10 Best Films of 2009
The last year of the decade really was an amazing year for movie fans.
Starting at the beginning of 09, great movies seemed to pop up at the cinemas every weekend.
Great movies I’ve seen this year are:
Taken, Observe and Report, Coraline, Sunshine Cleaning, Away We Go, Star Trek, The Hangover, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Up, The Hurt Locker, Funny People, 500 Days of Summer, Inglorious Basterds, Drag Me To Hell, District 9, Precious, The Fantastic Mr Fox, Paranormal Activity, Julie & Julia, The Road, Invictus, Up In The Air, Avatar, and Sherlock Holmes.
But…for those of you who love lists….Here are my TOP 10:
10: STAR TREK: Great Story + Great Action + Great Acting = 10th best film I’ve seen this year.
9: FANTASTIC MR FOX: The second funniest (The Hangover) movie of the year.
8: THE ROAD: While this film is dark and depressing and leaves you with only a glimmer of hope for the future, it is a faithful adaptation of Cormac Macarthy’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel and Viggo Mortensen gives an Oscar worthy performance.
7: Up In The Air: The story is simple and timely and the performances especially Clooney and Twilight’s (don’t hold that against her) Anna Kendrick are brilliant.
6. DISTRICT 9: A really cool alien Sci-Fi movie that unlike, say, Independence Day, shows what would prolly REALLY happen if spacemen ever landed on earth. The last image will stay with you long after the film ends.
5. PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: The (second) best time I had at the movies this year. I’ve said it before and I’ll set it again, I’ll never forget that pretty boy sitting behind me in the theater screaming like a little bitch throughout the film. It comes out on DVD Tuesday. Check it out.
4. (500) Days of Summer: If you care, my original review is HERE and it still holds up 4 months later.
3. AVATAR: Don’t be turned off by the underwhelming previews. I almost was and I’m glad I went to see James Cameron’s gift to action movie fans . If you love movies you HAVE to see this film in 3D. While the plot can be a bit clunky and almost a direct rip-off of Dances With Wolves (replacing Indians with Aliens), the action and special effects more than make up for any shortcomings. Best Special Effects/Visuals in the history of film. Really.
2. INGLORIOUS BASTERDS: Funny, moving and action packed. So good that teens everywhere may actually come to believe that Tarantino has changed history and WW2 truly did end in that French Cinema.
1. THE HANGOVER: Yep, the movie that made me laugh myself silly in June (twice) remains as my favorite film of the year. For me, when deciding how good a film truly is, I not only judge what I’m seeing on screen but how what I’m seeing makes me react. I laughed from the second the movie began to the raunchy closing credits. The best comedy show I’ve been to in years is my favorite movie of 2009.
