Best movies of 200350
The highest rated films released in 2003 — counting only titles with enough votes.
Ranked by TMDB's audience
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1Movie8.5AdventureFantasyAs armies mass for a final battle that will decide the fate of the world--and powerful, ancient forces of Light and Dark compete to determine the outcome--one member of the Fellowship of the Ring is revealed as the noble heir to the throne of the Kings of Men. Yet, the sole hope for triumph over evil lies with a brave hobbit, Frodo, who, accompanied by his loyal friend Sam and the hideous, wretched Gollum, ventures deep into the very dark heart of Mordor on his seemingly impossible quest to destroy the Ring of Power.
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
2003 · 27K votes
2Movie8.2ThrillerMysteryWith no clue how he came to be imprisoned, drugged and tortured for 15 years, a desperate man seeks revenge on his captors.
3Movie8.1CrimeDramaA sadistic serial rapist and murderer of young women terrorizes a small province in 1980s South Korea. To prevent further crimes, three increasingly desperate detectives with conflicting methods race against time to unravel the violent mind of the killer in a futile effort to solve the case.
4Movie8.0ActionCrimeAn assassin is shot by her ruthless employer, Bill, and other members of their assassination circle – but she lives to plot her vengeance.
Kill Bill: Vol. 1
2003 · 19K votes
5Movie7.9AnimeAnimationOn Christmas Eve, three homeless people living on the streets of Tokyo discover a newborn baby among the trash and set out to find its parents.
6Movie7.8AdventureFantasyWhen wily pirate Captain Barbossa seizes Jack Sparrow’s beloved ship, the Black Pearl, and kidnaps the governor’s daughter, Elizabeth Swann, blacksmith Will Turner reluctantly teams up with the unpredictable pirate Jack to rescue her—only to uncover a terrifying curse that turns Barbossa’s crew into the undead.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
2003 · 22K votes
7Movie7.8AnimationFamilyNemo, an adventurous young clownfish, is unexpectedly taken from his Great Barrier Reef home to a dentist's office aquarium. It's up to his worrisome father Marlin and a friendly but forgetful fish Dory to bring Nemo home -- meeting vegetarian sharks, surfer dude turtles, hypnotic jellyfish, hungry seagulls, and more along the way.
Finding Nemo
2003 · 20K votes
8Movie7.8DramaAn isolated lake, where an old monk lives in a small floating temple. The monk has a young boy living with him, learning to become a monk. We watch as seasons and years pass by.
9Movie7.7AdventureFantasyThroughout his life Edward Bloom has always been a man of big appetites, enormous passions and tall tales. In his later years, he remains a huge mystery to his son, William. Now, to get to know the real man, Will begins piecing together a true picture of his father from flashbacks of his amazing adventures.
Big Fish
2003 · 7.9K votes
10Movie7.7CrimeDramaA woman on the run from the mob is reluctantly accepted in a small Colorado community in exchange for labor, but when a search visits the town, she learns that their support has a price.
Dogville
2003 · 2.8K votes
11Movie7.7ThrillerDramaThe lives of three men who were childhood friends are shattered when one of them suffers a family tragedy.
Mystic River
2003 · 7.7K votes
12Movie7.6DramaActionNathan Algren is an American hired to instruct the Japanese army in the ways of modern warfare, which finds him learning to respect the samurai and the honorable principles that rule them. Pressed to destroy the samurai's way of life in the name of modernization and open trade, Algren decides to become an ultimate warrior himself and to fight for their right to exist.
The Last Samurai
2003 · 7.8K votes
13Movie7.5ComedyDramaAlex Kerner's mother was in a coma while the Berlin wall fell. When she wakes up he must try to keep her from learning what happened (as she was an avid communist supporter) to avoid shocking her which could lead to another heart attack.
Good Bye, Lenin!
2003 · 2.7K votes
14Movie7.4DramaThrillerA man against capital punishment is accused of murdering a fellow activist and is sent to death row.
The Life of David Gale
2003 · 2.3K votes
15Movie7.4AnimationComedyWhen her grandson is kidnapped during the Tour de France, Madame Souza and her beloved pooch Bruno team up with the Belleville Sisters—an aged song-and-dance team from the days of Fred Astaire—to rescue him.
16Movie7.4DramaComedyTwo lost souls visiting Tokyo -- the young, neglected wife of a photographer and a washed-up movie star shooting a TV commercial -- find an odd solace and pensive freedom to be real in each other's company, away from their lives in America.
Lost in Translation
2003 · 8.3K votes
17Movie7.4DramaIn the racially divided town of Anderson, South Carolina in 1976, football coach Harold Jones spots a mentally disabled African-American young man nicknamed Radio near his practice field and is inspired to befriend him. Soon, Radio is Jones' loyal assistant, and he becomes a student at T.L. Hanna High School. But things start to sour when Coach Jones begins taking guff from parents and fans who feel that his devotion to Radio is getting in the way of the team's quest for a championship.
Radio
2003 · 921 votes
18Movie7.3DramaComedyWhen his only friend dies, a man born with dwarfism moves to rural New Jersey to live a life of solitude, only to meet a chatty hot dog vendor and a woman dealing with her own personal loss.
The Station Agent
2003 · 838 votes
19Movie7.3DramaCrimePaul Rivers, an ailing mathematician lovelessly married to an English émigré; Christina Peck, an upper-middle-class suburban housewife and mother of two girls; and Jack Jordan, a born-again ex-con, are brought together by a terrible accident that changes their lives.
21 Grams
2003 · 3.5K votes
20Movie7.3AdventureAnimationWhen an impulsive boy named Kenai is magically transformed into a bear, he must literally walk in another's footsteps until he learns some valuable life lessons. His courageous and often zany journey introduces him to a forest full of wildlife, including the lovable bear cub Koda, hilarious moose Rutt and Tuke, woolly mammoths and rambunctious rams.
Brother Bear
2003 · 5.9K votes
21Movie7.2AdventureDramaBlind traveler Zatoichi is a master swordsman and a masseur with a fondness for gambling on dice games. When he arrives in a village torn apart by warring gangs, he sets out to protect the townspeople.
22Movie7.2FamilyComedyThe comedic adventures of an introverted boy left on the doorstep of a pair of reluctant, eccentric great-uncles, whose exotic remembrances stir the boy's spirit and re-ignite the men's lives.
Secondhand Lions
2003 · 860 votes
23Movie7.2WesternA former gunslinger is forced to take up arms again when he and his cattle crew are threatened by a corrupt lawman.
Open Range
2003 · 1.3K votes
24Movie7.2DramaComedyAs adults, best friends Julien and Sophie continue the odd game they started as children -- a fearless competition to outdo one another with daring and outrageous stunts. While they often act out to relieve one another's pain, their game might be a way to avoid the fact that they are truly meant for one another.
25Movie7.2AnimationScience FictionStraight from the creators of the groundbreaking Matrix trilogy, this collection of short animated films from the world's leading anime directors fuses computer graphics and Japanese anime to provide the background of the Matrix universe and the conflict between man and machines. The shorts include Final Flight of the Osiris, The Second Renaissance, Kid's Story, Program, World Record, Beyond, A Detective Story and Matriculated.
The Animatrix
2003 · 1.8K votes
26Movie7.2AdventureDramaAfter an abrupt and violent encounter with a French warship inflicts severe damage upon his ship, a captain of the British Royal Navy begins a chase over two oceans to capture or destroy the enemy, though he must weigh his commitment to duty and ferocious pursuit of glory against the safety of his devoted crew, including the ship's thoughtful surgeon, his best friend.
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
2003 · 3.7K votes
27Movie7.2CrimeDramaIn 1989, prostitute Aileen Wuornos befriends and enters a relationship with a young woman named Selby. Determined to straighten out her life, Aileen's limited education lands her back on the corner. She's raped by a trick, who she kills. A string of murder and robbery follows that ultimately leads Aileen to becoming America's first female serial killer.
Monster
2003 · 2.6K votes
28Movie7.2MysteryThrillerComplete strangers stranded at a remote desert motel during a raging storm soon find themselves the target of a deranged murderer. As their numbers thin out, the travelers begin to turn on each other, as each tries to figure out who the killer is.
Identity
2003 · 4.5K votes
29Movie7.2DramaRomanceWhen Isabelle and Theo invite Matthew to stay with them, what begins as a casual friendship ripens into a sensual voyage of discovery and desire in which nothing is off limits and everything is possible.
The Dreamers
2003 · 3.2K votes
30Movie7.2ActionCrimeWhen the head of a statue sacred to a village is stolen, a young martial artist goes to the big city and finds himself taking on the underworld to retrieve it.
31Movie7.1DramaBehrani, an Iranian immigrant buys a California bungalow, thinking he can fix it up, sell it again, and make enough money to send his son to college. However, the house is the legal property of former drug addict Kathy. After losing the house in an unfair legal dispute with the county, she is left with nowhere to go. Wanting her house back, she hires a lawyer and befriends a police officer. Neither Kathy nor Behrani have broken the law, so they find themselves involved in a difficult moral dilemma.
House of Sand and Fog
2003 · 876 votes
32Movie7.1AdventureFantasyIn stifling Edwardian London, Wendy Darling mesmerizes her brothers every night with bedtime tales of swordplay, swashbuckling and the fearsome Captain Hook. But the children become the heroes of an even greater story, when Peter Pan flies into their nursery one night and leads them over moonlit rooftops through a galaxy of stars and to the lush jungles of Neverland.
Peter Pan
2003 · 2.8K votes
33Movie7.1DramaHorrorTwo sisters return home after a stay in a mental institution, only to face disturbing events and a strained relationship with their stepmother. As eerie occurrences unfold, dark family secrets begin to surface, blurring the line between reality and nightmare.
34Movie7.1MysteryDramaIn a tiny community enclosed by wheat fields, the adults shelter indoors, while six children venture out on their bikes across the scorched, deserted countryside. Exploring a dilapidated and uninhabited farmhouse, nine-year-old Michele discovers a secret so momentous, so terrible, that he dares not tell anyone about it...
35Movie7.1ComedyRomanceEight very different couples deal with their love lives in various loosely interrelated tales all set during a frantic month before Christmas in London.
Love Actually
2003 · 7.6K votes
36Movie7.1ComedyFamilyFired from his band and hard up for cash, guitarist and vocalist Dewey Finn finagles his way into a job as a fifth-grade substitute teacher at a private school, where he secretly begins teaching his straight-A students the finer points of rock 'n' roll and the power of sticking it to the man. But as the school’s stern principal closes in and the Battle of the Bands looms, Dewey must risk everything to prove that rock 'n' roll can change lives.
The School of Rock
2003 · 6.4K votes
37Movie7.1AdventureActionThe Resistance builds in numbers as humans are freed from the Matrix and brought to the city of Zion. Neo discovers his superpowers, including the ability to see the code inside the Matrix. With machine sentinels digging to Zion in 72 hours, Neo, Morpheus and Trinity must find the Keymaker to ultimately reach the Source.
The Matrix Reloaded
2003 · 12K votes
38Movie7.1ActionAdventureThe sailor of legend is framed by the goddess Eris for the theft of the Book of Peace, and must travel to her realm at the end of the world to retrieve it and save the life of his childhood friend Prince Proteus.
Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas
2003 · 2.3K votes
39Movie7.1DramaHistoryTrue story of the undersized Depression-era racehorse whose victories lifted not only the spirits of the team behind it but also those of their nation.
Seabiscuit
2003 · 961 votes
40Movie7.1ComedyDramaMolly Gunn, the freewheeling daughter of a deceased rock legend, is forced to get a job when her manager steals her money. As nanny to Ray - the precocious, oft-ignored daughter of a music executive - she learns what it means to be an adult while teaching Ray how to be a child.
Uptown Girls
2003 · 1.2K votes
41Movie7.0AdventureActionProfessor Charles Xavier and his team of genetically gifted superheroes face a rising tide of anti-mutant sentiment led by Col. William Stryker. Storm, Wolverine and Jean Grey must join Magneto and Mystique to unhinge Stryker's scheme to exterminate all mutants.
X2
2003 · 11K votes
42Movie7.0AnimationFamilyBarbie as Odette, the young daughter of a baker, follows a unicorn into the Enchanted Forest and is transformed into a swan by an evil wizard intent on defeating the Fairy Queen.
Barbie of Swan Lake
2003 · 1.2K votes
43Movie7.0CrimeDramaSeveral ordinary high school students go through their daily routine as two others prepare for something more malevolent.
Elephant
2003 · 2.2K votes
44Movie7.0ComedyDramaA phobic con artist and his protege are on the verge of pulling off a lucrative swindle when the con artist's teenage daughter arrives unexpectedly.
Matchstick Men
2003 · 2.1K votes
45Movie6.9DramaThrillerAfter a workplace shooting in New Orleans, a trial against the gun manufacturer pits lawyer Wendell Rohr against shady jury consultant Rankin Fitch, who uses illegal means to stack the jury with people sympathetic to the defense. But when juror Nicholas Easter and his girlfriend Marlee reveal their ability to sway the jury into delivering any verdict they want, a high-stakes cat-and-mouse game begins.
Runaway Jury
2003 · 1.6K votes
46Movie6.9WarHistoryIn this classic story of love and devotion set against the backdrop of the American Civil War, a wounded Confederate soldier named W.P. Inman deserts his unit and travels across the South, aiming to return to his young wife, Ada, who he left behind to tend their farm. As Inman makes his perilous journey home, Ada struggles to keep their home intact with the assistance of Ruby, a mysterious drifter sent to help her by a kindly neighbor.
Cold Mountain
2003 · 2K votes
47Movie6.9DramaHistoryKatherine Watson is a recent UCLA graduate hired to teach art history at the prestigious all-female Wellesley College, in 1953. Determined to confront the outdated mores of society and the institution that embraces them, Katherine inspires her traditional students, including Betty and Joan, to challenge the lives they are expected to lead.
Mona Lisa Smile
2003 · 1.9K votes
48Movie6.9AdventureFamilyAfter being wrongfully convicted for stealing a pair of shoes, Stanley Yelnats is sent away to Camp Green Lake, a boys detention facility where inmates are forced to dig holes all day in the hot desert sun as a form of character building. As he endures the brutal routine, Stanley begins to uncover a hidden truth behind the camp—one that connects to a dangerous secret and his family’s history.
Holes
2003 · 1.6K votes
49Movie6.9WarActionNavy SEAL Lieutenant A.K. Waters and his elite squadron of tactical specialists are forced to choose between their duty and their humanity, between following orders by ignoring the conflict that surrounds them, or finding the courage to follow their conscience and protect a group of innocent refugees. When the democratic government of Nigeria collapses and the country is taken over by a ruthless military dictator, Waters, a fiercely loyal and hardened veteran is dispatched on a routine mission to retrieve a Doctors Without Borders physician.
Tears of the Sun
2003 · 2.7K votes
50Movie6.9RomanceComedyFrances Mayes, a 35-year-old professor and writer from San Francisco, decides to take a tour of Tuscany following a difficult divorce. After impulsively buying a run-down villa in the Italian countryside, she begins to piece her life back together in unexpected ways.
Under the Tuscan Sun
2003 · 1K votes