Updated list of 2009 Movies I've Seen

I haven't touched my blog in awhile, but I'm going to try and start using it again. Here's an updated list (along with scores out of 4 stars) of the movies from 2009 that I have seen. They are in order by score (highest to lowest), but I don't have them in a certain order within their score (so I don't like Public Enemies more than the other 3 star movies, for example).

Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince (****)
Adventureland (****)
Inglourious Basterds (****)
Up (***1/2)
Star Trek (***1/2)
Public Enemies (***)
Duplicity (***)
Watchmen (***)
Taken (***)
The Soloist (***)
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (***)
A Christmas Carol (***)
Zombieland (***)
I Love You, Man (***)
The Last House on the Left (***)
Terminator Salvation (***)
Funny People (***)
State of Play (***)
Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (***)
Monsters vs. Aliens (***)
Surrogates (***)
District 9 (***)
The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (***)
Drag Me to Hell (***)
Angels & Demons (***)
Sunshine Cleaning (** 1/2)
Away We Go (**1/2)
Twilight Saga: New Moon (**1/2)
Knowing (** 1/2)
The Proposal (**1/2)
Observe and Report (**)
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (**)
Bruno (**)
Crank 2: High Voltage (**)
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (**)
My Sister's Keeper (**)
The Ugly Truth (**)
Push (**)
Dragonball Evolution (**)
The Uninvited (**)
Fighting (**)
Coraline (**)
My Bloody Valentine (**)
Race to Witch Mountain (**)
Inkheart (* 1/2)
The International (* 1/2)
G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra (* 1/2)

Movie List for 2009 so far

I haven't reviewed all of the films I've seen from this year. I kind of forgot/lost track. This list serves as a representation of my thoughts on each film so far this year.


18. The International (**)
17. My Bloody Valentine 3-D (**)
16. Friday the 13th (**)
15. The Uninvited (**)
14. Push (**)
13. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (**)
12. Coraline (**)
11. Watchmen (**1/2)
10. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (**1/2)
9. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (***)
8. Terminator Salvation (***)
7. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (***)
6. Taken (***)
5. Up (***)
4. Public Enemies (***)
3. Star Trek (***1/2)
2. Adventureland (****)
1. Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince (****)

Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince is the best film in a series that has been constantly getting better as the series progresses. It’s gorgeous to look at, emotionally satisfying, and stands alone as a triumph. It’s definitely one of the best movies of the year.

The biggest difference from this one and the last film is that there is a lot of comedy (just like in the book). I do believe the comic relief (which consists of plenty teenage romance) in the film will split some people’s opinion on the movie. Some will love it and laugh hysterically while others will wonder why such goofiness was put into an otherwise dark and haunting story. I happen to be in the former category and I’ll tell you why. Too much darkness isn’t always a good thing and it reminds us that these characters are just like us. They experience first loves and crushes, wonder about the opposite sex, and long to be with the ones they love. The film captures the hormones raging through teenagers wonderfully, and even manages some truly emotional moments from it. And the people who complain that Ginny and Harry’s first kiss is different and in a different location from the book are just nitpicking. Who cares WHERE it happens and long as it does? The worst films in the franchise (which are still pretty decent) were the ones that put every detail possible into the movie and suffered pacing issues because of it. I’ve never been one to complain about what isn’t there, because it’s what’s there that matters most.

I’ve heard people complain about some of the things added into the film as well, including an attack on the Weasley’s house. It serves a couple purposes and I’m glad they added it in. At that point in the film there has been a significant amount of time without any real threat (except those hormones) and it reasserts that threat. It also makes it clear that nowhere is safe, including places they live. It helps the pacing of the film, simple as that. Not everyone will agree of course, but this is what I believe.

The performances and technical aspects of the film are also of extremely high quality and easily the best in the series so far. The visual effects are absolutely breathtaking, and along with the cinematography, make everything old new again. Even Hogwarts isn’t safe anymore, and they show it brilliantly. The young actors have taken to these parts and have an easy chemistry between them. Daniel Radcliffe is the best of the bunch, but I don’t think any of them hits a bad note the whole time. Rupert Grint is hilarious and serves as the comic relief throughout much of the film while Emma Watson‘s Hermione finally starts falling in love with Ron and shows it well. Jim Broadbent is the newest member of the cast and practically walks away with it. He looks so at home as Slughorn. He’s simply brilliant. I give props to Michael Gambon as Dumbledore too, who has made the character his own and managed to pull at my heartstrings with his final few scenes. Alan Rickman is also wonderful as always playing Severus Snape. His casting for that role has done wonders for the series. You can do a roll call with the rest of the cast. They are the who’s who of British acting.

When it comes down to it, I find Half-Blood Prince to be the crowning achievement of the series so far. The final few scenes absolutely do the book justice and are the most emotionally fulfilling moments they have captured. The series is in good hand with David Yates and I look forward to the rest of the series with bated breath.

**** out of 4 stars

Terminator Salvation Review

The almost 2 hour long Terminator Salvation flew by while I was watching it. I couldn’t believe 2 hours had just gone by. You know what that means? I was royally entertained. It’s not the perfect summer blockbuster (and isn’t as good as Star Trek), but it’s a well made action film with plenty of eye candy to behold.

Terminator Salvation is a different type of movie than its predecessors. While those were also action films, they also had humor and had a much lighter tone than the one present in Salvation. This is Terminator at its darkest yet. It is a war movie after all. Some might miss the humor of the earlier films, but I didn’t really mind. Plus there are plenty of easter eggs for series fans to catch and laugh at along the way. It’s kind of weird that this is the first Terminator to not have an R rating though. Just proves that violence isn’t nearly as bad as sex and foul language according to the MPAA.

I can’t really get into story specifics because it will make my head spin with all this time travel stuff, but Salvation does a good job of setting up everything that was hinted at in the other movies. There’s nothing there that hasn’t been told to us already though, which means little to no surprises. Its purpose is basically just to show everything that was told rather than expand the story. That’s for the sequels. I will say though, that Marcus Wright (played by Sam Worthington) is the best character in the movie and Worthington gives a good performance as someone who is trying to figure out what the difference between man and machine is. Christian Bale is a decent John Connor. Nothing extraordinary but he gets the job done. The character isn’t nearly as developed as Marcus though, which is a shame since John is so integral to the story. Anton Yelchin does a solid job as the young Kyle Reese as well. Everyone else has little to no screen time and isn’t worth mentioning (though a certain cameo will have series vets smiling).

Terminator Salvation is basically nothing but action and special effects and it’s all done beautifully. McG might have struggled with some things, but action was not one of them. Some people might even feel a little Transformers in this movie (I certainly did), which I don’t consider a bad thing. While the earlier films were basically one big chase sequence, Salvation is huge set piece after huge set piece and you can clearly see that huge budget.

Ultimately, in terms of summer blockbusters this year, Salvation is a couple notches ahead of Wolverine and a notch below Star Trek. Action junkies will love it and I’m sure most Terminator fans will welcome it with welcome arms after the hate that Terminator 3 got. It’s a solid new beginning for a franchise that has huge potential.

*** out of 4 stars

Star Trek Review

The bar for this summer’s blockbusters has officially been set. Star Trek is pure cinematic thrills with a strong cast guiding it and a plot that entertains, even if it’s slightly confusing. You will be having too much fun to even care that the story isn’t making a whole lot of sense, which I’m sure is exactly what J.J. Abrams wants.

This is all coming from someone who hasn’t seen a single Star Trek film or episode on television. Just by the reactions of the people I saw it with though, this movie pleased the diehards and newbies alike. Not an easy feat for an origin story, especially one like this that messes with the timeline of the entire franchise. There are plenty of in-jokes for the die hards from what I could tell, because they were laughing a lot more frequently than I was (although I still picked up on a few of them). Don’t let being a newbie stray you away from this film; it’s perfectly suited for you.

Star Trek uses a lot of special effects much like the Star Wars prequels did, and from what I have heard the franchise has never looked this good or been this vastly entertaining. It does overuse the shaky camera at times in the action sequences, but unlike Quantum of Solace last year, it doesn’t hamper the excitement. The movie is so fast paced the 2 hours fly by liked 2 seconds. I couldn’t believe it was already over, nor did I want it to be.

The cast is great. Since I haven’t seen any other Star Trek material before I can’t make comparisons, but I still thought the movie was very well cast. Chris Pine is full of energy and charisma and makes an entertaining Kirk. Zachary Quinto plays up Spock’s smarts to good effect and even has a little romance with Uhura played by Zoe Saldana, who plays the sexy part well. Simon Pegg and Karl Urban are both funny as Scotty and McCoy (also known as “Bones”). Eric Bana doesn’t get to do much with the villain as Nero, but he does decent with what is given. Diehards will gasp at the appearance of Leonard Nimoy reprising the role that made him famous. He is the bridge to link the old and new franchises together (although his part in the story is the part that is most confusing).

Hopefully this new Trek film picks up a bunch of new fans like it has with me, because the future looks bright and I’m already looking forward to seeing what the cast and crew can do with a sequel. It’s not a perfect film, but it’s an engrossing and highly entertaining sci-fi blockbuster and the movie to beat this summer. Hopefully the box office totals reflect that.

*** ½ out of 4 stars

X-Men Origins: Wolverine Review

The question that comes to my mind is why? We already learned everything we needed to know about Wolverine in the three X-Men movies that were made before this “origin” story and there’s no need to flesh it out anymore. Of course, I can answer my question myself and you probably can too: money. Buckets and buckets of money that people will inevitably spend on it because it’s the first summer blockbuster of the season and features one of the most popular comic book characters of all time. It’s also a generic superhero movie that ignores all the advancements the genre has made in the past year with The Dark Knight and Iron Man being smash hits as well as critical darlings.

Wolverine features plenty of cameo’s that don’t belong in the story whatsoever and only derail it because we are supposed to be focusing on Wolverine. They serve little purpose than to pad the length of the movie and get fanboys all excited for the origin stories of the characters that will inevitable be made. The fight scenes aren’t even that great. We get to watch countless fights with Wolverine and Sabertooth, but they are both invincible and both are in the first X-Men movie so we know the outcome before the fight even starts. The rating doesn’t help either. It’s PG-13 so there isn’t any blood despite the fact that Wolverine is shoving his claws into people’s hands and people are getting stabbed by Deadpool’s swords. Even the special effects are mediocre, despite the rumored $150 million dollar budget.

The only saving graces are the performances of the lead players. Both Jackman and Schreiber play their parts well and elevate beyond the material they are given. Ryan Reynolds is apparently getting a feature length film as Deadpool and is well cast as the non-stop trash talker, despite playing the same character he always does. Danny Huston is rather bland as Stryker though and doesn’t bring anything to the character and pales in comparison to Brian Cox’s interpretation of the character in X2.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine isn’t a complete waste of time and is mildly entertaining, but it pales in comparison to other recent comic book adaptations or even the previous three X-Men movies. It isn’t horrible, but it isn’t anything other than mediocre.

** out of 4 stars

Watchmen Review

Movie adaptations, no matter the source material, are always risky endeavors. Filmmakers have to stick to the roots of whatever it is they are adapting, while trying to make it enjoyable by someone not familiar with the source material. This is ultimately where Zack Snyder fails with Watchmen. He adheres to the source material so faithfully that he alienates all but the hardcore fans. He didn’t have the guts to tamper with it and make it into a movie. After all, things that work in books don’t always work in movies. The Harry Potter series of films are successful because they take careful consideration when making the movies, but always remembering that some things in the books will have to be tweaked if they are to be used to full effect on the big screen. Watchmen is sure to be loved by people who are already familiar with it, but for people who don’t know the difference between Night Owl and Dr. Manhattan, it’s a frustrating experience.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that Snyder and his team didn’t still make cuts to the story in order to shorten it into a motion picture length (still a robust two hours and 43 minutes). Many acclaimed directors (Terry Gilliam, Paul Greengrass, and Danny Aronofsky) have tried to make this movie before but ultimately gave up because they considered the source material “unfilmable”. Many felt it would be served better as a 5 hours miniseries. It’s weird to find out that Snyder and his team found a way to make it into a motion picture when other, more experience filmmakers, couldn’t grasp it.

Instead of spending a lot of time going into story specifics, I’ll just layout what I feel is important. It’s 1985 and the US and USSR are still heavily going at it, with the threat of nuclear war very much on the minds of everyone. The “Watchmen”, or superheroes, helped in World War II and have been our protector’s since the 1940’s. There are newer members of the Watchmen and the original members, who are still alive but very old. Superheroes have been outlawed and asked to lay down their secret identities and go back to living normal lives, but one of the original members of the group, The Comedian, is thrown through the window of his apartment and murdered by an unknown assassin. Meanwhile Rorschach, not laying down his alter ego, is living out the life as a vigilante and believes someone is trying to take out costumed heroes and feels he needs to warn his fellow members. What they don’t know is that the plot is far beyond what they originally thought.

The cast of Watchmen is a mixed bag. Jack Earle Haley plays Rorschach well and makes the character his own, while Patrick Wilson does a solid, if not quite spectacular job as Night Owl. Malin Akerman on the other hand, is pretty detached from her character and just doesn’t nail the emotional moments of Silk Spectre. She’s all sex appeal and little else. Jeffrey Dean Morgan does a great job as The Comedian, but his screen time is very limited and ultimately his talents are wasted. Billy Crudup does an ok job as Dr. Manhattan, but from what I’ve heard from fans of the graphic novel is that they weren’t very impressed by him. Those are the characters that take up most of the screen time, while the rest of the cast is serviceable.

One thing Zack Snyder does very well in Watchmen is built spectacular set pieces and brutal action sequences. They dazzle the senses like he did with “300”, but there aren’t as many in this movie as there are in other adaptations. Watchmen is more about exposition and story than it is action, which is another reason I don’t think Snyder was the right person for the job. He spends far too much time on the less interesting characters, and not enough time on the ones people will care about because of the performances (Rorschach needed fleshed out better). The pacing is very sporadic and needed some tweaking. Watchmen also isn’t for people who can’t handle blood, guts, and sex. The movie is very graphic (including male nudity throughout thanks to Dr. Manhattans slong and a prolonged sex scene that is 2 minutes long and awkward to sit through).

One of the aspects I think that was done very poorly was the music. It all felt out of place and just plain weird in some spots and throughout the movie several people made comments to me about how bad it was. The visual effects are top-notch though, but that is too be expected of a big budget motion picture like this. It’s become something that’s less an accomplishment and more obligatory in this day and age.

Watchmen was never boring and since it’s almost 3 hours long, that’s a testament to its entertainment value. The point though, is that I was frequently detached from characters and frustrated at how hard the story was to follow. This is a movie that will reward multiple viewings, but since it is 3 hours long, some won’t have the patience for that. It’s a disappointing, but still entertaining adaptation that would have benefitted from someone that had the guts to take liberties with the story. Caveat emptor.

** 1/2 out of 4 stars