Browse Movies : Announced | Development | Pre-Production | Post-Production | Completed : 2003 : R

Set in the late 1870s, this epic film depicts the beginnings of the modernization of Japan, as the island nation evolved past a feudal society, as symbolized by the eradication of the samurai way of life. We see all this happen from the point of view of an alcoholic Civil War veteran turned Winchester guns spokesman, Captain Woodrow Algren (Tom Cruise), who arrives in Japan to train the troops of the emperor, Meiji, as part of a break away from the long-held tradition of relying on employed samurai warriors to protect territories, as the emperor's new army prepares to wipe out the remaining samurai warriors. When Algren is injured in combat and captured by the samurai, he learns about their warrior honor code from their leader, Katsumoto, which forces him to decide which side of the conflict he actually wants to be on.

Esther Gold (Glenn Close) devotes herself to her comatose, bedridden son, and expresses love for her daughter by trying to win her a car in a last-one-standing radio contest. Jim Train (Dermot Mulroney) questions his value as a man when he is passed over for promotion; Annette Jenning (Patricia Clarkson) tries to keep her family intact in the wake of her divorce; and Helen Christianson (Mary Kay Place) looks for fun and inspiration in her banal life. Despair and humor are delicately balanced in this film that examines people's investment in things that are more predictable, if less satisfying, than their relationships with other people.

"XX/XY" is a tale about a trio composed of a young artist, Coles, and two Sarah Lawrence undergrads, Sam and Thea, who, on the night they meet, tread briefly on the wild side of sexual lust and drunken experimentation. As friends and, at some points, alternately couples and/or lovers, the three carry on a relationship that ends dramatically. Quite by accident, the relationship is reborn a decade later, and passionate desires are significantly reopened.

Will Smith and Martin Lawrence are back - and oh so bad - on the streets of Miami in "Bad Boys II", reuniting them with director Michael Bay and producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Narcotics detectives Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) have been assigned to a high-tech task force investigating the flow of designer ecstasy into Miami. Their inquiries inadvertently lead them to a major conspiracy involving a vicious kingpin (Jordi Molla), whose ambitions to take over the city's drug trade have ignited a bloody turf war. But Mike and Marcus's friendship and working relationship is threatened when Mike begins to develop feelings for Marcus' sister Syd (Gabrielle Union). Unless they can separate the personal from the professional, the bad boys are in danger of blowing the case and endangering Syd's life in the process.

Alex Bernier (Heath Ledger) is a member of an arcane order of priests who is sent to Rome to investigate the mysterious death of the head of this order. The body may be of a Sin Eater, a renegade who offers absolution, last rites and therefore a path to heaven outside the jurisdiction of the church. Alex enlists the aid of his old comrade Father Thomas and of a troubled artist (Shannyn Sossamon) upon whom he once performed an exorcism. He soon finds himself plunged directly into the face of unimaginable evil, murder, and ultimately, a fate worse than death.

"Underworld" reimagines Vampires as a secretive clan of modern, aristocratic sophisticates whose mortal enemies are the Lycans (werewolves), a shrewd gang of street thugs who prowl the city's underbelly. The balance of power is upset when a beautiful young Vampire and a nascent Lycan - deadly rivals for centuries - fall in love. Len Wiseman directs Kate Beckinsdale and Scott Speedman in a fast-paced, modern-day tale of deadly action, ruthless intrigue and forbidden love, all set against the backdrop of an ancient feud between the two tribes in a timeless, Gothic metropolis.

Directed by Academy Award®-winner Anthony Minghella ("The English Patient", "The Talented Mr. Ripley") and based on Charles Frazier's best-selling Civil War novel of the same name, "Cold Mountain" tells the story of Inman (Jude Law), a wounded confederate soldier who is on a perilous journey home to his mountain community, hoping to reunite with his pre-war sweetheart, Ada (Nicole Kidman). In his absence, Ada struggles to survive, and revive her father's farm with the help of intrepid young drifter Ruby (Renee Zellweger).

This is the story of three guys in their early 30's, Mitch (Luke Wilson), Frank (Will Ferrell), and Beanie (Vince Vaughn), who try to relive their old college glory days by moving into a large house near their old campus. They inadvertently form an "unofficial fraternity", where students can enjoy all the riches of the partying lifestyle without the commitment that comes with having to abide by the university's fraternity rules. Soon, however, the realities of their past lives catches up with their wild college lifestyles.

Set on Mars in the year 2071, "Cowboy Bebop: The Movie" is based on the much-loved animated television series by Japanese director Shinichiro Watanabe. As the film begins, Spike (David Lucas) and his gang of gypsy vigilantes are roaming the city, looking for trouble when Faye (Wendee Lee) witnesses a bioterrorist attack. Hovering above the city in her spaceship, she sees a man fleeing the scene. Over 500 people die in the attack, and the city offers a monetary reward for any information. The gang jumps at the opportunity. They decide to branch out, each using their own tactics to research the tragedy. Spike slinks through Chinatown, being led by shady underground characters. Faye traces the image of the man she saw back to military files. And the young Ed (Mellisa Fahn) and her dog Ein do some handy computer research. Meanwhile Jet (Beau Billinglsea), holds down the fort, worried about the gang. When the criminal Vincent (Daran Norris), is identified, with a connection to Spike's love interest Elektra (Jennifer Hale), the real action begins.

"Cowboy Bebop" is a visually dramatic film that combines several styles of illustration into one beautiful, cohesive animated environment. The Mars of this film is a combination of cities: New York, Hong Kong, London, Paris, and many more. Viewers are compelled to identify monuments and familiar structures, while the terrorist thematic hits fearfully close to home.

As its 23 horrifying days of flesh-eating come to an end, an ancient creature known as the Creeper embarks on a final voracious feeding frenzy, terrorizing a group of varsity basketball players, cheerleaders and coaches stranded on a remote highway after their bus breaks down. Fighting their own fears and prejudices while trapped aboard the isolated bus, the terrified group of young athletes are forced to come together and do battle against the winged creature hell-bent on completing its grizzly ritual of feasting on humans.

A DEA agent's (John Travolta) latest assignment is to investigate the bizarre disappearance of an Army drill instructor (Samuel L. Jackson) and several of his cadets during what was to be a routine training exercise.

In director Antoine Fuqua's new action-adventure film, Bruce Willis stars as Lt. A.K. Waters, the loyal veteran officer of a Navy S.E.A.L unit. When he's sent into the heart of Africa, the usually hard-bitten Waters finds himself deeply conflicted at having to choose between following orders and the dictates of his own conscience. Though a fictionalization, Tears of the Sun deals with the gritty realism of human conflict as Lt. Waters travels to war-torn central Africa to rescue Dr. Lena Kendricks (Monica Bellucci), a U.S. citizen who runs a mission in the countryside. But when Lt. Waters arrives Dr. Kendricks refuses to abandon the refugees under her care. She implores Waters to escort them on a dangerous trek through the dense jungle to the nearby border. During the journey the S.E.A.L.s find themselves the unwitting guardians of a man sought by the rebel militia. This further endangers their already hazardous mission, but all the while strengthening Waters' resolve to protect Lena and the refugees, and to deliver them safely across the border.

Based on "The Age of Grief" by Jane Smiley, it centers on a dentist that has a dream that blurs the lines between fantasy and reality. Dr. Dave Hurst (Campbell Scott) shares two homes, three children and a private practice with his dentist wife Dana (Hope Davis). One evening, backstage at Dana's drama club production, Dave believes he witnesses his wife in an intimate exchange with another man. Emotionally repressed by nature, Dave's jealousy flares up in the form of a raucous alter-ego personified by an unsatisfied patient named Slater (Denis Leary). Slater goads the quiet dentist toward violent action, but the unraveling of the emotional bonds in the marriage is more than a simple threat of aggression can solve.

On the afternoon of July 1, 1981, Los Angeles police responded to a distress call at 8763 Wonderland Avenue and soon discovered a grisly quadruple homicide, later compared to the gruesome slaughter at the Tate household at the hands of the Charles Manson family 10 years earlier. Ron Launius (Josh Lucas), Billy Deverell (Tim Blake Nelson), Barbara Richardson (Natasha Gregson Wagner) and Joy Miller (Janeane Garofalo) were brutally murdered, and Ron's wife Susan (Christina Applegate) was left in critical condition. The police investigation that followed - led by detectives Sam Nico (Ted Levine), Louis Cruz (Frankie G.) and Mike Peters (M.C. Gainey) - would unearth a seedy world of drugs and violence, ultimately revealing a motley crew from LA's underbelly including ex-con David Lind (Dylan McDermott), nightclub impresario Eddie Nash (Eric Bogosian), the most unlikely of American heroes - porn legend John Holmes (Val Kilmer) - Holmes' estranged wife Sharon (Lisa Kudrow) and his teenage lover Dawn Schiller (Kate Bosworth).

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.

Vin Diesel stars as Agent Sean Vetter, a DEA operative fighting the drug wars along the US/Mexican border. After a major player from the Baja Cartel is imprisoned, a new mysterious figure known as Diablo wrests control over the entire operation. But when Vetter's wife is murdered in a botched hit, he and his partner (Larenz Tate) must join forces with the jailed Cartel boss to hunt down the dangerous and elusive new player.

The story follows Jerry (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), a jilted guy left by his fiancee (Vivica A. Fox), deciding a vacation is in order after his best friend Nick (Horatio Sanz) sells him on the idea of a singles cruise packed with available gorgeous women. However, once out to sea, Jerry and Nick quickly realize they've mistakenly ended up on a cruise of a different kind.

Set in contemporary London in the weeks before Christmas, "Love Actually" tells one story which weaves together a spectacular number of love stories-sometimes romantic, sometimes sad, sometimes stupid-all funny in their own way. Everywhere you look, love is causing chaos. From the new bachelor Prime Minister who falls in love 30 seconds after entering Downing Street to a loser sandwich delivery guy who doesn't have a hope with the girls in the UK, so heads for Wisconsin; from a jilted writer who escapes to the south of France to nurse his broken heart to an aging rock star trying to make a comeback at any price; from a bride having problems with her husband's best man to a married woman having trouble with her husband; from a schoolboy with a crush on the prettiest girl in the school to his architect step-father with a crush on Claudia Schiffer. These London lives and loves collide, mingle and finally climax on Christmas Eve-again and again and again-with romantic, poignant and funny consequences for all.

A phone call can change your life, but for one man it can also end it. Set entirely within and around the confines of a New York City phone booth, "Phone Booth" follows a slick media consultant (Colin Farrell) who is trapped after being told by a caller - a serial killer with a sniper rifle - that he'll be shot dead if he hangs up.

The 1970s was an extraordinary time of rebellion, of questioning every accepted idea: political activism, hedonism, protests, the sexual revolution, the women's movement, the civil rights movement, the music revolution, rage and liberation. Every standard by which we set our social and cultural clocks was either turned inside out or thrown away completely and reinvented. For American cinema, the 1970s was an era during which a new generation of filmmakers created work for a new kind of audience--moviegoers who were hungry for stories that reflected their own experiences and who were turning their backs on aged old studio formulas. As a result, emerging filmmakers influenced by foreign directors such as Godard, Kurasowa and Fellini coupled with the social climate and a struggling studio system, converged to create a new kind of moviemaking. Through their choice of material, filmmakers such as Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, Robert Altman, Peter Bogdonovich, William Friedkin, Roger Corman and Paul Schrader revolutionized mainstream movies and for the first time personal visions were coming out of the studio system.