2003 Worst Movies (Page #18)

At the edge of adolescence, Tracy (Evan Rachel Wood) is a promising student and the loving apple of her mother's eye. But that was before she fell under the spell of Evie (Nikki Reed), the most popular and beautiful girl in school. Tracy aches to become Evie's friend but fails the secret code of acceptance. Wrong socks, wrong look. As Tracy transforms to reach for a new life, her world becomes a boiling, emotional cauldron fueled by new tensions between her and her mother, teachers, and old friends. Each decision is radical, each choice is major, each crisis is huge, and it all makes Tracy squeal with horror and excitement. But that's what it's like to be 13!

A revisiting, some 15 years later, of the principal characters of Denys Arcand's 1986 comedy drama film, "The Decline of the American Empire". Rémy, now divorced and in his early fifties, is hospitalized. His ex-wife, Louise, asks their son Sébastien to come home from London where he now lives. Sébastien hesitates; he and his father haven't had much to say to one another for years now. He relents, however, and flies to Montreal to help his mother and support his father. As soon as he arrives, Sébastien moves heaven and earth, brings his contacts into play and disrupts the system in every way possible to ease the ordeal that awaits Rémy. Around his father's bedside, Sébastien also reunites the merry band of folk who were all players in Rémy's complicated past: relatives, friends and former mistresses.

Ben is an overachieving high-school student in Orange County, Calif. He's at the top of his class and set to matriculate at an Ivy League school. But Ben has a darker side. While he maintains academic success, to alleviate the pressure put upon him by his parents, he indulges in acts of crime. His life slowly begins to spin out of control and he eventually joins a gang.

"Step Into Liquid" is a personal glimpse into the world of surfing from the original family of surf films. It's a film for surfers as well as non-surfers alike because it is a film about people with a passion for life. "Step Into Liquid" is a collection of stories about people who live for surfing. The cross-section of characters featured in this film come from many walks of life, but share one thing in common, the need to surf. For many of them, surfing is merely a hobby. For others, surfing is an identity and maybe even a lifestyle. For a fortunate and talented few, it is a profession. And, for one, it is a salvation.

"Divine Intervention" follows ES, a character played by and clearly based upon the filmmaker himself. ES is burdened with a sick father, a stalled screenplay and an unrequited love affair with a beautiful Palestinian woman (Manal Khader) living in Ramallah. An Israeli checkpoint on the Nazareth-Ramallah road forces the couple to rendezvous in an adjacent parking lot. Their relationship and the absurd situations around them serve as metaphors for the lunacy of larger cultural problems, and the result is palpable, bottled personal and political rage.

This documentary, filmed over six years (1996-2002), is about Mark "Gator" Rogowski, a pro skateboarding star in the '80s currently serving a life sentence for the rape and murder of a woman he barely knew. The film mixes old footage of Gator skating and carousing with recent interviews with such skateboarding icons as Tony Hawk and Stacey Peralta. It examines what drove a charming, rich, and famous bad-boy skater to kill.

A man too small, a boy too tall, a girl with her mouth made over all meet by chance. An encounter that seems fated to have no story but, as fate would have it, it becomes the tormented chronicle of denied love. Peppino, the man too small, is a taxidermist. Valerio, the boy too tall, is a waiter. Deborah, the girl with her mouth made over, is one who continually changes jobs… all have different dreams, hidden needs, secret drives. They are three castaways trying to cling to the certainty of a love that can justify the common ills of living and make them normal. They are just as incapable of communicating the ideals of the others as they are incapable of accepting them, they will tragically become lost.

Phobia-addled con artist Roy (Nicolas Cage) and his protégé Frank (Sam Rockwell) are on the verge of pulling off a lucrative swindle when the unexpected arrival of Roy's teenage daughter Angela (Alison Lohman) disrupts his carefully-ordered life and jeopardizes his high-risk scam.

A fast and furious action tale of three tough, hard-hitting women who take on a powerful pair of computer moguls, the Hong Kong police, two deadly assassins, and... each other. Shu Qi and Zhao Wei play sisters whose family inheritances are a state-of-the-art computer surveillance system and an unresolved family vendetta. After a wealthy Shanghai computer magnate is murdered, a beautiful and ambitious young undercover detective (Mok) is assigned to the case. Finding herself further drawn-in when she discovers the criminal masterminds are two women, the young detective eventually comes face-to-face with the sisters who, despite their delicate appearance, hold mental and combat skill to match her own. A battle of wits and force ensues in this tale of technological wizardry.

Sarah Morton (Charlotte Rampling) is a famous British mystery author. Tired of London and seeking inspiration for her new novel, she accepts an offer from her publisher John Bosload (Charles Dance) to stay at his home in the South of France. It is the off-season, and Sarah finds that the beautiful country locale and unhurried pace is just the tonic for her – until late one night, when John's indolent and insouciant French daughter Julie (Ludivine Sagnier) unexpectedly arrives. Sarah's prim and steely English reserve is jarred by Julie's reckless, sexually charged lifestyle. Their interactions set off increasingly unsettling dynamics and begin to unduly influence Sarah's creative process, as Sarah finds herself drawn into a real-life mystery that Julie embodies.

Through a chronological history of the liberation struggle in South Africa, the documentary cites examples of the way music was used in the fight for freedom. Songs united those being oppressed and gave those fighting a way to express their plight. The music consoled the incarcerated and created an effective underground form of communication inside the prisons.

Im Kwon-taek's ninety-fifth film tells the story of renowned nineteenth-century painter Jang Seung-up (Choi Min-Sik), an artist whose revolutionary work - and persona - has forever changed the face of Korean art.

April Burns (Katie Holmes) is a 21-year-old wild child with a very big problem. Against her better judgment, she's invited her straightlaced family for Thanksgiving dinner. Her boyfriend, Bobby, wants to help, but she banishes him from the apartment while she attempts to cook the meal. To make matters worse, she then discovers that her oven doesn't work. So, while April is forced to ask her eccentric neighbors for help in cooking her fifteen pound turkey, the Burns Family begins a reluctant journey from suburban Pennsylvania toward New York City's Lower East Side. April's Dad, Jim Burns (Oliver Platt) tries to convince the family that the day will be beautiful. Her mom, Joy (Patricia Clarkson) has her doubts and freely voices them. April's teenage sister and brother are squeezed between Grandma Dottie and a bag of snacks in the back seat as the Burns' family car hurtles toward Manhattan and what will most likely be certain disaster.