Father Geek here, once again putting together that dreaded yearend list of the films that most got his ole blood pumping, tears dripping, giggles rippling, and brain cells a'sparkin in the calendar year 2003. Annnnd at least 10 of the 20 motion pictures listed managed to stimulate all 4 of those areas during the course of the flick's running time, the others still hit on three of those emotional que-cards that Father Geek uses in a darkened theatre. I was truely susprized by how good some of these were this year, and if you had asked me last year at this time I might have told you they were impending disasters on the cinema horizon. I strongly feel that ALL the movies on my list of 20 are strong 4 star flicks, for various reasons obviously.

I see over 300 movies in a theater every year, sooooo to make this list means the film beat out alot of good competition along the way, especially since I don't just go to every flick released even when they are offered up for free. I try to budget my screening time by using ALL the advance knowledge made available to me (alot of it by you our readers) to avoid those films I strongly suspect have NO interest, or appeal to me, oorrrr are just gawd awful pieces of cineturds. Sometimes because I've been mislead I have to play catchup when friends tell me to get my butt over to the megaplex right away. I get alot of screeners during a year, but THIS list is of films I've seen projected in the theater experience at least once. Some of these I've already seen on the big screen 5 times. How a film holds up under multible viewings is a major factor on making the list. However, there is a group of flicks NOT on this list that because they were fun, but mainly mindless entertainment I did see them multible times, annnnd enjoyed them every time, buuuuuut...

The films will be listed in reverse order of preference, with the best being last on the list. Keep in mind that this order is not written in stone. On any given day they could switch around, although NOT radically... #18 will not likely replace say #3 for example. Annnnnd remember they are ALL 4 star films in my opinion.

20. BIG FISH

19. SWIMMING POOL

18. FINDING NEMO

17. COLD MOUNTAIN

16. BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM

15. THE LAST SAMURAI

14. THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE

13. THIRTEEN

12. MASTER AND COMMANDER

11. PIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN

10. MYSTIC RIVER

9. PING PONG

8. HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG

7. AMERICAN SPLENDOR

6. OLD BOY

5. THE PASSION

4. 21 GRAMS

3. LOST IN TRANSLATION

2. KILL BILL #1

1. LOTR: RETURN OF THE KING

Now for a completely different kind of list...

These are 5 EVENTS related to filmgoing that were my five favorite filmic experiences of 2003. Events where the overall fun surrounding the film itself overshadowed the actual movie elevating the whole thing to another plain, an all together overwhelming, unforgetable film experience...

5. Camping out (starting at 9pm Monday) For the Triple Feature Event screening of the entire LORD OF THE RINGS EPIC. The line was what it was about (we already had our tickets), 30 degree windchill, companionship, the automatic lawn sprinkler system, shared food and drink, all night talk... then... at 2 pm Tuesday...

4. THE NERD FEST in New York City... Flying into NYC from Austin, Texas to see a double feature of flicks I had already seen multible times individually (AMERICAN SPLENDOR and REVENGE OF THE NERDS) it was a near Holy experience, a trip to Mecca with the faithful, we ate some fantastic pizza too...

3. Joining 800+ horror geeks and Marine Corp vets on the grounds of the old abandoned state Nut-house in the hills outside of Austin overlooking a state prison to witness the World Premiere of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. Seeing an Extra-salty Ex-gunnery Sgt. R. Lee Ermey keep the beer guzzling crowd in line was a never to be forgotten experience... "Well, here I am in Texas again, who are you retards, I thought Texas was nothing but Steers and Queers, give me one bit of trouble and I'll pop you in the snot locker..."

2. Attending CAMP HACK N SLASH with close to 1200 total Horror nuts from all over the country (and outside it), the campgames, campcrafts, camp swimminghole, camp uniforms, wet T-shirts, fire breathers, and great camp Bar-BQ. It was simply FUNTASTIC. Actors, Directors, Producers walking around, beers in hand, mixing with the campers (some even donning the camp uniform) Just FUNFUCKINTASTIC... then as night creap into the woods the films started... The World Premiere of FREDDY VS JASON with the stars, writer, director, etc... then SLEEPAWAY CAMP with the star... Then 2 more horrific camp flicks and then... The Thunderstorm... outstanding experience...

1. Then there was BUTT-NUMB-A-THON 5 this year it was just 24+ hours of the BEST films you could hope to see RETURN OF THE KING (on Dec. 6th)with Peter Jackson and his co-writers there with us, THE GENERAL (with a bluegrass/outlaw country live band), OLD BOY, HAUT TENSION, GINGER SNAPS 2, THE UNDEAD, THE PASSION with Mel Gibson in attendance, annnnd there were more films, great doorprizes, fantastic food, and 230 wonderful filmlovers from around the world to bond with... AS great as all that was the SAT-SUN event started on Thurs. for Harry and I and lasted thru TUES. evening with dinners, lunches, parties, BS sessions, etc with attendees from everywhere, just a great great time...

Well, there you have it and I didn't even include watching ENTER THE DRAGON with Jim Kelly, or BLACK CHRISTMAS with John Saxon, or eating "all-you-can-eat" Bar-B-Que with Director Stuart Gordon and actor George Wendt after watching their fine little indie flick KING OF THE ANTS (No giant ants, No swarms of ants, really NO ants at all)... Yeah its been a great filmgoing year for Father Geek...