2009 in Review

I’m not going to pretend I saw every good movie that came out last year. In fact, I’ll get to that in a second. First of all, here are my top 5 for 2009:

1) Inglourious Basterds
2) The Hurt Locker
3) Up in the Air
4) District 9
5) A Serious Man
Honorary Mentions:
In the Loop
The Hangover
500 Days of Summer

I’m not going to go in to great detail, because for most of these there might be separate reviews later, particularly the top 2. I had to throw a bone to 500 Days of Summer simply because it is one of the only adequate romantic comedies made since the Civil War. Actually, it’s quite good. Comments on The Hangover below.

Movies I haven’t seen that I regret. Future “Movies I Missed” column nominees:
Drag Me to Hell
Precious: Based on a Novel by Somebody
An Education
Invictus
Crazy Heart
The Messenger
Kevin J. Edit: Fantastic Mr. Fox

I will edit the above as I see more.

Here are some other movies I’d like to comment on:

Funny People

The thing is I REALLY REALLY REALLY love two thirds of this film. It’s not so much a comedy as a drama about comedians, and writer/director Judd Apatow has been through all of the muck that is depicted here. However, it literally leaves that world in the final third, where it takes us to the house of Adam Sandler’s “one that got away”. While this is not a bad area to explore emotionally, it could have been done in less time in a different location. If the movie lost Eric Bana as Sandler’s competition, that would be a loss. I could listen to an Australian talk enthusiastically about “footy” all day. It just slows down for too long and takes us to a FAR TOO LONG 146 minute running time. Shorten the third act, take the film down to about two hours, and maybe it could’ve done better at the box office, and we’d have a classic film.

Knowing and 2012

SPOILER ALERT

Here are two films that take the world and tear it to pieces. One in slightly more depressing fashion. Knowing begins creepily enough, and more a lot of the film I was at least moderately interested, even though its main goal seemed to be to depress us. Then begins an incredibly stupid series of events, even for Hollywood. All I really remember is it involves two children as the chosen ones, a big ball of light coming from the ground, THE CAVES WON’T SAVE US!, Nicolas Cage driving through New York City to completely inappropriate classical music, the Earth burning up, and a badly-CGI’d dream planet.

2012 doesn’t have any other goal except to tear the Earth apart. Well enough. However, by the end I was just tired of the stupidity and the killing off of character after character for no purpose. The final sequence aboard the ships was just silly, for security cameras are placed in midair everywhere, apparently. I don’t care if a Chihuahua lives or dies, sue me.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Easily my least favorite film of 2009. It’s not so much a movie as a series of images that you can’t quite decipher in your mind, punctuated by Megan Fox running in slow motion and an unnecessarily crude joke to appeal to the middle school crowd, who this might be too low-brow for in some cases. Come on, Louis Stevens, you can do better!

The Hangover

Yes, this is probably the straight-up funniest movie of last year. Not because of the premise, but the execution. The chemistry between Ed Helms, Bradley Cooper, and Zach Galifawhoseywhatsy is impeccable. Throw in some Ken Jeong and that dude from National Treasure and you’ve got a comedy movie which makes you laugh from beginning to end, and what else can you ask for?

Public Enemies and Taking Woodstock

The two most disappointing movies of last year, in my opinion, though Public Enemies is not nearly as bad as Taking Woodstock. Demitri Martin, I love you, but for the love of God never play a sexually confused 20-something in the 60’s again. You are not built to carry an entire movie. Not to mention we never really see Woodstock. It’s like going to party, but being told you have to sit in the next room over and watch some grass grow. This movie was truly awful.

Public Enemies I could sit through, and it was put together well, but for some reason I never cared. At all. Exciting things would be happening on the screen, but there seemed to be a wall between me and the action. I might seek it out again.

UP NEXT: Full Inglourious Basterds review.

Also, I realized I did not mention Avatar at all. It deserves its own column at some point, if I get around to it. Maybe after James Cameron visits OSU.