The best films of 2009
District 9 is one of the best films of 2009
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By Tom Powell. |  |
Friday, 18, Dec 2009 04:32
By Lewis Bazley.
It's The Dark Knight's fault, in a way. Christopher Nolan's masterful comic book noir raised the bar so high for blockbuster releases that the subsequent batch were always going to disappoint. Reflecting on a 'ones to watch' feature penned this time last year is like recalling an embarrassing childhood moment, so incorrect or irrelevant are countless entries.
Prince of Persia's still not been released and looks to feature some very dodgy accents from Jake Gyllenhaal and Gemma Arterton, Ridley Scott's Robin Hood has gone through umpteen rewrites and both X-Men Origins: Wolverine and Terminator Salvation proved sadly underwhelming additions to the franchise. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was an inevitable stop-gap as we await the double-header ending of the boy wizard's adventures while Paramount Pictures showed genuine contempt for moviegoers with two mystifyingly successful popcorn efforts. Transformers 2 revealed that falling down a hill while shut in a tumble dryer would be more than fun that letting Michael Bay loose with the robots in disguise for a third outing and GI Joe showed that, yes, it's possible for a film to be worse than Batman and Robin.
So it's with foul-mouthed comedy, a vampire romance - no, not that one - and the emergence of major new talents in mind that Lewis Bazley looks back at the ten best films of the last 12 months to remind you that it wasn't all bad.
From 10 to 1...
10
Paranormal Activity
A phenomenon, and a deserved one. Oren Peli's low-budget film (made for less than $15,000) might have traipsed around Hollywood for two years after its completion but once an endorsement from Spielberg and the faith of Paramount ensured the financial clout to deliver the marketing drive this chiller deserved, venturing into your own bedroom would never be so scary. Provoking primal fear by never showing you the object of horror, save for some cloven footprints, and superbly building tension with its sparse soundtrack, static camerawork and camcorder timestamp, it's a fantastic experience, one best enjoyed in a large cinema full of people each undergoing the full wrath of their own imagination. For those disappointed to not see the villain - go watch some torture porn, you uncultured swine.
Click here to read the inthenews.co.uk review
9
Watchmen
That Watchmen exists as a film is cause for celebration; that it's pretty great almost calls for a street party. Probably an extremely geeky one with detailed costumes and carefully positioned in-joke artefacts, but a shindig all the same. Because even with its failings - a dense plot that courts the fans but is too complex for the uninitiated, that questionable airship sex scene, to name but two - Watchmen is an A-grade comic book film to stand alongside The Dark Knight, Spider-Man 2 and X2 at the zenith of the genre. Jackie Earle Haley was born to play Rorschach and while it can't quite capture the era-defining storytelling style of Alan Moore's source novel, this is a mature and unflinching look at a dark alternate world.
Click here to read the inthenews.co.uk review
8
Moon
Recently honoured at the British Independent Film Awards, Moon heralds the arrival of a hugely talented new filmmaker as well as confirming Sam Rockwell as one of the most gifted actors of his generation. Its miniscule budget is evident in the charmingly lo-fi interior of the lunar base inhabited by Rockwell's isolated miner Sam Bell but with Kevin Spacey on board to provide the voice for the HAL-esque ship's computer GERTY, this is a serious proposition. Rockwell excels as Bell's psyche begins to splinter and with philosophical subtext alongside Moon's tip of the cap to the likes of Silent Running and Outlander, it's a refreshing reminder that story is king. Jones' father David Bowie might be the man that fell to earth but his offspring has a stratospheric talent behind the camera.
Click here to read the inthenews.co.uk review
7
Star Trek
Comfortably the best of a bad bunch. In a year in which almost every blockbuster release managed to disappoint - Wolverine looked mystifyingly cheap, Angels and Demons has Dan Brown idiocy built in and the less said about GI Joe, the better - JJ Abrams managed to satisfy one of the most ardent fanboy sects in all geekdom while simultaneously attracting new followers to continuing adventures they'd never cared for. Chris Pine's breakout work as the young James T Kirk is a clear plus point while Simon Pegg, Karl Urban and Zachary Quinto all capture their characters without parodying their predecessors. With the humour that George Lucas forgot to include in the Star Wars prequels, numerous eye-popping action sequences and a script that takes a cheeky new direction in the franchise, it's the most exhilarating film of the year.
Click here to read the inthenews.co.uk review
6
The Hangover
A smartly written, brilliantly cast and inventive take on an easily tired formula. Bradley Cooper's the most obvious beneficiary of The Hangover's bleary-eyed box office success, with the role of Faceman in The A Team the likely first in a run of leading parts, but it's Zach Galifianakis who's standing on the precipice of superstardom. His manchild work as oddball groomsmen Alan - a familiar presence for any twentysomething with a friend who's, just, not quite right - is the highlight of this blokey and slick comedy. He grabs the lion's share of the big laughs and with director Todd Phillips having cast Cooper, Galifianakis and Ed Helms because of their previous acquaintance with each other, this feels like a wild and unpredictable night out with three of your best friends.
Click here to read the inthenews.co.uk review
5
Up
Monsters vs Aliens 3D revealed, long before Avatar, just what 3D could do for action films while Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs married sumptuous visuals with a story hitting a Pixar level of multigenerational humour. But the best animated film of the year - hell, one of the best films of the year anyway - came from the Emeryville, California studio whose name now means more for storytelling and finely drawn characters than the House of Mouse has in 15 years. Though it featured one of Pixar's weakest villains, Up is still their most adult film, eliciting tears in the first five minutes with a magnificent and wordless depiction of an entire marriage and, in Doug and Kevin, adding yet more hilarious creations to the already heaving Pixar shelf of unforgettable characters. Can they do any wrong?
Click here to read the inthenews.co.uk review
4
In The Loop
It's not necessarily the most laugh-out-loud comedy of the year - The Hangover evokes more involuntary belly laugh - but it's comfortably the smartest. That the recent series of its televisual sibling The Thick of It has provided some of the finest small screen moments of the year is no surprise, given that the cast and crew found their stride in the wit, intellect and performances of In the Loop. At its heart a fish-out-of-water farce, Armando Iannucci's film manages to take in the madness of London and Washington politics, some of the most inventive swearing you'll ever hear and a turn of true greatness from Peter Capaldi. As Malcolm Tucker might say, f**k all the other f**king comedies, this is the f****r with something f*****g important to say.
Click here to read the inthenews.co.uk review
3
District 9
The launchpad for a Hollywood career, a reminder that sci-fi can have something profound to say about humanity and a slightly depressing confirmation that the Halo movie in the hands of Neill Blomkamp and Jackson could have been frankly amazing. With studio bungling meaning one of the most popular videogames of all time may never find its way onto the big screen, Blomkamp, with the help of his Oscar-winning benefactor, was able to expand his short Alive in Joburg into one of the most exciting and intense cinema experiences of the year. Sharlto Copley, having made his first major film as Wikus van der Merwe, will soon be seen as Howlin' Mad Murdoch in the Scotts' A-Team movie while Blomkamp's film manages to weave a prescient take on the dehumanising tendencies of man into a high-octane and more-than-a-little-icky alien romp.
Click here to read the inthenews.co.uk review
2
The Hurt Locker
Already recognised at the Gotham awards and with Oscar-worthy work behind the camera from director Kathryn Bigelow and director of photography Barry Ackroyd, this is one of the most intense films you'll ever see. Its Baghdad 2003 setting means the traumatic day-to-day work of a bomb disposal squad stays with the viewer long after a viewing and it's probably worth having a nice sit down once you've hit the stop button thanks to the handheld, in-the-dirt vitality of its excellent action set-pieces. With a breakout performance from Jeremy Renner and a script that gives its principals moving emotional arcs without ever lapsing into genre traditions, The Hurt Locker's a place you'll be grateful you don't have to visit on a daily basis.
Click here to read the inthenews.co.uk review
1
Let the Right One In
Matt Reeves created something remarkable with the 'found footage' trauma of Cloverfield but we can but hope that his planned remake of Let the Right One In somehow hits the skids. Forget New Moon, this is the only vampire film worthy of your time this year; it's also one of the best releases of the decade. With magnificent performances from young debutants Kare Hedebrandt and Lina Leandersson, a sad and poetic beauty to each savage killing and a story more concerned with the pangs of puberty than 'I vant to suck your blood.' cliché, you may not breathe during this superbly tense film but the memory will remain.
Click here to read the inthenews.co.uk review