In an annual series, Every Movie Has a Lesson is going to look back twenty years to revisit, relearn, and reexamine a year of cinema history to share favorites, lists, and experiences from the films of that year.

Favorites

Once Upon a Time in Mexico, The Italian Job, Phone Booth, Tears of the Sun, Under the Tuscan Sun, The Rundown, Gods and Generals, Holes, Bruce Almighty, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, American Wedding, Freaky Friday, S.W.A.T., Out of Time, Runaway Jury, Shattered Glass, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions

If I was making a “10 Best” of pure favorites from 2003, Once Upon a Time in Mexico would be near the top. I love Desperado, and I recognize the sequel is a big step down, but, hot damn, I still love it. I’d rather watch this edgy-and-still-hammy Johnny Depp in Robert Rodriguez’s movie than as Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean series which started this year. While I push away the Pirates franchise, I gladly hug and inject the lesser Matrix sequels which took the world by storm in 2003 to varying levels of appreciation and disappointment. Put me in the group of the former.

The rest of this “favorites” list shows my centrist taste in 2003. Hollywood still knew how to make good action movies, courtroom thrillers, and mainstream comedies. They would be tailing off soon after 2003, but there are some solid winners from the year that birthed new stars like Dwayne Johnson, Colin Farrell, and Jason Statham.

Guilty Pleasures

Daredevil, The Core, Cradle 2 the Grave, Confidence, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Hollywood Homicide, Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines, Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, In the Cut, Bad Santa, Timeline, Cheaper By the Dozen, Paycheck

Here’s likely where my centrist tastes of my twenties still get the best of me. Much like Hulk which made my Top 20 in the previous retrospective post, I’ll take Daredevil (especially the darker Directors Cut on disc) over plenty of today’s comic book movie entries. I’m also a sucker then and now for slick science fiction, even if it’s lesser quality. That explains my levels of appreciation higher than the rotten scores for movies like The Core, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Timeline, and Paycheck.

Rewatches Needed

Lost in Translation, Matchstick Men, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, Down With Love, Intolerable Cruelty, Pieces of April, Beyond Borders, The Singing Detective, House of Sand and Fog, Peter Pan

This is the first spot of two where my higher-brow cinephile followers and peers can finally chase me down. Like I said in the last blog post, Lost in Translation missed my mind and heart. It definitely deserves another chance where I realize with my age now that I’m probably closer to identifying with Murray’s lead than I did twenty years ago. I also need to give Ridley Scott’s underrated Matchstick Men another chance. I bet I was still riding the action high of Black Hawk Down two years earlier to accept that caper flick. The Coens and I don’t typically get along, but I should rewatch Intolerable Cruelty and see I can appreciate it more.

Blind Spots

Oldboy, Memories of Murder, American Splendor, City of God, Bend it Like Beckham, Assassination Tango, A Mighty Wind, The Good Thief, Whale Rider, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Bad Boys II, Dirty Pretty Things, Wonderland, The Station Agent, Girl With the Pearl Earring, Underworld, The Fog of War, The Shape of Things, All the Real Girls, The Triplets of Belleville, The Magdalene Sisters, Demonlover, Good Bye Lenin!, Intermission, Dogville, Veronica Guerin

This is the second place my high-falutin’ critic friends will crucify me. The films on this list that I haven’t seen, even after a two-decade head start and accumulated buzz, are embarrassing, especially things like Oldboy and City of God. Knowing the younger and dumber guy I was in 2003, I’m not surprised several of these were missed. I had not tapped into the power of foreign film. Being a fortysomething now, I have a good feeling I would really enjoy A Mighty Wind, American Splendor, and Bend It Like Beckham, even if I’m still not a soccer or dog person. Before Val Kilmer departs this mortal coil, I owe him Wonderland. Some of these I’m not exactly rushing to see still. I’m not interested in the good old days of Michael Bay for Bad Boys II and what would likely require a franchise dive into crappy sequels to take in Underworld.