@ 2009

So it may be a few days late but 2009 was such a great year for movies that I just couldn't decide on my 10 faves. I will try to review them in what I believe to be the order they were released so as not to hurt any feelings.

Paul Blart Mall Cop
I always enjoy trying to spot product placements in movies and this movie had it all. It is set in a shopping mall environment and features real live stores! It was an ingenious place to set a movie that you intend to put lots of product placements in because the setting makes the placements much less obvious. Kudos to the director for thinking of that. There was a scene in a victorias secret as well which any red blooded american male will like. The main character is obviously a mall cop who is set up to be an underdog. Without giving anything away, he certainly overcomes some tremendous odds. There are plenty of humorous pratfalls and silliness to delight the kid in each and everyone of us.

Push
This sci fi thriller features about psycic teens has lots of cool special effects and even some neat fight scenes. I thought the premise, that the government was trying to use a drug to create an army of supersoldiers was really novel, and that the choice to make the superheroes all teenagers made it even more tense. I didn't expect much out of this move but I was blown away by how powerful the story was. It is a little scary at some times because there are points when you don't know if some of the characters will make it or not and far be it from me to spoil any of these exciting plot points for you. I just think it is an important story to tell and that there are many parallels between the movie and what is going on in the world today. Very timely and very good.

Prescious

This is a powerful, painful account of an ugly girl's struggle to make something of her self. Honestly, after I walked out of this movie I was a completely changed person. I thought to my self that if she can do so much with so little that I can do a ton with what G-d has granted me.
I really didn't expect to see so many actual real life musicians lending their acting talents to such an unknown and un anticipated story, but I am so glad they did. It also proved to me that Mariah Carey not only has great singing chops, but acting chops as well. I am not ashamed to say that I bawled like a baby after I got home and started thinking about how much this movie has and will do for me.

Obsessed
WOW. I love Beyonce Noles. Not only is she really pretty, but you can tell from her acting in this movie that she will make a really good mother to her baby. She cares so much, that it's hard to imagine that there is not something behind it all. Her husband was played by the guy who took over the office in the office when Michael left to start his own company and, though I didn't like him very much on the show, he was really good in this movie. Like Push, it has a really original story that will keep you guessing at every twist and turn of the quite circuitous plot.


Year 1
I have heard some people say that this movie was stupid because people didn't speak english back in prehistoric times. But honestly I think this is just one of the things that makes this movie really really funny and absurd. Jack Black plays a hunter and this weenie little kid plays a gatherer and they go around starting their own tribe after one of them eats from the tree of knowledge. Then they have to go save these pretty ladies they liked from their old tribe after they are kidnapped and sold into slavery. I know this doesn't sound really all that funny the way I am describing it but there is clearly a lot of chemistry between black and the weenie kid. There are lots of fun slapstick jokes and even more touching moments later on in the movie to give it the perfect mix of laughter and heart.



The Ugly Truth
The poster tells you everything you need to know. Gerard butler is holding the heart over his eh-hem and Izzy from Greys Anatomy is holding it near her head. This really is a clever metaphor for how these two mis-matched matches interact with each other...to hilarious results!!! Gerard has a talk show and Izzy is a morning show anchor who is all upset about having crappy dates. Thus when she sees the show one night she calls and argues with him about his cynical perspective on women. When Izzy finds out that her show has bad ratings the bosses bring on Gerard as a counterpoint. At first they don't like each other at all but in the end they realize that it is our differences that bring us closer! The ugly truth is that this is a great, hilarious romantic comedy.

District 9
Wow. There are a ton of really great special effects in this movie. The aliens were pretty creepy at first, but when you find out that they are actually pretty friendly if you treat them OK, the movie becomes a whole lot more enjoyable. The best part about this is that the main guy, named Wickus (such a cool name), slowly is turning into one of the aliens (they call them prongs or something in the movie). This makes him (and the audience) very sympathetic to the cause of the aliens. It has an extremely bittersweet ending, but all in all I would say this is a beautiful movie. However, I must warn that it does have a lot of violence. I know some of my readers aren't huge violence fans and they may want to skip this one, but I promise it's worth it.

All about Steve
I just love sandra bullock and she is in top form in this laff-fest. She plays a crossword puzzle writer who is really book smart but not smart socially. This makes her dating life kind of hard until she meets Bradley cooper on a blind date. They are so funny together and have even more chemistry that Butler and Izzy had in The Ugly Truth. She is totally obsessed with him and in the end learns that she doesn't need to change to fit society because there are lots of crazy socially inept people who will be your friend just the way you are. What a great message!

The Informant?
I thought this movie would be a comedy, but infact it was actually a pretty serious drama about someone with manic depression. It's about what happens when someone tries to do a good deed (even if it was prompted by his wife) and be a decent person but gets taken advantage of. Matt Damon gives a Tour de force performance as out of control informant Mark Whitacre and Scott Bakula is stellar as the FBI agent who gets caught up in the crap sandwich caused by Matt Damon's character's inability to deal with pressure. This is a disturbing and poigniant portrait of mental illness.

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You know why. See the review @avatar above.