Films of 2009

[snowystingray]

Once again, this list is a complete copy/paste job from facebook. How would I ever remember anything that happens in my life if the internet didn't keep track of it for me?

Films of 2009
1. Flesh and the Devil (1926)
2. The Animal Kingdom (1932)
3. Man of the Moment (1935)
4. The Thief of Bagdad (1940)
5. The Masquerader (1933)
6. The Desperate Hours (1955)
7. Gran Torino (2008)
8. Muppets from Space (1999)
9. Vampire Circus (1972)
10. Repo! The Genetic Opera (2008)
11. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
12. Forbidden Planet (1956)
13. Coraline (2009)
14. Legend (1985)
15. Robocop (1987)
16. American Beauty (1999)
17. Double Indemnity (1944)
18. Rooster Cogburn (1975)
19. Watchmen (2009)
20. Murphy's War (1971)
21. Speed Racer (2008)
22. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
23. Crossfire (1947)
24. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
25. Ride Lonesome (1959)
26. Solaris (1972)
27. The Fall (2006)
28. The Bad News Bears (1976)
29. Little Children (2006)
30. Kabluey (2007)
31. Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day (2008)
32. My Bodyguard (1980)
33. Ryan's Daughter (1970)
34. Sneakers (1992)
35. The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006)
36. The Dragon Painter (1919)
37. I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
38. STAR TREK (2009)
39. Goldfinger (1964)
40. The Women (1939)
41. Transformers (2007)
42. The Big House (1930)
43. I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)
44. Robin and Marian (1976)
45. Up (2009)
46. That Hamilton Woman! (1941)
47. Confessions of a Shopaholic (2009)
48. Race to Witch Mountain (2009)
49. The Wrong Box (1966)
50. The Sand Pebbles (1966)
51. Brute Force (1947)
52. A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
53. The Rainmaker (1956)
54. Manhattan Melodrama (1934)
55. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
56. I See a Dark Stranger (1946)
57. Zenon: Z3 (2004)
58. Ponyo (2008)
59. Moonraker (1979)
60. The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
61. The Beast with Five Fingers (1946)
62. Easy to Love (1953)
63. Now, Voyager (1942)
64. Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933)
65. Heathers (1988)
66. The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
67. The Twonky (1953)
68. GoodFellas (1990)
69. New Moon (2009)
70. Zombieland (2009)
71. The Heiress (1949)
72. The Princess and the Frog (2009)
73. Red Dawn (1984)
74. The Glass Slipper (1955)

Well, I got closer to 100 than I did in 2008, but still not quite there.

A slight boost in cinema attendance, I do believe -- 11 first-run films (Confessions of a Shopaholic and Race to Witch Mountain do not count because I watched them on a plane, okay; airplane films just reside on a separate plane [har har] of viewership), and then I watched Watchmen/Star Trek/Harry Potter twice each, so that makes... 14 trips to the movie theatre? That's acceptable.

Very few dodgy Comcast OnDemand films as well (only Muppets from Space, Legend, and Robocop, I do believe. AND ROBOCOP IS TWENTY SHADES OF AMAZING, so).

Lots and lots of library DVDs... I am rather ashamed to compare this to my Books of 2009 list, to be honest. At least I'm making the most of my tax dollars here.

A bit more horror than I usually go for, but I actually really enjoyed all of it!:
Vampire Circus - thank you iconzicons for the rec, because this was perfect for working out all of my residual vamp-y feelings after my senior coursework.
Repo! - HATERS TO THE LEFT. I LOVE THIS LIKE A MAD THING. I've actually got my DVD sitting next to me right now.
The Beast with Five Fingers - this one is kind of creepy because I recorded in on semi-accident; I was trying to record a different movie at the time slot but this showed up instead, and I was like... whatever, I guess I can go ahead and watch it, and WHOA WHAT this is such an awesomely weird little film. Peter Lorre psychological horror, of course it's gonna be good!
The Phantom of the Opera - because, yes, pre-ALW, this totally counts as horror. I'M SO GLAD I FINALLY WATCHED THIS.
Zombieland - I was quite cautious about seeing this one because I tend to have a super low tolerance for zombie gore, even of the comedy variety (making me the shame of my family, who cannot comprehend why I love Hot Fuzz so so much more than Shawn of the Dead), but, ohhh, this was so adorable and heartwarming! I hear tell that a sequel is in the works, though...? Which does not please me. It ended so perfectly! It's like it's own little self-contained world of low-key wonderful and I would like to keep it that way.

Random viewings I ended up really enjoying:
- AGAIN. ROBOCOP. THIS MOVIE IS AWESOME.
- Speed Racer. One of my friends is a super huge fan so we decided to watch it on one of our study-and-a-movie dates, and. Duuude. This is a super sweet and slightly epic piece of filmmaking -- I mean, in the way that a cartoon adaptation family film can be, but it is what it is and it embraces its source material and runs with it. AND. MATTHEW FOX. IS LIKE SUPER SHOCKINGLY ATTRACTIVE IN THIS. PROBABLY NOT THE POINT OF THE MOVIE, BUT IT NEEDS TO BE STATED.
- Solaris. I really didn't know what this movie was about at all, but felt it was one of those Things I Should Watch At Least Once, so I casually TiVo-ed it eons ago, and then decided to watch it during spring break in a fit of "I need to clean out my DVR, and this thing is like four hours long and is taking up too much space! So why don't I watch it already so I can delete it?" ...Except then I was riveted for the whole thing and I'm pretty sure I spent three of those four hours bawling and I probably still could not tell you what exactly this movie was about at all, only that it spoke quite deeply to my soul and left me feeling pretty fucked up. Also, don't watch the George Clooney version, apparently.

Movies I thought I would really like but didn't:
The Day the Earth Stood Still - I really enjoyed the beginning of this, but then the last five minutes happened and I was like WAIT WAIT WHAT NO SERIOUSLY WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT. Worst ending... ever? Possibly? I can't decide if it was intentionally ironic or just stupid, but it really freaked me out and kind of ruined the movie for me.
Ponyo - I wanted to like this so much! I even dragged my parents with me to see it! But... ehhh. It wasn't bad or anything, but it just didn't stick with me the way I thought it would.

I would type more thoughts, but it is freezing in here and my fingers are getting cold. I need to figure out a way to type with my elbows while my hands are in my pockets, or something.

Now all that is left is my TV of 2009 post... which, if previous years are anything to judge by, will probably take me like a week solid... um, the silver lining to my current unemployment, I guess?

Comments

[sistergrimm36.livejournal.com]

I keep wanting to make a list of movies I watch, but I'm so anal about these kinds of things. Like, I will probably agonize for hours about adding a movie to the list if I only saw 3/4s of it or something.

ARGH, I have had Vampire Circus bookmarked on YouTube forever, and I keep forgetting to watch it. One day!

Repo! - HATERS TO THE LEFT. I LOVE THIS LIKE A MAD THING.
PREACH IT. I'm so surprised by how much I enjoyed that movie. I would buy the DVD, but I'm holding out in case they do a super special extended edition thing, especially because I feel like the movie should have been a bit longer. The pacing was weird for me for some reason.

THE 1925 PHANTOM OF THE OPERA IS MY FAVORITE PHANTOM MOVIE. Which is kind of sad when I think about it, because--not that I don't love some of the crackier versions I've seen--they haven't made a Phantom movie that actually followed the plot and spirit of the book since 1925. FAIL, HOLLYWOOD. And the worst is that for a while IMDB was listing a new (possibly French?) version with Jeremy Irons, but then it was cancelled. BROKE MY HEART. I had a point to this, and the point is that YAY I'm glad you saw it. Because except for the ending, I adore it to pieces. (They actually included his house instead of having him, like, sleep directly in the sewers! This excites me far more than it should!)

[snowystingray.livejournal.com]

I'm the same way, actually! I won't add a movie to my list if I, say, just casually watch thirty minutes of it on TV (but then the part of my personality that is an ardent completist would basically NEVER EVER just "casually" watch part of a movie on TV -- it is fully TiVoed or nothing at all -- so this really isn't a problem I come up against much).

DOOOO IT! You will not regret it. (Well... you might, during the first few minutes where it mostly just looks like a low budget soft core porno -- but it picks up, I promise.)

Oh, I hadn't even thought about a special edition DVD; it does feel like the sort of movie they'd do it for, doesn't it? I don't know if you have the soundtrack or not, but there are some cut songs on it so, you're right, there are definitely places where it feels like it could have been longer (and yet no deleted scenes on the DVD? I don't know if it's because they're holding out on us, or because it was so low budget that the cut scenes were just early concepts that never actually got filmed).

You know, I actually forgot that the 1925 one had that lame-o ending -- I loved all the rest of it so much that I guess I blocked that bit out. But, you're right, so much of it was so pitch perfect to the novel -- his house (LOL!), the whole masquerade, the rooftop scene, Raoul's general adorableness. I mean, it is no secret that I harbor a strong strange passion for the 2004 musical, but... Leroux's novel it is not. It was rather refreshing to watch an adaptation that was actually, well, an adaptation and not... uhhh... whatever all these other versions are.

[railise]

Zombieland
DYING to see this!!

I was quite cautious about seeing this one because I tend to have a super low tolerance for zombie gore, even of the comedy variety
Despite ZombieHood, me too. But this looked like it would be worth it. :D

I love Hot Fuzz so so much more than Shawn of the Dead
YESSS!!!!! Still trying to figure out how I would up with SotD on DVD and not HF-- not that I don't love Shaun, but Fuzz is one I could watch indefinitely. :D

I need to figure out a way to type with my elbows while my hands are in my pockets, or something.
If you figure this out, please to share. *shiver*

[snowystingray.livejournal.com]

Haha, exactly. It's like... conceptually? I am all for zombies. But when it comes to actually watching the brain-eating and bowel-ripping and what have you.... euuurm. Ahem. Excuse me while I cover my face for the whole movie.

And, hee, that is pretty much how I am with Hot Fuzz, too. I'm just so predictable, though -- hotshot supercop placed in a fish-out-of-water workplace situation where murderous conspiracies and situational hilarity occur? GUARANTEED FAVORITE FOR LIFE. (Ashes to Ashes, when are you returning to meeee??)

[lalumena.livejournal.com]

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
Ahaha, WHAT.

Yeah, Ponyo...to be honest, I haven't tracked it down because of the people voicing it. That tends to make or break an animated feature, and I'm just not sure Noah Cyrus is someone I want to listen to for however long the movie lasts.

[snowystingray.livejournal.com]

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
Ahaha, WHAT.

GURRRRL. YOU DO NOT EVEN KNOW. No, seriously, for somebody like me with my strange never-ending fixation on gangster movies/crime dramas/prison films, this movie is like the ULTIMATE must-see. I mean, Paul Muni? YEAH THAT'S RIGHT, PAUL MUNI, AKA THE ORIGINAL SCARFACE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3qx6DhjaAP8). The movie focuses on failures in prison conditions and the justice system, and... wow. I don't want to spoil anything because, right, you totally need to watch this movie some day, but it is just haunting. The ending is... I mean... gah, seriously, one of the best movie endings of anything I've seen, ever, period. It's somewhat based on a true story, actually, and helped the push for prison reform. Ooer, art impacting life!