Following my top and bottom movies of 2009, this is my most pleasantly surprising movies of 2009.
- Rachel Getting Married #9 in my 2009 rankings. I only went to see this movie because there was nothing else to see. Held together by a monumental performance by Anne Hathaway that I still believe should have won the best picture Oscar.
- Adventureland #25 in my 2009 rankings: Really poorly marketed pushing the “from the makers of Superbad” angle too far this is actually more subtle movie with realistic emotional vulnerability characters. It also has a great performance from Kristen Stewart that will make you forget Bella Swan.
- The White Ribbon #11in my 2009 rankings: Michael Haneke’s Hidden (2005) was a widely praised film, although thoughtful and well made it was a bit slow tedious and a little esoteric. Then comes The White Ribbon, a two and a half hour black and white movie essay that may or may not explain the origin of Nazism. It is a trully brilliant film that only just missed out on my top ten.
- The Hangover #41 in my 2009 rankings: I don’t go to see a huge number of outright comedies. I just don’t find the American Pie or Austin Powers films funny. Therefore it comes as no surprise that I was in no rush to see The Hangover. Although dumb The Hangover is actually funny and works really well.
- G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra #88 in my 2009 rankings: Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a good movie but it isn’t as bad as I expected. The trailer made me think it would be the worst film ever made. It was far from that and avoided my top ten worst movies of the year.
- Star Trek #18 in my 2009 rankings: Since the first movie, Star Trek: The Motion Picture thirty years ago they only managed to make three good movies (from ten attempts). I was worried the so called reboot would be a cheesy prequel, its actually really good!
- Zombieland #10 in my 2009 rankings. I went to see Pandorum (that only made #87 on my list when I finally got to see it) a combination of traffic and a queue at the cinema meant the movie had started before I got to the ticket office. I went for Zombieland that was previewing a couple of days before it’s release. As well as being a great movie seeing it early meant I hadn’t had the plot/cameo spoiled.
- Surveillance #71 in my 2009 rankings: Fifteen years after her first movie, the appalling Boxing Helena, Jennifer Lynch made her second film. A nasty little film that lots of people will be repulsed by, it is actually quite good!
- Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist #16 in my 2009 rankings. A bit like Rachel Getting Married I went to see this because there was nothing else worth seeing. A teenage romantic comedy isn’t the most appealing movie to me, but this teenage romantic comedy really struck a chord with me.
- The Time Travellers Wife #54 in my 2009 rankings. If ever a movie had chick flick written all over it this is it. To add to that it is a bit of a mess of a film, it is however held together by great performances from Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams making it inexplicably likeable.
