There is no other way to put it. The summer of 2009 was probably one of most disappointing summer movie seasons I can remember in a long time. Of the 47 or so movies that came into wide release this season, I can almost count on one hand the number of films I really enjoyed. At the beginning of the summer I predicted it would be about 14. Soooo wrongggggg.
So as we come to a close, I thought I’d take some time to wrap up the summer of 2009 highlighting what I found to be:
1) THE BEST MOVIES OF THE SUMMER
2) THE MOST DISAPPOINTING MOVIES OF THE SUMMER
3) THE “NOT GOOD BUT NOT NEARLY AS BAD AS YOU THOUGHT OR HEARD” MOVIES OF THE SUMMER
and finally
4) THE WORST MOVIES OF THE SUMMER
So with that little intro out of the way… let’s proceed with this postmortem shall we:
THE BEST MOVIES OF THE SUMMER
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#1 – UP Hands down, no questions asked, easily and by far and away the very best movie of the summer of 2009 and of 2009 in general |
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#2 – JULIE & JULIA Trust me, I’m as shocked as you are, but aside from “UP” there wasn’t another film this summer that so entertained me as this one. Meryl Streep MUST get nominated for an Oscar for this film. Touching, funny as hell and amazingly charming all at the same time. Fantastic story. |
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#3 – STAR TREK Many thought it couldn’t be done (including me to be honest), but somehow they found a away to faithfully re-invent Star Trek in a way that was both nostalgic and fresh all at the same time. Such a great job. Can’t wait for the next one! |
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#4 – DISTRICT 9 Highlighted by a brilliant break out performance by Sharlto Copley and some of the summer’s best visual effects and action with dramatic tension, District 9 becomes the sleeper hit of the summer. |
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#5 – THE HANGOVER What initially looked like just another throw away comedy, The Hangover had us in stiches and finally may have given Bradley Cooper a shot at being a legit leading man in Hollywood. |
THE MOST DISAPPOINTING MOVIES OF THE SUMMER (not the worst, but high hopes leading to bad films)
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#1 – TRANSFORMERS 2 I’m still angry about this. The first Transformers is one of my all time favorite summer popcorn flicks… this one… just shit all over me. From the new Jar Jar twins, the leg humping robot, Devastator who didn’t actually fight anyone and just a general lack of doing anything right. If it wasn’t for some of the mind blowing effects and frantic action, I’d put this on the worst list instead of this one. |
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#2 – FUNNY PEOPLE Before it opened I actually thought this film might have a chance at some Oscar hype. Not a chance. A dry and confused movie that had no sense of identity or direction populated with highly unlikeable characters who were unable to generate any sense of sympathy. Yes, it pretty accurately depicted the lifestyle of many comedians… but that doesn’t make it good. You can accurately depict the life of a parking attendant, doesn’t mean I want to pay to see it |
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#3 – TERMINATOR: SALVATION When we heard Batman decided to join the cast a wave of optimism flooded over the internet about this film. Trailers looked half decent too. Movie didn’t. |
THE MOST “NOT AS BAD AS YOU HEARD OR THOUGHT IT WOULD BE” MOVIES OF THE SUMMER (finding entertainment value where you didn’t think any would exist)
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#1 – THE UGLY TRUTH Not going to say this is a great movie or anything silly like that, but I found myself laghing my ass off most of this film and walked out entertained. Much more than I was expecting. Line of the movie: “You wanna know the secret to finding Mr. Right ladies? It’s called a stair master”. So wrong… yet so funny. |
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#2 – GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS PAST Not even going to say this was a “good” movie… because it wasn’t overall. However, considering how horrible it looked, gotta say it had value. Was pleasantly surprised by how it turned out |
THE WORST MOVIE OF THE SUMMER
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THE LAND OF THE LOST Worse than Year One. Worse than The Proposal. Worse than Bandslam. I swear it’s like they didn’t even try. Reconfirming yet again that Danny McBride is the most overrated actor in comedy today. |
So there is my little postmortem on the summer that was 2009. Such a let down. We can only cross our collective fingers and hope for better things next summer. Hope is a wonderful thing… till it punches you in the balls.
