This is not a list. The following is a wide range of great films that came out in the year 2009. We strongly urge every Citizen to check out these titles. Sorry to the Twilight fans; your movie is still arse. Stay tuned for our most anticipated movies of 2010. With the exception of ‘The Single Best Movie of the Year’, the rest are in no particular order.
What can I say, it’s the holidays and reel news is slow. Here’s a video. Nation’s Pride is a fictional Nazi propaganda film that appeared in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds (Top 250: #68..really?) The six-minute clip was released as a promotion for Basterds and was shot by Eli Roth, who played the baseball bat-wielding Bear Jew (and also makes his own shitty movies.)
I don’t read many reviews; in fact I tend to stay away from reviews that are larger than a postcard size write up. Everyone sees something different. Some people could care less about lighting, sound and dialogue. For me what makes a movie special, what makes it art, is its effect on me. If in this review and others to come I come off as arrogant, please excuse me. It’s just that I have expectations when I see a film; I like it to be worth something. I will try and keep reviews short, sweet and spoiler free while trying to reach out to those who still love going to the movies. Not to be first in line or to eat; but to escape. Lights, camera, review!
In a recent interview with GQ magazine, Harvey Weinstein was asked about those rumors regarding him wanting Tarantino to take a knife to Inglourious Basterds. Here is what the nice mad had to say:
“Those stories are all untrue. There’s no f—ing way. Here, read my lips: That is nuts. Please don’t even write that, it’s insanity. There’s not even a question of that. Whatever you’re reading, it’s like some insane blogger. There’s no truth to any of this. He’s not gonna cut. What he’s doing is just reorganizing some scenes. I mean, the guy had six weeks to cut his movie [for Cannes]; most guys take six months. Most guys take a year. When I worked with Martin [Scorsese], we’d do 18 months in post-production.
I often try to avoid trailers before seeing a film for the first time, but I also often make exceptions to my rules. The full second movie trailer for Inglourious Basterds has been released, and is included after the jump. We still have Eli Roth, for some reason someone told him it would be a good idea to act in movies I think. And we have the angry Hitler from Downfall and some pretty funny spoofs.
Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds has screened to the international press at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and the reviews are hitting the net. I don’t take kindly to most reviewers; I am one to believe that old saying “those who can’t, review”. So I will leave it up to other to decide if these are genuine comments or just verbal diarrhea. I can only imagine the look of strain on an old man’s face watching a QT film. “Why so much talky talk” he would ask. Serenity now. Minor Spoilers.
Total Film – While the opening, gripping chapter – set in a French peasant house in 1941 – is excellent and a final cinema (where else?) foyer scene is epic in its grandeur with sweeping cameras and impeccable set design, much of Basterds felt flat, with a schizophrenic spaghetti western style that blasts Ennio Morricone at the start and then David Bowie later on.
First Showing – So why isn’t this a masterpiece if its got top-notch performances and a great story? Maybe it’s that I wanted more action, or to spend more time with the Basterds, or get a more detailed look at the whole story, that prevented this from reaching those heights. Even though it ran 148 minutes, it still felt like Tarantino had edited it down heavily and cut out plenty of scenes. I never read the script, so I can’t make that comparison, but I will say my expectations were definitely not in line with what Tarantino delivered in the end. That’s not bad, but I just had to rearrange my expectations part way through. And while I don’t think this gem is polished to perfection, it is definitely a new Tarantino favorite that I can’t wait to watch again. (more…)
With the summer on its way it’s time to look forward to the movies of summer. Here are the ones I will be checking out, don’t take offence if your top flick isn’t listed. It’s not you, it’s me…I hate most movies coming out these days. Ok it’s you. The usual mix of sequels (Terminator Salvation), prequels (Wolverine), remakes (The Taking of Pelham 123), reboots (Star Trek), and big screen adaptations (G.I. Joe) will fill the movie house, here are the ones you should see:
Pixar’s Up – Trailer
Starring: Christopher Plummer
Director: Pete Docter; Bob Petersen
Release Date: 29th May 2009
A lot of people liked Wall-E. I was not one of them. The movie if a bit more subtle in its message might have done a lot more for me. Toy Story stands as the best of Pixar’s films. This May we get UP from Pixar and from what I have seen and heard, it should take its place in the year’s best list. It’s a sweet story of an old man who wants to live out his dead wife’s lifelong dream to explore the mountains. He does this by befriending a young boy who is an exploration enthusiast. I can’t wait.
Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen – Trailer
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox
Director: Michael Bay
Release Date: 26th June 2009
The guilty pleasure of summer. I shouldn’t have liked the first Transformers movie, but I did. It was a whole lot of fun to have in the theater and I can’t wait to see some more robots kick ass this summer. We will likely see some more of Megan Fox’s stomach and Shia will be sure to get his sweat on all over again. Rumor has it that the ‘Fallen’ are actually a third set of robots, who the Decepticons and Autobots have to team up to destroy. Who cares?
Public Enemies – Trailer
Starring: Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, Channing Tatum
Director: Michael Mann
Release Date: 1st July 2009
This might be as close as we get to seeing Johnny Depp cast opposite Christian Bale as the Riddler as those rumors suggest. Michael Mann (HEAT) is at the helm so this should be one of the best of the year. Depp is John Dillinger and Bale the man on his trail in this crime thriller set during the crime wave of the 1930s that subsequently gave birth to the FBI.
Brüno – Trailer
Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen, Alice Evans
Director: Dan Mazer
Release Date: 10th July 2009
After the box office gold that was Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Borat”, the British comedian is back with Bruno. Bruno is a camp, over the top homosexual who claims to be an Austrian reporter and turns up in less open minded locations in which he is far from welcome; such as the conservative southern states of America, or soccer games. Bruno once managed to make a spokesman completely change his opinion on Paris Hilton during the interview by claiming that The Hiltons were a key sponsor.
Funny People – Trailer
Starring: Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen
Director: Judd Apatow
Release Date: July 31st 2009
The Judd posters are starting to get out of hand, “The # film by…” Who gives a shit how many movies you got on your IMDB. Remember that in the Kill Bill trailers, it was bigger than the title screen! Besides the trailer that was a little too revealing for my taste, it’s obvious we have the writing and acting that we have come to love about the Apatow gang. Sandler works best with the dramatic mix I think too, Punch Drunk Love anyone? Seth Rogen’s first movie since he got thin…so there’s that.
Inglourious Basterds – Trailer
Starring: Brad Pitt, Diane Kruger, Eli Roth, Mike Myers
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Release Date: 21st August 2009
This one is more out of curiosity, to see if I can still stand to watch a Tarantino movie without feeling like a giant tool. The type people who defend him and the type of people who hate him remind me a lot of Kevin Smith followers. Fan clubs. I think Tarantino makes movies for his fan club rather than for himself these days, he makes special QT moments in his movies so people will walk away talking about them instead of you know…focusing on the whole picture. We will see I suppose.
H2: Halloween 2 – Trailer
Starring: Malcolm McDowell, Sheri Moon Zombie
Director: Rob Zombie
Release Date: August 28 2009
I loved the first Halloween Zombie made, whatever you call it – a reinvention, remake, or reboot. He did it justice, and now more than ever it seems like he got the version that the studio wanted out of the way, he is making something for him and his fans. If you haven’t seen THE DEVILS REJECTS by the way, you know what you have to do this weekend. It’s a nice look into the Directors head.
HONOURABLE MENTION
Watchmen – It came out March 6th, so it isn’t a summer movie. It was one hell of a movie though, one of the year’s best so far.
Observe and Report – Released a few weeks back, this might be the best movie of the year so far. This dark comedy should be studied. So funny and interesting, I didn’t know Seth Rogen had this character in him. Check it out.
WHY NOT?
X-Men Origins: Wolverine – I wish I could say that the reason I didn’t see it was because I saw a 100% bootleg version but I can’t. I wouldn’t even watch that. I have no interest in this story, and the taint on the X-Men movies still hasn’t washed away, and I’ve been taking four showers a day since X3.
Star Trek – The Starfeet looks to have an average age of 20 years old. That’s what I want in a Star Trek movie, some kids from the park running around with phasers.
We have some new footage from INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS. On American Idol last night (still on?) we got our first look at an old British Mike Myers (insert Fat Basterd joke). The movie itself from what I have seen looks great. The script that I read with Tarantino’s child like writing on it was also very good. Take a look at what Idol revealed:
EMPIRE brings us Inglourious goodness with the release of the teaser trailer and posters for Quentin Tarantino’s latest INGLOURIOUS BASTERS with which to whet your bloody appetite.
‘Once upon a time in Nazi occupied France’ reads the tagline along with a triumvirate of blood-soaked weaponry to be employed by Lt Aldo Raines’ band of German-stalking scalp-hunters. Whether bludgeoned, stabbed or shot through the head, Hitler’s henchmen have clearly got a fight on their hands and we have to say that the new art makes us more excited to see Inglourious Basterds than ever before. Check it out.
Inglourious Basterds is set to come out in August. Here is the first teaser trailer. I say teaser, but this is pretty lengthy. No spoilers other than I didn’t know the Jewish geek from Freak and Geeks was in this! Enjoy. Oh also…IMDB tells us some trivia:
- Quentin Tarantino worked on the script for almost a decade. (I guess a CSI episode comes first)
- Tarantino approached Adam Sandler to play Sgt. Donnie Donowitz. But Sandler had to turn it down because of schedule conflicts. (German version of Lunch Lady Land? Sloppy sloppy Joes!)
-Tarantino originally wanted Leonardo DiCaprio to play Hans Landa but decided that a German-speaking actor should play the role.
According to Eddie Murphy, he was in talks with Tarantino for a role in the film. (What a filthy liar!)
Despite being Brad Pitt and Quentin Tarantino’s first time working together, Brad had co-starred in True Romance (1993) (Written by Tarantino and directed by Tony Scott).
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