The YOUR OPINION AWARDS for Best/Worst of 2003

Cafe Society
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Feel free to add new categories and name up to three nominees for each.

BEST MOVIE YOU PAID FULL PRICE TO SEE DURING 2003

My nominees:

Master and Commander , Pirates of the Carribean , Kill Bill

Winner: Pirates of the Carribean - it’s not exactly going to cure cancer or end world hunger, but it was fun and I left smiling.
WORST MOVIE YOU PAID FULL PRICE TO SEE DURING 2003

My nominees:
Timeline and Underworld, but the winner by a landslide is Timeline. Ed Wood couldn’t suspend his disbelief that much and there were plotholes you could drive the Third Army and their friends and family through.

BEST BOOK YOU READ IN 2003 (doesn’t necessarily have to have been written in 2003)

My nominees: Cold Mountain , Catch Me If You Can and Under the Banner of Heaven .
Winner: COLD MOUNTAIN, if only because I’m a sucker for a good Civil War novel.
WORST BOOK YOU READ DURING 2003 (which, again, doesn’t necessarily have to have been written during 2003)

My nominees: Dan Brown’s DaVinci Code , Neil Gaiman’s** American Gods** , and Rita Mae Brown’s Rita Will: Memoirs of a Literary Rabble Rouser .
Winner: Da Vinci Code , for reasons described on several other threads.

Movie You Saw at the Theater or on DVD During 2003 that you were most Surprised You Liked: (Again, doesn’t have to have been made during 2003)
My nominees: 8 Mile , About a Boy, and Edge of Seventeen .
Winner: About a Boy - I generally think of Hugh Grant as a one-trick-pony (albeit a cute and charming one) and I really liked the book so I expected it to be thoroughly mangled, but Hugh was perfect and many of the changes for the screen actually worked better.

Favorite New Artist or Writer You Discovered During 2003

My nominees: Josh Groban, Neil Stephenson and or Augusten Burroughs.
Winner: Josh Groban.

Favorite New TV Show of 2003
Nominees: QUEER EYE FOR THE STRAIGHT GUY, ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT or LAW & ORDER: EXPIRED LICENSE TAG UNIT.
Winner: There is no new breakout heartthrob but Kyan, and Carson is the prophet of Kyan.
Favorite Television Moment of 2003
Winner: The revelation of Daphne’s pregnancy by Frasier’s obnoxious girlfriend on FRASIER, the Cleftones performance on QUEER EYE FOR THE STRAIGHT GUY, or Cher’s Farewell Concert.

Winner: QUEER EYE FOR THE CLEFTONES, if only for the revelation that Kyan can’t dance (which somehow makes him even sexier, if that’s somehow possible).

**Least Favorite (or Cheesiest) Television Moment of 2003 **
My nominees: Romano’s “aw c’mon!” demise on ER, the “twist” revealed on BOY MEETS BOY, and or any “special episode” of The West Wing.
Winner: Romano’s aloha. (It would have been BOY MEETS BOY, but any sympathy I had for James evaporated when I learned he had a boyfriend the entire time AND he was stupid enough to let Wes slip through his fingers after the show ended.)

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Best Movie of 2003
Finding Nemo, fins down. Only damn movie in 2003 where you could take the entire family to see it, and everyone would have a great time.

Most Misunderstood Movie of 2003
The Hulk. Give Ang Lee credit for trying to do something besides 90 minutes of smashing things. Pity Universal for releasing it in the summer and selling it like a movie with 90 minutes of smashing things.

Most Pissing-Me-Off Movie of 2003
Sylvia. Yeah, I know it’s a real-life biography, but just watching the movie and thinking of what happens to the kids afterwards pisses me off to no end. They’ll be in therapy for years…

Best Current-Events Book of 2003
Al Franken’s Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, for being the only political book on the shelf that backs up its points with facts. As far as I know, nobody has managed to find a factual mistake in that book, unlike the stuff from Coulter, Moore, O’Reilly, etc.

Dumbest Lawsuit of 2003
Fox News suing Al Franken for using “A Fair and Balanced Look At the Right” as the subtitle for his new book. Rightly laughed out of court.

Most Embarrassing Corporate CEO of 2003
Michael Eisner, once again. Brother Bear got upstaged by Finding Nemo, Roy Disney reams him in a highly-publicized fallout, and the theme parks continue their slow slide into mediocrity.

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Ellen Degeneres in that movie actually makes me wish you could be nominated for an Oscar for voicework. Dory is one of the funniest characters in any movie in years. (“No way!”)

Good call- somehow I forgot about this one. I’ll let it trump UNDER THE BANNER OF HEAVEN as best non-fiction of 2003 (IMHO).

Best Pundit to Pundit WHACK’D Moment

Franken’s Evan Thomas’s grandfather endnote sting.

Most Repulsive Media Whore Hooking in 2003

Michael Moore’s Oscar acceptance speech.

Stupidest Comment Made By a Celebrity in 2003

Moore’s explanation of the booing at his Oscar acceptance speech (“They weren’t booing me, they were booing the people who booed me.”)

Most Ironic Comment Made By a Celebrity Bankrolling a Movie About Christ

“I want to kill him. I want his intestines on a stick. I want to kill his dog.”
Mel Gibson on columnist Frank Rich, who had labelled Gibson’s PASSION as Anti-Semitic and Gibson’s father as a Holocaust denier. (I’ve no clue as to the validity of the latter comment, but if false a libel suit would seem more in order.)

Rich’s retort: “He wants my intestines on a stick. I’ll settle for his brain on a toothpick.” (Luckily, Rich doesn’t have a dog.)

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Best movie I paid full price to see?

Finding Nemo I’ll bet.

Best book?

Jennifer Government or The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Most pleasantly surprising movie?

Catch Me if you Can. No, not the one featuring heartthrob Tom Hanks, the 1989 misunderstood classic about teens who save their school from mobsters and bankruptcy by betting on illegal drag races. I must have seen that movie five or six time this year.

Pirates of the Carribean comes in strong (I honestly didn’t think it would be that good when it came out).

Most politically pleasing moment of 2003 - Wes Clark deciding to run for president. Yeah, flame me all you want, I’m excited about the guy.

Biggets bummer.

The Iraq war.

Most piss-me-off moment in sports?

Houston Astros losing 6 of their last 8 games in the season, to the friggin Milwaukee Brewers for cryin out loud!! :mad:

Best event that made me change my mind about my reaction to that?

The way the Marlins played their post season. It was heartwarming. Made me want to consider an apology post in the Pit to everyone about the asshole Yankees thing.

5

Best Movie
The Return of the King, though POTC comes in a close second for me for pure entertainment value.

Worst Movie
Three-way tie between Johnny English, Legally Blonde 2, The Hulk. I “got” what Ang Lee was going for. I just think he failed miserably at it.

Best New TV Show
I’ve been enjoying Line of Fire the past couple of months. Is anyone else watching this?

Worst TV Show of the Year
Joe Millionaire 2* and god help me I watched every bit of it. I’m compulsive that way.

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WORST “CELEBRITY”

Paris Hilton. Becoming famous because you are a rich, obnoxious slut? Gee. Her parents must be so proud.

BEST CELEBRITY

The Dixie Chicks. They got a new asshole ripped because they dared take the name of Bush in vain. But they went out and did a bunch of sold out concerts and have not kissed ass to the regime.

BEST MOVIE

Surprise surprise, ROTK. But Master and Commander was very good, and POTC was excellent. Finding Nemo was, and will always be, a classic.

WORST MOVIE

2 Fast 2 Furious…2 horrible for words. Then again, I didn’t see Gigli, but then again, so didn’t a whole lot of people. Oh yeah, Legally Blonde 2 sucked the big one. considering the first one wasn’t all that bad.

BEST NEW TELEVISION SHOW

Despite one of the worst seasons ever, there were a couple of good ones: Carnivale on HBO was odd, but good - same with Showtime’s Dead Like Me. Joan of Arcadia is interesting. Cold Case, Arrested Development, Line of Fire and Lyon’s Den were all worth a look. Glad to see Frazier picked up after getting their old writers back, and rumor is they might even do another season. And for daytime television, ELLEN is damn good!

WORST NEW TELEVSION SHOW

Most are gone and forgotten, thankfully. I personally find all of these reality shows suck, and hope they go they way of the fad of Jerry Springer-ish talk shows and die off. I think the biggest bomb is Happy Family…great cast, but a really horrible show that proves writers really are responsible for the crap.

BEST TREND

Network television seems to have finally started to overcome their phobia about Gays on television, and for those old enough to remember the first shocking television show starring a black person (Julia), it is great that black actors now fit into any role without anyone blinking an eye.

WORST TREND

Down your thoat without a rubber, flag-waving for an unpopular war.

GUILTY PLEASURES

Leno’s headlines, Page Six website, Target televison commercials, the Today Show, KFC’s chicken wrap, cell phone price wars, and of course, SDMB.

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BEST MOVIE I PAYED FOR
Return of the King, Lost in Translation

WORST MOVIE I PAYED FOR
Love Actually

BEST TREND
CNN’s continued rating slide

WORST TREND
An actual growth of reality programming

BEST IN POLITICS
Destroying another third-world dictatorship

WORST IN POLITICS
The pathetic, loud, obnoxious canidate that is Dean AND the wishy-washy positions of Wesley Clark (kiss it goodbye Democrats)

BEST BOOK
Pnin-Nabokov

WORST-BEST PRESSURES TO CAVE INTO (PERSONAL)
The Cell phone, the basic college dorm room, The National Guard

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Best Movie

Pirates of the Carribean. I havn’t seen ROTK, Finding Nemo or Master and Commander yet.

Worst Movie

I’ll go with Legally Blonde 2 because the first one was surprisingly enjoyable and this one was what I figured the first would be. (Didn’t see Gigli, but the funny thing was when I was in the video store on Christmas Eve, most things were out but there was a huge stock of Gigli left over)

Best Book

Nightwatch by Terry Pratchett (actually since my eye operation, I havn’t read as much as I used to)

Best New Food

Cambpell’s Soup to Go - Either clam chowder or vegetable medly
(They’re great to have at work)

Best Dinner

The same winner every year, my Mom’s traditional Christmas eve crab legs and shrimp feast.

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Best Movie: I’ll go with Pirates of the Caribbean as well.

Worst Movie: The Hunted with Tommy Lee Jones and Benecio Del Toro. I’m guessing no one else has mentioned it because they had the good sense not to be fooled into buying a ticket in the first place. This piece of crap was just atrocious. Luckily I’ve blocked a good portion of it from my mind, come to think of it, I can’t really remember how it ends right now. I do remember the script was unspeakably bad and the plot sucked. The only redeeming thing about the movie was Connie Nielsen is in it and she’s pretty hot; I also found out she was Mrs. Calloway in one of my all time favorites, Rushmore.

Worst TV Show: with all the reality shows this category has turned into a real competition. I have to give the prize to Rich Girls though. Just really terrible TV. I’m not making any claims that I was having earth shaking, philosophical conversations when I was 18, but I wasn’t producing a TV show so everyone could hear what I was talking about.

Best Sports Moment: The Cubs finally winning a postseason series for the first time in 95 years.

Worst Sports Moment: Fate’s cruel plan for the Cubs stealing away a chance for the Cubs to seal the deal and win a World Series. Oh well, there’s always 2004.
There are a lot of other things I have opinions on, but 12 months is a really long time. This is my disclaimer for anything that is deserving that may have been excluded, forgotten, or otherwise left out.

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BEST NEW MUSICAL OF 2003[
Avenue Q. It’s even better than the hype.

BEST ACTOR IN WORST MUSICAL
Hugh Jackman in Boy from Oz.

MOST OVERHYPED SHOW AND ACTORS

11

DAMN
Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick in the Producers. Nothing is that good except Avenue Q.

MOST PLEASANT MUSICAL SURPRISE
Wicked. The critics are wrong.

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Best Movie of 2003: Lord of the Rings, The Return of the King

Most Pleasant Surprise Movie of 2003: Pirates of the Carribean, The Curse of the Black Pearl

Best New TV Show of 2003: Firefly

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Best Movies: Kill Bill Volume 1, Pirates, Return of the King, X-Men 2, Finding Nemo

Worst Movies (that I actually saw): Dreamcatcher (far and away the worst), Hulk, Matrix Revolutions, Hollywood Homicide, Boat Trip

Best TV shows: The Shield (season 2), South Park (season 7), Most Extreme Elimination Challenge

Best new album: New Pornographers’ “Electric Version”

Best new comic book: Formerly Known As the Justice League (6-issue miniseries)

Best stuff I discovered way after the fact:

Movies: Brazil, Angel Heart, Flatliners
TV shows: 24, Jackass
Music: Neko Case, Black Box Recorder, St. Etienne

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Best Movie you Saw in 2003

Pirates of the Carribean

I love pirates. And Johnny Depp. And Orlando Bloom is kinda cute despite lacking long blond hair…and did I mention I love pirates?

Runner up: The Boondock Saints
Geez, why didn’t I hear about this one sooner?

**Worst Movie You Saw (All of) in 2003 **

Daredevil

Cold Creek Manor

Worst Movie You Couldn’t Even Make Yourself Finish in 2003

Full Frontal
God that’s a horrible movie. Movies should have plots.

The Matrix
Should have called it “The Rip-off.”

Best Book You Read in 2003

Over the course of the 50 book challenge, I had two books I gave A+'s to:

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Martian Child by David Gerrold

Runners up:
Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling
Jennifer Government by Max Barry
Almost Adam by Petru Popescu
Strangewood by Christopher Golden
A Theory of Relativity by Jacquelyn Mitchard

Worst Book Read in 2003

A two way tie between:
Black House by Stephen King and Peter Straub
Coldheart Canyon by Clive Barker

Dishonorable mention:
Dick For A Day edited by Fiona Giles

Book You were most surprised you liked:

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
I love her books of short stories, but usually hate her novels. Who knew it’d be one of the best I’d read all year?

The Others by James Herbert
I read Once… and was not at all impressed, but I gave this one a shot. I’m glad I did

** The Most Frustrating Book You Couldn’t Force Yourself to Finish in 2003**

Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier
Pretty prose, wonderful imagery… and almost no plot whatsoever.

** Most Over-rated Book you read in 2003**

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
Why do so many people think this is soooooo scary? It’s not scary. At all. It’s not terrible, but it doesn’t deserve the hype.

Movie You Saw at the Theater or on DVD During 2003 that you were most Surprised You Liked:

The Other Side Of Heaven
A college kid becomes a mormon missionary in Tonga… you think it would be preachy but it so wasn’t. Great movie.

Favorite New Artist or Writer You Discovered During 2003

Writer: Christopher Golden.

Musician(s): Travis and Econoline Crush (I knew a song or two by each before 2003, but only just)

Most Disappointing Cd You Bought in 2003

“Keep it Together” by Guster
What the hell happened? This cd isn’t any better than the first one, which is the weakest of the other three. It made me sad to listen to this cd.

Favorite New TV Shows of 2003
Joan of Arcadia, One Tree Hill, The OC

Favorite Television Moment of 2003

The scene in the Dawson’s Creek series finale that revealed that Pacey was right about his brother all those years. :smiley: Dougie and Jack make a cute couple.

**Least Favorite (or Cheesiest) Television Moment of 2003 **

John, John, John Carter of the Jungle, Doctor to you and me… (ok, so it’s a couple of episodes. sue me.)

Best PC/Console Game or Expansion Pack of 2003

PC- The Sims: Makin Magic
Console - GTA:Vice City