As the 2009 Summer movie season gives way to the 2009-2010 Oscar Derby, it seems only fitting to stop and catch our breath and see if we can remember any of these pictures that we were all convinced we had to see. This is by no means a comprehensive list; my longstanding boycott of all things Michael Bay prevented me from seeing Transformers 2, and one beer too many kept me from remembering G.I.Joe, but I did manage to get out to see a few movies, and some of them weren't half bad. So here without further ado, and in reverse chronological order, is my summer of movies, 2009:
EXTRACT
With Jason Bateman, Mila Kunis, Kristen Wiig and Ben Affleck
Written/Directed by Mike Judge
As a longtime fan of Mike Judge's work, I'd been looking forward to this for a while. In typical Judge fashion, the story is far from tight, but the writing and the performances by Jason Bateman, J.K. Simmons, and Ben Affleck (that's right, Ben Affleck) deliver plenty of laughs. Kristen Wiig and Mila Kunis do what they can with roles that are less than fleshed out, and Gene Simmons is more than convincing as a slimy personal injury lawyer. Looking forward to that Reynold's "Cookies and Cream" extract.
IT MIGHT GET LOUD
What happens if you take Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White and put them together in a room. Not as much as you might expect, as it turns out. The three generations of guitar heroes on display here have too little common ground as players to really mesh when they turn on their amps, but this documentary by Davis Guggenheim still delivers a fascinating profile of three men and their shared love of the electric guitar. As a longtime U2 geek, I was pretty excited to see The Edge walking around the halls of the school where the band formed back in 1978. Another great moment is when Page picks up a guitar and just starts playing "Whole Lotta Love" out of the blue. It's the only moment in the film where you see the other two guys' jaws drop.
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
Quentin Tarantino's latest gets my vote for most misleading marketing of the summer. Those who were expecting a full movie of Brad Pitt and Co. scalping Nazis must have been confused to find themselves watching a film that's 80 % subtitled in French and German. The marketing worked, as Basterds raked up nearly $100 million at the box office by Summer's end. It's also a very entertaining picture, as long as you're willing to set aside what actually happened during World War II. Special props to Christoph Waltz, who deserves an Oscar for his portrayal of the silky smooth, vainglorious bastard Col. Hans Landa.
DISTRICT 9
I'd call this the sleeper hit of the summer, if it wasn't for the fact that there was a line around the block for the matineee I went to opening weekend. While most alien themed movies focus on what our fate would be if aliens landed on Earth, District 9 dares to ask what the human race would do to the aliens. Add to this the fact that the film is set in present day Johannesburg, and the film becomes a powerful allegory for South Africa's not so distant apartheid past. It's also visceral, highly entertaining, and filled with impressively seamless special effects. None of this is surprising when you add the fact that the film was produced by "Lord of the Rings" Maestro Peter Jackson.
FUNNY PEOPLE
Judd Apatow's follow up to "Knocked Up" is superior to that movie on almost every level, yet somehow ended up making a lot less money at the box office. This could have something to do with the public's reluctance to accept Adam Sandler in more complex roles, but I chalk it up to the questionable decision to release this relatively serious movie amid the dross of summer blockbusters like Transformers 2 and "G.I. Joe". Regardless, there's much to enjoy in "Funny People": Sandler and Seth Rogen both do strong work throughout, and Eric Bana and Jason Schwartzman are hilarious in supporting roles.
500 DAYS OF SUMMER
Kudos to the filmmakers for going out of their way to feature iconic downtown Los Angleles locales in this picture; for those of you who aren't familiar, Angel's Flight, The Bradbury Building and Redwood Bar are all well worth checking out. Unfortunately, the film buries the decent chemistry between its two leads (Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt)under a heap of distracting gimmicks. Everything from an animated credit sequence to a god like voiceover to a non-linear script structure are trotted out in an effort to make us care about these two, but in the end it just feels cluttered. Still, there are a handful of effective scenes and a decent soundtrack, which already makes this way better than "G.I. Joe."
G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA
Last time I checked, Hollywood was developing movies based on "Monopoly", "Barbie" "View Master" and "Battleship", so this big screen adaptation of the long suffering propaganda toy is hardly a surprise. But I still wish someone would put a stop to this trend. As I mentioned before, I slept through most of this movie, but I did see an explosion or two, and I'm pretty sure that Dennis Quaid was in it. You might have heard that Dennis' brother Randy and his wife were recently apprehended in Texas for skipping out on a huge hotel bill they ran up in Santa Barbara. This is a more interesting story than "G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra", and it has the added bonus of being true. It's to my great shame that G.I. Joe is on this list while I've still yet to see Katheryn Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker", but I know that's what you should see if you want a war film that actually has something to say. The Mission-Tiki Drive-In rocks, though, and deserves a chance to book better movies than this.
THE HANGOVER
Not perfect, but still without a doubt the funniest movie of the summer. Whatever else you have to say about this, it has the distinction of showcasing the gonzo comic brilliance of Zach Gallifanakis. It also lights a fire under the career of Ed Helms, who kills it every week as Andy Bernard on "The Office", and may soon add Oscar nominee to his list of accomplishments. Rumor has it the studio is pushing for his "Stu's Song" to get a nod for original song. This would be great, because it would mean that Ed Helms would get to give an acceptance speech instead of Randy Newman, but it could also set a dangerous precedent, because it would cause a lot of jackasses out there to think that they can win an Oscar if they sit down at a piano keyboard and riff for 57 seconds. Let's just put a stop that kind of thinking right now, shall we? Ed Helms can. You can't.
UP
In spite of my previous comments regarding Randy Newman, Pixar has yet to make a bad movie, and Up is one of their best yet. Touching, sad and wonderfully inventive, it's a great story with universal appeal. Kids will thrill to the fanciful creatures and boy scout protagonist, while the grownups can gripe along with Ed Asner's Mr. Fredericksen and thrill to the antics of the Errol Flynn-like villain. My eyes are kind of messed up, so I can't really experience the full 3-D effect, but I hear that part was amazing, too.
STAR TREK
For all you Kirk Vs. Spock nerds out there, Spock has definitely come out on top in this one. Leonard Nimoy is featured heavily in director J.J. Abrams reboot of this sci-fi franchise, while William Shatner doesn't appear at all. None of this really makes a whole lot of difference in the end, as youthful exuberance is the order of the day here. Longtime fans will thrill to the Kirk and Spock origin story, but those with no Trek familiarity at all will still find plenty to like in this fast paced space adventure. It borrows a bit heavily from Star Wars, but that was a pretty good movie, too.
