Best Of: Summer Movies 09...

Alright, as promised here is my best of list for movies this summer. I was more pumped for this summer than summers past, but it looks like it was a huge letdown. Good thing next summer can't be a let down because even if all the movies suck, Iron Man 2 will be amazing (fingers crossed Scarlett "worst actress ever" Johanssen doesn't ruin the franchise). First though, instead of doing a worst list I'll just mention some terrible movies that nearly ruined the summer. First, and by far the worst, was Transformers 2. Was that this summer? I can't believe how bad it was. I enjoyed the first one and was really looking forward to this, but it was just tremendously awful. Harry Potter 6 was also heartbreaking. The first movie in the series I didn't love. It's almost like someone read the cliff notes, decided most of it wasn't important, rewrote it, then hired someone dyslexic to put it together. I've only seen it the once so I won't say I hate it, but as of right now, I definitely didn't like it. Also making my sh*t list was Wolverine. Pretty close to hating it as much as Transformers 2 but not quite there. Way to ruin Gambit and Deadpool in one movie.

Anyway, here's the top 5 best movies. Once again these are just from the movies I have seen (May - Sept 21st) so it may not be completely accurate until I finish netflixing all the ones I missed. Honorable mentions are District 9 and Funny People.


5.) Up
Disney & Pixar did it again. I don't think they will ever make a bad movie. I haven't seen cars but I can't imagine it's bad. Following Wall-e, I didn't think they could keep up with expectations, and while this wasn't as good, it was pretty close. If that opening credits montage didn't get your eyes watery, then you have no heart.

4.) (500) Days of Summer
I love this movie. I've already talked about it a few times so I'll be brief but you could put JGL and Zooey in any movie and I'll pay to see it. The only thing I wasn't so keen on was the narration, but I'm okay with it.

3.) Away We Go
Who'd have thought a guy from The Office (terrible, I mean, U.S. version) could be funny? This movie was refreshingly hilarious. I'm sick of the 'indie' woe is me dark comedies that basically need to make characters hate life in order to get the point across. This movie was great and you should all rent it asap (it just came out today).



2.) Moon
Sam Rockwell is my hero. I know I talked about this one a couple of times already, but the fact that he carried this movie by himself and it was this good is really a testament to how good an actor he is. He created this person (people) that were so real, it was hard to figure out what was happening. I'm not sure how to classify this movie, it wasn't a comedy or a drama or a thriller or suspense. It's whatever 2001: A Space Odyssey is after the apes and before sh*t gets weird.



1.) Star Trek
This movie blew me away. Repeatedly. With so many movies coming out and the fact that I see them all, it's rare that I get to see a movie 4 or 5 times in the theater, but with this I kept going back specifically to see this and not just as a third option on a slow wednesday. Only a couple movies have been this good that kept bringing me back, Batman Begins, Iron Man and Kill Bill Vol. 1. Star Trek was perfect and I can't wait until the next one. I am not a huge fan of the original Star Trek and have only ever seen one or two episodes but that didn't matter. The story was perfect, the acting, the action and everything else was amazing. JJ Abrams is somehow sneaking his way into being one of my must see directors. This doesn't come out on dvd until mid november (the 17th I think) so you've got some time before you can watch it, but you won't be disappointed when you do.



Never have Indies dominated the chart the way they have this summer. This is sort of a combination of the fact that the blockbusters sucked, and people are loving indies (which is good for my industry) and theaters are actually screening these films in much more abundance than ever before. It's awesome. Anyway, that's it. There are some gems coming out this fall so I'll post a list soon of things you need to keep an eye out for. Go big.

-M, p, z & shredder