Best Movies of 2009

Every year it seems like I intend to get out and see more movies, and every year I fail once again. I only visited the theater nine times, and only managed to at least catch one new movie at home before writing this. Quite shameful. It didn't exactly strike me as the best year, with only one film I'd call outstanding in addition to a handful of solid genre stuff. I should have at least seen the new Coen movie, though.

Best of 2009

7. The Men Who Stare at Goats


I'm not sure what's holding me back from really embracing this movie, but I did enjoy it quite a bit. Any time a comedy takes a few steps away from the traditional beats of the genre, it's usually worth at least a try, and this film makes for a nice mix of relevance and sci-fi absurdity. Plus it's hard to go wrong with that cast.

6. The Hangover

There really isn't that much that separates this movie from the pack of mainstream comedy, but the likability of the whole cast and especially Zach Galifianakis' breakout role just make it work. It was a bit of a risk letting him do his own thing in what is otherwise fairly standard stuff, but thankfully it seems to have been a good idea. Definitely hits the ceiling for this sort of movie.

5. Avatar


Flawed yes, but ultimately I find Avatar much easier to like than hate. It's already the second highest grossing movie worldwide ever, after of course Cameron's last movie, but I actually enjoyed this one for the most part, and it didn't do the disservice of putting me off one of the best actors currently in his 30s for about a decade.

4. Zombieland


Just a straight-up fun movie and one of the best surprises of the year. I don't know how much the writers being handed Deadpool affects the possibility of sequels going forward, but I'm not sure they're necessary. Just showing a snippet of life in the zombie apocalypse was all they had to do, and it worked out pretty well in pretty much any way you could hope. Good times.

3. District 9


I didn't love it like it seemed most of the online community did, but it was still a well done, passionate film that had something to say. It's striking how similar it is to Avatar in some ways, but District 9 isn't weighed down by a budget in the hundreds of millions and a need to make that all back, allowing it to take chances and present a more interesting, darker vision. And I won't get tired of watching people explode into splashes of red goo for a long time.

2. Star Trek


I've seen 79 episodes and seven films in this series, and I enjoyed this the most pretty easily. We'll see how much longer its success can carry my interest in exploring the decades-old franchise, but in case I'll always enjoy it for being a relatively intelligent space travel movie with a very likable cast and wonderfully paced adventure. You know, I didn't even realize Eric Bana was the villain while I was watching it? That was odd. I need to see it again now that I know Bones is awesome.

1. Inglourious Basterds


Basterds wasn't really what anyone who didn't read the script expected. And for some people that was a very bad thing. They wanted a couple hours of Brad Pitt and some Jews kicking Nazi ass, and instead they got a lot of long scenes mostly depicting extended conversations between some Europeans. And they were disappointed. For those people, I am very sorry that they didn't get it. I could have enjoyed what the trailers seemed to promise, but what I actually got was so much smarter, and better, and well, more Quentin Tarantino. He had the audacity to end the movie by having Brad Pitt look at the audience and essentially call the film his masterpiece, and you know what, I think it was. Fantastic movie.

Zombieland

Zombieland is a good Dawn of the Dead to Shaun of the Dead's Night of the Living Dead. It's not about the outbreak and early rise of the zombie hordes, it's about a few people scraping to survive in a world already torn apart by their menace. I wasn't sure about the movie before I saw it, because it almost seemed like it was trying too hard to get me specifically to like it. But it ended up being a pretty enjoyable film with plenty of likable characters to keep you interested in what was happening. It lack's Shaun's British subtlety and completely spot-on satire, but makes up for it with a real sense of fun and extremely over the top violence. I've rarely seen zombies die as well as they do in this movie, and the gore isn't even the goal. Since the movie is based on what was initially planned to be a televised series, the purpose of the characters is to grow and connect with each other, not die horribly every once in a while.

And the cast is strong. Jesse Eisenberg has drawn comparisons to Michael Cera, but it's clear he's more than just a copy. He's done a lot more legitimate acting, and does a solid job here as Columbus of explaining the world to the audience through narration while taking the lead as a lovable loser. Woody Harrelson is enjoyable in whatever sort of movie you care to stick him in, and plays one of cinema's greatest ever pure zombie killers in Tallahassee. Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin are recognizable from Superbad and Little Miss Sunshine respectively, and play a couple of con artist sisters who you like despite their actions for a lot of the film. Emma's good because she can consistently pull off the part of the stone cold fox that you can still somehow buy being possibly attracted to a dork like Columbus, and Abigail is surprisingly good for her age. And the secret celebrity cameo is one for the ages. It's hard to mind the slight halt in forward momentum when they get so much humor out of just a few minutes. The climax at an amusement park is probably the most purely enjoyable sequence I've seen in a horror-related context, and I would love to see the creators continue the story of four strangers with towns for names.