Top 10 Movies of 2009

Happy New Year 2010 to all!!
If there's even anyone out there reading my blogpost... =x

Now that the year has come to an end, it's time to sum up my top 10 movie experiences of 2009!! Hope with this list, I'm able to narrow down your viewings and save you a good load of time...

1. Departures - Beautifully orchestrated
2. District 9 - Rawness at its pinnacle
3. 9 - 9th wonder of the movie world
4. Avatar - Too good to be true
5. Five Minutes of Heaven - Cinematography like you've never seen
6. Taken - Coolness personified
7. In Bruges - Goodness packed wholesale
8. The Reader - Emotionally provoking
9. Seven Pounds - Inspiring and heartfelt
10. Sherlock Holmes - Classic revival

Recommended: Up / Moon / G.I. Joe.: The Rise of Cobra / Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

Sherlock Holmes

Rating: 8.3/10

Genre: Crime

Overall rating for money and time: 8.5/10

Sherlock Holmes and his best bud Dr John Watson are an ingenious duo devoted to solving the great crime mysteries of London. They are stumped, however by an equally matched criminal by the name of Lord Blackwood who uses black magic to revolutionize England and possibly the entire world.

The trailer featured Sherlock Holmes explaining his attacks and I was wondering why there was a need - I assumed it would have made the film too exaggerated or lame... But after catching the movie, I had a few pleasant surprises. This movie enhanced the reputation of the great detective we are all familiar with and literally brings him to life, finally. Throughout the entire movie, it glorified the wits of Sherlock Holmes as well as his partner. Actually, almost everyone was awesomely cool in this movie, including the villian.

*spoilers ahead* I didn't expect Rachel McAdams to be an equally witted adversary, had the impression she was just his female companion. This made the pair highly entertaining and interesting to watch as they gradually came to terms with their feelings towards each other. Jude Law on the other hand had an equally major role as Robert Downey Jr. even though the title suggests otherwise. The chemistry between both of the leads were genuinely engaging and applaudable. Fully attributable to the director for a good call and great foresight on the casting.

Extremely convincing performances by the cast members and an exceptional plot to go along with it. I love how we were made to think on the wrong track throughout the movie and have it all being explained at the end of it. Not everything was revealed though, in a good sense as there was promise of a sequel - another ingenious villian to come up against Sherlock Holmes.

What I also liked about the movie is that one gets to experience different genres of it... first, it was a cool crime scene, then it became "Harry Potter-ish" (cause of the magic), it had a hint of "Saw" in it, then turned a little "Psycho" horror (where the villian would "pop" up suddenly) and finally a witty conclusion.

Of course, no movie is perfect. There were some redundant and uncalled-for scenes such as the most impressionable one where Sherlock Holmes was shot in slow motion, braving through the exploding barrels to save his damsel in distress, and the action sequences didn't meet up to my expectations. Still, they did not cause considerable hurt to the movie.

Overall, a revival of a classic and a true gem in crime movies, I'll definitely be looking forward to its promising sequel!!! It turned out to be better than expected and it's a great movie to end the year with!!!

The Treasure Hunter

Rating: 2.2/10

Genre: Action

Overall value for money and time: 0.5/10

A rumoured city of treasures lying in the midst of the northwest desert is supposedly protected by the 'sandstorm riders' led by the 'eagle of the sand'. An immoral group of treasure hunters decided to kidnap the precious daughter of the mapkeeper to force the map over from him...

If there's one word to sum this movie up, it would simply be "Horrendous". There's nothing likeable about the movie, I'm so disappointed with it that I can't even be bothered to get the proper terms of the characters right. After this film, I've decided to stay away from Hong Kong movies for a while and definitely a "NO NO" to any future Kevin Chu's films - I'm surprised he spent so much on publicity and had the audacity to market the line "a Kevin Chu film". One thing's for sure, this movie is extremely damaging to his reputation and he should seriously consider retiring after this...

The 2.2 rating is constituted solely to the casting and CG - 0.8 Jay Chou, 0.8 Lin ChiLing, 0.6 CG. Mind you, it is the very presence of Jay Chou and Lin ChiLing which gives the rating and not their acting, because throughout the movie, the demise of it is also contributed by bad acting. Bad acting on all casts, cheesy and lame scripts, bumpy and illogical storyline (flow was extremely bad) and a total insult to anyone's intelligence and a utter waste of time and money. In the midst of it, I even gave up false laughing and was trying so hard to stay awake. Unengaging, boring and totally uninteresting. Fake, Forced, Flop and Fumbly.

*Spoilers ahead* First off, the mystical beings which were created from "magic" felt so unprofessional and dumpy-like - 2 scenes in particular, one which duelled Jay Chou at the start which showed it moving around like a slow, lost man in armoured suit and the second where the group of sandstorm riders were trying frantically to slow down a moving vehicle. That second scene itself didn't make sense with all the well-organised dynamite bombings even though Eric Tsang supposedly threw them out 1 at a time.

Secondly, there were too many forced, awkward conversations between the two leads which made it feel too cheesy and lame. Absolute bad acting. Even if you're a fan of either, there is no way you can forgive their acting... aggravated by bad scripting and possibly bad directing.

Thirdly, the last scene emphasised too much on the story of Master whatever-his-name-is (Chen Daoming)... almost felt like it was the "real treasure" and made it too drama... and it wasn't even a surprise or a twist cos' it was made so obvious throughout the movie. The rationale of conjuring spirits, possessing Lin ChiLing (making her look utterly ridiculous when the possessed person could have been the Master) and ultimately disintegrating the priced pearl didn't make sense to me.

Flow of the plot was horrible with random lines, random happenings and no follow-up... There was a mummy-like character at the start but he disappeared after that; The chief of the sandstorm riders had a coarse and low voice at the start but after her mask was slashed off (identity disclosed, woohoo, a female!! shocking?? what's the rationale?), no longer put it back on; The immoral treasure hunter met up with his men at some traders market (that convenient?); Everyone entered the city of treasures after a sandstorm (no accountability), sudden unrelated scenes of kid playing spanish guitar in the background during a duel (created a low budget lame feel); flashback to a "lost" drunk/confession scene which no one knew about and wouldn't care about (outrageous flow)... basically, an endless list of "why you should not catch this movie" to prevent ending off the year 2009 with curses and swears.

Without a doubt one of the worst movies I've watched so far, if I could trade my time lost with the same amount I paid for that movie, I would do it 10 times over. Stay away from this movie even if you're a fan of Jay Chou and Lin ChiLing because the only "treasure" you will discover after this movie, is how precious your free time can be...

Avatar

Rating: 9.2/10

Genre: Action Fantasy

Overall value for money and time: 9.9/10

Anyone who misses this movie on the big screens will definitely regret it, unless he/she owns a cinema or has a cinema-like screen in their homes... Let me rap about the cons of the movie before I sing it's endless praises...

Set in a futuristic world where humans have found a scarce resource on the planet of Pandora. However, the ground is inhabited by the native-like "creatures", the Na'vi. A marine is sent undercover to know more about their culture and blend in with them, gain their trust and to persuade them to leave their land so that the humans can "peacefully" take the resuorces and harvest it as their own.

If you haven't caught the trailer, which I highly doubt so since James Cameron is going full throttle on the publicity, then catch the movie fast before everyone else spoils the storyline for you... then again, there's really nothing to spoil. It's as predictable as it can get. You don't need the trailer to unravel the entire storyline for you, from my sypnosis alone, it doesn't take a genius to figure which direction the story would be headed.

A wee bit dialogue-driven from start to middle, since it was to build up on the storyline and evoke our emotions... And in terms of action sequences, it's not that "action packed". The last 30 minutes did hold a good handful of seat gripping action and there was a hint of Lord of the Rings in it.

With that "many" cons, how many pros is needed to balance it out? Well, just one is enough. The cinematography is astounding. State of the art CG - I have no idea what the big hooha is all about the new technology and camera technique/style James Cameron waited 14 years + to materialize... - but from a layman's point of view, simply put: Gorgeous, Beautiful, Heavenly-like CG.

This movie excels in what Blockbuster movies should be: Epic-like, majestic, and total awesomeness. It also has something most Blockbusters don't, which makes this movie a true gem of cinema history - it is able to warp you into the world of Pandora. You see it, you can almost smell it, feel it, and throughout the 2hr 40mins long movie, the director brings you into his made-believe world, his "utopia-like" world with made-belief creatures and plants (holding some features of the animals and plants we see in our world).

I feel it, even more now as I speak of the movie. I want to enter that "world" again, the world of true beauty. Though there are some welcoming additions to the plot, which I will not reveal since I recommend this movie to anyone and everyone out there, and some "deeper" more abstract meaning to the concept and plot of the movie, the one thing which I believe every viewer will bring home with them, is a peace of "heaven" which only one of the greatest directors of all time is able to deliver.

I've read trivia about how the success of this movie will lead to two more sequels of Avatar and I'm exceptionally looking forward to them after a truly great movie experience even though it was at a disappointing cinema. Bad sound system- soft and muffled, which pulls the engagement level down a notch. Even so, it was a great movie experience thanks to the cinematography and CG.

Finally, one of the many things I like about the movie is that there's a new "catch-line" for it. I'm very sure it's going to hang around for the next couple of decades just like Titanic did... Ever wondered what differentiated Titanic from movies like Casino Royale or Godfather? (Not that any of them was bad) Once "Titanic" is brought up, there's a high possibility everyone knows about it and have watched it before... Well, a new era is here; a new highly talked-about movie which will win the heart of millions even billions is finally here... The era for Avatar has descended...

"I see you..."

Nobody To Watch Over Me

Rating: 7.7/10

Genre: Drama

Overall value for money and time: 7.5/10

A movie I had highly anticipated ever since I missed it on the big screens. I've heard about it back then, thought the storyline was so-so and soon realised I could have overlooked a hidden gem of Japanese films. My luck took for a change when I finally found the dvd off the shelves from one of my local movie stores. This is one movie I didn't even hesitate to fork out $17 on it.

Truthfully, that amount spent didn't quite make me feel that it was worth every penny of my dollar... but, ironically, I wouldn't have it any other way - I was burning inside to catch this movie... It didn't quite meet up to my expectations about how heartfelt it would be because the situation portrayed was a little too far-fetched and overboard. It felt fairly unrealistic and one would almost lose hope in humanity after catching it. Are all humans so blinded by anger and "self-righteousness" that they lose themselves?

I highly doubt so, I believe there are a good handful of good people out there. However, due to the outrage of emotions by the public, it somehow brings us "closer" to feeling for the protagonist of the movie.

I have mixed feelings about it, can't really say I love it, and of course, I don't hate it. But it does indeed open our eyes to see, feel and understand the other side of the coin, which usually ends facing the ground, away from sight, away from perceptions.

Enter the lives of the family members of a suspected murderer of two twin sisters. A veteran cop is unwillingly assigned to look after them and to prevent any intrusion of the media or assault from the public. He gradually realises that it's not just the victim's family who are the "true victims"...

Star Trek

Rating: 8.1/10

Genre: Sci-Fi

Overall value for money and time: 7.9/10

You don't need to be a Star Trek fan to appreciate a movie like this. Even though there's a long history of the Star Trek series, this is a stand-alone, comprehen-sive, seat-gripping prequel which will appeal to sci-fi and non-sci-fi fans alike. Trust me, since I'm no fan of Star Wars or Star Trek.

Personally, this movie was able to win my heart more than any previous Star Wars movies. Of course, it's not a fair comparison. But I haven't caught any Star Trek movies before, because somehow, they never did quite appeal to me as much as Star Wars did. Until this movie came along, I would never have bothered to take a second look at Star Trek. To sum it up, this movie is good enough to create a fan out of any sceptics out there.

I have to give all the credit to the actors and especially to the director for delivering and reviving such a sci-fi classic to the younger audience. A good balance of crude humor, cool CG, character as well as plot development. To view it objectively, this movie will easily fall under the top 10 movies of 2009... which I would be counting down very soon (right after my post on probably the last movie I'll catch this year, Sherlock Holmes).

Set in a time where humans worked under the Federation to explore outer space and supposedly bring peace to all. However, this is threatened by a vengeful space renegade by the name of Nero who wants to destroy the planets which belong to the very ones who were the cause of his misery.

Bodyguards and Assassins

Rating: 7.5/10

Genre: Action

Overall value for money and time: 8.7 /10

Who is Sun Yat-Sen? He is the pivotal character in this movie - the one person all the bodyguards and assassins are trying to protect or assassinate respectively. He is the chinese revolutionary and political leader who in the history books, took down the Qing Dynasty and "freed" China.

This movie felt a little like one of those classic chinese movies like the one with the 10 brothers (can't rem the name of the movie) and "Street Fighter" where it featured a star-studded cast. This time, it's like a modern tribute to the biggest stars in chinese cinema (the majority of them). There were lots of cameos of the great names in chinese films, such as ...

I shall hold my horses back as I would greatly recommend this movie to those who have no idea what it's really all about, and hasn't the slightest clue of what to expect. If like I was, all you know about the movie is that its an action film which starred the present martial arts master Donnie Yuen, go catch this movie for a pleasant surprise before everyone else tells you about it.

Well, that was the major reason of the large discrepancy between both of my ratings for this movie. Because at the end of it all, it didn't quite make it for me. The storyline was slow and brought the mood down at times (could also be because I caught a 1215am midnight movie after a long and tiring day), and what I really didn't like about it is how all the great stars, heroes particularly, were portrayed as "Wo Nang" in this movie.

They weren't the cool characters or even your mediocre citizens trying to protect the "future" Father of the nation, instead, they were either outcasted, dim-witted, or detestable. Well, I understand it's the director's intention to make it that way so that it would seem very sacrificial and "Wei Da" at the end but portraying all of them that way whilst making the assassins formidable-like was just too "convenient" for me.

*spoilers ahead* It felt like the character's were too easily and conveniently killed off one at a time at the end due to the lopsided battle and there's basically no seat-gripping intensity or suspense about who was going to survive at the end - it felt more "ok, this character did all he could and sacrificed himself for a greater cause, highly commendable and saddening" instead of "no... no... is he going to... fight them back!! go go!! you can't die."

Perhaps what I'm trying to say is that due to the star-studded cast and the lowly portrayal of the heroes, there's not really a character to feel for since they die off so easily, and the way Donnie Yuen dealt his "finishing blow" was the "epitome" of anti-climaxal.

It's a movie you probably won't want to catch a second time but will probably regret not catching the first.

Inglourious Basterds

Rating: 8.2/10

Genre: Drama

Overall value for money and time: 8.0/10

I'm not a fan of Quentin Tarantino's work, nor am I one who likes Nazi/Jews/War/Soldier movies... Saving Private Ryan didn't quite make it for me, neither did Full Metal Jacket (2 critically acclaimed movies), but... but... "alas", there's always exceptions.

In a Nazi dominated France, a group of american anti-Nazi soldiers tries to infiltrate the Third Reich to assassinate Hitler. This is of course just an overview of the storyline, there are other subplots which contributed to the outcome of the assassination.

What I liked about this film is that it's not typically choreographed - it brings back the cinematography of yester-years. At present, the majority of films are "faster paced", where they throttle scenes quickly to include as many timepoints as possible. This film, however, is "slower paced" and almost every scene lasted at least a good 5-20 minutes - same setting, same characters, same conversation.

Viewing previous Tarantino's work, it seems that he likes to include a good deal of random conversations in his movies, this film is no exception. However, for Inglourious Basterds, somehow the "randomness" of it could link in some sense, which help enhanced one's attention during the dialogue driven scenes. Witty dialogue, loveable characters - even the "villian" was way too cool to hate, but anti-climaxal ending.

If the villian came across as detestable in this movie, the ending might work for you. But in my case, it felt too ironic, and convenient... It did still end with a "deep impression" which I thought was also another unique factor of this film. I shan't spoil the plot for you any further, but would greatly recommend this movie to extreme movie goers out there because it could jolly well fall under your list of top 10 movies of the year 2009, as it did mine.

Terminator Salvation

Rating: 7.8/10

Genre: Action

Overall value for money and time: 7.9/10

Probably the last installment of the terminator series, and surprisingly, a job well-done. Normally, one wouldn't harbor high expectations of sequels, but it seems this might actually turn out to be the 2nd best of all its prequels, with Terminator 2 still ranking as the best Terminator movie I've seen so far.

If you haven't been following Terminator, you might not be able to catch up with the "jargon" of names, but still, the storyline is fairly straightforward. I can't remember much of it either, all I know is that in this sequel, John Connor (the leader of the resistance), whom everyone was trying to save for the past 3 prequels has finally grown up and is finally combating the machine-dominated world.

Then comes his "bodyguard", Marcus Wright, like all the rest of the movies, but this time, his "bodyguard" is more human than cyborg and he fights for his own survival and to understand what was done to him. Imagine a Terminator movie without Arnold, how would the director's still be able to keep it's essence right? That was what I thought initially until I saw Marcus Wright, totally cool, totally refreshing, totally reccommended movie.

*Spoilers ahead* Though the last scene featured "Arnold" in it, governor Arnold *ahem*, I thought it was a cameo appearance, but after reading about it, it was only a computer generated face (younger face) from his past Terminator movies. Still, the CG, acting and storyline will definitely not disappoint!!

Pandorum

Rating: 6.8/10

Genre: Horror Sci-Fi

Overall value for money and time: 6.5/10

Set in the future where humans are on the brink of depleting their last resources due to the overwhelming increase in world population. A new Earth-like planet, Tanis, was found which promises the continual survivor of the human race and a supposed new beginning. It all started with a pair of space shuttle crew waking up from hypersleep and trying hard to recall what their mission was all about.

Well, if one were to watch it and not think back too much about the storyline, it would pass off as a fairly decent horror sci-fi movie. However, if you're one who's obsessed with the "logic" and how the scenes all intertwines to create that almost flawless storyline, then the rating is highly applicable to you. Because for this movie, it just fails to accomplish that.

At the end of the movie, I was rather confused, and upon further reading about the storyline online, I realised the fault lies in the delivery of the plot. There wasn't a clear definition of what was going on, it was all left to one's imagination - in an unsatisfying manner I must add. *spoilers ahead*

Perhaps the most pressing issue I have about the movie is how there was any link between the mutated humans and pandorum. Pandorum is a kind of condition caused by prolonged hyper sleep which creates hallucination and murderous behavior. Well, it was clearly explained in the movie at the start, and how the mutated humans came about was also revealed, but I just didn't see how both linked. Personally, I thought the the most important parts about the movie are the two mentioned above, but they felt like subplots in a movie that was a consequence of finding a new home for humans and nothing else.

And there's another scene which really pisses me off. There featured a cool, agile and skilful warrior who couldn't speak english. He had a duel with the leader of the mutated humans and won. But his throat was slashed by a child mutant. I just didn't get the rationale why the director would kill him off so pathetically and abruptly when he was obviously a good supporting actor. That scene made his life cheap, like he was made used of to kill off the leader and the director didn't want him in the movie anymore, so conveniently got rid him with the seemingly innocent child mutant. That scene just didn't make sense to me...

The opening was seat-gripping, the middle portion kept the suspense growing, but it was the ending which failed the movie. It's not a bad film, just a decently good-concept sci-fi film badly packaged. Acting was convincing, graphics and makeup were realistic, storyline was refreshing yet disturbing, but overall this movie would probably not fall under anyone's top 5 list of sci-fi movies.

Ninja Assasin

Rating: 7.4/10

Genre: Action Slasher

Overall value for money and time: 7.0/10

Raised and trained as a merciless killer in the Yazuka ninja clan since he was a young orphan, Raizo (Rain) must now fight against his brothers and sisters for his freedom. Well, that's the main geeze of it, there's a lot more details but keeping the sypnosis as such will increase the suspense of the movie, though the main bulk of the "suspense" in this movie isn't the plot, but the attack of the ninjas.

This movie didn't quite turn out as I had expected, it wasn't a cool action ninja movie which featured Rain's well-trained body in a short scene. Instead it was a horror, slasher, pretty cool action ninja movie which excessively featured Rain's body throughout the middle of the movie when he trains himself in his dark isolated room as he reminiscence about his past...

And yes, your eyes weren't playing tricks on you, horror slasher. It was so intense whenever the ninjas were planning an assasination that when they appear out of nowhere, they will give you a jump. And after which, that's when the slasher scenes come in. Extremely gory, though animated, it was highly realistic. It's not on the same level as the gore from Saw, where the gore comes from "realistic" situations, it's more like Blood The Last Vampire where there were lots of slashing, splattering of bright red blood and massive dissection of bodies.

With such a flamboyant plot, there were bound to be a good handful of loopholes, or in other words, areas which didn't make much sense. *major spoilers ahead* First off, why were all the ninjas so stealth like (they were able to "teleport") but not Rain, the supposed gifted child who had the potential to take the place of their leader? Instead, he had to be running away on bare feet or even take a car to escape from the rest? Secondly, I'm not sure if I got it right but the first ninja assasin at the opening scene looked like Rain, though supposedly it should be his "brother". Last but not least, the last scene was the most exaggerated. The one where he was finally able to "teleport" and in 1 single shot, defeated the boss. Also, after the entire movie, it feels like humans with displaced hearts wasn't that rare an encounter after all...

Still, it wasn't just an average movie, it excelled in the later scenes of the movie and the entire package did it for me. I would recommend it to Rain fans and ninja lovers, the only advice I would give is don't expect a good match of leads, and expect a horror slasher movie instead of a cool action flick.