TOTAL MOVIES WATCHED: 245

3 of them were watched twice this year.
1 of those was watched thrice this year.
249 total movie viewings.
239 new movies.

AWARDS:

BEST OVERALL MOVIE: Sympathy For Lady Vengeance
WORST OVERALL MOVIE: National Lampoon’s The Last Resort [aborted]. Honorable Mention: Fraternity House [completed and rated 1/5 stars].
MOST DISTURBING MOMENT OF THE YEAR: Antichrist. Though I’m sure Saw 5 had its moments.
PER-GENRE AWARDS ARE LISTED BELOW THE GENRE, BELOW.

MISC:

LANGUAGES WATCHED: English (American, British), Korean, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Swedish
MOVIES WATCHED MORE THAN ONCE: Rocky Horror (3x), Sympathy For Lady Vengeance (2x), Hardware (2x)
MOVIES WATCHED IN THE THEATRE: Rocky Horror Picture Show – 4/11, 5/17, 6/11
MOVIES ALREADY WATCHED PREVIOUSLY: Hardware, Mean Girls, National Lampoon’s Beach Party At The Threshold Of Hell, Rocky Horror, Sex & Death 101, 40 Year Old Virgin/Harold & Kumar 1 (flipped between the two for 2 hours; both count as half a movie).

Genres:
(comedy=89/36%, horror=38/15%, scifi=33/13%, action/thriller=25/10%, fantasy=18/7%):

Ratings:
(5-star=19%, 4-star=32%, 3-star=42%, 2-star=6%, 1-star=1%):

Cartoons (7%) Vs. Live (93%)
Fewer animated movies this year (10% animated last year):

Quality: 28% in HD this year
(up from 19% last year, 14% in 2007):

Read past the jump for the lists of individual movies, separated by rating.

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NOTE: COMEDY MOVIES for 2009 are listed in a separate blog post HERE.

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NOTE: HORROR MOVIES for 2009 are listed in a separate blog post HERE.

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********** MUSICAL:**********

It’s funny. I don’t like musical as a genre. But those few musicals I like, I almost always love:

***** 5-star:

• Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog (2008) – short enough that it’s not really a movie, but awesome. And the audiocommentary is a whole different musical!
• Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008) – I know about 8 people who think this is one of the awesomest things ever, and about 2 who can’t stand it.  I’m with the 8, of course. Argumentum ad populum FTW!
• Rocky Horror Picture Show – THREE TIMES – It doesn’t get old, because it’s never the same two times. I pity the fool who’s too much of a wuss to experience the most unique movie theatre experiences that I’ve ever experienced in my life. Plus it’s how I met Autumn!

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********** ANIMATION: **********

***** 5-star:

• Coraline (2008) – best creepy animation in a looooonnnnng time!
• Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (2009) – best wacky animation in a long time!
• Futurama – MOVIE #4: Into The Wild Green Yonder (2009) – sniff! it’s over! noooo!
• Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (2009) – wow. MUCH more modern take on things.

**** 4-star (high):

• 9 (2009) – incredibly stylized, great animation and story
• Up (2009) – sooooo much heart… soooooooo much

**** 4-star:

• Green Lantern: First Flight – yay space!
• Highlander: The Search For Vengeance (2007) – anime
• Rob Zombie’s The Haunted World Of El Superbeasto (2009) – comedy in a Rob Zombie world? Neat. Interesting voice actor casting.
• Ultimate Avengers 2 (2006) – after 1, 2 was good too
• Wonder Woman (2009) – most modern yet
• Wolverine Vs. The Hulk – only 45minutes; we didn’t watch Wolverine Vs. Thor yet. Clint: Netflix 4-5/stars, IMDB: 8/10. Carolyn: Netflix: 5/5 stars, IMDB: 9/10.

*** 3-star:

• Fire And Ice (1983) (anim) – A Ralph Bakshi must-see.
• Persepolis – good black-and-white style (though there were color moments)

*** 3-star (low):

• Girl Who Lept Through Time, The – skip it!
• Hoodwinked – got interesting by the end
• Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has A Glitch (2005) – skip it!
• Resident Evil: Degeneration (2008) (anim) – cgi zombie attacks

** 2-star:

• Garfield’s Fun Fest (2008) – I was going to say Bill Murray’s only regret…but Frank Welker took over the Garfield voice for this cartoonishly sacrilegious adaptation.

•— best animated movie: Futurama:Into The Wild Green Yonder, Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (Up is a must-see too)
• — best superhero animated movie: Superman/Batman: Public Enemies
• — best creepy animated movie: Coraline
• — most unique animated viewpoint: Persepolis – Iranian culture in black & white animation == different
• — worst animated movie: The Girl Who Lept Through Time (honorable mention to Lilo & Stitch 2, Garfield’s Fun Fest)

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********** SCI-FI/FUTURE:**********

***** 5-star:

• District 9 (2009) – A must see! Shake-cam haters, stop hating!!
• Moon (2009) – This is also a psychological thriller of sorts. MUST SEE!!!!!! Intense twists!
• Star Trek 11 aka Star Trek 0 aka Star Trek (2009) – obviously
• Surrogates (2009) – another great view of the future, very relevant to today
• Transformers 2:Revenge Of The Fallen (2009) – More Michael Bey goodiness!

**** 4-star (high)

• * Donnie Darko 1 (Director’s Cut) – also listed under drama; Director’s Cut is so much better!

**** 4-star:

• Armageddon (1998) – better than Deep Impact
• * Escape From New York/L.A. – listed under action… It’s hard to consider this futuristic sci-fi now that it’s way past the years that the stories take place in.
• * Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel – I actually consider this a comedy first, sci-fi second. Great British sci-fi comedy.
• G.I. Joe: Rise Of The Cobra (2009) – Everyone complained, but uh… it’s a remake of a cheesy 80’s cartoon. Stop the hatin’. Good action, mang.
• Lost In Space (1998) – I never saw the original, and thought this was great. I don’t care if it’s Joey from friends.
• * Outlander – listed under fantasy, as it’s more “science fantasy” than “science fiction”, and doesn’t actually have much science/technology in it… But it was cool to have a futuristic human alien in the dark ages
• Sleep Dealer (2008) – politically amazing, this dealt with the surrogate concept before the movie Surrogates, as well as relating it to immigration policy and our relationship with Mexico. Virtual sweatshops where Mexicans controlled American robots that did manual labor, so we could have their labor without letting them into the country. War on terror, war as entertainment, resource control — good stuff.
• Star Trek 2: The Wrath Of Khan (1982) – My favorite Star Trek movie. (The order is: 2,6,9,8,5,3,10,4,7,1.)
• Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country (1991) – My 2nd favorite Star Trek movie. Great dvd extras too — the whole cold war allegory explained in detail.
• Star Trek 8: First Contact (1996) – My 4th favorite Star Trek movie. Nice to see the warp drive creator.
• Star Trek 9: Insurrection (1998) – My 3rd favorite Star Trek movie, and favorite of the next generation.
• * Sama Taimumashin Burusu (Summer Time Machine Blues) is listed under COMEDY – but it’s a good sci-fi too, in terms of having a crazy time travel plot
• Terminator 4 aka Terminator: Salvation (2009) – I don’t see what all the fuss was about. I wanted futurstic battle action, and got it. Those robots were Transformers 2-level cool at points.
• Timecrimes (2007) – Another great time travel movie. Looks awful, and has few characters… But each time he travels back to the same time, there’s another one of him… And the plot changes drastically from instance #1, #2, #3.

*** 3-star:

• Deep Impact (1998) – not as good as  Armageddon (1998)
• * Donnie Darko 2 – S. Darko – They one-up’ed the last movie, but that failed to make it better.
• * Escape From New York 2: Escape From L.A. – Not as good as the first.
• Star Trek 1: The Motion Picture (1979) – Far better than I remember it, but still the worst of all 10 Star Trek movies. (The order is: 2,6,9,8,5,3,10,4,7,1.)
• Star Trek 3: The Search For Spock (1984) – A bit better than I remember, but still in the worse half of original-crew Star Treks.
• Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home (1986) – The 2nd-worst original-crew Star Trek movie. Save the friggin’ whales. Don’t shoot anyone with a phaser. Don’t even get the girl.
• Star Trek 5: The Final Frontier (1989) – Not as bad as I remember; barely in the better half of original-crew AND all Star Treks.
• Star Trek 7: Generations (1994) – The 2nd worst Star Trek movie, but incredibly epic to see the passing of the torch.
• Star Trek 10: Nemesis (2002) The 2nd worst next-generation Star Trek movie, but still incredibly epic to see the last Star Trek canon evar.
• * Timecop – listed under ACTION, as it wasn’t too heavy in the sci-fi
• Wing Commander (1999) – Ugh. Barely worth it.

** 2-star:

• Avalon (2001) – Visually, it is a 5/5. Conceptually, it is a 5/5. But I had problems with the pacing and the ending that ultimately ruined it for me. I still consider it a must see.
• Fountain, The (2006) – I might like this better a 2nd time, if I read all the explanations first. But it just seemed like a bunch of total bullshit at the time. My bad. I realize now it’s not total bullshit. However, I still don’t know if I can ever bring myself to undergo the process of redeeming this movie in my eyes.

• — best sci-fi, new: Star Trek 0/11, District 9, Moon
• — best sci-fi, old: Star Trek 2, Hardware (best sci-fi horror)
• — worst sci-fi: Wing Commander. You’d think this award would go to one of the 2 movies that were only 2 stars, but I feel the ratings in this case reflect my personal feelings more than the movie themselves. Wing Commander is definitely worse than them. Sometimes I like something bad more than something I know is better. Hey, it happens. Plus, Carolyn gave The Fountain 4/5 stars and Avalon 3/5 stars.

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********** ACTION/REVENGE/NON-HORROR THRILLER:**********

***** 5-star:

• Crank 1 (2006) – my favorite action movie ever. The action starts instantly, and never, ever, stops. Amazing.
• Gamer (2009) – from the makers of Crank, comes a movie with almost as much action, and way more cultural relevance. Surrogates politics reminds me of this movie.
• Oldboy (2003) – Amazing; the 2nd movie of The Vengeance Trilogy. Got better the 2nd time.
• Speed Racer (2008) – incredible visuals from the makers of The Matrix. I don’t really like the original cartoon, but I love this!
• Sympathy For Lady Vengeance (2005) – twice, but Clint was falling asleep through the 2nd time. The 3rd and best movie in The Vengeance Trilogy. My favorite movie of the year, and one of my favorite movies ever. Justice and vigilantism don’t always go together well in real life, but in the perfect story, they go together amazingly.

**** 4-star:

• Battle Royale 1 (2001) – It would suck to be a student in this society. Suck bad. A classic in Japanese cinema.
• Crank 2: High Voltage (2009) – Almost as good as the original, but not quite. Still, anyone watching 1 should see 2!
• Doomsday (2008) – Neat blends of future and past. Would like to see a sequel.
• Escape From New York 1 (1981) – A classic. Snake Plissken is epic.
• Ichi The Killer aka Koroshiya 1 (2001) – Nipple slice!!!!!! That Ichi guy sucks.
• Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance (2002) – The first movie in The Vengeance Trilogy. More capricious than the others.
• Transporter 3, The (2008) – not as good as the 1st 2, but still way fun

*** 3-star:

• Battle Royale 2: Requiem aka Battle Royale 2: Revenge aka Batoru rowaiaru II: Chinkonka – Not as good as the 1st.
• Conspiracy Theory (1997) – better than I expected
• Escape From New York 2: Escape From L.A. (1996) – Not as good as the 1st.
• Icebreaker (1999/2000) – Interesting for Bruce Campbell, Stacy Keach, and skiing / Killington fanboys.
• Last Action Hero, The (2003) – A great send-up of cinema in general, but it did not achieve the epic status it wanted.
• Mad Max 2: Road Warrior (1981) – The best of the 3 Mad Max movies
• Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome – Everyone remembers that this movie is best, but actually it’s #2.
• Outbreak (1995) – generic virus movie. Still nice.
• Snakes On A Plane – at Dan & Erin’s house; didn’t pay TOTAL attention; generic pass
• Timecop (1994) – wanted more time travel, less cop
• * Pineapple Express – listed under comedy, but it was barely a comedy
• Volcano (1997) – The feel of an apocalypse world-ending movie, but the scale of armageddon was only city-wide. No wonder nobody remembers this. Still decent.

** 2-star:

• Mad Max 1 – didn’t *really* watch, but watched it in 4X speed, in about 22 minutes. It was like a cartoon like that :) I saw it before, and unfortunately don’t really like it. I think it’s a must see, and an important movie for any cinemaphile to watch … But it does not live up to its nostalgia.

— best action: Crank 1 … like, best action EVAR. After that: Gamer, then Crank 2. Speed Racer was pretty badass too.
— best act of revenge: Sympathy For Lady Vengeance, and *then* Oldboy (same director)

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********** DOCUMENTARY (feature-length):**********

***** 5-star:

• Fuck (200[56]) – Amazing seeing how stuck up everyone is. Most people still want to control others’ actions they don’t approve of, even when it is non-violent and between consenting adults.

**** 4-star:

• Behind The Camera: The Unauthorized Story Of ‘Mork & Mindy’ (2005) (TV) – any Robin Williams/Mork & Mindy lover should see this
• TV Junkie (2006) – wow. This is one of the strongest and most personal anti-drug testimonies ever. This is what happens when a compulsive self-taper ruins their life and then lets people have the real-life footage and releases it to the world. Admirable!

*** 3-star:

• Kurt Cobain: About A Son (2006) – screw Gus Van Sant, here’s the Kurt Cobain stuff you want. Just keep in mind this is audio only real interviews with Kobain. For well over an hour.. There are some really pretty pictures to look at, but the picture is only an accompanyment.

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********** DRAMA:**********

***** 5-star:

• Inglourious Basterds (2009) – best WW2 movie ending ever!
• Live! – Russian Roulette makes for a hell of a reality TV show. This movie is an utterly amazing simulation of what would happen were this to become our real reality. And yes — it would be the most televised event ever.
• Special (2006) – Straddling the super-hero genre, this was an incredibly messed up and sad story about mental instability and corporate greed. A must see; this movie was mostly overlooked and few know about it. My parents loved it too.

**** 4-star (high):

• Donnie Darko 1: Director’s Cut (2001) – soooo much better with the Director’s Cut!

**** 4-star:

• Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, The (2008) – A gimmick designed to touch you definitely touches me, and I liked the uniqueness of it.
• Sea Wolf (2008) (mini-series based on Jack London book) (2 1.5-hour “movies”) – Jack London kicks ass. This is the 13th movie adapted from his novel!

*** 3-star:

• Antichrist (2009) – oh, the horror. The horror. The suffering. Oh no. No. Stop. Please. No. Don’t do that. Not there. NOOOOOooO!!!!
• Donnie Darko 2: S. Darko: A Donnie Darko Tale (2009) – They one-up’ed the previous movie, but it’s still not as good.
• Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The aka Man Som Hatar Kvinnor (2009) – The main character is a 5/5, but mystery/thriller/dramas don’t hold my interest as well
• Less Than Zero (1987) – a bit too depressing. Capricious ending.
• Lord Of War – Highly recommended to me, but a bit disappointing me. I hoped for more. Still liked it. Still recommend it.
• Sling Blade (1996) – Billy Bob Thorton is great in this. This caused me to get in flamewars with random IMDB people on the forums of the movie Karla, which I haven’t seen. Yes, I am in obscure corners of the internet everywhere.

** 2-star:

• Happenstance aka Le battement d’ailes du papillon aka The Beating Of The Butterfly’s Wings aka Amelie 2 – DON’T BELIEVE THE LIES! MOST MISLEADING TITLE OF THE YEAR! NOT AMELIE 2! Hell, this was made before Amelie. Same director, but it’s crap. Just total crap!!!!!
• Informers, The (2009) – nothing happens…much
• Smokers (2007) – this is not even a b-movie, it’s a c-movie. The last 5 minutes ruled.

• — worst drama: Happenstance

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********** FANTASY (NON-ANIMATED):**********

***** 5-star:

• Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince (2009) – every Harry Potter movie is f’in awesome
• Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers (3h44min extended version) – every Lord Of The Rings movie is f’in awesome
• Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King (~4hr extended version) – every Lord Of The Rings movie is f’in awesome

**** 4-star (high):

• * Donnie Darko 1 – also listed under drama. This was much better as a director’s cut.

**** 4-star:

• Big Trouble In Little China (1986) – glad I finally got around to seeing this. Thanks, Parthena!
• Conan The Barbarian (1982) – glad I finally got around to seeing this. Thanks, Parthena! James Earl Jones with blue eyes is evil!
• Conan The Destroyer (1985) – glad I finally got around to seeing this. Thanks, Parthena! I wish they’d keep making more Conan movies. Oh wait! They are!
• Inkheart (2008) – Quite fun! What if someone’s fictitious characters started becoming real?
• Night Watch 1 aka Nochnoy Dozor (2004) – not as good as the sequel, but still an amazingly visually rich Fantasy world – on a Harry Potter level
• Night Watch 2: Day Watch aka Day Watch aka Dnevnoy Dozor (2006) (Russian version, not shorter international version) – Way better than Night Watch 1, and seeing this makes Night Watch 1 even better.
• Outlander (2008) – A great sci-fi-meets-fantasy where a high-tech alien human has to basically help Vikings defeat Beowulf. But they call it Morwen.
• Underworld 0: Rise Of The Lycans (2009) – A good prequel, if you already like the franchise.
• Waterworld (1995) – Way underrated! This is Mad Max 2 on water.
• Willow (1988) – glad I finally got around to seeing this. Thanks, Parthena!

*** 3-star:

• * Donnie Darko 2 – also listed under drama. Though they 1’up-ed the original, they failed to make a better movie.
• * Fire And Ice – also listed under animation. It really comes off racist, doesn’t it? But it’s not meant to. That’s just the way that planet worked. Epic Ralph Bakshi animation, but a generic story.
• Ink (2009) – 5/5 stars for originality, even though it simultaneously reminded me of so many different movies. But a new combination of existing things is original. This reminded me of The Fountain.
• * Twilight – listed under romance – But it’s decent as fantasy too. Vampires don’t have to be the same in every movie, people.

*** 3-star (low):

• Legend (Director’s Cut) (1985) – Hrm. I thoght I remembered this being better. But it wasn’t. It was boring! Perhaps that’s why the theatrical cut was so different!

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********** SUPERHERO (NON-ANIMATED):**********

***** 5-star:

• * Special – listed under drama, above -But Les is also a super hero of sorts, isn’t he?
• * Speed Racer – listed in action, above – But Speed Racer is kind of a super hero of sorts, isn’t he?
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine – I have no problems with this! Let’s have 10 more Wolverine movies, please!
• * Transformers 2:Revenge Of The Fallen – listed in scifi, above – But Transformers were kind of super heroes, weren’t they?

**** 4-star:

• Daredevil (2003) – Way better than I expected!
• DragonBall Evolution (2009) – Way better than people are saying. I think it helps if you’ve read the manga, and ths is about the only manga I’ve read.
• Hellboy 2: The Golden Army (2008) – Better than Hellboy 1! This is a fantasy, too.
• Jumper (2008) – Short and sweet. Superpowers. Set up for a sequel: I’d like that.
• Push (2009) – Short and sweet. Superpowers.

*** 3-star (high):

• Watchmen (2009) – Still a disappointment. Way too confusing for those who haven’t read the comic.

*** 3-star:

• Punisher 2, The – War Zone (2008) – better than Punisher 1
• Supergirl (1984) – Haha. I never knew this existed until recently.

• — best live-action superhero: X-Men Origins:Wolverine; runner-up: DareDevil; honorable mention: Hellboy 2

********** DRAMEDY (COMEDY/DRAMA): Pretend comedies that are really more like dramas: BEWARE! **********

**** 4-star:

• * Big Nothing – also listed under comedy, but the ending was dark. So dark. So, so dark. The story got kind of serious.
• * Choke – also listed under comedy because it’s FUCKED UP. Wow.
• Heaven Help Us (1985) – a great movie I unfortunately loved more as a kid, dealing with 2 issues: religion and abuse of authority. Not as funny as I remembered it; I was an interesting kid apparently.

*** 3-star:

• $5 A Day (2008) – Christopher Walken may be funny as hell, but when it’s a story that gets this sad, you realize it’s not really a comedy.
• Funny People (2009) – Mis-leading title of the year! This movie is mostly dramatic!
• Swing Vote – It’s like a political-based comedy at first, but then becomes this boring daddy-daughter thing. From 5 stars at the beginning to 2 stars by the end, this ends up with a 3.

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********** ROMANCE/COMEDY/ADVENTURE**********

(*NOT* ROMANTIC COMEDY, but ROMANCE movies with SLIGHT to MODERATE comedy)

(Yes, I have weird ways of separating things. But I don’t consider these movies to be comedies, even though they have their funny moments. It’s a discerning distinction, and I can’t say it’s valid, but here it is anyway.)

**** 4-star:

• Camille (2007) – Sienna Miller sure can play quirky. Why does she have changing hair colors in all her movies?
• Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist (2008) – A must see, actually.

*** 3-star:

• Adventureland (2009) – Michael Cera wanna-be + Bella from Twilight. Was decent.
• Reality Bites – I actually consider this more of a low 3-star.

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********** ROMANCE/DRAMA (ROMANCE with ABSOLUTELY NO comedy):**********

*** 3-star:

• Sleep With Me (1994) – romance is interesting at first, then boring and nothing happens
• Let The Right One In aka Lat Den Ratte Komma In (2008) – vampires save the romance genre for many, but not me. (IMDB Top 250.)
• Twilight – I actually liked this better than Let The Right One In (ducks). My review explains my defense of Twilight.
• Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008) – Woody Allen sucks, but hot girls and good company kept this interesting.

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********** MOCKUMENTARY:**********

*** 3-star:

• Compleat Al, The (1985) (Weird Al Yankovic) – amazing out-of-print half-mockumentary/half-documentary Weird Al history
• Comic Book: The Movie – full extras disc (2 hrs) … mock-but-real interviews by Mark Hamill (in his movie character) of Kevin Smith, Hugh Heffner, Bruce Campbell, as well as lots of clips of famous voice actor panels at ComicCon and such – Netflix: 3/5 IMDB: 6/10, Carolyn says more like 7/10
• How To Be A Serial Killer (2008) – serial killing as comedy

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Mood: full
Music: Freezepop – Outer Space (Boothnavy’s Vxxxger Remix)