Top 20 Films of 2009

I watch more films than listen to new albums and it's made even trickier because unlike music that I can look at and know what year it was released, I can't recall all the films I've seen in the last 12 months so if I have missed any great movies it's because I've simply forgotten them so please let me know if you've seen a great cinematic masterpiece that I haven't listed or you think should be in the Top 20.

Naturally, these are in no particular order and if you haven't seen them, check out the trailer and go rent it!

Let The Right One In

Oscar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl who turns out to be a vampire

Mesrine

The story of notorious French gangster Jacques Mesrine.




Moon

Astronaut Sam Bell has a quintessentially personal encounter toward the end of his three-year stint on the Moon, where he, working alongside his computer, GERTY, sends back to Earth parcels of a resource that has helped diminish our planet's power problems.




The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

A traveling theater company gives its audience much more than they were expecting.




Avatar

A paraplegic marine dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world he feels is his home.




The Hurt Locker

Iraq. Forced to play a dangerous game of cat-and-mouse in the chaos of war, an elite Army bomb squad unit must come together in a city where everyone is a potential enemy and every object could be a deadly bomb.




Frozen River

Takes place in the days before Christmas near a little-known border crossing on the Mohawk reservation between New York State and Quebec. Here, the lure of fast money from smuggling presents a daily challenge to single moms who would otherwise be earning minimum wage.

The Hangover

A Las Vegas-set comedy centered around three groomsmen who lose their about-to-be-wed buddy during their drunken misadventures, then must retrace their steps in order to find him.




Inglourious Basterds

In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as "The Basterds" are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis.




Gran Torino

Disgruntled Korean War vet Walt Kowalski sets out to reform his neighbor, a young Hmong teenager, who tried to steal Kowalski's prized possession: his 1972 Gran Torino.




District 9

An extraterrestrial race forced to live in slum-like conditions on Earth suddenly finds a kindred spirit in a government agent who is exposed to their biotechnology.




Coraline

An adventurous girl finds another world that is a strangely idealized version of her frustrating home, but it has sinister secrets.




Star Trek

A chronicle of the early days of James T. Kirk and his fellow USS Enterprise crew members.




Terminator Salvation

After Skynet has destroyed much of humanity in a nuclear holocaust, a group of survivors led by John Connor struggles to keep the machines from finishing the job.




Zombieland

The horror comedy Zombieland focuses on two men who have found a way to survive a world overrun by zombies...




Dead Snow

A ski vacation turns horrific for a group of medical students, as they find themselves confronted by an unimaginable menace: Nazi zombies.




Knowing

A teacher opens a time capsule that has been dug up at his son's elementary school; in it are some chilling predictions -- some that have already occurred and others that are about to -- that lead him to believe his family plays a role in the events that are about to unfold.




Watchmen

In an alternate 1985 where former superheroes exist, the murder of a colleague sends active vigilante Rorschach into his own sprawling investigation, uncovering something that could completely change the course of history as we know it.




Carriers

Four friends fleeing a viral pandemic soon learn they are more dangerous than any virus.




Adventureland

A comedy set in the summer of 1987 and centered around a recent college grad (Eisenberg) who takes a nowhere job at his local amusement park, only to find it's the perfect course to get him prepared for the real world.




There's some great films lined up for 2010 and hopefully I'll get time to review more than I have this year. Have a great New Year and enjoy the popcorn!