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#1- Inglourious Basterds Starring: Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, Mike Myers, Michael Fassbenderr, Diane Kruger, Daniel Bruhl, Til Schweiger, Melanie Laurent, B.J. Novak and Samm Levine Directed by: Quentin Tarantino This is the movie that probably grew on me the most as the year progressed, it was always a favorite of mine of the year but wasn't always my #1 movie until seeing in multiple times. The film is a screwball twist on history mixed with plenty of Taraninoesque violence, action, and dark comedy. In an age when everyone is always trying to be so Politically Correct Tarantino delivers a film that is more interested in delivering a good movie full of every element you would want to see from a movie while he entertains you and keeps you glued to your seat. |
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#2- Zombieland Starring: Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin, Amber Heard Directed by: Ruben Fleischer In an age of blockbusters and special effects sometimes its good to just see a movie that throws that all to the wind and instead just has fun and goes on a romp of mindless action and killing zombies in this case all the while making you laugh tell your sides hurt. This was another movie that climbed up my best of the year chart as the year progressed as it is a film I could watch a hundred times over. And Woody Harrelson may be one of the most underrated actors in all of Hollywood right now as he makes this film just so much better. | ||
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#3- District 9 Starring: Sharlto Copley, Jason Cope, Nathalie Boltt, Sylvaine Strike, John Sumner Directed by: Neill Blomkamp This was my #1 movie of the year for many months but after purchasing it on DVD while its still great and an entertaining film it just didn't hold as much up to repeate viewings like Inglourious Basterds and Zombieland. The slow parts of the film are just so much harder to get through on multiple viewings as you wait in anticipation for that final shootout that blows your socks off. District 9 is still a great sci-fi film and one of the best films of the year its just likely not the kind of movie you are going to want watch once or twice every year. | ||
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#4- The Hangover Starring: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Heather Graham, Justin Bartha Directed by: Todd Phillips By far the best comedy of the year, well exluding zombieland that was half comedy and half mindless action. This is the kind of comedy that doesn't grow old the second or third time you watch it and something that can keep you laughing through multiple viewings. Four friends go on a drunken rampage in Las Vegas and after a night of revelry they try and piece together what happens cmon who hasn't had this happen them before and the movie hits on that element of what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. | ||
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#5- Star Trek Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Leonard Nimoy, John Cho, Ben Cross, Bruce Greenwood, Simon Pegg Directed by: J.J. Abrams JJ Abrams and crew managed to handle reviving a series that had slowly become just for fanboys by finding what made the series so good an iconic to begin with. And by doing it in an altertate reality the movie doesn't have to worry about the ten movies that came before it or the hundreds of television episodes either. Reboots have worked in recent years with Batman and Bond and you can now add the Trek series to that list of very highly and well done reboots and look forwards to more sequels in years to come. | ||
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#6- Up Starring: Edward Asner, Jordan Nagai, Christopher Plummer, Delroy Lindo and John Ratzenberger Directed by: Pete Docter, Bob Peterson I think a Pixar film could make my top 10 list every year as the creators at Pixar now how to make a fantastic film that is original, beautiful and wonderfully told and Up is no exception. Up in fact is one of the best films Pixar has ever churned out and that is saying a lot considering that you are competing with the likes of Toy Story and Monsters Inc. It captures everything that you would want from a kids movie all the while leaving enough for the gownups and adults to enhoy it as well something Pixar does better that everyone else out there. | ||
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#7- Paranormal Activity Starring: Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, Michael Bayouth Directed by: Oren Peli By far one of the best horror films in recent memory. In an age where every horror film is all about how gory they can be or how shocking they can be Paranormal Activity remembers what is actually scary and what can actually make you jump. The movie uses slow building suspense to bring goosebumps to your skin as it leads up to a somewhat sllly ending. Paranormal Activity is what the Blair Witch Project should have been as they have learned that shaky camera work doesn't always make the film while using the same techniques that made Blair Witch so popular. | ||
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#8- Drag me to Hell Starring: Lorna Raver, Dileep Rao, Alison Lohman, Justin Long, David Paymer Directed by: Sam Raimi I am not that much of a horror fan but 2009 brought us two fantastic horror movies something we haven't had in awhile. Drag me to Hell is a little bit more gory and shocking that paranormal but just as scary and as good as well. Sam Raimi is the master of the horror genre and he knows how to tell a story that can be suspensful and a little tongue in cheek at the same time. 2009 was definitly the year of horror and science fiction as both genres were given new life while the big blockbusters failed to deliver. | ||
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#9- Avatar Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez Directed by: James Cameron This movie would have been near perfect had Cameron and the screen writers checked their agendas and preachings at the door. Despite the overly preachy green and eco message of the film Avatar is still one of the most beautiful and touching science fiction films in recent memory. James Camerom definitly knows how to make the most out of technology all the while mixing a beautiful story in with the gorgeous visuals of the film. In a year of horror and science fiction Avatar may be the movie most people remember a decade from now. | ||
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#10- Watchmen Starring: Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Carla Gugino, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Patrick Wilson Directed by: Zack Snyder Watchmen is a movie that is being celebrated as the greatest graphic novel ever being brought to life. That truly is a very large bill to fill and puts a lot of expectations and pressure on Watchmen to deliver from its rabid fan base. I had not read the Watchmen comic book up until about two weeks ago when I picked up the graphic novel in anticipation of the film so although I had read the comic going into the movie I was clearly not apart of its fan base. That being said I think they did a fantastic job of bringing the movie to life, at times it was like the images had leapt right off the pages of the comic and transported itself to the screen in front of me. Sure like any adaptation they made changes, subtle and not so subtle and they left things out but that didn’t really hinder the film and they stayed pretty true to the comic. | ||
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Honorable Mention- Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Tom Felton, Helena Bonham Carter Directed by: David Yates Stange that probably one of the best Harry Potter movies to date only makes the honorable mention list and not the top ten list. While this movie was a great and fantastic movie it just couldn't compete with all the fantastic science ficton and horror movies released this year. But the movie definitly does get you excited about the conclusion of the series in the next two years as it does a great job leading up to the seventh book as it delivers everything you would want from a Harry Potter movie. | ||
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Honorable Mention- Sherlock Holmes Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong, Eddie Marsan Directed by: Guy Ritchie I struggled between picking this and the Men who Stare at Goats as the last honorable mention. And while both movies are fantasic Holmes won out simply because it mixed some many great elements from action, to comedy to drama all in one movie. And at the same time it also rebooted another iconic and fascinating character in Sherlock Holmes as Robert Downey Jr puts in a marvelous peformance as he reminds us he may be one of the best actors working in Hollywood right now. | ||
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Worst Movies of the Year #1- 2012 Starring: John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newton, Danny Glover and Woody Harrelson Directed by: Roland Emmerich Terrible. That one word describes 2012 oh so very well. A few years ago whole writing a review I thought they should come up with a new category for films called the Murphy’s Law category. These are the kind of films where the actors and characters run from one disaster to the next and where anything that bad can happen does happen. Recently the media has started dubbing films like 2012 disaster porn and that is what the film does it mixes Murphy’s Law with Disaster Porn. Its not bad enough that the world is about to end but we got to make sure our characters go through everything imaginable going wrong to only be saved at the last moment after having to endure two and half hours of Murphy’s Law and every known disaster being thrown at them. | ||
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#2- Bride Wars Starring: Kate Hudson, Anne Hathaway, Candice Bergen, Kristen Johnston, Bryan Greenberg Directed by: Gary Winick I give romantic comedies a fair chance when I see them but some are so extremly bad and are not trying in the least to make a good movie and Bride Wars is a prime example of that. Just throw in every cliche you can think of toss in a couple of actress who do these kind of films and throw it at the audience and hope that they don't notice how horribly bad your movie is. Bride Wars is the kind of movie that makes guys cringe when the women in their life want to see a movie from this genre as it is so bad anyone involded in making the film should never be allowed to make a film again. | ||
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#3- Land of the Lost Starring: Will Ferrell, Anna Friel, Danny R. McBride and Jorma Taccone Directed by: Brad Silberling Part of me wants to just rip into this movie for being one of the stupidest and most ridiculous movies ever made. The other part of me actually has to applaud the filmmakers for trying to turn what had to be one of the cheesiest and most ridiculous television shows ever made in a big screen movie. I appreciated the fact that they knew that they were trying to make a movie out of one of the worst television shows ever and they never seem to lose their sense of humor about it. Vast portions of the movie were tongue in cheek and just so over the top as an obvious homage to the original series that you couldn’t help but applaud them for their efforts but then there was the fact that the movie was sheer stupidity bottle in film form. It was a battle between enjoying the obvious cheesy homage and wincing at the sheet stupidity of the movie. | ||
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Biggest Dissapointment of 2009 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson, John Turturro, Isabel Lucas and Ramon Rodriguez Directed by: Michael Bay A complete and utter mess and what not to do with a sequel. Loud, annoying at times, and just too over the top Transformers 2 is a huge let down from the first film. The worst part of the film has to be how entirely cheesy the film went. The dialogue of almost all the Autobots is akin to the dialogue in Gigli (yes it’s that bad) another heavily panned film. It’s gut wrenching, atrociously incredibly cringe worthy. The three screenwriters attached to this project should be escorted to the Hollywood city limits and told to never return or face a firing squad. The twins had to have the worst dialogue in the film although even Otimus Prime wasn’t safe from horrible lines that made you want to throw popcorn at the screen. There simply is no excuse for this kind of writing because it went away from what made the first one so successful. The first one was a serious sci-fi film the second one is a horribly cheesy sequel. | ||