That's amazing, so much love, and also so much information. - Greg Focker

I don't get a chance to go see many movies in the theaters. God bless NetFlix and Hulu for all my digital entertainment. Having worked in the entertainment industry I also flat out refuse to buy bootleg DVD's. I occasionally indulge my blood lust for film ownership with sidewalk purchases, stoop sales, and a trip to the video store if my ever shrinking budget allows.

I thought I would let my old college housemate Mitch take the reigns with his feelings on the cinematic offerings of 2009 from a recent email he sent my way. What follows is his movie going experience and his opinions formed thereafter. Enjoy!

Mitch Bowman's FAVORITE FILMS OF 2009

-ANTICHRIST
(I am still disturbed by this and will be for the rest of my life.)

-PARANORMAL ACTIVITY
(Though it is now fashionable to be a hater, I thought it was the scariest movie I'd seen in a long time)

-INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
(Tarantino always delivers, and I am thankful to finally see Hitler get his dues)

-BRUNO
(Maybe less novel after Borat, I found it to be the equivalent of huffing laughing gas for several hours)

-FANTASTIC MR. FOX
(Beautiful and charming, Wes Anderson with heart and at his best. Long live stop-motion!)

-UP
(Finally a mainstream animated movie that didn't seem expressly for children, with compelling adult themes, and a thoroughly realized treatment of animating gravity)

-WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
(A little slow at times, I was thrilled to see the emotional life wrung from the book. I think Jonze really captured, to audience discomfort, the irrational and emotionally explosive nature of childhood/adolescence)

-THE INTERNATIONAL
(I really love Tykwer and thought this was a compellingly nihilistic view of our world. The scene in which Clive Owen confronts one of the masterminds in a backroom is priceless.)

FILMS I MISSED BUT WANT TO SEE (should I??)

-Gomorrah
-Tokyo!
-Drag Me to Hell
-The Hurt Locker
-500 Days of Summer
-The Cove
-The Informant!
-A Serious Man
-Sunshine Cleaning
-Precious

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENTS:

-Star Trek (wooden caricatures of classic characters)
-Watchmen (long, sleazy, and just plain awful)
-Terminator: Salvation (what was I thinking? I didn't like the originals that much either)

MOST UNFAIRLY PANNED BY CRITICS:

-The Unborn
(though not entirely original, what horror movie is? I thought it was a cut above the usual drivel)

-Wolverine
(OK, the story is convoluted, and maybe it lacks the social narrative of the X-Men movies, but it was fun and didn't patronize me)

-Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
(Yes it is a ridiculous piece of Hollywood sensationalism, but it is just the kind of ridiculous Hollywood sensationalism, albeit with an admirable self-deprecating humor, that the world loves and that merits the $9 ticket)



Thanks for the reviews Mitch! All the best, Uncle Zach.