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technically this is a 2008 film as it came out for the 2009 oscars, but it still opened on january 30th so what the hell.
If anyone here has yet to see the wrestler I seriously suggest you do. It is a character driven movie by three characters, mickey rourke, marissa tomey, and evan rachel wood, all very good actors and actresses. The script is wonderful and it leads you completely through the life of a washed up wrester Randy the Ram who is trying to make a comeback.
The movie pretty much is near perfect, but it is depressing.
My favorite movie of the year was District 9, closely followed by Inglorious Bastards and Avatar.
Also, I suspect it's because I walked into it completely unspoiled having not even seen the preview, but I'm pretty sure Bruno was the both the hardest I've ever laughed at a movie and the most shocked I've ever been at a movie. Most people I've talked to didn't like it as much though.
technically this is a 2008 film as it came out for the 2009 oscars, but it still opened on january 30th so what the hell.
If anyone here has yet to see the wrestler I seriously suggest you do. It is a character driven movie by three characters, mickey rourke, marissa tomey, and evan rachel wood, all very good actors and actresses. The script is wonderful and it leads you completely through the life of a washed up wrester Randy the Ram who is trying to make a comeback.
The movie pretty much is near perfect, but it is depressing.
The Wrestler technically Released in december for a limited release and in January it moved to a wide release which still makes it a 2008 film. Not saying that it is a bad movie or anything just that it isn't a 2009 film
Milk and Slumdog were 2008 unfortunately (otherwise they'd be my favourites), Crunchatize me.
My favourites this year were Inglorious Basterds (loved the jewish girl with the movie theatre especially), Up (pixar!!!), and Coraline. I wish I'd seen Where the Wild Things Are, Precious, and Fantastic Mr.Fox though. Mariah Carey actually looked to be quite good in Precious... I'll have to watch these in the new year
Hmm, this year I have to say my favorite movie was Avatar. The visuals were great yes, the CGI was the best in any movie ever done to date. That's not really why I liked it, though I always have been kinda a sucker for good visuals in movies. I, and those I saw it with, all liked the story however.
Yes, the story is not completely original, its basically a take on the classic "Technologically superior but numerically inferior race tries to shove natives out of the way to get rich." Then again, I don't mind this considering it was done in a fairly original way, plus I go by the philosophy that there is nothing completely original anymore, as everything has been done once.
The movie was told in a great way though, the dialog was NOT bad, the acting was quite believable.
I just found out from my dad that this year there will be 10 nominations rather than 5 for best picture. It is obviously for money reasons, but how do you all feel about this. I mean i can hardly think of 5 movies worth of best picture this year let alone 10.
Avatar was decent I gues. But I wouldnt say its the best movie of 2009. But I still think its the best one I have watched in 2009.
(Transformers 2 sucked badly compared to the first one, imo)
Avatar wasn't spectacular story wise but of course it was an awesome movie. The entire movie was like holy shit look at that!
Up was great. My favorite movie this year.
Well I just saw Fantastic Mr. Fox and holy cuss. Awesome movie. Went in with no expectations and was very much surprised at how well done it was. Animation was charming. Voicework was great (Clooney especially). Plot was engaging enough and above all, the movie was hilarious. It might very well be my movie of 2009.
1. A Serious Man
2. Inglourious Basterds
3. The Hurt Locker
4. Up In The Air
5. Up
Didn't care a whole lot for Avatar (if it wins Best Picture, I won't even believe it), and Revenge Of The Fallen ranks among the worst movies that I have ever seen.
1. A Serious Man
2. Inglourious Basterds
3. The Hurt Locker
4. Up In The Air
5. Up
Didn't care a whole lot for Avatar (if it wins Best Picture, I won't even believe it), and Revenge Of The Fallen ranks among the worst movies that I have ever seen.
so i just came back from watching where the wild things are, completely speechless, practically on the verge of tears. i dont think i've seen a movie this year, or any year, thats had such a powerful effect on me. after a good few minutes of sitting quietly just soaking it in i had a look around wikipedia and i was genuinely shocked at the reviews and impressions. "fresh", "above average"? motherfuck, i just watched a masterpiece :(
for starters, max records (who plays max and was nine fucking years old when the film was shot) was phenomenal. he was the perfect depiction of childhood, able to convery blissful ignorance and a sense of adventure in one scene and the confusion and disillusion of an innocent child in a struggling family in another. totally blew me away.
the soundtrack was also amazing. i'm not the kind of guy who usually cares about soundtracks for movies or games, but the music here was fantastic. i had a look around and turns out it was composed by karen o (yeah yeah yeahs), and i'd definitely recommend people check it out.
finally, the premise of the story and the slowly unravelling significance of the wild things was incredible. i only picked up on it until quite late, but once it dawned on me the infectiously charming and child friendly stuff was suddenly all way more significant, and that's what really took the movie to a whole new level for me. i didn't see any reviews comment on it though, so i was kind of worried i might have been reading too much into it. other people picked up on that, right?
that max's becoming king was a metaphor for his birth, which was supposed to "make everything better" for kw and carol, representing his mother and father, but ultimately caused more problems than it solved, and ended with carol/max's father leaving? there was more too, like bob and ted, kw's "friends", and less obvious stuff open for interpretation, like where carol rips douglas' arm off after he tries to tell him that max was never the king he thought he was. my first thought was that douglas was supposed to represent max's sister, who as he put it "is always ignored" (one of the problems max was supposed to solve, maybe).
at any rate i think it's genius how such seemingly simple and adorable scenes can be read into so much, and i would love to hear other peoples thoughts about it. i'm sure this is a film i'll revisit many times, and still manage to discover new things about each time, similar to one of my other favourite films, the prestige (though that was because the films like 3 hours long and has so many twists and turns it's hard to take it all in the first time through).
i think maybe it's kind of special for me because im young enough to have grown up with the book, but old enough to appreciate the subtleties of this one.
so yeah, my film of the year (and quite possibly all time, though im hardly an expert) by a country mile. up would have to be second (which also tried to hide a pretty complex emotional payoff behind a child friendly presentation, though less dark and alot less deep), but nowhere near wtwta.
also just want to say i thought avatar was a huge dissapointment. the story was nothing special, the lead character was as exciting as a sack of shit, and although the visuals were rather lovely, i've become fairly desensitised to high fidelity stuff over the last couple of years. i reckon some of the backdrops in wtwta (and games like braid) are prettier than any number of plants in avatar. just because something looks real, doesn't mean it looks particularly exciting :|
this has literally only happened to me once in my life, and that was at pax '08 playing fallout 3 for the first time. i agree with cim though, i don't really go to movies for the visual effects. if i did that i would have went and watched 2012.
I'm surprised no one mentioned "Cloudy with a Hint of Meatballs" which had an original plot and original humour. Compared to the rest of the movies this year, with the exception of Up and Zombieland...
Up (only the first ten minutes)
Moon
Bright Star
Gomorrah
Hangover (but the Chinese gangster, nearly ruined this film, completely lacking in comedic value)
500 Days of Summer
District 9
A Serious Man
