10 Great Movies from 2009

John Hansen - Knight Ridder/Tribune

I reserve the right to retroactively add "Adam" and "The Invention of Lying" to this list; living in a small town, I have to wait for DVD to see them. So these are my top 10 movies of 2009 as of this moment.

I doubt my No. 1 will change, though. A couple days ago, I found out someone didn't like the movie, and I got a bit angry and defensive. You know it's not too bad of a movie year when there's a movie you don't merely love, but you feel a sense ownership of it (I did buy it on DVD, but that's not what I mean).

Anyway, here goes:

1. "(500) Days of Summer" (now on DVD) -- Why is it that you can find the perfect girl, she seems to like you, and yet the relationship doesn't work out? And then she goes and marries some random guy? These are the questions posed by "(500) Days," and while it doesn't have the answers, it does present the questions beautifully. And what a performance by ... Joseph Gordon-Levitt (you thought I was going to say Zooey Deschanel, but that's too obvious).

Great scene: Gordon-Levitt's "You Make My Dreams Come True" musical montage.

2. "I Love You, Man" (now on DVD) -- In school, most of us could make friends by accident, such was the structure of public education. But what about after school? You might be lucky enough to hit it off with a co-worker, but what if you're an adult looking to make new friends? There's even less of a clear structure for that than there is for dating. This film knows it and finds the humor at every step of the way as Paul Rudd befriends Jason Segel.

Great scene: Rudd overhears his wife telling her large group of pals about his lack of friends. He mumbles, "I need to make some (expletive) friends."

3. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" (now on DVD) -- Does a movie have to work on its own merits, separate from its source material or previous entries? I used to say yes. Now, I've changed my mind. Someone coming in cold might be bored with "HBP," but if you read and loved the book, you'll love soaking up the craftsmanship of this adaptation; for example, Jim Broadbent's turn as Professor Slughorn.

Great scene: Ron mutters Hermione's name in his sleep.

4. "Adventureland" (now on DVD) -- Although he gives it a good effort, Michael Cera can't be in every movie. Enter Jesse Eisenberg as the slightly awkward kid who takes a summer job at an amusement park in the 1980s. We really feel his heartache as he tries to connect with Kristen Stewart (a flat-expressioned actress, but she's perfect for this role because of that).

Great scene: A rainstorm and a kiss. This movie earns the cliche.

5. "Avatar" (now in theaters) -- With the 3-D format and the richness of the computer-generated world, I could live on Pandora. That's why it doesn't bother me that the story is James Cameron's usual "be careful where progress takes us" parable (actually, it has a nice twist because the aliens are the good guys and we are the bad guys). But I come back to the technical achievement: Ten years ago in "Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace," Jar Jar and Boss Nass and Watto were oh so close to seeming real. Now, the characters in "Avatar" are completely convincing (I didn't find out until after I saw the movie that they used motion capture and digital sets rather than complex makeup and soundstages).

Great scene: When our hero learns how to fly the giant dinosaur-like thing.

6. "Fanboys" (now on DVD) -- It gets "Star Wars" fandom right; "Star Wars" is important to these fans -- they happily dress as stormtroopers and Darth Vader for a party -- yet it doesn't dominate their lives as per the stereotype of "Star Trek" fans (which is all too often proven accurate). Basically, it boils down to a nice road trip/friendship flick.

Great scene: Seth Rogen's almost-unrecognizable guest spot as a Trekkie.

7. "Star Trek" (now on DVD) -- How do you make the first good "Star Trek" movie in a while? You bring in writer-director J.J. Abrams to spice up the usually staid franchise with a wilder tone. You'd think recasting the iconic characters wouldn't work, and then suddenly you're accepting some kid named Chris Pine in the role of Kirk.

Great scene: Uhura's first impression of Kirk is finding him in a compromising position with her sexy green roommate.

8. "District 9" (now on DVD) -- Through the years, sci-fi taught us to love cute aliens (like E.T.) and hate ugly aliens (like from the "Alien" pictures). "D9" allows us to get to know the physically unattractive prawns and yet feel for them (the trick is that they conveniently have all the same needs and emotions as humans).

Great scene: The main character, laying in a hospital bed, gets his first clue that he's turning into an alien.

9. "Drag Me to Hell" (now on DVD) -- It's a horror movie that embraces all the gaudiest conventions of the genre in ways ranging from funny to scary. And, I admit it, I would watch Alison Lohman in just about anything.

Great scene: The dinner table sequence, where signs of the curse keep getting in the way as Lohman is making a first impression on her boyfriend's parents.

10. "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" (now on DVD) -- I like a lot of the X-Men as broad concepts; the shame of it is that I don't really know them as people after three movies (because the filmmakers cram so many mutants in there). "Wolverine," the franchise's fourth and best entry, is a breath of fresh air because it steps back and tells the origin tale of Logan (perfectly played by Hugh Jackman).

Great scene: A clumsy Wolverine breaks a sink in half and sheepishly presents the halves to his farmstead hosts.

Agree? Disagree? Share your top 10 movies of 2009 in the comment thread below.

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