79%  Winner:   Chicago  113 min,  PG-13,  [Comedy, Crime, Musical]  [Rob Marshall]  [24 Jan 2003]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 72%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 85%,   Metacritic: 82%,   External Reviews
Awards:  Won 6 Oscars. Another 51 wins & 128 nominations.
Actors:  Catherine Zeta-Jones, Cliff Saunders, Renée Zellweger, Richard Gere, Taye Diggs
Writer:  Bill Condon (screenplay), Bob Fosse (book), Fred Ebb (book), Maurine Dallas Watkins (play)
External Links:  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb  Website     Language:  English, Hungarian    Country:  USA, Germany, Canada
Plot:  Murderesses Velma Kelly (a chanteuse and tease who killed her husband and sister after finding them in bed together) and Roxie Hart (who killed her boyfriend when she discovered he wasn't going to make her a star) find themselves on death row together and fight for the fame that will keep them from the gallows in 1920s Chicago.
Rotten Tomatoes:   A starry-eyed would-be star discovers just how far the notion that "there's no such thing as bad publicity" can go in this screen adaptation of the hit Broadway musical Chicago, originally directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse. In the mid-'20s, Roxie Hart (Renee Zellweger) is a small-time chorus dancer married to a well-meaning dunderhead named Amos (John C. Reilly). Roxie is having an affair on the side with Fred Casley (Dominic West), a smooth talker who insists he can make her a star. However, Fred strings Roxie along a bit too far for his own good, and when she realizes that his promises are empty, she becomes enraged and murders Fred in cold blood. Roxie soon finds herself behind bars alongside Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones), a sexy vaudeville star who used to perform with her sister until Velma discovered that her sister had been sleeping with her husband. Velma shot them both dead, and, after scheming prison matron "Mama" Morton hooks Velma up with hotshot lawyer Billy Flynn (Richard Gere), Velma becomes the new Queen of the scandal sheets. Roxie is just shrewd enough to realize that her poor fortune could also bring her fame, so she convinces Amos to also hire Flynn. Soon Flynn is splashing Roxie's story -- or, more accurately, a highly melodramatic revision of Roxie's story -- all over the gutter press, and Roxy and Velma are soon battling neck-to-neck over who can win greater fame through the headlines. A project that had been moving from studio to studio since the musical opened on Broadway in 1973, Chicago also features guest appearances by Lucy Liu and Christine Baranski. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

73%  Nominee:   Gangs of New York  167 min,  R,  [Crime, Drama]  [Martin Scorsese]  [20 Dec 2002]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 75%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 74%,   Metacritic: 72%,   External Reviews
Awards:  Nominated for 10 Oscars. Another 50 wins & 124 nominations.
Actors:  Cameron Diaz, Daniel Day-Lewis, Jim Broadbent, Leonardo DiCaprio
Writer:  Jay Cocks (story), Jay Cocks (screenplay), Steven Zaillian (screenplay), Kenneth Lonergan (screenplay)
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb  Website     Language:  English, Irish, Chinese, Latin    Country:  USA, Italy
Plot:  Having seen his father killed in a major gang fight in New York, young Amsterdam Vallon is spirited away for his own safety. Some years later, he returns to the scene of his father's death, the notorious Five Points district in New York. It's 1863 and lower Manhattan is run by gangs, the most powerful of which is the Natives, headed by Bill "The Butcher" Cutting. He believes that America should belong to native-born Americans and opposes the waves of immigrants, mostly Irish, entering the city. It's also the time of the Civil War and forced conscription leads to the worst riots in US history. Amid the violence and corruption, young Vallon tries to establish himself in the area and also seek revenge over his father's death.
Rotten Tomatoes:   The violent rise of gangland power in New York City at a time of massive political corruption and the city's evolution into a cultural melting pot set the stage for this lavish historical epic, which director Martin Scorsese finally brought to the screen almost 30 years after he first began to plan the project. In 1846, as waves of Irish immigrants poured into the New York neighborhood of Five Points, a number of citizens of British and Dutch heritage who were born in the United States began making an open display of their resentment toward the new arrivals. William Cutting (Daniel Day-Lewis), better known as "Bill the Butcher" for his deadly skill with a knife, bands his fellow "Native Americans" into a gang to take on the Irish immigrants; the immigrants in turn form a gang of their own, "The Dead Rabbits," organized by Priest Vallon (Liam Neeson). After an especially bloody clash between the Natives and the Rabbits leaves Vallon dead, his son goes missing; the boy ends up in a brutal reform school before returning to the Five Points in 1862 as Amsterdam (Leonardo DiCaprio). Now a strapping adult who has learned how to fight, Amsterdam has come to seek vengeance against Bill the Butcher, whose underworld control of the Five Points through violence and intimidation dovetails with the open corruption of New York politician "Boss" Tweed (Jim Broadbent). Amsterdam gradually penetrates Bill the Butcher's inner circle, and he soon becomes his trusted assistant. Amsterdam also finds himself falling for Jenny Everdeane (Cameron Diaz), a beautiful but street-smart thief who was once involved with Bill. Amsterdam is learning a great deal from Bill, but before he can turn the tables on the man who killed his father, Amsterdam's true identity is exposed, even though he has concealed it from nearly everyone, including Jenny. Gangs Of New York was the first film in two years from actor Leonardo DiCaprio; ironically, it was at one time scheduled to open on the same day as Catch Me if You Can, the Steven Spielberg project that DiCaprio began filming immediately after Gangs wrapped. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

78%  Nominee:   The Hours  110 min,  PG-13,  [Drama, Romance]  [Stephen Daldry]  [14 Feb 2003]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 76%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 80%,   Metacritic: 80%,   External Reviews
Awards:  Won 1 Oscar. Another 41 wins & 125 nominations.
Actors:  Julianne Moore, Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Stephen Dillane
Writer:  Michael Cunningham (novel), David Hare (screenplay)
External Links:  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb  Website     Language:  English    Country:  USA, UK
Plot:  In 1951, Laura Brown, a pregnant housewife, is planning a party for her husband, but she can't stop reading the novel 'Mrs. Dalloway'. Clarissa Vaughn, a modern woman living in present times is throwing a party for her friend Richard, a famous author dying of AIDS. These two stories are simultaneously linked to the work and life of Virginia Woolf, who's writing the novel mentioned before.
Rotten Tomatoes:   Spanning across various time periods in the 20th Century, a drama which revolves around three very different women: two of whom have been profoundly affected by the works of Virginia Woolf; the other woman is Woolf, herself. All three are battling with issues of freedom, responsibility and identity. As the story unfolds, they are negotiating their way through different depressive states: Virginia Woolf is struggling to write her novel "Mrs. Dalloway" in 1923, as she recovers from depression; Laura Brown is a depressed and pregnant L.A. housewife who reads Woolf's novel in 1949, as she plans her husband's birthday party; and, the exasperated Clarissa Vaughn is a book editor in modern-day New York, who is planning a farewell party for her AIDS-inflicted former lover, Richard--a famous author who had nicknamed her Mrs. Dalloway.

89%  Nominee:   The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers  179 min,  PG-13,  [Adventure, Drama, Fantasy]  [Peter Jackson]  [18 Dec 2002]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 87%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 95%,   Metacritic: 87%,   External Reviews
Awards:  Won 2 Oscars. Another 118 wins & 137 nominations.
Actors:  Bruce Allpress, Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, John Bach, Sala Baker, Sean Astin, Viggo Mortensen
Writer:  J.R.R. Tolkien (novel), Fran Walsh (screenplay), Philippa Boyens (screenplay), Stephen Sinclair (screenplay), Peter Jackson (screenplay)
External Links:  Wikipedia  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb  Website     Language:  English, Sindarin, Old English    Country:  New Zealand, USA
Plot:  While Frodo and Sam, now accompanied by a new guide, continue their hopeless journey towards the land of shadow to destroy the One Ring, each member of the broken fellowship plays their part in the battle against the evil wizard Saruman and his armies of Isengard.
Rotten Tomatoes:   Frodo and Samwise press on toward Mordor. Gollum insists on being the guide. Can anyone so corrupted by the ring be trusted? Can Frodo, increasingly under the sway of the ring, even trust himself? Meanwhile, Aragorn, drawing closer to his kingly destiny, rallies forces of good for the battles that must come. Director Peter Jackson delivers an amazing second movie that won 2 Academy Awards (R)* and earned 6 total nominations including Best Picture. The journey continues. So do the astonishing spectacle and splendor.

88%  Nominee:   The Pianist  150 min,  R,  [Biography, Drama, Music, War]  [Roman Polanski]  [28 Mar 2003]
Ratings & Reviews:  IMDb Reviews: 85%,   Rotten Tomatoes: 95%,   Metacritic: 85%,   External Reviews
Awards:  Won 3 Oscars. Another 52 wins & 73 nominations.
Actors:  Adrien Brody, Ed Stoppard, Emilia Fox, Frank Finlay, Michal Zebrowski, Thomas Kretschmann
Writer:  Ronald Harwood (screenplay), Wladyslaw Szpilman (book)
External Links:  Rotten Tomatoes  IMDb  Website     Language:  English, German, Russian    Country:  UK, France, Poland, Germany
Plot:  In this adaptation of the autobiography "The Pianist: The Extraordinary True Story of One Man's Survival in Warsaw, 1939-1945," Wladyslaw Szpilman, a Polish Jewish radio station pianist, sees Warsaw change gradually as World War II begins. Szpilman is forced into the Warsaw Ghetto, but is later separated from his family during Operation Reinhard. From this time until the concentration camp prisoners are released, Szpilman hides in various locations among the ruins of Warsaw.
Rotten Tomatoes:   An adaptation based on the autobiography of the acclaimed Polish composer, Wladyslaw Szpilman, who detailed his survival during World War II, and narrowly escaped a roundup that sent his family to a death camp. A composer and pianist, Szpilman played the last live music heard over Polish radio airwaves before Nazi artillery hit. There, in Poland, Szpilman struggled to stay alive--even when cast away from those he loved. He spent the duration of the war hiding in the ruins of Warsaw and scavenging for food and shelter. Szpilman eventually reclaimed his artistic gifts, and confronted his fears--with aid from the unlikeliest of sources.