2009 The Year in Movies | 10 – 19

19. Drag Me To Hell

I anticipated love for this film and instead just liked it. Drag Me to Hell is Sam Rami’s return to the horror genre where he made his name with the wildly overrated Evil Dead movies. Much the same here has Rami displays his fascination with things that squish, glurp, belch, and slime. More of a gross-out comedy than horror, Drag Me to Hell is still a fun if forgettable campy movie for late night, well after dinner has been digested.

18. Lymelife

A stunning surprise of a movie. Lymelife stars the two Culkin brothers not named Maccauley (Rory & Kieran) as brothers; Alec Baldwin as a self-absorbed, business first, real estate investor; cute Emma Roberts; and two ace performances by Jill Hennessey and Timothy Hutton. Lymelife is an introspective indie dramedy about a dysfunctional family where the stars shine all around.

17. Sherlock Holmes

A movie where the product was so much better than I expected that I had to eat over 2000 words of crow in the PopBunker.net review. An action bromance that is mostly respectful of the source material while allowing Robert Downey Jr. to ham it up.

16. Avatar

More words have been written about this movie than I care to think. I have decided against reviewing it because I am just too split on the film. I came up with this formula that works pretty well for me: Out of 10 | FX 8, FX2* 10, Story 7, Acting 5, Dialog 4 = 34/50 or a 6.8 out of 10. I don’t normally score films, but I feel that 6.8 is a little low to be at No. 16 on this list. I will, however, claim that I am ranking it higher, due to some truly innovative effects, than I may have otherwise.

A brief aside: The story gets too much grief. There are a handful of revolutionary sci-fi writers who have breadth of scope that is nearly wholly original when presented. These are the top names like Asimov, Dick, and Niven. Other great sci-writers have fortified the genre over the years by recycling familiar themes and turning them into exciting and classic sci-fi staples. I do not think James Cameron should be held to a higher standard than Orson Scott Card or Robert Heinlein. Avatar milks oft-used sci-fi elements for all they’re worth and adds exactly nothing new to the genre. That being said, the story does (mostly) work as the barest abstract of an excuse to display the amazing and truly imaginative visuals. The standard CGI FX were good, but nothing that hasn’t been seen in movies like The Lord of the Rings trilogy, District 9, and other great FX movies. I don’t believe the “uncanny valley” has been any more crossed with the Na’vi than it was with Gollum. The new FX (*FX2 in the above ratings) are original and at times breath-taking. The 3D world is fun and immersive if not exactly 100% photo-realistic.

15. Zombieland

Welp, if nothing else Zombieland shows there is still some sort of life after undeath in the zombie genre. While not as Holy Shit Awesome as Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland is still able to parlay any number of quirks from its four primary stars and one amazingly cool cameo into a successful, funny, gory, and fresh zomromcom. The romance is perhaps the one part that doesn’t really work, but it is a story that is side-along with the other plot elements, so it does not hurt the movie too much. Woody Harrelson finds a role where his abrasive quality as an actor works as a strong point to the film.

14. Thirst

Chan-wook Park is my “Director of the Decade.” The stellar movies on his decade hit list are Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance, Old Boy, Lady Vengeance (the Vengeance trilogy), and now Thirst. What you do is take the director of Oldboy and imagine a graphic erotic vampire-priest horror film. Yeah, that is pretty damn cool. There are many thematic elements and allegories to chew on when watching the film, and the palette, presentation, and especially sound work are all atmospheric aces.

13. The House of the Devil

I really enjoyed this slice of Polanski worship. It’s the early 80s in the height of Devil Worship Fear. It’s the night of a rare astrological event and our poor young protagonist Sam (Jocelin Donahue in an excellent performance) agrees on short notice and little information to “baby sit” for a mysterious couple in a very rural area. Notice I called this Polanski worship? Then I don’t have to tell you what happens next. The House of the Devil is perfect in nearly every area as it adheres stylistically to to the 1970s and early 80s evil-in-the-house horror sub-genre. The tension is truly of the creeping doom Hitchcockian style for it takes its sweet time building and building and building. Sam is a likeable kid and there comes a point in the movie, before the bad stuff starts to happen, that the viewer becomes attached to the silly college school girl and her charming innocence. That little crush makes the rest of the film a heart-thumping nail biter.

12. The Hangover

The second best comedy of the year is the second best comedy I have seen in a long time for straight up gags. The humor is above the toilet variety, but more sight-induced than something from Apatow. However, a more apt description might be bizarre and non-sequitor. Whatever you’re drinking, The Hangover is funny lightning in the bottle that never slows, never wanes, and pushes the laughs to the very last minute of even the credits. This should be a staple for guy’s night movies, date night movies, and party movies for years to come. Quotable, memorable, but mostly un-describable. One just has to see it. The 00s version of Animal House.

11. Chocolate

Zen is a young girl that suffers from autistic spectrum disorder. Her loving mother is in hiding as a former member of the Yakuza while trying to take care of Zen’s special needs. Zen and her mother are one day discovered by the Yakuza boss Zen’s mother fled. Their flight to deeper cover takes them to a place that they must share with a Muay kickboxing school. It turns out Zen is the Rain Man of martial arts. Right, the kid is the freaking Rain Man of martial arts. Let it soak in…. ok, got it in your Nexflix queue? Good, because it is indeed as awesome as it sounds.

10. Trick r’ Treat

This direct-to-DVD horror anthology had a hard fought battle to win release. It mostly lost that battle. Trick ‘r Treat never got wide release, bounced around the festival circuit for over two years, and finally hit DVD just before Halloween this year with many people calling it a great horror movie in a cliff notes like summation. The aim was to try and rush would-be viewers to understand how great of a movie this is. Unfortunately the spastic clowns that love Hostel above any other form of art in the horror genre ripped this movie and word of mouth was not as strong as it should have been.

Let me set the record straight: If Ray Bradbury would write five whimsical and somewhat frightening twilight prose fairy tales in the vein of Something Wicked This Way Comes and Norman Rockwell illustrated the anthology, then Trick ‘r Treat is what the film version of that book would look like. Trick ‘r Treat is an endearing tribute to American Halloween traditions and the magic of that time of year as embedded in a child’s psyche. This is an adult tale, have no doubt, but the feeling recalls all that we looked forward to in Halloween and being scared when we were young. The cinematography is unerringly beautiful as it recalls Rockwell’s Americana but with darkly saturated tones. A lovely film.

Similar Posts:

• Trick r Treat (2009)
• Zombieland (2009)
• [Trailer] Trick ‘r Treat (2009)
• Highest Grossing Horror Movies: 15 through 11
• Highest Grossing Horror Movies: 10 through 4
• [Giveaway] Trick ‘r Treat Blu-Ray DVD {Ended}
• [DVD] Lymelife (2009)

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