1. UP - The only film on my list to bring a tear (or two) to my eyes. From the moving opening montage to the hilarious adventures of a disgruntled old man, a wilderness scout, a talking - SQUIRREL! - dog, and Kevin the bird, I had a smile on my face. Pixar does it again!
2. INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS - If there were any tears shed during this movie, they would have been a direct result of laughing too hard. Tarantino is, once again, razor sharp with his dialogue. Sure, he rewrites history a little. But, out of all the possibilities for revenge fantasies, who wouldn't choose the Third Reich?
3. PUBLIC ENEMIES - Mann was a little more faithful to his source than Tarantino. From his beautiful use of HD (the clouds in the opening prison break sequence POP off the screen) to the excellent performance by Johnny Depp as Dillinger, I wasn't disappointed with another successful Michael Mann crime saga.
4. DISTRICT 9 - I'm not a big sci-fi fan, but this is the first of THREE sci-fi films on my list! However, this film defies you to label it simply as a sci-fi. The documentary style of the film brings a realness to the action.
5. (500) DAYS OF SUMMER - An extraordinarily atypical romantic comedy. A story about love rather than a love story. It doesn't hurt that I love Zooey!
6. THE HURT LOCKER - Wow, what an unbelievably intense movie-going experience! Unbelievably, this film about soldiers in Iraq was executed without any political pretense at all. Jeremy Renner was absolutely awesome.
7. AVATAR - This is the second sci-fi film on my list. While it is a little light on story, it is more than made up for in imagery. I forgot at times that what I was watching was not real, but CGI. The painstaking detail that went into the creation of Pandora was worth the 12-year break that James Cameron took between TITANIC and now.
8. STAR TREK - That's it! If this is the future of the Star Trek brand, then sign me up! I'm a Trekkie for life! From the directing (JJ Abrams) to the acting, there is nothing to complain about from this summer blockbuster.
9. WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE - Make no mistake, this was not a kid's movie. This was a movie about childhood for all audiences.
10. CHE - By no means am I a Che supporter, but I love Soderbergh. If he makes a film, I'm going to see it. This was a beautiful film about an important historical figure. Grand filmmaking!
Still to see...
UP IN THE AIR, THE INFORMANT!, INVICTUS
