Movies of '09

I have to admit, this is the first movie I've ever seen in 3-D, so it seemed like all the scares in the movie are more effective (plus there were some genuinely creepy moments where it seemed like guns were pointed right at the audience).
It's been a while since I've seen a movie that would make me flinch and jump out of my seat like MBV did.

"The International" was a nice try at a more grown up version of a James Bond movie.
Starring Clive Owen as an Interpol agent and Naomi Watts as an American DA investigating a major bank's connection to major weapons dealings, the film focuses a lot on investigating and espionage rather than focusing on action (although the movie does have a really good shoot out taking place in the Guggenheim Museum).
There were some pretty good performances, thanks to the film's two leads, but overall, I'd say the movie was too slow for me to really enjoy.

Quite possibly the most accurate movie I've seen adapted from a comic book.
After the death of the super powered vigilante named The Comedian (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, from TV's "Supernatural" and "Grey's Anatomy"), a band of superheroes band together to solve his murder. These heroes include the violent and psychotic Rorschach (Oscar nominee Jackie Earle Haley, "Little Children"), the ultra-powerful and god-like Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup, "Almost Famous", "Big Fish"), and retired, second generation heroes Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson, "Hard Candy") and Silk Spectre (Malin Ackerman, "Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle", "27 Dresses").
Director Zack Snyder goes the same route he went when he dd his other comic book adapted flick, "300", as he did with this film. Taking his cues directly from the source, the movie becomes a hyper stylized, moving comic book. The movie aims for mature audiences with a lot of violence and a lot of nudity. I have the graphic novel that this is based on, and I could remember every little detail of the story, and I am impressed that the filmmakers did all they could to bring it to life and still manage to throw a couple of curveballs to the fans out there, like the film's finale.
I think I'm becoming a fan of Snyder's work, however I would like to see him do an original film, since his all of his feature films so far have been adaptations (2004's "Dawn of the Dead", "300", and this one).

This movie is really testament to how great a sci-fi director Alex Proyas ("The Crow", "Dark City") is. Even though the movie takes huge leaps in logic and a somewhat questionable performance from Nicolas Cage.
The film stars Cage as a recently widowed father and astrophysics professor at M.I.T. One day, his son, Caleb (Chandler Canterbury, from "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button") receives a paper full of seemingly random numbers written by a little girl 50 years ago. That night, Cage notices that the numbers have a pattern that accurately predicts pretty much every single disaster from the past 50 years, and warns of even more to come. In order to figure out what this means, he visits the only living relative of the girl (played by Rose Byrne from "Marie Antoinette" and "Troy") and her daughter. Eventually, he learns that the numbers are the key in what might be the end of the world.
The story itself is pretty interesting. And Proyas is great at crafting a gripping, tense, and suspenseful atmosphere, and this film is no different. Even though its not actually a horror film, it is probably one of the scariest movies I've seen recently. And even though Cage's performance is hit and miss (with a lot of "misses" at the film's climax), Proyas still kept the film together.
Even though I actually like Cage as an actor, this film really isn't a highlight of his ability. He tends to overact when it comes to suspense/ thrillers (see: "The Wicker Man"), and at certain moments he seemed to be more about posturing for the camera rather than doing a subtle or nuanced performance.
Overall, I actually liked this film a lot. It really does a good job showing off Proyas' skill as a filmmaker, making a story that actually kept me at the edge of my seat.

As far as PG-13 rated horror movies go, this...is certainly one of them.
The Haunting in Connecticut tells the story of a mother (played by Virginia Madsen, "Sideways") who moves her family to their new home in Connecticut so her terminally sick son (Kyle Gallner) could be closer to a hospital that can save him with an experimental procedure. Well, bad news...the house is haunted, and the son and his younger siblings can see the ghosts and, naturally, they are all scary looking and stuff.
And, as far as haunting movies go, this really isn't any different than anything else that has come out recently. Basically, the entire movie is built on cliches. Even the movie's plot twist at the end is a huge cliche that's been done to death. I think what this movie has that is pretty good, were some of the performances by Madsen, Gallner, and Elias Koteas ("Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", "The Prophecy").
Overall, this movie is pretty much interchangable. If you liked "An American Haunting" or "The Messengers", then you'll like this. Otherwise, its pretty mediocre.

Speaking as a fan of Marvel comics, the story was kinda lacking. Now, Wolverine really isn't my favorite X-Man, his character is stereotypical badass rebel with a heart of gold, and origin is basically randomness that can be chalked up to brainwashing. They put that together and you get Wolverine.They did do a couple of things right, though. I did like Gambit and the 5 minutes that Ryan Reynolds was in it (He was close to actually being Deadpool in those 5 minutes). But, I think they tried to make too much more out of it. They shoehorned Cyclops in there, I guess as a sort of apology to the fans for X-Men 3.
As a movie fan, it was so-so. Some of the special effects were pretty bad. They had about 4 effects companies working on it, you would think one of them would have done a better job with Wolvie's claws popping out. Had some pretty nice action scenes, but I don't think they were too memorable. And the part with the elderly couple was pretty strange, too. I guess the writers thought, "eh, let's take something from Superman".

All in all, it wasn't as disrespectful to the fans as X-Men 3 was, unless your a Deadpool fan, but the plot could have made better sense, and the special effects could have been better.

"Year One" tells the story of an incompetant hunter named Zed (Jack Black) and timid gatherer named Oh (Michael Cera), who are kicked out of their tribe and set off on an adventure, and manage to run into various stories from the Bible.
The premise of the story is interesting enough, and there were quite a few hilrarious moments by some really great co-stars like David Cross and Paul Rudd as Cain and Abel, Oliver Platt as the High Priest, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse as Isaac.
One thing I didn't like was that the movie felt incomplete. There were some jokes that were introduced, but didn't follow through, and the story felt like it was bouncing around too much. They probably felt that they had to cut down on time or take out some jokes to make it a PG-13 flick, but I'm expecting it to be cleared up with some sort of "unrated" cut on DVD.
Overall, I think its not a bad movie. I laughed pretty good at a couple of parts, but it also felt rushed and incomplete.

Taking place 2 years after the first "Transformers", this film follows the Autobots now working with the US and English troops in wrangling up rogue Decepticons, while Sam Witwicky (Shia LeBouf) prepares for life at college. Meanwhile, the last group of Decepticons, led by a revived Megatron launch a massive attack to destroy Earth once and for all.
Well, the movie really works in the massive Autobot vs. Decepticon battles. The scenes are exciting, and the better constructed Transformers makes it easier to see who is who, and what they are doing. Plus, some of them are really badass. The likes Optimus Prime, Megatron, Bumblebee, and Starscream, have amazing and jaw-dropping battles.
However, for every Optimus Prime, there's Mudflap and Skids. Characters and jokes that are so grating and annoying, that they take away some real enjoyment. For example, take Mudflap and Skids, who are basically dueling Chris Tucker clones, or an unnecessary joke about a Decepticon scrotum. There's another Bumblebee pissing on a person scene. There's an extreme close-up of John Turturro's ass. None of these really cotribute to the story mind you. They are there solely to either get a cheap laugh or drive the audience to suicide. I can't tell which.
Overall, it was somewhat disappointing. There were some pretty big plot holes, bad jokes, and annoying characters that take away from an otherwise entertaining movie.

"Paul Blart: Mall Cop" is about a lonely and overweight mall security officer with a pretty bad name, Paul Blart (Kevin James), who unwittingly finds himself battling with a gang of crooks when they try to rob his mall.
This movie was kind of surprising, the humor works, for a bit. James did a good job as the titular character, as he was kinda sympathetic, but still managed to play it for laughs.
The story, however, seemed to me like what might happen if Disney ever decided to remake "Die Hard", dumbing it down, made the Bruce Willis character an extra fluffy lovable loser, and the crooks recruited straight out of the X Games for stunts that don't really fit in the context of the movie. Plus, I hate the title. Too many long "a" sounds put together. It sounds like talking through a yawn (I've tried it, too. Sounds exactly like it.) It's really a superficial complaint, I know, but that's not good when your talking about a comedy.
Overall, it's for the kids. Tweens will probably love Blart for trying and succeeding at the end, but the humor may get to be too raunchy for kids younger than that. But, I thought that this may have been the worst movie I'll see all year when I picked it up, but, it's really not that bad.

"The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3" follows a man known simply as Ryder (John Travolta) as he holds a subway car full of people hostage, and plans on killing every single person there unless he gets $10 million. The hostages only hope falls on the shoulders of subway dispatcher, Walter Garber (Denzel Washington), the only man Ryder wants to talk to.
As far as action-oriented summer blockbusters go, this is probably more brainier than a lot of things coming down the pipeline (certainly moreso than Transformers: Rise of the Fallen or G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra). The acting is top-notch, thanks to Travolta and Washington. There were also a lot of "edge of your seat" moments as Scott ratchets up the tension at several moments of the movie. Plus, I also liked James Gandolfini as the Mayor of New York City, since he plays the part of comic relief while actually contributing to the story. (take that Twins from T:ROTF!)
As far as negative things go, there were a couple of action scenes that seemed to have been crammed into the film, and seemed a little out of place.
Overall, I really liked this. It was clever and knew how to play it. A good antidote to the big action-zero intelligence blockbusters, I named earlier.

A sort of remake/sequel to the "Friday the 13th" franchise, this film follows a guy named Clay Miller (Jared Padalecki) and his group of friends as they try to find his sister, Whitney (Amanda Righetti), who went missing. However, they have to contend with the legendary hockey-masked killer, Jason Vorhees (Derek Mears).
I've been a long time fan of Jason Vorhees and the "Friday the 13th" series, so I was actually optimistic about this film since it has the creative team of Marcus Nispel (who directed the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, which I liked) and Michael Bay (who produced both the TCM and Amityville Horror remakes, which, again, I lked) behind the camera. And, well, it seems like the guys did a decent job carrying on the spirit of the original movies. Also Derek Mears did a pretty good job as Jason, even though there seemed to be quite a bit of changes done to his personality.
As for the rest of the cast, they are pretty much paper thin. They are nothing more than stock retreads from the past movies, and are nothing more than pretty corpses waiting to die a gruesome death. At least in the previous Bay remakes, there seemed to be more going on with them. And, again, there were quite a few changes done to Jason's personality and M.O. He leaves traps, he takes prisoners. This isn't as different as "Jason Goes to Hell", where it was explained that he was some sort of demon, but I still found it to be a bit strange.
Overall, if your a Friday the 13th fan, you might enjoy it. I did, but I was also kinda disappointed that it brought nothing new to the table. It still basically boils down to Jason kills horny, pot-smoking teens.

Push follows a group of superpowered group of people, unwillingly led by Nick Gant (Chris Evans), a "mover" who can move things via telekinesis, and Cassie Holmes (Dakota Fanning), a "watcher" who can see the future. Together, they look for a girl named Kira (Camilla Belle), a "pusher" who can push people via suggestion, who has the key to bring down a powerful government organization called the Division.
While the film has an ambitious plot, it really doesn't seem fully developed. The action scenes were fun, and it's interesting seeing the different abilities play off each other, it seems like the movie doesn't take full advantage of it. It becomes disappointing because the movie has a sense of blandness about it

Sacha Baron Cohen returns as Brüno, a homosexual Austrian fashionista who one day finds his celebrity status in Europe fallen. So he decides to start over in America, While in the USA, he tries a number of publicity stunts, such as adopting an Afican child, trying to make a sextape with Presidential candidate Ron Paul, and even trying to create world peace, or get kipnapped in the process.
I have to say, Cohen is absolutely fearless in doing these jokes. The fact he goes into these situations, risking his life and well-being to make us laugh. He actually goes into these areas in these outrageous outfits hitting on guys, and making out with one in the movie's finale, and he nearly gets beaten. That's either incredibly brave or batshit crazy. Still, the movie was funny, and it's share of really funny moments. Funniest movie I've seen this year, so-far. Plus, at the end, the movie did put an interesting spin on homophobia in our society.
One thing I was kinda disappointed about was the film's format. Even though there were some moments where it paid off, it seemed like it was trying too much to top Borat.
Overall, I thought it was really good. Not for the faint of heart. There are a lot of moments which would offend basically everyone, but it's worth it. Funny as hell.

Vera Farmiga and Peter Sarsgaard play two parents who are dealing with the loss of a child who was recently stillborn. They decide to go ahead and adopt a little girl from an area orphanage, where they meet an adorable 9 year old Russian girl named Esther (impressively played by Isabelle Fuhrman). Early on, she seems innocent and unassuming enough, until it is revealed that she has a darker, more sinister side.
First, off, I loved the performances by Farmiga and Fuhrman. Farmiga is very good at playing someone who is in over her head (There was a scene in the film Running Scared, where her son is discovered in the home of a couple of serial child killers and I thought she did an incredible job). Fuhrman was a great villain, and was able to make Esther into a terrific menacing villain, with shades of Hannibal Lector.
What I didn't like? Too many "black cat" scares early on. Have you ever seen a movie, where the hero is looking around an old house, and when they open a closet, *loud sound* *something jumps on screen*, "Oh, it's a cat". There weren't any cats in the movie, mind you. It's more of a general term. At first, the movie tried too much to establish a sense of suspense, which, I thought, took away from the personal drama surrounding the parents and their back story. Eventually, the story gets us to Esther, and it progressively gets better, even if it also gets sillier and plays to the conventions of the "adorable child from hell" genre.
But, I loved the ending. It was one of the biggest shocks I've had at the end of a movie since The Sixth Sense. It's bloody, it's violent, and I thought it was great. Highly recommended.

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So, one month removed from "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen", we are treated to another big summer blockbuster action film based on a line of 80's action figures by made Hasbro. This time it's "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra".

The story focuses on two young soldiers, named Duke and Ripcord (played by Channing Tatum and Marlon Wayans, respectively), who are ambushed while escorting a set of very dangerous missiles. They are saved by a group of highly trained military specialists called G.I. Joe, led by Heavy Duty Adewale Akinnuoye Agbaje), Scarlett (Rachel Nichols), Snake Eyes (Ray Park), and General Hawk (Dennis Quaid). The bad guys, on the other hand, are led by the Baroness (Sienna Miller), McCullen (Christopher Eccleston), Storm Shadow (Byun-hun Lee), and the mysterious Doctor (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), and the two engage in fierce battles with lots of explosions.
Really that's all there is. Not much happens as most of the movie focuses on an outstanding number of flashbacks focusing on most of the characters' back stories. The battles are pretty entertaining, and focuses a lot on the technological aspects of the weapons, aside from the ninja fighting styles of Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow (which leads to a somewhat thrilling, if not, anti-climactic fight scene).
However, this is pretty much the type of movie that would be considered a good Michael Bay flick. Director Stephen Sommers (The Mummy, Van Helsing) isn't really known for these types of movies, but still manages to pull off something that classifies as "big, dumb fun". Really, nothing wrong with it, but it is better at being that than Bay's own "Transformers" sequel, even if it does run a bit long (just a bit under two hours).

I will say, if you liked "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen", you should like this one, and maybe even like this one better.