Life in dark rooms

Top ten films of 2009

Sorry about the lengthy hiatus but I’m back like Jack. There will be a whole bunch of film reviews here shortly (including some long overdue cinema reviews) but first up, here’s a new list – my top ten films of 2009.

1. Let the Right One in

OK, everyone who’s anyone is putting this one at the top of their list of the best films of 2009 and I so desperately didn’t want to follow the pack. However, there’s a good reason why it’s been so lauded, and after much consideration I realised that despite a very close top three, this one had the edge for sheer beauty and elegance. If you haven’t seen it yet, do so before the American remake comes out later in the year.

2. Moon

The little film that could stuck two fingers up to all those bloated effects-heavy sci-fi actioners by dealing in character and story rather than explosions and CGI. Duncan Jones is one of the most exciting new directors and Sam Rockwell proves himself to be a magnetic screen presence.

3. District 9

Neill Blomkamp turns his short film Alive in Joburg into a breathless action blockbuster with the help of producer and new best friend Peter Jackson. Balls and brains in equal measure – think The Fly on the run.

4. Role Models

Something of a guilty pleasure, this one, but I haven’t enjoyed a comedy as much as this all year. Lightweight perhaps, but it does more in its 90 odd minutes for the ‘man child grows up’ sub-genre than a hundred Judd Apatow films ever could.

5. Star Trek

Easily the best American blockbuster of the summer, J.J. Abrams managed the impossible task of appealing to both rabid fanboys and reluctant laymen. Action, comedy and impressive performances make it the most enjoyable origin stories in recent years.

6. (500) Days of Summer

A tropical island in the ever-growing ocean of dreadful romantic comedies, Marc Webb’s imaginative and colourful film is also deceptively honest. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel are a much more watchable on-screen couple than any number of Wilsons, Barrymores, Stillers and Bullocks.

7. Up (no joke intended)

Pixar have done it yet again with a delightfully whimsical tale of friendship between an old man and a young boy set in the Amazon. Not the most obvious of crowd-pleasing set ups, but studio head John Lasseter’s insistence that story take centre stage once again pays dividends. Ignore the ‘talking’ dogs; the opening 15 minutes is one of the most beautiful sequences of the year.

8. Inglourious Basterds

Tarantino’s best film in years. A proper review will appear here soon.

9. Paranormal Activity

Movie Marmite that had some sleeping with the lights on and others shrugging their shoulders, Paranormal Activity wasn’t just one of the most talked about films of 2009, it was also among the most effective horror films in recent years.

10. Zombieland

A genuinely funny zombie comedy. A proper review will appear soon. 

Honourable mentions

There were a whole bunch of films I never got around to watching this year, but it was still quite tough to pick a top ten. Bubbling under were:

Drag Me to Hell

The Hurt Locker

Gran Torino

Looking for Eric

Slumdog Millionaire

The Wrestler

Top ten sequels

Watching Evil Dead II made me think of my top ten sequels – a list that was surprisingly hard to compile and is not in any order because that’s even harder. There are probably plenty of omissions (I’ve only seen The Godfather Part II once and I don’t remember much of it so it would be a lie to include it) and inaccuracies (The Empire Strikes Back is ‘not a sequel, part of a trilogy, completely planned’ as Randy reminds us in Scream 2, but I don’t care). If I’ve forgotten anything glaring, or if you disagree vehemently, please let me know.

Toy Story 2

Terminator 2

Back to the Future Part III (not Part II)

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (not the Temple of Doom, and definitely not that crystal skull nonsense)

Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Die Hard with a Vengeance (still never seen Die Hard 2)

Evil Dead II

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (they’re all awesome but I’ve always preferred the final part)

Spider-Man 2

Aliens (I’ve only seen it once and that was years ago but I do remember that it was great)

Top ten multiple performances

In honour of Kind Hearts and Coronets, one of the best films I saw last week, as well as Sam Rockwell’s double header in Moon, I resurrect my weekly top tens with my favourite multiple performances.

1. Alec Guinness (x8), Kind Hearts and Coronets

2. Peter Sellers (x3), Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

3. Michael Keaton (x4), Multiplicity (technically this is the same character four times, but each clone is so different that it is essentially four different performances)

4. John Cleese (x6), Monty Python and the Holy Grail (of course, all the Pythons played multiple characters in all their films, but Cleese had some great roles in The Holy Grail)

5. Eddie Murphy (x2), Bowfinger

6. Nicolas Cage (x2), Adaptation

7. Michael J Fox (x3 or 4 depending on whether you count middle aged Marty as a separate performance), Back to the Future Part II

8. Mike Myers (x2), So I Married an Axe Murderer (rather than in any of the Austin Powers films – this is not an oversight)

9. Meg Ryan (x3), Joe Versus the Volcano

10. Jack Nicholson (x2), Mars Attacks!

Top ten beards*

A slightly haphazard and poorly researched list, but in honour of Michael Douglas’ crazy beard in the little-seen King Of California, here’s a list of ten of cinema’s best beards:

1. Tom Hanks, Castaway

2. Ewan McGregor, Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones

3. Ian McKellan, The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring

4. Michael Douglas, King Of California

5. George Clooney, Syriana

6. Robert De Niro, Wag The Dog

7. Bruce Willis, What Just Happened

8. Kurt Russell, The Thing

9. Samuel L Jackson, Pulp Fiction

10. Alan Rickman, Die Hard

* On actors who don’t usually wear beards.

Top ten robots

In honour of Metropolis’ iconic robot Hel, this week I mechanically salute my top ten movie robots.

1. R2D2 (The Star Wars series)

2. Robocop (Robocop)

3. T-1000 (Terminator 2: Judgment Day)

4. Ash (Alien)

5. WALL•E (WALL•E)

6. Number 5 (Short Circuit)

7. Hel (Metropolis)

8 and 9. Evil Bill and Ted (Bill And Ted’s Bogus Journey)

10. David (Artificial Intelligence: AI)

Happy 2009 everyone.

Top ten films of 2008

OK, so it’s completely unrelated to last week’s film Timecode, but I have to put these up here before the end of the year. Here are my ten favourite films of 2008.

1. The Mist

2. In Bruges

3. Son Of Rambow

4. WALL•E

5. The Dark Knight

6. There Will Be Blood

7. No Country For Old Men

8. Cloverfield

9. The Orphanage

10. Iron Man

I would like to have included The Diving Bell And The Butterfly in this list like a lot of film magazines did. In fact, it may even have reached the number one slot. However, it was released in the UK in 2007.

Happy Christmas everyone.

Top ten movie characters in glasses

Less a top ten this week, than ten random speccy characters – literally the first ten I could think of.

Isaac Davis (Woody Allen, Manhattan)

Austin Powers (Mike Myers, Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery)

Teddy Duchamp (Corey Feldman, Stand By Me)

Clark Kent (Christopher Reeve, Superman)

Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone)

Joe (Daniel Craig, Enduring Love)

Louis Tully (Rick Moranis, Ghostbusters)

Juror 4 (E.G. Marshall, 12 Angry Men)

John Williamson (Kevin Spacey, Glengarry Glen Ross)

Grady Tripp (Michael Douglas, Wonder Boys)

Top ten ‘invisible’ characters (spoiler alert)

They may be ghosts, they may be figments of a character’s imagination – in honour of this week’s one and only film Play It Again, Sam here are my ten favourite ‘invisible’ characters.

1. Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt, Fight Club)

2. Frank (James Duval, Donnie Darko)

3. Drop Dead Fred (Rik Mayall, Drop Dead Fred)

4. Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze, Ghost)

5. Jamie (Alan Rickman, Truly Madly Deeply)

6. Parcher (Ed Harris, A Beautiful Mind)

7. Humphrey Bogart (Jerry Lacy, Play It Again, Sam)

8. Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis, The Sixth Sense)

9. Capt. Daniel Gregg (Rex Harrison, The Ghost and Mrs Muir)

10. ‘Mentor’ (Val Kilmer, True Romance)

Top ten Jack Nicholson performances

In honour of the best thing in this week’s sole film, I salute my ten favourite Jack Nicholson performances, in reverse chronological order because I can’t choose between them.

Costello (The Departed)

Warren Schmidt (About Schmidt)

Melvin Udall (As Good As It Gets)

Colonel Nathan R. Jessup (A Few Good Men)

Jack Napier aka The Joker (Batman)

Daryl Van Horne (The Witches Of Eastwick)

Garrett Breedlove (Terms Of Endearment)

Jack Torrance (The Shining)

R.P. McMurphy (One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest)

J.J. ‘Jake’ Gittes (Chinatown)

George Hanson (Easy Rider)

Top ten Oscars for Best Supporting Performances

My favourite Oscar winning supporting performances, inspired by George Kennedy’s performance as Dragline, Cool Hand Luke’s alpha male turned overgrown sidekick.

1. Joe Pesci as Tommy DeVito in Goodfellas

2. Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh in No Country For Old Men

3. Kevin Spacey as Roger ‘Verbal’ Kint in The Usual Suspects

4. Christopher Walken as Nick in The Deer Hunter

5. Chris Cooper as John Laroche in Adaptation

6. Whoopi Goldberg as Oda Mae Brown in Ghost

7. Alan Arkin as Grandpa Edwin Hoover in Little Miss Sunshine

8. Cuba Gooding Jr as Rod Tidwell in Jerry Maguire

9. Jack Palance as Curly Washburn in City Slickers

10. Robin Williams as Sean Maguire in Good Will Hunting