2003 Best Reviewed Movies (Page #11)

Set in the LAPD in April 1992, it takes place just days before the acquittal of four white officers in the beating of black motorist Rodney King and the subsequent LA riots. In this racially charged climate, the LAPD's elite Special Investigations Squad (SIS) is assigned a high-profile quadruple homicide. As they work the case, veteran detective Eldon Perry (Kurt Russell) tutors rookie Bobby Keough (Scott Speedman) in the grim realities of police intimidation and corruption. Meanwhile, Assistant Chief Holland (Ving Rhames), the only man in the department willing to stand up to the SIS, threatens to end Perry's brand of single-handed "justice" on the LA streets. While navigating through tumultuous neighborhoods of South Central LA, Perry and Keough must track down killers and face their own demons.

A young Indian dance teacher named Ramu Gupta (Jimi Mistry) embarks for New York City in pursuit of fame and fortune only to find himself working as a waiter in an Indian restaurant. Through an encounter with Sharonna (Heather Graham), a beautiful adult-film star, the shy, inexperienced Ramu is mistaken for a spiritual leader - the Guru of Sex - and becomes an overnight celebrity. Fame comes at a price, however, and Ramu must choose between his newfound fame and his growing love for the beautiful Sharonna.

A Portuguese woman is convinced by her teen daughter to become romantically involved with a businessman who has become wealthy in the fishing industry. The woman becomes more and more attached to him, little knowing that her paramour is really a professional gambler pretending to be a legitimate businessman.

Set in a live-action world in which Warner Bros.' beloved assortment of irreverent animated entertainers interact with human characters for maximum comic effect, the story unfolds on the Studio backlot and careens all over the map in time-honored Looney Tunes style. Our celluloid heroes embark on a hilarious adventure that takes them from Hollywood to Las Vegas, Paris and the jungles of Africa in search of Fraser's character's missing father and the mythical Blue Monkey Diamond.

It's 1955 and industries are booming as America undergoes a postwar metamorphosis. However, in the small town of Northfork, the townspeople are being evacuated because of the construction of a dam that will wash away their homes. A group of trench-coat-wearing government employees, hired to get rid of the proud few who remain, go about the business of destroying lives with efficiency. Meanwhile, a young orphan boy lies sick in bed, being cared for by a devoted priest. The boy's fever dreams include fantastic beings that might be angels... but are they simply in his head?

"Prey for Rock & Roll" is the adrenaline-filled story of a contemporary LA all-girl punk band led by singer/guitarist Jacki (Gina Gershon), bassist Tracy (Drea De Matteo), lead guitarist Faith (Lori Petty), and drummer Sally (Shelly Cole). The directing debut of esteemed music supervisor/producer Alex Steyermark, the film captures the color and energy of a veteran band struggling to make it while personal obstacles and disturbing new events threaten to tear them apart.

With East Great Falls High now just a memory, the kids have grown into young adults ready to wreak havoc with a new rite of passage - Jim (Jason Biggs) and Michelle (Alyson Hannigan) are getting married! Stifler (Seann William Scott) plans to be there (bridesmaids!), and more importantly to throw the ultimate bachelor party (strippers!). Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas) is all for the hedonistic rituals, but not for letting Stifler steal the maid of honor, who happens to be Michelle's sexy younger sister, Cadence (January Jones). While everybody else sweats and frets, Jim's Dad (Eugene Levy) is cool as ever, dispensing advice that no one wants to hear and getting ready for one of the best days of his life.

"Km. 0" is a exuberant sex farce that takes a frenzied peek into the lives of a group of 14 people whose lives all intersect one very hot summer day at "km. 0" – the very center of Madrid. The various plotlines – several of which involve gay men – all involve chance meetings, missed connections and mistaken identifies, but from the confusion comes unexpected erotic interludes, new friendships, hot and bothered sexual escapades and romantic couplings. It's gay, straight, young, old: there's the 21-year-old movie director hopeful who is fresh off the bus and is picked up by a prostitute instead of his sister's friend; Marga (Concha Valasco), an older woman who beds a male escort (Jesus Cabrero) only to discover that she may be related to him; a gay dance instructor whose personal encounter with a chat room guy offers sex and maybe even love; Sergio (Alberto San Juan), a virgin about to be married but befriended by a interested gay man; Silvia (Mercè Pons), an aspiring actress who will do anything to get a part in a big musical. Amidst the heat, dreams are realized, clothing shed and romance triumphs! A rollicking, fast-paced comedy about finding your right partner, even if it means trying on a few beforehand.

Based on a true story, this is about the Irish journalist Veronica Guerin (Cate Blanchett), a reporter for the Dublin Sunday Independent, who exposed some of Dublin's most powerful crime barons and drug lords in 1996. But later that year she was gunned down by assasins hired by the same criminal drug lords she exposed.

A young woman, Diane, works for a multinational corporation run by Henri-Pierre Volf. In the logic of the diversification of its activities - from real estate to clothing design - the Volf Group is negociating the acquisition of TokyoAnime, a Japanese company which produces a new form of manga and their pornographic version, hentaï, in digital 3D images that will outdate and destroy the competition in this extraordinarily lucrative market. Two companies battle to obtain exclusive diffusion of Volf's new images on the Web: Mangatronics and Demonlover. Mangatronics has recruted Diane as a sort of industrial spy to serve its interests by torpedoing the Demonlover contract from within. The links between Demonlover and various violent and illegal pornographic sites dangerously weakens the relationship with the Volf Group, unaware of the existence of those secret sites. Diane discovers that they also have their strategy and their spies in the form of her seemingly neutral, naive colleagues. She ends up knowing too much and becomes a danger to Demonlover. Soon there is no way out, except fading into the cyber-reality of which she was perhaps a part from the start.

Dek and Shirley live together with 12 year-old Marlene, her daughter by the sexy, delinquent Jimmy who went off into the badlands of Glasgow years ago and hasn't been heard from since. Decent-but-dull Dek loves Shirley so much that he humiliates her by proposing without warning on national television. Like everyone else Shirley has ever met, Jimmy is watching when she turns Dek down on TV and he returns to town, determined to win her back. Shirley seems destined to succumb to Jimmy's charms, but he hasn't reckoned on the obstacles: their daughter Marlene, his sister Carol, her estranged husband Charlie, their sons Emerson and Lake, Carol's daughter Donna, her boyfriend Donut. Nor could he anticipate the heroic, last-minute challenge from mild-mannered, love-sick Dek.

Set in 16th century Thailand over the course of 57 years (1491-1548), this is an epic tale and political history of the Kingdom of Ayothaya, culminating in the story of Queen Phra Suriyothai (M.L. Piyapas Bhirombhakdi), who rode into battle against the Burmese invasion to protect her husband at the Battle of Hantawaddy in 1548.

Set in the world's holiest city during the dawn of the new century as fanatical Christians from across the globe arrive in hopes of provoking a confrontation between the many extremist Arabs and Jews, the plot of "The Holy Land" focuses on Menachem Weinbaum ("Mendy"),a young rabbinical student who is restless to learn about the bigger world. On the advice of his slightly demented teacher, Mendy visits a brothel in Tel Aviv so he can be rid of his 'madness' and return tohis studies. There he meets Sasha, a nineteen-year-old Russian prostitute, whose dire situation and immense beauty captivates him. But Mendy's world really opens up when he discovers Mike's Place, a real-life magnet for the lost souls who flock to Jerusalem. A place where Arabs, Christians and Jews drink side by side, Mike's Place introduces Mendy to a gun-toting American-born settler, a shady entrepreneurial Arab and a slew of American expatriates, forever changed by the sixties, who act out biblical roles. As Mendy becomes more immersed in this culture of the millennium he begins to wonder if Mike and his band of misfits are as harmless as they seem? Or are they intent on provoking Armageddon? A story of doomed, passionate love and coming of age in troubled times -- set in a world-famous place not unlike Rick's Cafe American or the Cantina in "Star Wars" -- "The Holy Land" explores the underbelly of real life in Jerusalem after the sun goes down and the tourists and Orthodox families go to sleep.

Esther Gold (Glenn Close) devotes herself to her comatose, bedridden son, and expresses love for her daughter by trying to win her a car in a last-one-standing radio contest. Jim Train (Dermot Mulroney) questions his value as a man when he is passed over for promotion; Annette Jenning (Patricia Clarkson) tries to keep her family intact in the wake of her divorce; and Helen Christianson (Mary Kay Place) looks for fun and inspiration in her banal life. Despair and humor are delicately balanced in this film that examines people's investment in things that are more predictable, if less satisfying, than their relationships with other people.