Belligerent and Numerous: December 2009

Monday, December 28, 2009

Let the List Avalance Begin (Movies)

In what has become basically the last of my kept blogging traditions, I present my annual round-up of new movies that I watched this year. As always, everything is arbitrarily ranked in numerical order from least to most enjoyed. This year I had to cut down the categories, as I watched way less movies than normal, but also liked waaaay more than I usually do.

Movies that I Hated Beyond All Rational Measure:
24. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (also known as man's greatest crime against art in at least 24 months)

Movies that I Liked:
23. Confessions of a Shopaholic (seriously y'all, one disliked movie. It was a good year)
22. Fired Up
21. Monsters Vs. Aliens
20. Sunshine Cleaning (you'd think all the good acting would have saved this movie from such a low fate, but no)
19. Push
18. 9
17. The Twilight Saga: New Moon (I cannot begin to decide where to put this movie)
16. I Love You, Man

Movies that were Great:
15. Precious (Yes, the acting is phenomenal. It's also the most depressing thing I've ever seen and have no desire to ever revisit it again)
14. Julie & Julia
13. The Informant! (Another movie too hard to rank well. It was hilarious and interesting, but really all I remember is the soundtrack)
12. Watchmen
11. Zombieland
10. Coraline
9. 17 Again (How is this movie ranked so high in my mind? It is a mystery)

Movies that were Excellent:
8. The Hangover (Seriously, maybe one of the funniest straight comedies I've seen in ages)
7. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
6. Up (Have I mentioned that this movie made me cry 4 times? No, really, 4)
5. District 9
4. Star Trek
3. Adventureland (I can't remember if I wrote this one up, but man I loooved this movie. Kristen Stewart represent!)
2. Paranormal Activity (Scariest damn movie I've seen since The Ring)
1. (500) Days of Summer

So what did we learn from this list? Absolutely nothing, except that it has spurred me to reactivate my Netflix/Blockbuster membership because there were so many movies I wanted to see this year that I missed.

Next up: Booklist!

Where My Opinions Count

(500) Days of Summer - Let's start with the caveat that this movie is nothing but a stacked deck against me. You've got Joseph Gordon-Levitt (seriously my favorite actor in the world), in a funny role of a guy unsure of what he wants to do with his professional life while his love life is in constant turmoil. Oh, and Regina Spektor songs keep playing in the background. If there is such a thing as a movie marketed directly to me, this is it. But y'all, this movie is so good. Not in a traditional storyline sense. Or even in an acting sense (although JGL is on fire the entire way through). It's about the feeling it gives you - liberally borrowing from every cliche available - musicals, old black and white cinema, jumping timelines, everything - all working in concert to give you the feeling of a relationship as it ends, and the things you remember. The overrall impression is so great that I forgive the minor quibbles I have (hammy sidekicks are over the top, Zooey Deschanel is playing her stock character #2, much as she has for the last 4 things I've seen her in). This is my movie of the year, right here. Absolutely stunning.
Push - So much better than I was expecting that I may have wrapped myself so far around that I actually enjoyed it. There are some terrible, terrible parts (the Casio-grade Music of Love that they played every time that Chris Evans and Camilla Belle were in the same room, for instance). But Dakota Fanning was pretty great, and I'm up for anything that gives Cliff Curtis or Ming-Na more work. I can't believe I'm saying this, but it's kinda too bad that it tanked - I could totally be up for a sequel.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - Got my nerd on and wrote a whole boring essay on it.
Let The Right One In - A good movie that gets better the more I think on it. Despite being a mildly gory vampire movie, it's surprisingly subtle. They don't try to hit you over the head with anything, it's all underplayed. The mother's soft neglect, the father's hints of homosexuality, even the parallels that can be drawn between particular characters - nothing jumps out at you. That, combined with the natural way that Oskar and Eli's relationship is handled, paints something like a real life picture that just happens to have a vampire somewhere in there. It's more than a little unsettling, especially the way the bullying keeps escalating as the movie continues. Overall, the movie's a little methodical for my tastes (I like my supernatural horror scary, not just ungodly depressing) but it's undeniably a great film.
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - So bad I exceeded the character limit. If you care enough: Go Here
The Hangover - Delightfully vulgar and meandering. That's pretty much my the sum of my thoughts. "Genuinely and shockingly funny" is another soundbyte I could add in there as well. After seeing his Fiona Apple music video, I always assumed Zach Galifianakis would remain an unacknowledged American treasure forever, since the combination of that plus his standup act had still left him in obscurity against all odds. But I am gleefully overjoyed to be proven wrong. May he blossom and go on to larger-scale fame. He made this movie.