I am deep in to making my senior project and I moved in with my girlfriend this year.
So I want to talk about something very dear to me...movies.
Since this is the end of the year I will now provide a list of the greatest movies of 2009. I must preface this list, 2009 is widely considered one of the WORST years on record, but this year has produced some amazing movies. These are the top of the year.
10. Trick r' Treat
This was suppose to be released back in 2007, but it was released this year straight to DVD. The story behind why is ummm well sketchy, but who cares. It has a great villain, a well put together stream of stories that all connect. Anna Paquin is great so is the rest of cast. I hope they get the suppose to be sequel out, but it sounds like that is probably not gonna happen.
9. Where the Wild Things Are
This is a gorgeous movie. Plain and simple. The problem is that it is very dark. Now we all know I love dark, but it's suppose to be a family movie and I wouldn't say that anyone under 13 should see it. It's pretty creepy. It's been in the books for 15 years and it's been in the last few years that Maurice Sendak finally greenlite the movie based on his book only if he was able to pick the director. Enter Spike Jonze. Who did wonderfully. The characters were made by The Hensen group. It's done well it's fun and a great adventure, but make sure the kids can handle it.
8. (500) Days of Summer
This is a movie out of left field. It is a great anti love story. It starts out by saying it is not a movie about love. The performances are great. The story is sweet. I do have to warn people who hate movies that jump around a lot to stay away. It jumps around from day 1 to day 500 and it does it frequently. The good thing though is that it tells you what day you're on before the segment. Oh and how can one forget about the hilarious Bollywood style dance number in the middle of the movie. haha
7. Away We Go
This one was directed by the great Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road To Perdition) It's a tad of a departure for him. It starts out as a movie about the main characters getting ready to have a baby. It slowly turns into a story about finding home as the couple goes from friend to friend trying to decide who they want to live by. I love the message and the whole idea.
6. Moon
I saw a trailer early in the year and became fascinated. It stars Sam Rockwell as a man who has been living on the dark side of the moon for the past 3 years harvesting Helium 3 which is a renewable energy source. It's a gorgeous piece if independent filmmaking. It's use of miniatures and minor CG is used to make you really feel like you're on the moon. It's a great plot and interesting twist. The biggest issue is that you roughly know the end by about half way through the movie, but it doesn't hurt the overall movie. I definitely suggest seeing it when it's on DVD. I kick myself that I didn't see it in theatres.
5. Watchmen
What can one say about Watchmen? I think we all know I love Noir and guess what? Watchmen is a great graphic novel style noir. It's very real in the same breath as being very strongly comic book. It is a work of sheer art with a thriving soundtrack (they still do those?) and amazing visuals. Sadly it's greatest strength and most powerful weakness is it's complete reverence to the source material. No matter it's still a fabulous piece of filmmaking.
4. Avatar
I am not going to lie I fought myself putting it on the list at all. Why would i fight it? mainly because it is so newly out. I ended up putting it here because it is purely a genius movie. James Cameron, the man behind Terminator 1 and 2, True Lies, The Abyss, and the highest grossing movie of all time, Titanic spent 14 years and $300 million on this beauty. Its story is simple. its visuals are where you really get the greatness. The direction is great. The shots are great. The acting is fine the script is so so. Honestly see it in IMAX 3D before it's too late. This is the movie to see this year. You'll kick yourself for not seeing it in IMAX. It really will revolutionize filmmaking. This is the first film that is helping scifi come back after it's destruction in 1997 with Independence Day
3. Star Trek
Thank you J.J. Abrams for putting enough money into this franchise. Normally I condemn too much money, but Star Trek was one that needed some more money to really make it great. Star Trek is a great prequel to the originals. They got great actors to be the characters we all know and did a great job creating new ideas to the Star Trek canon. This is the second film that will help Sci Fi come back in a big way.
2. Inglourious Basterds
There is a reason Tarantino is one of the greatest living directors and he proves it again this year with what was at one point "The fabled Inglorious Bastards" Notice his title is spelled wrong, he refuses to explain why. Only he can make a movie and title it after some lovable side characters rather than the actual story. Only he can make you laugh and make you feel bad for doing so. His dialogue that has been so great since Reservoir Dogs is front most in this out about A jewish theatre owner, jew hunter, and a group of American jewish men out to kill Hitler himself and believe me it's great dialogue all around. Oh and did I mention this one is up for best picture, director, script, and best supporting actor with Col. Landa played by a very popular German actor Christopher Waltz. Just a great "history" piece.
1. District 9
Say what you will, but this movie is genius. It has heart, it has great effects, it has great style, a great concept, and top it all off it is rooted in history. Now you're probably thinking how can a movie about aliens be rooted in history? The Director grew up in Johannesburg, South Africa during the Apartheid. Since this movie is based there, there is a lot of parallels between the movie and the treatment of the South African people by the Apartheid. It starts out as a documentry about evicting the aliens and turns into something so much deeper. This is just amazing and only cost 30 million. This is the 3rd and final movie of 2009 that will explode Sci-Fi in the up coming years.
Biggest disappointment
Public Enemies
Now don't get me wrong. It's not a terrible movie by any means, otherwise you'd find it at the bottom of my list (scroll down to see the worst of 2009 list.) Public Enemies just happens to be one overly long, sadly underdeveloped movie. Acting is good...thats really it. The direction feels more like a HBO First Look rather than the movie. It was so disappointing considering all involved (Depp, Bale, and Michael Mann, who made greatness like Collateral and Heat) I feel this is a shell of what should have been. I do have to admit it's better than the painfully long, boring, crappy, American Gangster.
Sleeper Hits of the Year
The Hangover
Did anyone hear about The Hangover before it came out. I doubt it. The year was crashing due to the poor releases and then this comedic bomb exploded all over everything. Was it great? Yes. Was it one of the best comedies in years? Yes. It's raunchy, but not too raunchy, it's not really smart, but it knows it and has a lot of fun being the crazy out of control movie.
Paranormal Activity
This movie freaked me out. I started watching it at 10PMish I was up till at least 430...The movie is an hour and a half. Yeah I was freaked. It's one of the few horror movies to actually scare me. Is it perfect? No, but it takes a documented thing and shows you what "has" happened in the past and by that I mean it deals with the idea of a person being possessed by a demon. Has that happened? Not sure. There are documented cases, but it all depends on your belief system. Either way I looked at Anna after she fell asleep and thought..."You're breathing funny. First sign of you being possessed it's over." haha
Most Underrated
9
Zombieland
Terminator Salvation
My Bloody Valentine 3D
All 4 of these are good movies. Only Zombieland can be considered a great movie the rest are good and don't deserve the lack of attention they got this year. If you want some fun check them out.
Next one to look for
Imaginarium of Doctor Pernassus
This is in limited release and frankly I can't wait to see it. This is in fact Heath Ledger's last movie. Yes! He died in the middle of making it. It took way too long for some studio to take this movie up and distribute it. i truly believe that hollywood is trying to rewrite history and shove this into the shadows so you will remember last years amazing movie, Dark Knight. As soon as he died 3 actors were brought into replace Ledger. They include, Colin Ferrel, Jude Law, and Johnny Depp. Yeah I am excited and so should you.
The one I don't have to talk about
Up
I know every year that Pixar puts out a movie there is one asshole who keeps complaining that the Pixar movie isn't on the top 10 movies of the year lists. I will tell you why. It's because it doesn't have to be. We all know it's great, it's freakin Pixar for god sakes. They are the only studio in history to have a 100% success rate. Up was a great movie, personally i cried and you should to if you see yourself as having a soul. It's great Pixar always has been and always will be.
Here is the list of movies getting a lot of praise, but I haven't seen them yet.
Up in the Air
Hurt locker
Precious
Men Who Stare at Goats
The Road
Whip it!
A Serious Man
Sherlock Holmes
And my list for the worst of the year. No it's not in any order. All of these I either endured through like a marathon, fast forwarded through most of it, or I just could not get through.
Land of the Lost
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Year One
Transformers 2
G. I. Joe
