2003 Worst Movies (Page #20)

A virus that locks those infected into a permanent state of killing rage, is accidentally released from a British research facility. Carried by animals and humans, the virus is impossible to contain, and spreads across the entire planet. Twenty-eight days later, a small group of survivors are trapped in London, caught in a desperate struggle to protect themselves from the infected. As they attempt to salvage a future from the apocalypse, they find that their most deadly enemy is not the virus, but other survivors.

September 1944. Several days before Finland, an ally of Nazi Germany, pulls out of World War II, Veiko, (Ville Haapasalo) a lone Finnish sniper, is turned on by his compatriots for a being a pacifist and, in their eyes, a reluctant fighter. As a punishment, the young man is placed in shackles, nailed to a heavy rock and forced to wear a German uniform, knowing full well that Russian soldiers have orders to shoot Germans on sight, without accepting surrender. Veiko is thus left to die in a remote Lapland forest, with nothing but a few supplies and his wits. Days pass, and after several failed attempts, he succeeds in freeing himself and heads for safety, shackles still attached. While trying to escape, Veiko witnesses the following through his rifle's telescope: Ivan, a captain in the Russian army accused of anti-Soviet correspondence, is being held prisoner by the Soviet Military secret police. En route to his court martial, Russian planes accidentally bomb the vehicle carrying the disgraced captain, killing the driver and his guard. Not far away is Anni (Anni-Kristiina Juuso), a Lapp reindeer farmer whose husband was drafted into the war by the Finnish authorities four years earlier, never to return. Hungry and alone, the young and resourceful widow locates the bodies of Ivan and his captors while foraging for food. As she begins to bury the dead, Anni discovers that Ivan is still alive, but seriously hurt. She carries him to her wooden hut and nurses him back to health. Meanwhile, Veiko, in search of tools to remove his shackles, stumbles upon Anni's farm. Thus World War II creates the unlikeliest of bonds (between three different people, from three different cultures, speaking three different languages.) Comic, and sometimes tragic, misunderstandings soon arise, resulting in a passionate, and very human, three-way relationship. Unable to communicate with the others and unaware that the war between the USSR and Finland is over, Ivan is convinced that Veiko is a German soldier gone astray; to Ivan, the German uniform the Finnish soldier was forced to wear is further proof. But Veiko is unaware of Ivan's hatred and just wants to cut off his shackles, return home and put the war behind him. Yet, to avoid falling into enemy hands, Veiko opts to stay on Anni's farm for temporary safety. The earthy and sensuous Anni, who has not been with a man in four years, could not be more delighted with her good fortune, language barrier be damned. For Anni, Veiko and Ivan are not enemies, but just men. An uncommon and touching bond develops, as the three unlikely souls begin a domestic routine of hunting and gathering in preparation for the long Lap winter. The two men do what they can to contribute to Anni's well being: Veiko builds a sauna and Ivan picks mushrooms... but their war is not over.

When Jimmy Markum's daughter is found murdered, his childhood friend Sean Devine--now a detective--is assigned to the case. Sean's personal life starts unraveling, as his investigation takes him back into a world of violence and pain he thought he'd left behind. It also puts him on a collision course with Jimmy Markum, a man with his own mysterious dark past, who is now eager to solve the crime with brutal justice. And then there is Dave Boyle, a man who hides monstrous secrets beneath a bland facade--secrets that his wife, Celeste, is only beginning to suspect. As the race for a killer heats up, all are pulled closer toward an abyss that will force them to face their true selves--and will mark them as irrevocably, as the past itself has tainted their lives.

Formed in the 1960's, the Folksmen (Guest, McKean, Shearer) were a key group in the "Great Folk Music Scare", meeting as freshmen at Ohio Wesleyan College, and touring for 26 months as a folk trio, singing a unique type of "eclectified folk" music. It wasn't meant to last, however, and the three musicians went their separate ways. Now, thirty years later, they've reunited for a comeback tour of sorts, as long as the folk festivals they're playing at are within a day's travel of their homes, all of which leads up to a climactic memorial concert at Carnegie Hall following the death of a legendary folk music promoter, where they reunite with two other folk groups. In the tradition of This is Spinal Tap (an aging heavy metal band), Waiting for Guffman (a small town theater group), and Best in Show (the Westminster Dog Show), this is a mocking look at the world of folk music.

Dr. Tess Coleman (Jamie Lee Curtis) and her fifteen-year-old daughter, Anna (Lindsay Lohan), are not getting along. They don't see eye-to-eye on clothes, hair, music, and certainly not in each other's taste in men. One Thursday evening, their disagreements reach a fever pitch - Anna is incensed that her mother doesn't support her musical aspirations and Tess, a widow about to remarry, can't see why Anna won't give her fiance (Mark Harmon) a break. Everything soon changes when two identical Fortune Cookies cause a little mystic mayhem.

With their two young daughters in tow, Johnny and Sarah emigrate from Ireland to New York City in pursuit of a dream. The family uses ingenuity and sheer strength of will to make the most of their new life. Ultimately it is their kindness to a stranger and that stranger's response in return that builds their new home.

Shaolin was an art practiced through the ages; a skill mastered in the heart. In "Shaolin Soccer", it is so much more than a philosophy for six young believers. It is a complete way of life. But as the world changed around them, and Honor and Discipline become forgotten virtues, they lose their way - except for one loyal follower, Sing (Stephen Chow). With the help of a former soccer star, he reunites his old, out of shape, misfit friends, and recruits a young woman with extraordinary Kung Fu skills. Together, they're out to combine the ancient power of Shaolin with the modern game of soccer and in the process, just might take the world's most popular sport to its most extreme.

The main character in Cidade de Deus is not a person. It is a place. Cidade de Deus is a poor housing project started in the 60's that became one of the most dangerous places in Rio de Janeiro by the beginning of the 80's. In order to tell the story of the place the film tells us the stories of many characters. But all is seen through the eyes of the narrator: Busca-Pi, a poor black kid too frail and scared to become an outlaw but also to smart to be content with an underpaid job. He grows up in a very violent environment. The odds are all against him. But he discovers he can see the reality with a different eye: the eye of an artist. Eventually he becomes a professional photographer. That is his redemption... Buscapi is not the real protagonist of the film. He is not the one who makes the story moves on [sic]. He is not the one who makes the decisions that will determine the main chain of events. Nevertheless, not only his life is attached to what happens in the story but it is also through his perspective of life that we understand the humanity of a world apparently condemned to endless violence.

One young girl dared to confront the past, change the present and determine the future. On the east coast of New Zealand, the Whangara people - or Whangara iwi - believe their presence there dates back a thousand years or more to a single ancestor, Paikea, who escaped death when his canoe capsized by riding to shore on the back of a whale. From then on, Whangara chiefs - always the first-born, always male - have been considered Paikea's direct descendants. Pai, an 11-year-old girl in a patriarchal New Zealand tribe, believes she is destined to be the new chief. But her grandfather Koro is bound by tradition to pick a male leader. Pai loves Koro more than anyone in the world, but she must fight him and a thousand years of tradition to fulfill her destiny.

Steve James's new film takes a deeply personal turn as he returns to the town where 10 years earlier he was a "big brother" to a troubled young boy named Stevie. As he resumes his connection with this emotionally and socially challenged man after so many years, we get a glimpse into the difficulties Stevie faced as a product of his environment. Abandoned by his mother at a young age, he bounced from foster home to foster home, abused and neglected. He soon found his way into trouble with the law, which complicated his strained relationships with what little family he had.

Nominated for two Cesar awards in 2002, including Best First Feature Film, "The Girl From Paris" tells the story of Sandrine, a young Parisienne who decides to leave the city and pursue her dream of becoming a farmer. Adrien is the older, taciturn farmer who agrees to sell Sandrine his land and herd of goats before retiring to Grenoble. Sandrine allows Adrien stay at the farm for eighteen months, then begins renovations in earnest. Sandrine succeeds where Adrien was sure she would fail; she earns a living in the spring and summer by opening up the farm to tourists and selling goat cheese over the Internet. But the arrival of winter brings a tide change and conflicting emotions: Sandrine faces the harsh isolation of the Rhone-Alps while forming a growing attachment to Adrien. Between their mutual curiosity and misunderstandings, Sandrine and Adrien are forced to live side by side when the only thing they share is their love for mountains and nature.

Hell-raising guitarist with delusions of grandeur Dewey Finn (Jack Black) has been kicked out of his band. Desperate for work, he impersonates a substitute teacher and turns a class of fifth grade high-achievers into high-voltage rock and rollers ready to compete in a local radio station's Battle of the Bands contest.