Top 20 Movies of 2009

20. Bad Lieutenant - Port of Call: New Orleans
Nic Cage descent into addiction and his struggle to keep his mind straight is surprisingly engrossing with a top notch supporting cast. Director Werner Herzog puts a lot of style in behind the camera trying to craze the audience at the same time as Cage.


19. Where the Wild Things Are
Turning a six page children's book into a feature film is no easy task. Spike Jonz makes it look easy with this revealing look at a temper tantrum through a child's very vivid imagination.


18. World's Greatest Dad
Robin Williams' best role since Good Will Hunting. He plays a the father of a meddlesome, completely unlikable child. Directed by Bobcat Goldthwaite, this film is easily the biggest surprise of 2009.

17. Bronson
The movie that will shoot Tom Hardy to stardom. It is a crazy and manic movie and title character, but it is not without its gravitas and creativity. Truly an original work resembling the great gritty, mentally unstable anti-heroes of the 70s.


16. Brothers Bloom
The follow up to the very stylish highschool set neo-noir Brick, this adventure story follows 2 con man brothers as they trick an eccentric heiress out of her millions, but as usual life gets in the way. It is a fast-talking and witty style, but it is not without its heart.


15. Antichrist
Lars Von Tier's trippy, surreal journey through grief follows a couple on their therapuetic trip to a cabin after the loss of their child, but it all goes horribly wrong. Woman's manipulative husband and study material is unable to distract her from oncoming madness.


14. Sherlock Holmes
A new take on the fictional detective goes back to its gritty literature roots in Guy Ritchie's first installment to what is hopefully a long franchise. Downey Jr. cements his comeback status with this beautifully scored and set action/mystery.


13. Adventureland
Based on director Greg Mottola's real life summer job experience, a teen witty beyond his years finds himself in a love triangle with an equally witty young woman and his poser mentor, played ultimately charming by Ryan Reynolds.


12. Pontypool
A horror movie flying safely under the rader looks to rewrite the infected/zombie subgenre with this plague passed on through words taking place exclusively in a radio broadcasting booth. Verteran character actor Stephen McHattie is really memorable in his shock jock role.


11. Watchmen
The adaptation of Alan Moore's deconstruction on the comic medium takes few liberties yet keeps all the heart and meaning of the source material. Brilliantly casted and stylishly shot, it is great sister material to Moore's novel.


10. Star Trek
The revived science fiction franchise gets itself a new inspired cast and a sunglared direction by J.J. Abrams. It promises a long future.


9. (500) Days of Summer
Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordan Levitt perform excellently and carry this inntriguing not-love story to the finish. The final moment is a little weak, but it is ultimately heart-warming even in its most depressing moments.


8. Zombieland
Following the succees of Shaun of the Dead, this new zombie comedy pits an unlikely group of survivors against the legion of undead that is currently owning the planet. A very charismatic cast with some decent action and gore do not amount to the greatness of Shaun.. but they come damn close.


7. The Boat that Rocked
aka Pirate Radio. A comedy about the romance between man and his music enlightens and inspires a deep passion for the art of songwriting with the best ensemble cast of the year.


6. District 9
A science fiction metaphor for apartheid throws an average joe office drone, a breakout role for Sharlto Copley, in the middle of a corporate conspiracy and Kafka-esque transformation. It pulls the curtain back on race relations and discrimation.


5. The Hangover
One of the best comedies in years, The Hangover follows 3 groomsmen on their search for the groom in Las Vegas after their wild night leaves them with no memory of the events. Breakout roles for Zach Galifinakis and Bradley Cooper, who both now have projects lined up around the block.


4. Up in the Air
A talkative movie about the interconnectedness of people rests safely on the shoulders of George Clooney and his ability to deliver dialog. Jason Reitman is proving to be one of the best young directors out there.


3. Inglourious Basterds
Quentin Tarantino's ode to spaghetti westerns and WWII movies creates this oddball epic about a group of Jewish-American soldiers who reak havoc on the Nazi soldiers plaguing the land.


2. The Hurt Locker
One of the most tense movies this year, and possibly the decade. Like its subject matter, it is a slow burning fuse that could blow at any minute keeping the audience consistently at the edge of their seats. It does so not just through action and omenous music, but through real emotion from the soldiers. A truly unbiased Iraq War movie that focuses on the effects of war on the human condition.


1. Moon
Soon to be considered a science fiction classic, this film hits all the right beats. Sam Rockwell gives his greatest performance yet, and is easily the greatest performance of 2009.

Hollywood's "Genius" Marketing Campaign

Hollywood is a fickle industry. Remakes and "safe" pictures flood the market, and originality is sparse. Even when it comes, Hollywood usually puts it in limited release or direct-to-DVD. The audience would probably see it if they could, if it wasn't such a chore to find an actual showing, or if Hollywood suits would happen to actually MARKET the damn things. When I tell people Moon was the best movie this summer, people just say "huh?"

The lengths of stupidity in Hollywood's marketing strategies will never cease to amaze me. Is it really all that better to make a movie look like something that it is not than to just show an excellent movie as it is? Take The Boat that Rocked for example.

The Boat that Rocked is about a motley crew of rock and roll DJs who play radio from a boat in the middle of ocean to the British mainland, where it is pretty much prohibited. The British government than tried to take precautions off the air, most of which prove to be futile. It is very funny with a really fantastic appreciation for classic rock. It also happens to star some of the funnier British actors today. Some spoilers may come up, but I think I give away anything that would ruin the watching experience.



:20 mark
One of the handfull of trailer voice guys says (and I paraphrase) One American DJ (aka The Count) decides to start Pirate Radio to bring rock across the pond. I don't think so. The Count (played by Phillip Seymour Hoffman) is in fact a replacement for a DJ that had quit from the original crew. Most of the implication is left thinking that Bill Nighy's character is the skipper of the whole endeavor. Also Hoffman is barely the star. The movie is in fact an ensemble. One of the best enesembles since the Ocean 11 movies. How can that not be marketable?

:25 mark
Twatt (played by Jack Davenport) is shown to call The Count the most famous DJ of all time. This is also not true. Twatt was in fact talking about Rhys Ifans' Gavin character, who is the DJ Hoffman's character was replacing.

:36 mark
Nighy than says they should have set sail years ago after the trailer voice implies that this is about their maiden voyage. What actually happens is that the boat is anchored at a specific spot and doesn't move until they were forced to by the government nearing the end of the movie.

And if that wasn't bad enough, they changed the very great title of The Boat that Rocked into Pirate Radio, a cheap generic name, undoubtedly including the term "Pirate" because of the financial success of Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Just lock at the font.

Very similar. Similar enough to suggest a strategy of banking on the success of one on the other.

Hollywood needs to stop chasing the creativity away from the medium. It is hard enough trying to see indie pictures on a regular basis, we do not need all the good movies to go that way. They need to learn how to read numbers. G. I. Joe might have made money, but it was also way more accessible than both Moon and The Hurt Locker.

Review: The Boat That Rocked

The Boat That Rocked is about a fictional literal pirate radio station that was the only source for rock and roll in the '60's in the UK going to war with the stuffy bureaucrats who want to shut them down.

As any ensemble movie, the cast is the greatest thing about this movie. First off you have Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Kenneth Branagh, highly respected actors who are as funny as people think they are dramatic. Hoffman has actually gone down that road before, and Branagh proves to be the bigger surprise. The rest of the cast is well-rounded with British funny men. Bill Nighy is incredibly dry and sarcastic, but he is no slouch in the dramatic department. He is like the lost member of Monty Python. Nick Frost, of Shaun of the Dead fame, Rhys Darby, of "Flight of the Conchords," and Chris O'Dowd and Katherine Parkinson, of "The IT Crowd," all performing exceptionally. Rhys Ifans ends the cast as the strangely sexy hipster rival of Hoffman's The Count character. Tom Sturridge really shines as the film's main character, Young Carl. Young Carl is an awkward virgin British teen who comes aboard the boat to find himself sent by his mother, a sexual icon to the DJs, in a very nice cameo by Emma Thompson.

The laughs are of typical British fashion. Well spoken and well planned witticism, sarcasm, and running jokes that never miss a beat. Intertwined throughout the comedy is the message of freedom, morality, youth, and life that is channelled through the great rock music the character's broadcast.

The beauracrats are especially stuff, overly facist at times, but it is a comedy I suppose. At certain moments in the middle of the film, it bogs down with subplots that could have easily been more funny, but they still hold up the heart of the film. Some of the best parts were the montages of the DJs riffing on air, and I assume the actors doing a bit of ad-libbing, I just wish there could have been a little bit more of that. Outside those moments, the jokes and dialog seemed to specifically move the plot forward, not necessarily a bad thing, but with so many comedic performers together I would hope for some spontaneous humor.

The Boat That Rocked is everything great about British comedy and '60's pop music wrapped into a fantastic picture that I recommend to everyone. 8/10