Compared with 2008, the past year has opened up more reason for hope. Among other things, there were new films by Quentin Tarantino, Sam Raimi, James Cameron, Kathryn Bigelow, Michael Mann, Darren Aronofsky and Steven Soderbergh. Many of these films were able to maintain the high expectations and marked a surprising return to previous form. Only Scorsese's Shutter Iceland was withheld from us - the tarnished by the economic crisis studio has moved the theatrical release of Dennis Lehane adaptation, a not entirely comprehensible saving measure. 2009 was not only in this respect, the year of the economic crisis: Michael Mann and Tom Tykwer have their films Public Enemies and The International in fictional context most clearly in the dominant topic in news newspapers and reference. But recourse to the classic political thriller as State of Play, European gangster films like the excellent Mesrine- Two Piece by Jean-François Richet and independent films by Nicolas Winding Refn ( Bronson) and Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler show) along with Kathryn Bigelow's Iraq war drama impressive The Hurt Locker a new interest in dark character studies. The following is my Best and Worst 2009, depending on your mood with short or less provided brief comments.
Drag Me to Hell (2009, Sam Raimi) - Finally a good horror film, despite its PG-13 Rating offers everything you be expected from a cinematic roller coaster. Now imagine a third Evil Dead sequel - unrated, of course!
Avatar (2009, James Cameron) - Ice Age - Dawn of the Dinosaurs (2009, Carlos Saldanha and Mike Thurmeier) was my first 3D movie, since Hollywood again tried to give us the new old foist innovation as an attraction cinema. In fact, the effects were there quite convincing. But only Avatar shows what you can do with the extra dimension. A compelling drama may look different, but as a visionary Noise is Cameron's comeback a masterpiece. Point.
Harry Brown (2009, Daniel Barber) - Someone has coined for Eastwood's Gran Torino (2008) the term "retiree-Action". That was kind of right and wrong. Also Harry Brown we will append this title well when he finally arrives in Germany in the cinemas. Here, in films such as Harry Brown and Gran Torino Action, and thus necessarily move, only in a few scenes set directly in scene. Rather it is about a halt to stubborn characters played by old stars, now well into their 70s (Caine is 76, Eastwood 79). The protagonists, both give in Gran Torino and Harry Brown are old, tired men, who were miles away from the surrounding society. And in contrast to the fashionable revenge fantasies of recent years, these films are really grim.
Public Enemies (2009, Michael Mann) - At last a really good Michael Mann film. Cadrage and setting variables work through the game with foreground and background, and on close, detailed close-ups as a conscious use to the 1960s and the Techniscope images of Italian genre cinema. The close-ups of Johnny Depp least Sergio Leone would not themselves have set up better. The digital look of the film will launch a an almost surreal note. Excellent! A nuisance, however, the German dubbed version, which manages to even make the FBI to the "Central Office for investigation."
State of Play (2009, Kevin Macdonald) - A deliberate throwback to the paranoid political thriller of the 1960s/70s. Although no comparison with Alan J. Pakula and Sydney Pollack's classic, but clean-crafted Hollywood movies, to which one can suspend almost anything - positive.
Hangover (2009, Todd Phillips) - Hangover was really a surprise. , Todd Phillips, who previously horrible including the Starsky & Hutch (2004) stages, actually achieve the feat, a comedy on stage for thirty-that goes far beyond the usual dirty jokes. Brachial humor of the film has of course won. What makes it fun, too.
The International (2009, Tom Tykwer) - Maybe Tykwer's best film to date. Honest. A detailed review can be found here .
The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 (The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, 2009, Tony Scott) Whenever I lose faith in Tony Scott (and this happens often), your Briton back from a flawless film genre, which, while not inventing the wheel, but to fulfill its purpose prollig-original way. This is certainly not an art cinema, but better than some of what Hollywood has released this year. The original from 1974 with the great Walter Matthau gruff yet remains the better film.
Il Divo (2008, Paolo Sorrentino) - Il Divo is probably next The White Ribbon the malicious movie of the year. Sorrentino tells the life story of Giulio Andreotti, who was involved in 33 of the 50 Italian governments, long before Berlusconi has held the post seven times the Italian prime minister and here played by Toni Servillo, a bit like a hermaphrodite dwarf acts. That Il Divo Moreover, "The Divine" is already selected, the drop height. Just the opening assembly, which mimics accompanied by a house song ("Toop Toop" by Cassius), the largest mafia killings in detail and to nformiert on tablets of Red Brigades, Aldo Moro kidnapping and murder of Giovanni Falcone i , a masterpiece in itself. The icy, bitter film that sometimes seems like an opera in an asylum. One of the best of the year.
JCVD (2008; Mabrouk El Mechri) - The Muscles from Brussels in a self-reflective film! It all starts with a great, eternal plan long sequence that takes up every cliche of the '80s action movie, only to end with the total disillusionment. And since the good old days long has passed, crying Jean-Claude Van Damme later even directly into the camera. He can act really !
Che - Part i / Che - Part ii (2008, Stephen Soderbergh) - Soderbergh's epic two-part biopic is more war film as a political drama. But for the American Independent also sent avoids the risk of sentimentalize Guevara. A nice pictures arc at work in his megalomaniacal approach more like a movie from the 1970s.
Mesrine - L'ennemi public n ° 1 / Mesrine - L'instinct de mort (2008, Jean-François Richet) - Another Diptych and even a film that relies aesthetically to the 1960s and 70s, the time when the cinema show still wild, wacky movies en masse could. Mesrine is a fast-paced gangster ballad about the French public enemy No, 1 Jacques Mesrine, France's perfectly cast with Oberrampensau Vincent Cassell. The best European genre film of the year. Very refreshing.
The White Band - A German children's story (2009, Michael Haneke) - On Michael Haneke will say, however, hardly anyone, his films his "refreshing". Often produced Haneke Kopfkino or concept art. The White Ribbon me, however, has long been resumed for the director, one of dissecting a rural microcosm of the war without mercy. This is not necessarily humanist cinema, but in the nearly sold-out theater just then there was only silence. In black and white, the film is also shot by the way, something that you might see today, unfortunately far too rare.
OSS 117: Rio ne plus RÉPOND (OSS 117 - Lost in Rio, 2009; Michel Hazanavicius) - The second of a new OSS 117 movies has the best. Even to put the idea to erzdummen, oberchauvinistischen, narcissistic and racist anti-Bond to the Middle East conflict is great, and the implementation of antifranzösischem wit sparkles. That the whole is directed by a Frenchman in France and found an enthusiastic audience, demonstrates the ability of the Grande Nation to laugh at himself.
The Hurt Locker (2009, Kathryn Bigelow) - Despite some Handkamerasperenzchen and plated testosterone swagger succeed Bigelow with The Hurt Locker not only a return to old form, but also the best film Iraq war so far. Intense, immediate action film with characters instead of stereotypes.
Bronson ( 2009, Nicolas Winding Refn) - Refn is also an old acquaintance, including the excellent Pusher Trilogy and submitted Bleeder . I m comparison, Bronson heavier fare, but proves, once again, that Refn is a director whose career you should consider. A detailed discussion can be found here . On Valhalla Rising , R EFNS Viking movie, I'm very excited.
The Wrestler (2009, Darren Aronofsky) - Even Darren Aronofsky delivers in his touching and deeply human drama, as usual quality. Critique found here .
Looking for Eric (2009, Ken Loach) - The fact that Ken Loach, the director of Lady Bird Lady Bird and Kes , even stage a Feelgood Movie would, I would not have imagined.
Milk (2008, Gus Van Sant) - Sean Penn delivers the acting performance of the year and proves that he is with Christian Bale of the male actors of this generation.
Chugyeogja (The Chaser, 2008; Hong-jin Na) - The South Korean movies are like after the highs of the last decade in a crisis. As long as it can show, however, there are great films noirs such as these, the worst is still far away.
The In-Between:
Watchmen (2009, Zack Snyder): A truly ambitious film, the success of failure while still some excellent moments. The initial assembly in the history of the 1950s is being rewritten on the basis, was certainly one of the moments of the movie year.
Zombieland (2009, Ruben Fleischer) - Zombieland convincing as a hybrid of bloody horror film parody and knowledgeable - and compared to the silly Shaun of the Dead (2004) by miles. Woody Harrelson is as stoic redneck looking for cream cakes can not be beaten anyway. The only weak point is similar to Hangover a forced guest appearance. As the cameo by Mike Tyson in Phillips' film takes the guest appearance by Bill Murray (who appears only as a quote of his own act) that too much space, leads to nothing and picks up the pace of the film. Too bad.
13 Semester (2009, Frieder Wittich): Surprisingly, 2009 was a good comedy year. In addition to Fatih Akin's melancholy Soul Kitchen and the great Hangover proves 13 Semester not only sense of timing, but also a lot of sincere sympathy for his characters. This is entirely without the tendency for German comedies of denunciatory (see about Bully Herbig and Til Schweiger's uptight gay jokes). Otherwise, only a sentence: "The early bird catches the worm"
Soul Kitchen (2009, Fatih Akin): Fatih Akin spans much about it with Soul Kitchen the bow. Triggered by a culinary orgy aphrodisiac as it had not really needed. But before you noticed but pleased that finally someone here in Germany is inspired by traditional Italian comedy misery, also the local color of Hamburg congenial to use white (a happy ending but unfortunately had to be). And who has ever worked in a pub or restaurant will have some fun.
Gomorrah (2008, Matteo Garrone) - plays in how Il Divo Toni Servillo a major role, yet proves to Matteo Garrone's film sober compared to the almost post-modern Il Divo very much. This is mainly due to its semi-documentary gesture. The episodic stories of small and medium-sized Mafiosi who organize their crimes as a rational business worn down, and shaken. But as important as the film may be, Sorrentino liked access to the subject that much better.
Fu Chou / Vengeance (2009, Johnnie To) - Johnny Hallyday goes East: A French Chef In a previous life, professional killer, it ends up in Macao, where he must take up arms again - sees itself in revenge. As usual at To everything revolves around eating, killing, and the meditative calm before the storm. Nothing really new, but no year would be truly complete without a film of the Asian action-auteur .
A Serious Man (2009, Joel & Ethan Coen): The prologue is wonderfully quirky and mischievous, but the real story of the film but then I was left rather cold. In fact, I can do with the Coens in recent years more and less, at least no longer as much as before. Perhaps this is because that the Coen universe revolves only around the same pole and the mesh has worn well after more than a dozen films. In addition, the last films were often very cruel to their characters. The Coen protagonists in recent years (in Burn After Reading, No Country for Old Men and A Serious Man ) is usually a fool of himself by his conduct as a promising candidate for the Darwin Award qualified for particularly stupid self-inflicted retirement from the human gene pool. They are whiners, the gathering twilight in their small-minded and turbidity of the almighty screenwriters depending on your mood by means of murder, cancer, or as a result of a stupid random transported roughly out of the storyline. Still, I see my new movie every couple of mischievous brothers, and ultimately they are always worth a look, sometimes a second or third (as in the case of No Country for Old Men) .
Doubt (Doubt, 2008, John Patrick Shanley) - as always, despite the excellent Philip Seymour Hoffman a very puritanical film.
Crank 2 - High Voltage (2009, Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor): The second Crank film is very, very bad taste, has sometimes forced to tilt in his transgression. Entertaining the whole thing is so.
Jennifer's Body (2009, Karyn Kusama): Yes, what was that? A cross between adolescent drama and exploitation films, which has become a strange little bastard who does not quite redeem the high expectations, but proves to be more innovative than the umpteenth remake of a well-known material.
men som kvinnor hatar (blindness, 2009, Niels Arden Oplev): The film adaptation of the first novel of Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy is quite successful. But somehow, but remained a stale flavor back. Lag's on the television appearance on the long strip? Or the excessive violence against women? Perhaps most Serienmörderplot that - in contrast to the novel - arg covered work? Maybe. On the other hand, competently made European genre cinema is always welcome. Let's see what offer the second and third part.
12 meters without head (2009; Taddicken Sven): À propos European genre film: a German pirate movie was in 2009 also. Unfortunately the result was somewhat mixed and wanted too much at once. But after all, 12 meters without head very well equipped, beautifully filmed, filled with good actors and very entertaining. A criticism to be found here: Link .
Felon (2008; Ric Roman Waugh); Killshot (2009; John Madden); RocknRolla (2008; Guy Ritchie); The Strangers (2008; Bryan Bertino); Transporter 3 ( 2009; Olivier Magaton); W. (2008; Oliver Stone); Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (2009; Peter Hyams); In the Electric Mist (2008; Bertrand Tavernier); What doesn't kill you (2008; Brian Goodman); Joheunnom nabbeunnom isanghannom (The Good, The Bad, The Weird, 2008; Ji-woon Kim); The Escapist (2008, Rupert Wyatt); Clubbed (2008, Neil Thompson) ; 9 to 5 - Days in Porn (2008; Jens Hoffmann) - all bad, not quite, not really good.
The Bad, The Boring, and the Disgusting:
up from the lower middle to the bottom set: Promising the ultimately disappointing; total unsuccessful films, at best, good moments, ready-made by directors who think of nothing new - and simply bad movies:
Horsemen (2009, Jonas Åkerlund): terrible cliché, predictable and constructed. Aesthetically, also a 180-degree U-turn towards the dramatic debut Spun 2003.
Angels & Demons (Illuminati, 2009, Ron Howard): I rarely have I so bored in the cinema, to say nothing of the silly conspiracy theories. Some nice shots, but all in all, terrible crap.
Antichrist (2009, Lars von Trier): The input sequence is brilliantly filmed and God knows one of the most impressive moments of the cinema in 2009. From then on it was all downhill, unfortunately, until the evening in the shallows of pretentious pseudo-art cinemas, including the burning of witches end. But probably has Trier, the old Misogynist, the public image of himself as a woman only enemy do irony. When I left at the end of the cinema, I felt pretty ripped anyway.
Brüno (2009, Larry Charles): In contrast to the very funny Borat has the method Sacha Baron Cohen exhausted. If at the end of the pop world including Elton John marched up and humming a happy song against homophobia, shows how tame and calculated the whole thing has become. The fact that this time, in contrast to the previous no-one really gets is no surprise. Subversion is different.
Case 39 (2009, Christian Alvart): The former editor of the X-Tro attempts at genre cinema. This works sometimes better, sometimes worse. Case 39 unfortunately is an example of the latter category. A detailed description of me is found in the Splatting Image or here.
Coraline (2009, Henry Selick): After a promising start, the disillusionment is spreading. Somehow ... indifferent.
Miracle at St. Anna (2008, Spike Lee): I am an outspoken Spike Lee fan, but the film could not I just see the end. Pretentious, historically inaccurate, kitschy. Maybe I'll give him some time another chance.
Religulous (2008, Larry Charles): A "documentary" about the "enlightened" Commedian Bill Maher, preaches the same way as the religious nutcase, which he holds up, that they are religious crackpot. As funny as kicking a dead dog .
Pride and Glory (2008, Gavin O'Connor): So many good actors, so many cliches.
Terminator Salvation (2009, McG): "McG" the already intolerable Charlie's Angels Movies has done wrong to let go of the Terminator franchise, is to say the least, a surprising choice. By these standards, he does his job almost well again, with some of the action sequences are staged beautifully. But otherwise the film is waiting with very fulminating dialogues, giant plot holes and logic errors. Even Christian Bale plays shockingly bad and staring morosely out especially to himself. Probably the worst High Budget production of the year.
Gamer (2009, Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor): Jo mei, Jung-containing film. If the highest imagination is really bleak future something out of line. Otherwise, however, neither fish nor fowl. After Godzilla sequence in Crank 2 - High Voltage succeed Neveldine and Taylor this time to accommodate a musical sequence in their cinematic patchwork. Anyway. You can find a criticism of me is here .
Saw VI (2009, Kevin Greutert): Every society gets the movies she has earned. With movies like Saw VI can be a pessimist.
Law Abiding Citizen (The law of revenge, 2009, F. Gary Gray): Who wants to see a good vigilante film should in the UK Harry Brown Watch: The 76-year-old Michael Caine is still ten times cooler than this unnecessary and constructed nonsense.
The Proposal (The Proposal is; 2009; Anne Fletcher): Sometimes a desire for grabs harmless mainstream entertainment that offers at least competently crafted escapism. The Proposal is the wrong film for it. Unfortunately, he does not even have this
District 9 (2009; Neill Blomkamp); Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009; Wes Anderson); Los abrazos rotos (2009; Pedro Almodóvar); The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009; Terry Gilliam); The Informant! (2009; Steven Soderbergh); Låt den rätte komma in ( So finster die Nacht; 2008; Tomas Alfredson) ; Bad Lieutenant - Port of Call – New Orleans ( 2009; Werner Herzog) ; Bakjwi / Thirst (Durst; 2009; Chan-Wook Park); Where the Wild Things Are (Where the Wild Things Are , 2009, Spike Jonze); Ai no mukidashi / Love Exposure (2008; Shion Sono)
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