The Best and Worst Movies of 2009

[abigsmurf]

Good time for the thread now that Avatar has had time to sink in.

What did you like and hate about 2009 in terms of films? Best/worst films you saw? Films that were overlooked?

Best Film: Up

Starts on an incredible high and tapers off once being the explorer is introduced but still a phenomenal film. Shame it's the last new Pixar franchise for a while (and no Incredibles 2 either!).

Runner up: Cloudy with a Chance of meatballs

Brilliant imagination and it made me chuckle throughout without needing to resort to pop culture references for laughs (although it has some subtle references for the eagle eyed).

Worst Film: Transformers 2

A family film with 'square person gets high' jokes and a camera looking up every female cast member's skirt. Long, boring, you can't see anything in the action scenes because of the 2 second shots and mass of random metals, plot was wafer thin and stupid... I could rant for hours.

Overall I don't think it's been a good year for films the blockbusters have all been franchises (except Avatar) and I think only Avatar and Up are likely to be remembered.

[SuperBeatBoy]

I have a top 3 for best film.

Best: The Hurt Locker, Avatar, District 9

Runner Up: Up

Worst: 9

I still have high hopes for Sherlock Holmes, which is out on boxing day.

[JazzFunk]

Best: Gran Torino, The Box. The first is an exceptionally powerful, beautifully made movie that proves the perfect swansong for Clint as an actor, the second brought brilliant, mysterious, unpredictable sci-fi oddness back into the cinematic spotlight, and it's nuts with capitals N,U,T and S.

Worst: Harry Brown. It does everything that Gran Torino did right wrong, then clumsily attempts to add dashes of the (great) Get Carter into the mix, insulting both Caine, Get Carter, Gran Torino, and British Cinema in the process. It's naff.

[EvilBoris]

The worst films I saw this year were 7 pounds or Gamer

[mekanor]

was going to create a similar thread along these lines. I can't remember a better year for movies to be honest. Watchmen, Valkyrie, Star Trek, Inglourious Basterds, District 9, Up, Ponyo, Avatar, Crank 2 and Public Enemies (and probably more I've forgotten) were great. Then there were films like dragonball, wolverine and transformers 2 which were all pretty terrible but still entertaining.

[SuperBeatBoy]

Forgot about gamer, but i at least watched all of it. I gave up on 9 after 20mins, it was so one dimensional and formulaic.

[Jay]

In The Loop was my favourite film this year followed closely by Up. Haven't seen much this year tbh, but both those were superb.

[ezee ryder]

Best: The Hangover - The only thing to say is......ABSOLUTELY HILARIOUS!

Also thoroughly enjoyed watching District 9, Up, Watchmen and Avatar.

Worst: Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li - I watched 30 mins or so of it and couldn't stomach anymore. Awful in every sense of the word.

[cutmymilk]

I'll be compiling a proper list next this week when I've seen Sherlock Holmes but I have a feeling that Fantastic Mr Fox is my film of the year. It's been a superb year, though. Plenty of 4**** and 5***** films.

There has been a few stinkers, though. Will be going through my stubs, naming and shaming!

[spagmasterswift]

The Wrestler, Crank2, Up and Inglorious Basterds were my favourites this year.

Public Enemies or District 9 the most disappointing.

I avoided Transformers 2.

[PeteJ]

Up, Inglorious Basterds, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and District 9 were the best for me.

Duplicity, X-men and Terminator were the worst.

Star Trek, Watchmen and Terminator were the most disappointing.

Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs was the most surprising.

Avatar was the most impressive.

[cutmymilk]

Decided to do this now. I will see what Sherlock, Nine and Where The Wild Things Are before the end of 2009 as well.

Total films seen theatrically in 2009 (so far): 116

I will pick, at the most, my top 5 of every month. I will have to miss out some very good films. This list does not necessarily mean they were released that month. It reflects when I watched them!

Highlights:

January
Frost/Nixon
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire
The Wrestler
Vicky Christina Barcelona

February
Milk
Benjamin Button

March
Gran Torino
Watchmen
Bronson
Knowing (controversial but I really enjoyed this)

April
Let The Right One In
The Boat That Rocked

May
Coraline
Star Trek
Drag Me To Hell

June
The Hangover

July
Sunshine Cleaning
Moon
Harry Potter 5

August
Inglorious Basterds

September
Funny People
500 Days Of Summer
The Hurt Locker
Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs
Dorian Gray
Surrogates

October
Toy Story 3D
Zombieland
Up
Fantastic Mr Fox

November
Christmas Carol 3D
A Serious Man
The Men Who Stare At Goats
The Informant!
Twilight: New Moon

December
Law Abiding Citizen
The Box
Avatar 3D

I seem to have enjoyed a lot of films this year! Notice that I have left out some big blockbusters like Terminator 4 and Transformers 2. With a heavy heart I also left out Saw. I love the series but it doesn't belong here. Twilight, Star Trek and Harry Potter just about got in there. Had a little think about it and they do belong - entertaining films in their own right.

Perhaps the biggest omission is District 9. Despite the glowing reviews I just didn't think much of it which surprised and disappointed me.

I will now attempt to compile that clustercuss into an orderly Top 10.

[cutmymilk]

Top 10

1. Fantastic Mr Fox
2. The Wrestler
3. Bronson
4. 500 Days Of Summer
5. Avatar 3D
6. Inglorious Basterds
7. Gran Torino
8. Benjamin Button
9. Up
10. Moon

I think I have the right films. To order them is really difficult. They each evoked strong emotions from me when watching. Very different emotions and some great examples of film genius within that list. When I'm leaving the likes of Let The Right One In and Milk you know it's been a great year.

[Darwock]

I don't know if any of these are really from this year because Japan is very far behind most of the time, but my favourites were Valkyrie and The Wrestler. Reserving a spot in the top 3 for either Up or Avatar, both of which I will be hopefully be watching soon.

[nickgodfrey]

Best:
1. Drag Me To Hell
2. Watchmen
3. Paranormal Activity

Honourable mentions: Inglorious Basterds, Up
Moon

Yet to see (but desperately wanting to): Fantastic Mr. Fox, Avatar, Sherlock Holmes