Saturday, January 2, 2010

Best 5/Worst 5 movies of 2009.

Ok, 2010 is here and I've finally recovered from New Year's Eve. So let's recap on the best and worst movies of 2009. Keep in mind it's not like I saw every single movie, so there may be others that should be on the list. And just one quick question: where were all the documentaries?

1) The Hurt Locker: Hands down the best. Deserves to win best picture, best director and maybe best actor. See my previous review for details.








2) Sin Nombre: An intense movie about a dirt poor family of Honduran immigrants riding the roofs of trains to reach the U.S. As if that weren't dangerous enough, they're being pursued by the Mala Salvatrucha, the most vicious and feared gang in Latin America. Beautiful, frightening, and tragic.








3) (500) Days of Summer: A movie that captures the beauty of downtown LA, and fairly accurately shows what it feels like to go after a girl that just isn't that into you. Good laughs and good tunes.













4 & 5 (tie). Star Trek and The Hangover: Great popcorn flicks. Turn off your brain and have a good time. Star Trek had awesome visual effects and sound without being excessive, and did justice to the original series. The Hangover was just plain hilarious and kept you guessing just what would happen next. Interestingly, this movie shows Las Vegas almost entirely during the daytime, with all the city's gaudiness in plain sight.










And now the worst 5. These movies were not just bad, but disappointing, as they had potential.
1) Terminator Salvation: Stupid. A series that started strong has fallen apart.
2) 9: Nice animation but a story that goes nowhere.
3) Avatar: By the end of this movie I was ready to stop watching movies altogether. Like the newest King Kong, it was way too much. Holly had to go to the restroom halfway through and almost fainted from overstimulation. Glad we didn't see it in IMAX, might have went into status epilepticus.
4) Away We Go: Hipster couple travels around looking for a place to settle down. Not funny. Not romantic. Not interesting.
5) Watchmen: Again, too much. Dr. Manhattan and Rorschach were cool characters but overall this movie was just another noisy turd.