The Best Movies & TV of 2009
by David Horiuchi
on November 06, 2009
As we've done for 10 years now, our editorial team has compiled their list of the Best Movies & TV of 2009. Over the next few days we'll be publishing a number of our genre lists in this space, but we'll start with the basics: the top 100 DVDs of 2009 (in other words, DVDs that were released in 2009). Agree? Disagree? Post a comment and let us know. Our first 10 of the 100:
- Slumdog Millionaire: The Oscar winner for Best Picture centers around a young Indian man competing on a game show with the highest possible stakes
- Gran Torino: Clint Eastwood directed and stars in this riveting drama about racial tolerance
- Milk: Sean Penn won an Oscar for his portrayal of San Francisco politician Harvey Milk
- Mad Men: Season 2: AMC's period piece is a two-time Emmy winner for Outstanding Drama
- The Hangover: The raunchy comedy was one of the surprise box-office hits of the year
- Star Trek: J.J. Abrams' reinvention of the fan-favorite franchise soars to new heights
- True Blood: The Complete First Season: Compelling HBO series about the vampires among us, and definitely not for the Twilight crowd
- The Wrestler: Mickey Rourke won accolades for his depiction of one man's professional and personal comeback
- Up: Great as we've come to expect from Pixar; charming in ways we didn't expect
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: The sixth film of the series is the darkest yet, as Harry and his friends confront He Who Must Not Be Named
See the rest of the top 100 DVDs, the top 100 Blu-ray discs, and many other lists at http://www.amazon.com/bestmovies2009.
Alan on November 07, 2009 at 09:37 AM
Can't agree with Gran Torino. Eastwood's character was written and played as a Hollywood caricature of a blue collar factory guy. Great concept; poorly executed.
Hack on November 08, 2009 at 12:26 PM
Gran Torino is just a warmed over remake of Karate Kid, with the races reversed and Carpentry as a life lesson swapped for Karate.
Scott on November 08, 2009 at 12:29 PM
Half-blood Prince? Worst movie ending of the year.
Star Trek? Fun, but because of the writer's strike you could drive starships through the plot holes. I would pick "Moon" over either of them.
Fubar on November 08, 2009 at 12:50 PM
The anti Gran Torino comments obviously come from lefty dipshits who wouldn't know a good film if it kicked their blind asses. Get a life, nub-suckers.
Geo on November 08, 2009 at 12:59 PM
Dang. The only one of these I've seen is "Gran Torino," and I gave it a thumbs down.
Portions of it were indeed riveting, but overall it just didn't click. Most of the characters were convincing, but not the Eastwood character. With all the anger the character was supposed to have had it looks like he could have talked above a whisper.
That beautiful M1 Garand was great to look at, too, but for all we know it wasn't functional. At least someone actually drove the Gran Torino. But even there, with all the restored muscle cars available a better choice could have been made.
RetiredE9 on November 08, 2009 at 01:57 PM
I'll take your word on it. I haven't been to a movie in 5 years.
Even watching movies billed as "the best" on DVD makes me feel like I was ripped off. Most of them are crap.
Dang, back to "Northern Exposure" re-runs; the first few series anyway, even that got weird in the end.
Maybe I'll get some Buffy DVDs for Christmas.
bb on November 08, 2009 at 02:04 PM
IMHO Gran Torino is highly overrated. The other actors, all amateur as I recall, were horrible. And frankly I found Eastwood's acting to be a disappointment.
It struck me that he was going for his version of John Wayne's The Shootist. The only problem was that as it neared the end, I kept thinking of The Shootist and Gran Torino pales terribly in comparison.
datechguy on November 08, 2009 at 02:16 PM
The Big Bang theory should be on this.
doofus on November 08, 2009 at 02:25 PM
Slumdog is trash. Amazing that institutionalized multi-culti marketing drones have successfully sold it. I'd rather watch reruns of Maude…
Astro on November 08, 2009 at 03:56 PM
'Life On Mars', the U.S. TV show? In the top 100? Really?
Idiotic. Likable characters but the whole show was a dream sequence. Calling it sophomoric would be high praise. And it had the crappiest ending ever. Not just bizarre, but 'what-the-hell-were-they-thinking?' screamingly stupid.
Busterdog on November 08, 2009 at 04:15 PM
I loved Gran Torino and Slumdog. Both are excellent movies.
mishu on November 08, 2009 at 04:48 PM
It's called a mad scramble for something Astro. ABC pulled the plug before its time. The ending was lame but the lamest thing about the show is the suits who pulled the plug.
Adam Maas on November 08, 2009 at 05:00 PM
Milk? Potter?. The first was boring PC pap, the latter was simply poor due to too much weeping Hermione and not enough Half-Blood Prince.
The only thing I can say about True Blood is that I hope its better than the trashy novels it's based on. Not that that would be hard.
Zombieland should be on that list though. An accessible, un-stupid zombie movie with Kevin Smith-esque writing. And Bill Murray.
Gran Torino was excellent, even if it was Eastwood revisiting a lightly disguised Harry Callahan in retirement.
The Ronin Edge on November 09, 2009 at 08:12 AM
I stopped giving Hollywood my money when they proved themselves to be worthless lefitst shittwitts. The sooner they are all broke, out of business, and trying to panhandle for coke money, the happier Iwill be.
Michael F on November 09, 2009 at 10:35 AM
Had this conversation two days ago with my family regarding the dearth of interesting movies in 2009. My choices for most entertaining were 3) The Wrestler 2) Gran Torino and 1) Up. All three dealt with people who strove to overcome their situations. Up is the upbeat choice.
As an aside, a previous commenter questioned the functionality of the M-1 Garand in Gran Torino. The character was no BS, why would he BS people with unloaded firearms? Don't write silly things.
Jason on November 09, 2009 at 12:07 PM
The only real objection I have to your list is Milk (this type of movie is made to preach to the Hollywood choir, and nobody else). I agree with others that Slumdog was mostly hype, but it was still a decent film. The acting in Gran Torino was pretty bad in some spots, but it kept me entertained for most of the movie, so I can't complain, even if it was nothing groundbreaking.
Glaring omissions:
TV: the 5th season of Lost should get some credit. The show is actually now answering more questions than it asks and still staying entertaining, which is very difficult to do (see X-Files), especially considering how many questions the show raised in the first 3 seasons.
I also think Zombieland is one of the best films of 2009, and without a doubt one of the best zombie movies of all time. I also liked The Watchmen quite a bit, but it is a movie you either love or hate. I was also one of the few that liked both T4 and Transformers 2. Yes, they both had flaws, but I thought they delivered as well as they could, given the hopes and hype they had to overcome.
Chad on November 09, 2009 at 01:23 PM
Gran Torino was awesome. It was well written, well acted and well made. The suspense was fantastic. Overall, it was a better portrait of the senseless cycle of urban violence than any of the 'hood movies of the past 15 years.
As for the most recent Harry Potter movie... I'm assuming it was on this list for brand value only? It felt like they ran out of money 3/4 of the way through the film and just slapped on some credits.
I like rising action, but it's only rising action if it culminates in climax. Otherwise, it's just 3 hours of filler material. I can't believe they cut out the battle scenes and replaced them with more "coming of age / battling one's demons" pap.
joesen on November 03, 2010 at 12:13 AM
Sean Penn won an Oscar for his portrayal of San Francisco politician Harvey Milk
xiao on November 16, 2010 at 05:39 PM
the first few series anyway, even that got weird in the end.