And here at last, the list of lists. Well, maybe not THE list but....if my opinion means much, this is how it would look...
#10 – 9
9 is a small little movie produced by Tim Burton, who is no stranger to bringing audiences to the dark world of computer animation (i.e. Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride). 9 is a dark pg13 animated flick that on the surface sounds awfully familiar by its premise (a post apocalyptic earth after machines have destroyed all of humanity), however is quite inspiring and “feel-good” through its execution and story. We see this dark, dreadful Earth through the eyes of a tiny rag doll called 9, who is brought to life at the very opening of the film. Wondering around, he slowly finds other rag dolls similar to him between 1 and 8 and realize they are all that’s left of humanity after the destruction by the machines. The rest will all just sound superficial but Burton and his new found director take this very simple story and find a way to delve into our emotions and hearts with its message of saving humanity, even if it’s through a very “creative” and “different” approach.
#9 - MOON
Moon is the little space mind bender that nobody really took notice of during the horrid blockbuster run of the summer (yes transformers and terminators, im talking to you). This movie should be on everyone’s must rent from blockbuster/Netflix list like right now because there was no better mind twisting of a film done like this all year. Sam Rockwell does an excellent job, worthy of Oscar credit he won’t get though, as the central character who is, for the most part, the only actor you truly see the entire 90 minutes of the movie. He is Sam Bell, a sole employee on a lunar space station sending helium fuel back to earth to help replenish what is left of a dying fuel economy. He’s there for 3 years with only GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey), his trusty super computer (think HAL from 2001, minus the evil). What happens to Sam’s mind as his 3 years is coming closer to an end is where the story takes place, to say anymore would truly spoil the fun of watching this movie.
#8 – THE HANGOVER
The comedy that made all comedies irrelevant in 2009. The movie that every man took his boys and went to see. The movie that girls watched but inside thought, O God I’m never letting my man go to Vegas. Yes that movie, The Hangover. Quite possibly one of the very few comedies to have such high expectations heading into its release, yet THANKFULLY came through with witty humor, great script and perfect casting. Not much needed to be discussed on the movie just about everyone has seen at this point. If you are in the minority, I think I rest my case. Hangover is one of the best comedies of the decade that just past us by.
#7 – PRECIOUS
One of the more depressing movies I’ve had to sit through and watch. Admittedly, if this film didn’t garner such high praise or attention I wouldn’t have given it the time or day, but it was a damn good movie that was even better thanks to its incredible acting performances (even Mariah Carey has to get credit here). Monique….flawless. She was as powerful a performer as I seen from an actress in years. Riveting every scene she was in, like a ticking time bomb, very ferocious as the abusive mother to her pregnant and illiterate high school daughter growing up through the inner streets of Harlem, NY. Not a movie I would sit through twice, but a well deserved credited drama.
#6 – HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF BLOOD PRINCE
Only the second Potter film to ever make this list, but the 6th installment in the series has reached a new level of dark and grit. I truly wish I could sit and have patience to read these novels because the movies have gotten better and better through every single installment. In a 6 movie franchise, has that truly EVER happened? Sure I’m just one man’s opinion and some may not agree, but each movie has gathered more acclaim from critics and received a darker tone by the directors taking the helm. I truly have reached the status of “I gotta see Deathy Hallows at midnight” when the studios release the split-two finale of films starting in November and finishing next summer.
# 5 – STAR TREK
Easily takes the cake as the best popcorn action blockbuster released last summer. Forget giant robots morphing into 2009 chevy camaros or fake cgi’d Arnolds walking around. Last summer belonged to Star Trek and its resurgence into importance again. Written and directed by the mastermind behind the Lost series on ABC and last year’s disaster flick Cloverfield, J.J. Abrams took pieces of what has made him an icon in television and after his first taste in last year’s directorial debut with Cloverfield, he’s excelled it into this hell of a franchise starter. Using the set characters that everyone that has seen the originals know and using them as teens growing up through the academy into Starfleet was one of the smartest ideas Abrams could have made to appease to both the fanbase created and new ones still on the fence. A must see, and if you own a blu ray player, it’s the most amazingly clear HD movie released in 2009.
#4 – THE HURT LOCKER
The inevitable war movie I know I know. How many more war stories can still be told without becoming a parody of the very genre those stories grow tiring of? The answer, well you don’t necessarily make it a “story” but more of a documentary on what war does to some of these soldiers, showing its “addiction” to the game per say. The Hurt Locker isn’t anymore a story than it is a “war movie about Iraq.” That would be wrong in categorizing it as such. It honestly won’t be accepted by everyone who watches it, obviously. However, the story follows one daredevil soldier’s quest to dismantle just about every bomb in Iraq known to man while never really seeming to miss home where he has a wife and baby boy. The movie is merely a number of scenes following the soldier as he grows deeper into the addiction that is war, almost like it’s a drug itself. Do these men really miss their families? Once you get what you want, counting down the days till your leave, by the end of the movie you find out some of these guys really can’t adapt to normality again.
#3 – AVATAR
By the time I’m writing this, Avatar will probably officially pass Titanic as the number one domestic grossing film ever (having already surpassed its worldwide record of 1.8 billion dollars). Unlike Titanic, however, Avatar never hits that emotionally dramatic pitch that put the whole world under James Cameron’s spell 13 years ago. The love story on the disastrous doomed ship was a perfect balance of tragic/happy emotions elicited through two different stories being told (one fictitious one true). However, Cameron misses the mark just slightly on the love story here, he completely excels and triumphs on the disastrous part. With the stunning visuals he basically invented himself, thus the long waited release from the ground up of Avatar’s journey to the big screen, Cameron excelled at making history. The movie is truly groundbreaking and awe astounding. I have explained it in this manner to everyone I talk to about it, that it’s a movie that you “experience.” You don’t experience many movies in this day and age, with formulas recycled over and over and sequels compounded by multiplying what you did the first time by 100. No, Avatar is a truly original movie-going experience only really felt if you could ever make it to a 3D imax theater. I’m sure the story in itself will still be moving regardless but the experience is what really stands Avatar alone from….well….everything ever made. Avatar is just not the best movie of the year. The inevitable sequel, however does have my interest incredibly peaked. Why? James Cameron has only done two and their both two of the best sci-fi films ever made, and Avatar could be his masterpiece.
# 2 – INGLORIOUS BASTERDS
As dynamic an opening scene as the one Quentin Tarantino opens to begin his WW2 epic, it’s even THAT more remarkable the rest of the movie stood up the remaining near 3 hours. That scene still lingers in my mind and will forever go down as one of the true thrilling openings in cinematic history. Christoph Waltz gives us this year’s Heath Ledger performance that came out of nowhere award. The guy who nobody ever heard of, from that very opening scene to the bitter end commanded the camera’s attention. He’s an ultimate lock for best supporting actor as Heath was last year. What’s most unfortunate when a movie is lucky enough to get a performance like that out of one of its actors is when the main star did exceptionally well himself but won’t be remembered for it. Brad Pitt gave his best performance I personally seen him do since Snatch and Fight Club. I never drank much out of the Benjamin Button koolaid last year but you can’t tell me his performance in Buttons was more versatile than in Basterds as Lt. Aldo Raine. Pitt owned the camera more so than I seen him do in almost a decade. QT received all around Oscar worthy performances from just about every actor playing a pivotal role in the film. The first time I watched the movie was in the theaters and then I recently watched it again on dvd and thoroughly enjoyed it much more the 2nd time (a token to how great QT movies are when watched multiple times). Even QT’s fictional take on the end to WW2 didn’t ruin the ride he was taking us on. Only in time, like with almost every Tarantino flick, will we see where Basterds lie. But like the last line uttered in the film, we may too be saying “this might be his masterpiece.”
#1 – UP IN THE AIR
It just doesn’t get much better than movies like Up in the Air. I simply adore films that sneak up on me and I don’t see coming. Up in the Air is an instant classic! I want to get that out of the way. This movie is as perfect as they come. One of those films that you don’t really know where to categorize it, like Good Will Hunting was (don’t get carried away, its not THAT great, but close). Comedy, drama, sad, happy, tragic, gut wrenching, you don’t know where to title it because you can’t put a title on classics. They are what they are. George Clooney plays Ryan Bingham and trust me when I say this, nobody else could have played Ryan Bingham. I’ve had a couple people tell me, oh Clooney was playing himself in that role it was easy for him. Well, maybe that’s because only Clooney can play THAT role. Tell me another actor with the charisma and panache that Clooney has carried his entire career that could play somebody who fires people from their jobs for a living and the audience still loves them? Clooney is as good as he’s ever been and he’s not even the best part of the movie. The story here is everything. Jason Reitman not only directs one hell of a movie but he adapted a wonderfully terrific screenplay from Walter Kim’s novel of the same title. This is a movie I enjoyed immensely the first watch and can honestly say I can’t wait to see again once it hits dvd shelves. Not too many movies anymore get you excited like that.
