District 9 was trash.

Here's a nice list of decent movies that I've viewed this year. Some okay. Some good, some possibly great. Not sure which ones you may or may not have seen yet but check some of them out if you haven't yet. Or at least look them up. Watch a trailer or two, and see if anything meets your interest. Can't hurt anyways.

The Hurt Locker, Moon, Precious, Ninja Assassin, Fanboys, A Perfect Getaway, Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans, World's Greatest Dad,
Anvil: The Story Of Anvil, Collapse, The Road, The Blind Side, Invictus, The Messenger, Zombieland, I Love You...Man, A Serious Man, Trick'r Treat, Where The Wild Things Are, Wrong Turn At Tahoe, The Boondock Saints II, Public Enemies, Defiance, Notorious, Killshot, The Soloist, Funny People, Law Abiding Citizen, Pirate Radio, Couples Retreat, Orphan, The Men Who Stare At Goats, Carriers, Dark Country, Sugar, Shrink, Taxidermia, The Open Road, The Tournament, Fifty Dead Men Walking, The Education Of Charlie Banks, Yonkers Joe, Harry Brown, Whatever Works, City Island, The Last House On The Left, Wonderful World, Tell Tale, and Vengeance.

Those are in no way in any particular order. Just decent movies I've seen throughout the year. You might find something you like. If not can't say I didn't try.

I thoroughly enjoyed District 9, but most on here did not. Just a heads up.

Yeah, i heard some didnt but i thought it was great. Loved how it ended, hope they make a sequel

I liked it too. That was the first movie I had been to in a long time that left me thinking after I left the theater. Well done IMO.

As far as a sequel, I'm not really sure what direction they could go with it because

Watched "Inglorious Basterds" and "Beer League" last night - both were great!

Went old school as well with "Phantasm", "Phantasm II" and "Videodrome" - classics!

You make a great point...i guess i liked it that much that i'd like to see more, but at the same time it just may be perfect the way it is. I never expected the movie to be that good esp how it started for me...but man things turned, good story. Guess we'll see, i've already watched it twice with some friends and they liked it as well.

Loved Inglorious Basterds

Oh heck yeah! The end was priceless!

Antichrist.

WTF was that? Damn this snow.

Holy balls, Invictus could have been 1 hour shorter and been pitch perfect. As it is, it gets credit for Morgan Freeman and it's South African accents. Other than that, it was horrendously paced with many stupid story lines.

I was so bored I was checking the chick out next to me with my peripheral vision. Apparently, I don't have very good peripheral vision.

Holmes was okay. Can't really recommend it.

I agree, SR. People hyped it up as if it were one of the best comedies of the decade when it isn't even close to being the best comedy released this year.

All of which encompass my opinion of The Hangover.

Adventureland: ★★★★★

Pretty sure Kristen Stewart's scene outside Ryan Renyolds' mom's house is her best scene to date.

Late as I am, I'm officially a Stewart fan.

Ok, watched the following titles over the holiday...

Paranormal Activity - RI-DIC-U-LOUS! - NOT SCARRY AND OVER HYPED!

Jennifer's Body - Best part was the girl on girl kissing scene - bullshit!

Haven't seen it but that's what I'm expecting. Everyone said the Ring was scary as hell. I didn't find it scary in the least.

Watched this last night. It certainly had it's moments, but I'd have to agree with the overrated judgment. Good rental choice, though.

Yeah, it was very funny, but way over-hyped.

I think hype kills comedy more easily than any other genre.

If you go in expecting to "laugh your ass off", you probably won't. The best comedy catches you off guard.

BTW, did they ever figure out how the chicken got in the room?

Paranormal Activity is all about the slow build.

If you can let yourself get immersed in it... it's a very good film. Best seen alone in a dark room, IMO.

I'd agree. It wasn't epic funny like Old School or something, but there is definitely some hilarity in there.

Now I know why I wanted to see Let the Right One In when it was in theatres. Very good.

Some of the shots were glorious.

I saw The Hangover about a week after it came out. It's a completely different experience in a theater filled with people when hype hasn't completely built it up to something it can't achieve.

Ramin Bahrani is the best director you've never heard of. I watch his three films -- Man Push Cart (2005), Chop Shop (2007), and Goodbye, Solo (2009) -- today. They are each astounding. Goodbye, Solo is one of the best films I've seen all year (if not the best) and Chop Shop will be edited into my favorite 25 movies of the decade.

What was Solo about?

Like all of Bahrani's work, Goodbye, Solo is about how we find a way to live in this world. Positively live, through whatever hardships. Specifically the film is about an old, Southern man (Redd) who in the first scene tells his cab driver on that Winston-Salem night that he'll pay the driver $1000 to take Redd out to this cliff outside of town on the next Saturday and leave him there. The cab driver, Solo, attempts throughout the week to befriend Redd and convince him to not kill himself.

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Looks like a good popcorn movie

Seriously, Bahrani is -- as Ebert called him earlier in the year -- "the new, great American director." His 3 films are streaming on Netflix. If Chop Shop doesn't hit you hard then nothing will.

They are completely different kinds of movies.

I saw it in the theater, too. We debated whether to bring booze or not and decided to pregame plenty, but not bring our own supply, Then when we sit down, the guy next to us offers us his 40 because he and his friend have 4 others to share (we accepted only after ensuring that it hadn't been opened and/or roofied yet). They all promptly pass out about half way through the movie and we laughed our asses off. I think at least half the theater had to be pretty drunk or high when I saw it. That's the kind of environment that's conducive to liking that movie. Watching it at home while the washing machine beeps in the background to remind me to move the load to the dryer -- not quite as magical.

Anyone remember the film that came out recently about the guy whose wife gets murdered and he is framed for it? He is in custody and he somehow starts killing people. he tells the cops he is murdering the people. I don't know if the killing his wife part is right but the rest is. Not much to go on I know but rep to who ever can think of the movie.

Gerard Butler and Jamie Foxx

Law Abiding Citizen.

:spock:

I must be getting REALLY old...I don't even want to know what theater you went to :shake:

I watched Tyson this afternoon. If you are a fan of boxing at all, or you were old enough to be a part of the zeitgeist in the mid-late 80's, you really should watch it. It's all in his own words, very honest, and incredibly compelling. There are several moments that made me uncomfortable, a few that were quite touching, some hilarious, and others baffling.

For my money, he might be the most fascinating sports figure of the last 30 years.

I only wish that they had spent more time discussing his time from 88-90, when he fired Rooney, hired King, and his skills started to unravel along with his personal life.

After finishing, I came away with a lot more respect for Tyson, just solely based on how honest he was. He overtly admitted that he stopped training hard in about '89 until losing to Douglas, and once he won the title back in '96, he stopped working hard in training then too.

Also provides an interesting perspective (along with clear video evidence) of the multiple headbutts that Holyfield used in their fights.

A must watch for any fight fan.

Just added Tyson, Chop Shop, and Goodbye, Solo to my Netflix Instant Queue. Love Man Push Cart.

Thanks for the suggestions!

I watched two harrowing documentaries last night while covering the overnight shift. Darwin's Nightmare and The Cove.

I liked Chop Shop quite a bit. I like movies that show how a community or place most people would never spend time in live.

Just watched Sugar. Incredible film. Most of you have probably heard of it.

All four of the last hosts of At the Movies liked it, both the two nitwits and the two professionals. I think AO named it as one of his 10 best of the year.

Not to give anything away, could you give me a sense of it's flavor? I know it's about an immigrant trying to make it in the baseball farm system, but is it mood piece, feelgood, mystery/twist, what? Feel free to analogize to other movies if you wish.

What'd you think of it? Haven't seen it, but have seen Harmony Korine joints in the past. I'd kind of forgotten about it [I'm so effing behind in movie watching].

It reminded me a lot of a Bahrani film in the sense that it is a film about how we live in this world. It is, like Bahrani, ultimately positive despite the film being about a talented player unable to achieve the dream. Its the story of most of us: we fail, though not for lack of effort. Our trajectory in life gets miscalculated and we miss that star with our name on it but somehow make a life out of where we land.

It was a smaller movie with a limited release. I think it got very positive reviews but I didn't really hear of it until the dvd was released.

Watched Inglorious Basterds last night. It was a poor, silly, ridiculous movie. Looking forward to the discussion.

Until then: Overall, the movie was a glorified festival of torture and sadism, and an absolute mess and disregard of history. His fantasy world is pathetically distant to anything resembling a decently thought out code of ethics and morals and bears no resemblance to anything good and meaningful.

Quentin Tarantino's goal for art seems to be about glorifying himself and his own delusional view of movies as escapism. To hell with him. This was disgusting.

Here's a list of my top dozen of '09......keep in mind these are movies I saw in '09, and not made in '09....



[rec] (Spanish)

Felon

Flawless

The Uninvited

Funny Games

Louis CK: Chewed Up

Irreversible (French)

Suicide Kings

Let the Right One In (Swedish)

Righteous Kill

Eagle Eye

Wanted

There are more that I liked, but these are the ones I happen to remember the most...I watched hundreds of movies this year. Oh, that reminds me: Watchmen was pretty good too.

Eagle Eye?

EAGLE EYE?????

Maybe for Billy Bob chewing the scenery for pay I'd give it a grudging chuckle, but.


EAGLE EYE?!?!?!?!

Exactly....I thought it was a good story. BB was killer...."demoted to something that involves touching shit with your hands" stuck in my vocabulary for a long time.

Fess up, you saw EXACTLY 12 movies last year. ;)

Wanted?


WANTED???

ROFLROFLROFLROFLROFLROFLROFLROFLROFLROFLROFLROFLROFLROFLROFLROFLROFLROFLROFL

That's about all I remember, but I'm looking back at my renting history and there are alot more good ones.......Boondock Saints, Gran Torino....I went on a foreign movie and exploitation movie bender this year. Shit like Base Moi, Inside (gross) and Tell no One(actually pretty good) made it to my TV. Thriller: A Cruel Picture made me laugh, with all those slo-mo death scenes and square ketchup pads exploding....LOL

Yeah.....curving bullets and Angelina Jolie are two of my favorite things.

Oh yeah, Midnight Meat Train was pretty good too...I think that had a weird ending to it though....if I'm remembering correctly.

That's really unique.

No way am I falling for this crap. ROFL

Listen. I love movies that tackle social injustices, make moral observations, have a culturally redeeming quality to them, etc. But, you're taking this too far dude. It's ok to like a movie for its entertainment value/artistic expression.

I don't want to be preached to every time I go to watch a movie. I can enjoy something that was well put together or unique even if it doesn't take on some incredibly meaningful and moving subject.

You are worse than my college know-it-all hippie friends.

Edit: Ok.. I just saw that you and I are the same age. I have a lot of friends just like you. We all share a hatred for shitty movies, but some of my friends get too wrapped in this idea that all great movies have to have some sort of preachy message. I tend to disagree.

Until then: Jenson misses shit. Again. This time he misses the entirety of the point. I'll offer a buzzword to think about with respect to the film: "movies."

I move we rename him KnoMoMovies.

If you haven't seen Amexicano yet, you'd probably like it. It's about a Brooklyn guy who gets "adopted" into a community of illegal aliens. Netflix says it will be streaming soon.

Eagle Eye and Wanted

EAGLE EYE AND WANTED!?

:D

That preview of the harrison ford brendan fraSER frazier looks like a tv movie

Yes it does. One made for Lifetime.

I thought the exact same thing.

I just saw Charlie Bartlett last night and I thought it was pretty good. Low expectations helped, I'm sure.

I've got Moon coming in Netflix. I'm pumped.

I didn't realize that was out yet.

Snot...comes out teh merrr.

It hits stores tomorrow. Liked that movie a lot.

Me too. Inglorious Basterds is still a very long wait for me though. :(