Tuesday, December 22, 2009

great movies of 2009

It's no secret that I've gotten back into watching movies again, since I left college 2 years ago. With Redbox and some Internet sites I have been able to catch up on films that I've definitely missed out on in the past. This year, I tried to keep up with the all the current movies. There's a lot I haven't seen, especially at the theater. I've been trying to save money from going there, since they will be out on dvd three months later. (Anyone else besides me remember those times where we would see a movie at the show and we would have to wait at least five months until it comes out on tape? lol)

What were my favorites of this year? 'Avatar' was AWESOME (in one word! Review below...), and Star Trek was great, too. I didn't actually see it until a month ago, and I fell in love with it. I'm not a Trekkie, and never have been either. But somehow JJ Abrams made the new ST franchise into a watchable movie for all-movie lovers. I wasn't even that enthused about it until everybody I know said it was good. The way I've always pictured Star Trek was all the main characters in the cockpit, staring into space and pointing to Klingons. You won't find any of that in the new movie, as there is non-stop action from start to finish.

Of some of the comedies of 2009 that I rented this year, 'I Love You Man' is my favorite. The main character reminds me of me sometimes. I do have close 'guy friends'. But as soon after I propose to my fiancee I would not know the first person to break the news to, besides my parents(!). There were several good things about the movie, and did I mention that Rush was in it too? Rock on! The only complaint about this movie is that it gave birth to stupid terminoligies like 'bro-mance'......

Last night, I watched 'Avatar' in 3-D. I walked away from the theater blown away. Once again, James Cameron has proved everyone wrong. Here's how I explain myself: remember before Titanic came out, it was over-hyped and it had publicity about its budget and all? Remember when it got delayed from Summer '07 to Winter of that year? And when everyone (so-called professional movie critics) predicted the movie would be a flop? Well, as of this writing, Titanic is still the #1 box office movie of all-time, and several people were blown away from its historical content and story, as well as its amazing (but expensive) sfx.

Fast forward ten years later. James Cameron announces his newest project (since Dark Angel and Titanic), called 'Avatar'. There were blue smurf-like figures in the pictures. The public was scratching their heads at this one, and then it was announced that more than 250 million was spent for this movie. And remember, times are different today because of our rotting economy. There was even a joke list email going around stating 'things that could have been spent with James Cameron's $250 million instead of Avatar'. But last week, Avatar got plenty of amazing reviews and it seems that things were looking great for the veteran director.

To me, it was a very powerful movie. I won't give away any spoilers, but I will say that some of the ways it was 'powerful' came from the main character, Jake Sully. It's all about for 'standing up for what you believe in while being considered a traitor' and you can definitely tell while watching the film about Cameron's 'pro-green, anti-war statements'. The fighting scenes in the movie reminded me of a lot of war movies in the past, and a lot of the creatures on planet Pandora reminded me of those from Jurassic Park. The only complaint about this movie is that it shines a stereotype among the Marine Corps with their so-called cocky and 'go get'em' image. Sigourney Weaver does an excellent performance as veteran scientist Grace, as well as Zoe Saldana as the Na'vi member's heroine. If you get the chance, watch this in 3-D. Trust me, it will be worth your extra 3 dollars.

Tell me what your favorite movies are of this year. I hope by New Years I will put what I think are the greatest movies from 2000-09.

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