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This year, your friendly on-line film critic is going to delve into the worst films of the year first.  The reason being, the "best" films are still being screened for critics. In the meantime, I roll up my sleeves, grab a feather pen, dip the nib into acidic ink and begin.  The "Ten Worst Films of 2002" in my calculation are listed in alphabetical order as follows:
 

• Anything with Elizabeth Hurley, Denise Richards, Tom Green or Mike Myers in the cast.  Has the word "acting" been dropped from their vocabulary?  What about talent?
• Blood Work (Warner Brothers) and Hollywood Ending (DreamWorks)---a tie and when will someone tell Clint Eastwood and Woody Allen that it is time to act with female co-stars their age? 
• Crocodile Hunter: Collision Course (MGM)---crikey, crickity, chriminey, whatever, I was cheering for the croc and not the hunter who smiles at the camera once too often.  "Look, Mum, I brushed my teeth today."
• Full Frontal (Miramax)---a confusing film and one in which people in the audience said they were going out for popcorn and never came back. 
• Austin Powers in Goldmember (New Line)---ninety minutes of naptime for anyone who needs a rest.
• Half Past Dead (Screen Gems)---what an apt title.
• Mr. Deeds (Sony)---Adam Sandler tries so hard but after "Little Nicky" you would think he'd get the message.  No one cares.
• Serving Sara (Paramount)---a film that was tired even before the camera started running.  Hurley is surly.
• Signs (Buena Vista)---what expectations for this film of space aliens and yet they resemble paper mache'.  What was Mel Gibson thinking?  The thunder you hear is Rod Serling rolling over.
• National Lampoon's Van Wilder (Artisan)---tacking "National Lampoon" onto a weak comedy (and the term 'comedy" is used loosely) is weak advertising.  How often is the audience supposed to fall for that?

• Ballistic: Ecks Vs. Sever (Warner Brothers)---the film might be retitled, "Ick vs. Sliver."  "Ick" for subject matter (child in peril) and "Sliver" for the minute amount of entertainment value hidden somewhere in the film.
• Master of Disguise (Columbia)---Dana Carvey isn't quite in the Mike Myers category yet, but another disastrous comedy such as this one may put him there.  If comedy is present, it is masterfully disguised.
• Trapped (Columbia)---the audience can stay trapped or follow the people from "Full Frontal."  Go out for popcorn and don't come back.

Here it is, everyone, the list you have been waiting for.  The majority of films Hollywood has held back for the end of the year have now been screened for film critics.  These films will be opening throughout January 2003, but have already opened in key cities for Oscar nomination contention.

This time of the year is a whirlwind for film critics.  We see 3-4 films a day in various locations around the city, and this goes on for about three weeks.  Who has a chance to do holiday shopping?  Families re-learn the complexities of frozen dinners and fast food row.  One only hopes one is putting a Christmas letter in a Christmas card instead of notes on "About Schmidt" or "Gangs of New York."  One walks through life bleary-eyed and looks as though one has been attending one continuous holiday party, when in fact at this time; your closest friends are the computer and your editor.

Therefore, here are my picks for the twelve Best Films of 2002 arranged in alphabetical order. 
 

• About Schmidt (New Line)---Jack Nicholson takes the part of a retired man facing tragedy in his life and makes the role his own.  Alexander Payne wrote a script with wit and Kathy Bates does a nude scene.  Facing retirement?  Check out the first five minutes of the film closely.
• Adaptation (Columbia)---a devastating event for a writer is writer's block. Charlie Kaufman handles it in a unique way in his script about adapting a nonfiction book about orchids to the screen.  Nicholas Cages plays two roles and Kansas City's Chris Cooper gets to make love to Meryl Streep.
• Crush (Sony Classics)---this critic is going out on a limb here, but Andie MacDowell does a marvelous acting job as a woman who falls in love with a younger man, much to the concern of her peers.  Her facial expressions are subtly, itself. The younger man is a church organist.
• Elling (First Look)---A Norwegian subtitled film about two men who are released from a mental hospital and end up as apartment roommates.  One is a secret poet and the other longs for a girlfriend.
• Fast Runner (Lot 47)---An Inuit film spanning years that focuses on family loyalty, betrayal, survival and murder in a land where summer is measured in days   A man being chased across the ice in his bare feet is harrowing to watch.
• Gangs of New York (Miramax)---Martin Scorsese recreates old New York City in a monumental film of gang warfare set against the Civil War.  You have to see Daniel Day-Lewis to believe his performance as "Bill the Butcher."  Leonardo Di Caprio is a young man set on revenge.
• Late Marriage (Magnolia)---An Israeli subtitled film that begins on a humorous note and ends somewhere else.  It's a story of arranged marriages, what works and what doesn't.  Everyone has a secret.
• Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (New Line)---The second of the Tolkien trilogy, this one prepares Middle Earth for war and what a war it is.  There is bravery, dishonesty, betrayal and lots of rain.
• Road to Perdition (DreamWorks)---This film came out earlier in2002, and is a startling story of loyalty within a crime family, plus what exactly constitutes a family.
• Secret Ballot (Sony Classics)---An Iranian subtitled film of a soldier escorting a woman vote collector around the countryside on Election Day.  There is a subtle conflict as to exactly who is in charge here.
• The Hours (Paramount)---Centered on Virginia Woolf's novel, "Mrs. Dalloway," the film explores the lives of three women, a generation apart from each other, and how the book affects them.  Interwoven is Philip Glass's exquisite music score.  Editing is what helps make this film.
• The Pianist (USA Films)---Roman Polanski has a shattering film about one man's survival during World War II and the Warsaw ghetto.  Not only does food sustain life, but music can, also.  Adrien Brody lost thirty pounds to play the role of the piano player.

• Bloody Sunday (Paramount Classics)---Paul Greengrass's film of what happened in Derry, Ireland over 25 years ago when a peace march became bloody.  The story is purposely done as a documentary to take the audience into the action.
• Bowling for Columbine (United Artists)---This is a documentary by Michael Moore on gun control and the NRA in America.  Much is done in a humorous style, but the point is made and made again about lax gun controls.
• The Lady and The Duke (Sony Classics)---a film set during the French Revolution when an English woman, who preferred to live in France, was suspected of being a spy.
• Rabbit-Proof Fence (Miramax)---Australia has 1500 miles of fence to keep rabbits from eating crops, but it also serves as a cultural divider.  The story has three Aboriginal girls trying to find their home after being taken from their families to be trained as servants.
• The Emperor's New Clothes (Paramount Classics)---Ian Holm shines as Napoleon who, in this fictional tale, escapes from the island to try and become Emperor again.  It is a wonderful "what if" story.  Sweeping photography.

The Missed-All-The-Screenings-But Heard-Good-Things-About category:

• Catch Me If You Can (DreamWorks)---Leonardo Di Caprio has humorous moments in the story of a man who fakes his way into many occupations including airline pilot.
• Chicago (Miramax)---Catherine Zeta-Jones actually got her start in musical theater and shows her stuff with cast mate Renee Zellweger in a story of music and murder
• Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind (Miramax)---story of "Gong Show" host, Chuck Barris.