2009 Best and Worst Movies

[Dramund]

I just watched District 9 on Blu-Ray. The Apartheid resemblance is about as subtle as hitting you in the face with a 2x4 with "APARTHEID" stenciled on it. The Apartheid aspect of the movie, in my opinion, is also ridiculously overstated by the audience. During the first 20 minutes or so of the movie and from what I heard, I was dreading a hamfisted and predictable "Racism is bad, mkay?" theme. Much to my surprise, I didn't find the movie about Apartheid at all, rather it simply uses an Alien Apartheid as a setting for the actual story to happen...

I'll spare any spoilers after that but in short, District 9 turned from something I was skeptical about after reading forums to the best Sci-Fi movie I have seen in over 25 years.

[crackajack]

1. Watchmen
(+ Watchmen The Complete Motion Comic)
I love Moores subtle slow story with their anti(super/masked adventurers)heros and their human problems and different views on life. Snyder did a good transition: cutting where it helped the speed, adding powerful music and still staying with the mood i felt while reading the book before.

2. Das weiße Band (the white ribbon)
A look at a village and its smugness with violence behind closed doors and devoutness on sundays, a few years before WW2.

[[3. Wall-E
The first half is just brilliant, the rest i am willing to ignore.]]<-2008

3. Transformers 2
bombastic rubbish. i like this though.

4. Inglourious Basterds
Really don't know about this one.
The scenes and actors are magnificent, but altogether i dislike that movie strongly. It offending me in a weird way. It was to funny, despite being to earnest... i felt forced to laugh at something i don't want to laugh at, it never got really amusing enough, delivered to much of the real thing. It kind of upsetted me ... but maybe that was the goal... have to have another look.

So i loved/liked 3 movies this year and one sort of dismembers me. No flop at my list but wanting to see only 4 movies in a year is really not much...

best of TV-broadcasts 2009 (my favourites this year, though i have seen some before)
Team America
Gandhi
Casshern
The Salton Sea
Hearts in Atlantis
Lucky Number Slevin (shame this never found its way to our cinemas)
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
Magnolia
North Country
The Andromeda Strain
Manufacturing Dissent

Worst
Hana-Bi
The Host
Lost Killers
Hooligans
Smokin' Aces
DOA: Dead or Alive
Cool Waves

[RandomRob]

most surprisingly involving/moving low budget film I've seen in ages...

[Cybrmynd]

Originally Posted by Li-Ion

Too bad that the dark knight is a 2008 movie

Damn, time flies fast doesn't it. I guess that means I didn't really enjoy any movies during 2009.

Edit: Wait, sorry. I'll name Inglorious Basterds as my favorite film of 2009.

[frogofdeath]

For best movie of the year, I'll throw my vote in for Up. This is such a phenomenal movie. So much is done with such little dialogue. A true example of how movies can and should tell a story. Also, I can't remember a movie that tugs at the heartstrings so often and so honestly as Up does. The only Pixar film that is better would be the Incredibles (sorry, never saw Wall-E).

As for worst movie of the year (and possibly of all time), my vote goes to GI Joe: the Rise of Cobra. This movie is so craptacular I don't even know where to start. The acting (not mention casting) is horrible, the script seems as if it is written by moronic, jock teenagers, and it is filled with about every single movie cliche one could think of. If you haven't seen it yet, DON'T!

[frogofdeath]

Oh, just thought of one more award to hand out: for best surprise of 2009 - Zombieland! What a fantastic movie this turned out to be. While I saw it opening day, I was not expecting much, but walked out of the theater with thoughts of returning (but didn't due to outrageous ticket prices). Zombieland doesn't pretend to be something it's not, nor does it decide it has to be your typical movie. GI Joe could learn a thing or two from this amazing film. If you haven't seen Zombieland, get around to it as soon as you can, you won't be disappointed.

[RandomRob]

Originally Posted by frogofdeath

For best movie of the year, I'll throw my vote in for Up. This is such a phenomenal movie. So much is done with such little dialogue. A true example of how movies can and should tell a story. Also, I can't remember a movie that tugs at the heartstrings so often and so honestly as Up does. The only Pixar film that is better would be the Incredibles (sorry, never saw Wall-E).

Agreed. Wall-E isn't as strong a picture as the Incredibles imo.. its like 2 vignettes stuck together. 1 excellent, 1 predictable.

[Circle]

Has anyone seen The Lovely Bones? Although it pains me to say it, that film is one of the worst of last year. I'm a big fan of Peter Jackson, but this was a complete disappointment. I was astonished by how underwritten the main characters were - one even drops out of the movie halfway through only to come back for the unbelievable happy ending. The novel is about dealing with the death of a loved one, but the film doesn't bother with this journey except through silly montages and cliche scenes like smashing everything in the room.

Interestingly, or disturbingly, the movie's best moments involve the killer/rapist Mr. Harvey. Jackson imbues these scenes with suspense, and creativity. There's a cool bitwhere he films the actors from within a dollhouse. Stanley Tucci is great.

There's also a creepy scene at the beginning when Suzy, as a ghost, enters Mr. Harvey's bathroom and finds her blood everywhere. It reminded me of something you'd see in Silent Hill, and makes me wish Jackson would return to horror.

The problem with having the film's best moments surrounding the killer is that it's not true to the spirit of the book. And considering the author, Alice Sebold, was a victim of rape herself, I wonder how she'd feel about a film based on her novel giving so much attention to the killer. It's obvious Jackson relishes in shooting these particular scenes, and it shows his great skill at evoking creepiness ... I just wish it was for another movie.

Because The Lovely Bones seems to miss the point of the novel it's based on. I haven't talked much about the heaven scenes (or the in-between scenes) because aside from offering some eye candy, they don't really add much to the story.

[Isaac]

The best movie of 2009 is Avatar and Humpday....And the worst movie is Planet 51.....el cerrito fitness trainer

[awesome6]

The best movie in 2009 was the inglorious bastards - a story about the german war which got huge response from the audience. The Acting of Brad pitt was amazing.

Worst movie - Pink panther 2 - Such a lame movie.

[lvory]

I like Dark knight, Harry potter and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Fast & Furious, Angels & Demons,Blind Side
but i don't like The Ugly Truth .its was a worst movie i have seen in 2009