Movie highlights of 2009

Still not standing for baloney.

So here's the pick of the best movies I've seen this year - they may not have been released this year, but I watched them none the less. So in no particular order, I present films that scored 3.5 (out of 5) or higher...

The Reader
Star Trek
Bruno
Rocky Balboa
Gone Baby Gone
Apocalypto
Zathura
Flame And Citron
Changeling
Juno
Gran Torino
The Jane Austen Book Club
Burn After Reading
Into The Wild
La Vie En Rose
X-Men Origins: Wolverine
Hamlet 2
Priceless
Happy Go Lucky
Bridge To Terabithia
In Bruges
Arthur And The Invisibles
The Mist
Enchanted
The Secret Life Of Bees
A Mighty Wind
The Boy In Striped Pyjamas
American Teen
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire
Frost/Nixon
Step Brothers
Open Range
Ratatouille
Penelope
Once
A Horton Hears A Who
Shattered Glass
Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium
Cloverfield

I look at this list, and I'm slightly amazed at how much 'serious drama' there is in there, especially as I was raised on Arnie and Police Academy films. Have I finally grown up? There's a fair smattering of kids films in there too, but if I look hard enough, the one thing that links most of these films (with the exception of Bruno and Step Brothers, which just made me laugh out loud lots at their vulgarity) is that they're about people. Well-written characters whose stories I wanted to hear.

With films like Cloverfield, its easy to state that it was just a big monster film playing on 9-11 fear, but referring to list, I think there's something to be said for films which set out to achieve a certain aim, and are brilliantly realised.

Not every movie needs to be curing cancer, and when excellent entertainment has come along, its been an oasis in a desert of extremely mediocre films. I'll list my 3 stars and under films at some point, giving special notice to those that didn't even score any stars (and boy, there were plenty)...