fiennes, "Spider"; Nick Nolte, "The Good Thief," "The Hulk," "Northfork"; Paul Giamatti, "American Splendor"; Campbell Scott, "The Secret Lives of Dentists."
BEST ACTRESS: Naomi Watts, "21 Grams"; Samantha Morton, "In America"; Diane Keaton, "Something's Gotta Give"; Charlize Theron, "Monster"; Meg Ryan, "In the Cut"; Evan Rachel Wood, "Thirteen"; Jennifer Connelly, "House of Sand and Fog"; Charlotte Rampling, "Swimming Pool"; Hope Davis, "American Splendor," "The Secret Lives of Dentists"; Scarlett Johansson, "The Girl With the Pearl Earring," "Lost in Translation."
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Bobby Cannavale, "The Station Agent"; Ken Watanabe, "The Last Samurai"; Alec Baldwin, "The Cooler"; Dean Cain, "Out of Time"; Mark Ruffalo, "In the Cut," "My Life Without Me"; Peter Sarsgaard, "Shattered Glass"; Bill Nighy, "I Capture the Castle," "Love Actually," "Lawless Heart"; Benicio del Toro, "21 Grams"; Sean Astin, Viggo Mortensen, "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King"; Tch & eacute;ky Karyo, "The Good Thief."
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Miranda Richardson, "Spider"; Ren & eacute;e Zellweger, "Cold Mountain"; Emma and Sarah Bolger, "In America"; Patricia Clarkson, "Pieces of April," "The Station Agent"; Marcia Gay Harden, "Casa de los Babys," "Mona Lisa Smile," "Mystic River"; Laura Linney, "Love Actually," "Mystic River"; Emma Thompson, "Love Actually"; Anna Farris, "Lost in Translation"; Ginnifer Goodwin, "Mona Lisa Smile."
BEST MOVIE MADE FOR TELEVISION: "Angels in America," HBO. (Runner-up: "Soldier's Girl," Showtime.)
THE YEAR'S WORST FILMS:
1. "Bad Boys 2." Morally bankrupt and socially irresponsible, this grotesquely inflated 21/2-hour (!?) abomination represented everything that's wrong with the New Hollywood.
2. "Beyond Borders." By using the real-life horrors of Ethiopia, Cambodia and Chechnya as picturesque backdrops for an ersatz Harlequin Romance, it transcended mere cultural insensitivity and verged on the pornographic.
3. "Marci X." A brutally unfunny culture-clash farce so toxic that not even Lisa Kudrow or Damon Wayans could make it even marginally bearable.
4. "The Life of David Gale." Intended as a "liberal-agenda" tract condemning capital punishment, Alan Parker's radioactive sludge of a film was both howlingly preposterous and deeply offensive.
5. "The Human Stain." A spectacularly misconceived adaptation of Philip Roth's acclaimed novel that felt like an irony-free cross between 1940s chestnut "Gentlemen's Agreement," Douglas Sirk's immortal weepie "Imitation of Life," and Steve Martin's "The Jerk."
6. "Gigli." Because no one can resist beating a dead horse.
7. "The Order." Heath Ledger disastrously reteamed with his "Knight's Tale" director Brian Helgeland and castmates Mark Addy and Shannyn Sossamon for a frighteningly bad occult spooker that couldn't even crack the box-office top five in its opening weekend.
8. "Timeline." From concept (silly at best) to casting (perversely wrongheaded) to execution (shockingly inept), this brazenly moronic time-travel adventure provided more unintentional laughs than anything else all year.
9. "Radio." Although based on a true story, Cuba Gooding Jr.'s shamelessly mawkish and pandering tearjerker reduced every character and situation to a clich & eacute;d "movie moment."
10. "Down With Love." An excruciatingly heavy-handed homage to 1960's Doris Day-Rock Hudson movies that had all the nutritional value of Reddi-Wip. That's entertainment?
THE YEAR'S GUILTIEST PLEASURES: "From Justin to Kelly"; "Honey"; "The Real Cancun."
MOVIES I WANTED TO LIKE MORE THAN I DID: "Anger Management"; "Bringing Down the House"; "Brother Bear"; "Bruce Almighty"; "The Company"; "Hollywood Homicide"; "The Magdalene Sisters"; "Open Range"; "Pieces of April"; "Pirates of the Caribbean"; "Runaway Jury"; "Seabiscuit"; "The Shape of Things"; "28 Days Later."
MOVIES I DIDN'T EXPECT TO HATE: "Down With Love"; "The Human Stain"; "The Life of David Gale."
THE YEAR'S MOST UNDERRATED FILMS: Former critics' darlings Jane Campion, Woody Allen and James Ivory top the list with their barely seen "In the Cut," "Anything Else" and "Le Divorce," respectively. Other worthy flicks that died on the vine because of a combination of critical indifference and audience neglect were "The Safety of Objects," "Casa de los Babys," "It Runs in the Family," "The Singing Detective" and 9/11 victim "Buffalo Soldiers."
WHO SAID CRITICS MATTER? "The Cuckoo," "In This World," "Lawless Heart," "Manito," "Once Upon a Time in the Midlands," "Open Hearts," "The Son," "Stevie," "Stone Reader," "Sweet Sixteen," "To Be and To Have" and "Together" all failed to crack the $1 million mark despite some of the year's best reviews.
MOST MISLEADING TITLE: The oppressively grim indie "Levity" (starring Billy Bob Thornton, Morgan Freeman, Kirsten Dunst and Holly Hunter) didn't contain a single laugh.
MOST APTLY TITLED MOVIE: The summer teen exploitation flick "Grind."
THE BEST TEEN FLICKS: Wow; plenty to choose from, as usual. Too bad no teenagers saw them, because they were all relegated to the art-house ghetto. "All the Real Girls"; "Better Luck Tomorrow"; "Blue Car"; "Camp"; "Elephant"; "Lilya 4-Ever"; "Raising Victor Vargas"; "Sweet Sixteen"; "Thirteen."
GREAT TELEVISION, TERRIBLE MOVIES: Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's Project Greenlight sweepstakes -- in which nonprofessional directors and screenwriters get to make a movie and have the filmmaking process documented in an addictive HBO series -- produced its second clunker in a row with the barely released "Battle of Shaker Heights." Since last year's Greenlight winner, "Stolen Summer," suffered an equally dire fate, maybe this wasn't such a great idea after all.
BEST BUDDY-MOVIE TEAM: Johnny Hallyday and Jean Rochefort, "Man on the Train."
BEST REASON TRADITIONAL CEL ANIMATION IS DEAD: "Sinbad, Legend of the Seven Seas."
BEST REASON TRADITIONAL CEL ANIMATION IS ALIVE AND KICKING: "The Triplets of Belleville."
BEST REASON PIXAR CONTINUES TO RULE THE ANIMATION ROOST: "Finding Nemo."
MOST SATISFYING CONCLUSION TO A BELOVED MOVIE TRILOGY: "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King."
MOST INFURIATING CONCLUSION TO A (FORMERLY) BELOVED MOVIE TRILOGY: "The Matrix Revolutions."
WHOSE MOVIE IS THIS, ANYWAY? It took nearly 45 minutes for the title horse to make his first appearance in the ponderous "Seabiscuit." Audiences starved for any movie that wasn't a sequel or special-effects extravaganza apparently didn't care, because it was a surprise midsummer smash.
MOST PROPHETIC WORDS: In my review of "Old School" last February, I said Will Ferrell gave a "star-making performance." In November, "Elf" confirmed Ferrell's superstar potential with its blockbuster grosses. He's now one of the most sought-after comedy actors in the business.
WORST PREDICTION: While reviewing the brutally overlong "Pirates of the Caribbean," I expressed serious doubts whether it could inspire a skull-and-crossbones revival. Because its $300-million-plus box-office take made a fool out of me, look for "Pirates 2" sometime in 2005.
MOST GRATIFYING BOX-OFFICE SLEEPER: Who would have guessed that mainstream audiences would dig something as mean-spirited and unapologetically nasty as "Bad Santa?"
IS IT TOO LATE TO TAKE BACK HER OSCAR? Angelina Jolie's post-Oscar slump continued this year with clenched-jaw performances in summer's instantly forgettable "Tomb Raider" sequel and fall's bloody awful "Beyond Borders."
TRUTH MIGHT NOT BE STRANGER THAN FICTION, BUT IT'S A LOT MORE COMPELLING: Many of the year's best films were documentaries (including "Blind Date: Hitler's Secretary," "Capturing the Friedmans," "The Fog of War," "To Be and To Have," "Stevie," "My Architect," "Stone Reader" and "Spellbound").
TIME TO ABANDON THOSE "GODFATHER 3" JOKES ONCE AND FOR ALL: With "Lost in Translation," Sofia Coppola proved that her auspicious directing debut (2000's "The Virgin Suicides") was no accident. Coppola has firmly established herself as one of the industry's best and brightest filmmaking talents.
PROZAC NATION: The brilliant but bleak "Mystic River," "Capturing the Friedmans," "Elephant," "House of Sand and Fog," "21 Grams," "Sylvia," "Irreversible," "Lilya 4-Ever" and "Spider" were all so unrelievedly grim, you need a prescription for antidepressants just to make it through the closing credits.
MOST OVEREXPOSED TWEENER IDOL: Hilary Duff ("Agent Cody Banks," "The Lizzie McGuire Movie," "Cheaper by the Dozen"). Britney Spears' "Crossroads" never looked better.
MR. DIESEL, YOUR 15 MINUTES ARE UP: After turning down "2 Fast 2 Furious" and being replaced by Ice Cube in the "XXX" sequel, Vin Diesel's long-delayed "A Man Apart" finally surfaced in April, sinking without a trace. Psst: I hear they're casting another "CSI" spinoff over at CBS, Vin.
ARE YOU SURE TOM HANKS STARTED THIS WAY? "That '70s Show" star Ashton Kutcher got more buzz and tabloid ink from his MTV show "Punk'd" and for dating Demi Moore than from any of his '03 movies ("Just Married," "My Boss's Daughter," "Cheaper by the Dozen").
BEST REMAKES: "Freaky Friday," "The Good Thief," "The Italian Job."
MOST UNNECESSARY COMEDY REMAKES: "The In-Laws," "Love Don't Cost a Thing."
MOST UNNECESSARY HORROR REMAKES: "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," "Willard."
NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL A STAR: All four of Colin Farrell's 2003 releases ("The Recruit," "Daredevil," "Phone Booth" and "S.W.A.T.") opened at No. 1 on the box-office chart.
IT'S PRONOUNCED "JEELY": Sony's fears that nobody would be able to pronounce the title of Bennifer's "Gigli" proved to be unfounded, because nobody went to see it anyway.
LOVE IS A BEAUTIFUL THING: The year's most intensely pleasurable film was an old-fashioned romantic comedy ("Love Actually").
LOVE CAN BREAK YOUR HEART: Some of the year's most excruciating films were old-fashioned romantic comedies ("Down With Love," "Alex and Emma," "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days," "A Guy Thing").
MOST BIZARRE CASTING: Anthony Hopkins as a black man passing as a Jew in "The Human Stain." Runners-up: Michael Caine and Robert Duvall playing Texan brothers in "Secondhand Lions."
MOST PLEASANTLY SURPRISING SEQUEL: After the wretched "American Pie 2," "American Wedding" proved to be an unexpectedly satisfying third go-round for the guys and gals from East Great Falls High. "American Baby," anyone?
WORST NON-"BAD BOYS" SEQUEL: In a year of underwhelming follow-ups ("Rugrats Go Wild!" "X-2: X-Men United," "Dumb and Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd," "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," "The Matrix Revolutions," etc.), Ted Turner's who-asked-for-it? four-hour "Gettysburg" sequel "Gods and Generals" stood head-and-shoulders above the pack. Not even the Civil War lasted this long.
MOST DISAPPOINTING SEQUEL: "Jason vs. Freddy," the long-awaited battle of the psycho-killer titans, was a colossal letdown for fright fans. Runner-up: "Jeepers Creepers 2" wasn't much better.
THAT WAS A SEQUEL? By getting sidetracked with lengthy parodies of "8 Mile" and "The Matrix," "Scary Movie 3" seemed to forget that its mission statement was to mock horror films.
SOMEBODY'S MAKING A SEQUEL TO THIS THING? Among the many lame 2003 movies that already have sequels in the works ("Agent Cody Banks"? "Underworld"?), Rob Zombie's "House of 1000 Corpses" takes the prize. What are they going to call it? "House of 1001 Corpses"?
SEQUEL WE'D MOST LIKE TO SEE (BUT DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH): "From Ruben to Kimberly" (as in Studdard and Locke) could team the most appealing and talented contestants from the second season of "American Idol."
HAVE ACCENT, WILL TRAVEL: Aussie Cate Blanchett went Irish in "Veronica Guerin" and American in "The Missing," both times with minimal impact.
BIGGEST (NON-"MATRIX REVOLUTIONS") ANTICLIMAX: Screen legends Gene Hackman and Dustin Hoffman make their first film together, and it's "Runaway Jury," a middling-at-best John Grisham adaptation.
TOM WHO? Although "The Last Samurai" was marketed as a Tom Cruise blockbuster, it was Japanese sensation Ken Watanabe about whom audiences couldn't stop talking. The next Chow Yun-Fat?
WHO NEEDS TO MAKE GOOD MOVIES? Both of Eddie Murphy's 2003 releases ("Daddy Day Care" and "The Haunted Mansion") were lame, freeze-dried affairs -- and jumbo-sized hits.
"YOU GO, GIRL!" Female empowerment flicks were the year's most encouraging trend ("Bend It Like Beckham," "Whale Rider," "Mona Lisa Smile," "Something's Gotta Give," "Under the Tuscan Sun").
ANOTHER ENCOURAGING TREND: Movies parents could actually enjoy with their kids ("In America," "Whale Rider," "Spellbound," "School of Rock," "Elf," "Holes," "Freaky Friday," "Winged Migration," "Peter Pan" and, of course, "Finding Nemo") revitalized the whole concept of "family entertainment."
TASTY POPCORN FLICKS THAT UNACCOUNTABLY FAILED TO CLICK: "The Core," "Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star" and "The Fighting Temptations."