Here they are!
My favorite movies of the past year. I still have a few I want to watch, so (thorughout January) I reserve the right to juggle.
- Star Trek – Wonderful adaption. The best adaptatiotns remain just faithful enough to the source material, but still manage to offer up a few surprises. By far the best Star Trek movie of the bunch, but a potent adaptation in its own right.
- Inglorious Basterds – Fun to watch, fun to mull over. Once you see it, it’s hard to understand why all WW2 pictures don’t end this way. Now one of my favorite Tarantino pictures.
- District 9 – I loved the inventive transformation of the main character. An ugly little man becomes a humane alien.
- Sherlock Holmes – Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law have a lot of chemistry as Holmes and Watson.
- Fantastic Mr. Fox – Subversive little movie with a lot of heart. I liked the father son relationship. I liked how the boy struggled to be seen by his Dad. I liked how Dad was blinded by his own needs. But most of all I liked watching these characters make the best of their own limitations. “Cluster-cuss!”
- Hurt Locker – The most powerful scene shows Sgt James (Jeremy Renner), who has just returned from a horrifying tour in Iraq, wandering through the supermarket with his wife, staring at a wall of cereal, just before he reenlists. Fascinating portrayal of a smart guy who really has no clue what’s motivating him.
- Avatar – Beautiful movie, engaging if familiar story.
- Watchman – Bold and original.
- Julie & Julia – Meryl Streep is so much fun to watch. Stanley Tucci is a joy.
- Taken – An episode of 24 but with Liam Neeson.
Present Tense 
I hate that it’s another year gone, and I’ve seen about three movies, all independents. Sherlock Holmes and District 9 are on the list. Julie & Julia, too, but I couldn’t believe how quickly it was gone from the theaters after all the buzz.
I’m glad you put Watchmen on the list, not a lot of people I know have really recognized how interesting a movie that was. Most of my friends just complain that it doesn’t live up to the comic because it’s impossible to portray all of it, but I don’t think that’s the movie’s fault. They did an admirable job with the extensive material they had to work with, and that was more than enough for me.
The nice thing, Leslie, is that at eleven (soon to be 12) my son is finally old enough to go to ACTION movies with me. G.I. Joe and Transformers didn’t make my list, but I thoroughly enjoyed having someone to sit through them with.
Alex, Watchman was out of this world. Fortunately for me, I was unfamiliar with the source material and could just enjoy what was there. I remember snickering that people were upset the giant squid got cut. It had an alternate time line with superheroes and a blue man who walked around in the nude and had the potential to stand as tall as a sky scraper. And they wanted more?!
My daughter is just twelve. She’s seen all of the Matrix movies–saw them at least five years ago. She’s into that genre. Now she watches Criminal Minds with me. I’m a baaaaaad mommy.
Ohhh, no. Not a bad mommy. I look at those movie ratings as a guide, not hard fast rules. My daughter wouldn’t be able to sit through Matrix once the bullets started to fly. If I want to watch a movie with her, it has to be something sedate or funny–we’ve been watching the old Sherlock Holmes (circa 1940s) and quirky movies, like Fantastic Mr Fox. That’s her speed. To each their own. Figuring out what everyone needs is the big trick.