12.9.2009 | 2:10 pm

Best of 2009: Movies Of The Year

Star Trek (2009)

Note: I basically haven’t seen any dramas/Oscar bait all year and reserve the right to update this list at least 10 times, starting after I see Up in the Air tonight. That said, all of these movies are exuberant and great and life-affirming and I recommend them whole-heartedly.

1. Star Trek
2. (500) Days of Summer (Review)
3. Where The Wild Things Are
4. Up
5. I Love You, Man
6. Zombieland (Review)
7. The Hangover (Review)
8. G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
9. Inglorious Basterds
10. Fantastic Mr. Fox (Review)
Hon. Mention: Coraline; X-Men Origins: Wolverine, an admittedly pretty bad movie I loved anyway.

Worst Movie: 2012, the most infuriating piece of trash I’ve seen in a theater, since, well, Year One. 15 minutes of effects and two hours of John Cusack playing an unsympathetic sad bastard. A festival of awful. G.I. Joe, on the other hand… Also: Angels & Demons (well, duh) and Observe and Report, which played like a Mad TV parody of Taxi Driver.

Biggest Disappointmentt: Watchmen, a film I mostly liked but was done completely the wrong way.

Still To See: Up In The Air, An Education, The Hurt Locker, A Serious Man, A Single Man, District 9, Avatar, The Road. Probably more.

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  • http://www.knoxroad.com/ Lee

    Great choices for the most part. I was expecting way more out of I Love You, Man – idk it just didn’t hit me like I thought it would. The only part I actually laughed out loud and felt their connection was when they bonded over music and Paul Rudd made his noises.

    Up, 500 Days of Summer, Inglorious Basterds, were fantastic. The Hangover was pretty good- too much slapstick humor for me, but definitely other wit as well. Need to watch some of the others, it’s been busy lately!

    (Also, ugh Watchmen. Hated it.)

  • Philm

    500 Days of Summer being higher than Basterds just seems way wrong.

  • http://www.welistenforyou.com Zach That

    Star Trek, The Hangover, and Inglorious were bad movies in my mind…but I can see how people can like them…if they don’t know much about film…but even uneducated film goers have to be slapped for liking I Love You Man and GI Joe.

    Fantastic, Up, and 500 Days of Summer are excellent films.

    How about Il nastro bianco and Salve Geral….both mind blowing…but GI Joe…yeah…

  • David Greenwald

    G.I. Joe is the best possible movie adaptation of a ridiculous Saturday morning cartoon show. Just a totally big, fun romp — the kind of movie 2012 should’ve been.

  • http://musicforants.com Taylor

    Good list. Totally agree about 2012, that movie was terrible. Fantastic Mr. Fox, 500 Days, and Wild Things are probably my top 3.

  • Carms

    The thing about Inglourious Basterds is that it’s actually probably much more enjoyable to people who are much more attuned to cinema.

    (500) Days of Summer is totally nutsacks.

  • David Greenwald

    I thought it was an extremely taut, disciplined piece of filmmaking from Tarantino.

  • Alfred

    “an admittedly pretty bad movie I loved anyway”

    This applies to every movie you mentioned, excepting “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and probably “Up.”

  • David Greenwald

    Dogg if you don’t like “Star Trek” I don’t know if we can be friends

  • Mark

    Like Carman said, the irony here is that a person who “doesn’t know much about film” would be less likely, in my opinion, to enjoy Inglourious Basterds. The mere fact that Tarantino manages to create a tension-filled, suspenseful movie that is heavily dialogue rather than action-driven is something that takes a mind fairly well-attuned to cinema to truly appreciate.

  • Alfred

    As a person who knows nothing about Star Trek, movie was kind of boring. And what I said earlier doesn’t apply to Zombieland, which I didn’t see.

    To Mark and Carman: what do you have to know about film to enjoy/understand Inglourious Basterds? It’s something that’s often said of Tarantino, but it’s not really true.

  • Carms

    I meant more because of how postmodern of a movie it was at times and how much it references to cinema of the past.

  • David Greenwald

    @Alfred: You should watch the original series. I think you’d love it.

  • David Greenwald

    (500) Days of Summer was way more pomo than Basterds.

  • Carms

    I don’t think it’s essential to understand or enjoy Tarantino, but I think he drops a lot of intentional homages/references in his movies.

  • Carms

    That enhance the appreciation and understanding of his movies.

  • http://www.everybodytaste.com Matt

    Love the list. To the haters: GI Joe isn’t a great movie, but it’s incredible cheesiness and pure sense of entertainment make it great. And to see you need to know movies to watch Basterds is just plain silly. All you need to know is that WWII happened and now (cue the David Bowie) the Jews are getting their much deserved fictional revenge. Sort of like that movie Rosewood where Ving Rhames kills roughly 100 KKK members with a shotgun. Awesome.

  • Carms

    I didn’t say you need to understand movies to like Inglourious Basterds, you guys are misconstruing my words.

  • Sean

    You need to see In the Loop. If you saw it and didn’t list it, that would make me sad.

  • Andrew

    I don’t see how G.I. Joe can be defended. The “cheezy, but good” argument is thrown around endlessly and I simply don’t get it. I can see this argument for campy movies that are low-budget, but million dollar blockbuster movies are hardly “campy”. District 9 will definitely be on your list after you see it…amazing movie. I too am looking forward to checking out A Serious Man, the Coen Bros have been on a good run with their last 2 films.

    Btw, I agree with Lee that I Love You Man was somewhat disappointing.

  • Kyle

    Good picks for the list

  • David Greenwald

    Quentin Tarantino and I have the same movie of the year: http://www.slashfilm.com/2009/12/14/quentin-tarantinos-top-8-movies-of-2009/