*****End of the Year 2009 Recap******

This blog started out as a New Year Resolution for 2009.
It was to see at least 20 movies I never seen before each month.
That's 240 movies for the whole year.
I saw 272 movies that I never seen before this year.
60 out of the 272 are movies that came out in 2009.
This coming year, I'm going to be busy being a father
and other important things.
I don't know if I'll be able to top 272.
My goal for this coming year is
to see at least 200 movies I never seen before.

Here's 10 movies I saw and enjoyed
the most that came out in 2009:
1. Inglourious Basterds
2. Watchmen
3. Zombieland
4. The Hangover
5. The Fantastic Mr. Fox
6. Drag Me To Hell
7. District 9
8. Sin Nombre
9. Observe and Report
10. Yesterday

Honorable Mentions: I Love You, Man, Sweet Karma,
Dead Snow, Up, and Star Trek

5 top 2009 Comedies I saw:
1. The Hangover
2. Observe and Report
3. I Love You, Man
4. World's Greatest Dad
5. (500) Days of Summer

5 top 2009 Action/Drama/Genre movies I saw:
1. Inglourious Basterds
2. Watchmen
3. Zombieland
4. Sin Nombre
5. Yesterday

5 top 2009 Sci Fi Movies I saw:
1. District 9
2. Star Trek
3. Kenny Begins
4. Terminator: Salvation
5. Alien Trespass

5 top 2009 Animation
(I only saw these 5)
1. The Fantastic Mr. Fox
2. Up
3. 9
4. The Haunted World Of El Superbeasto
5. Coraline

5 top 2009 Horror
1. Drag Me To Hell
2. Dead Snow
3. Thirst
4. Orphan
5. The Last House on the Left

Here's 10 worst films of 2009 that I saw:
(from least hated to most hated)
10. Friday the 13th remake
09. Adventureland
08. The Goods
07. Bridge to Nowhere
06. Bruno
05. Dark Country
04. The Hills Run Red
03. 7 Soles
02. Grace
01. Fighting
Dishonorable Mentions: Paranormal Activity,
The Taking of Pelhalm 123, and Buratino

What's new for 2010 on my film watching hobby??
After planning and research,
I will be having the following personal movie nights:
Every Tuesday will still be New Release Tuesdays
(in which I see a movie on dvd that came out that day),
Friday at the Grindhouse will be moved to the 4th Friday
of each month.
Spaghetti Western Night has moved to the 2nd Wednesday
of each month instead of the 3rd.
No more Asian, Gangster, and Foreign nights
(no reason to have these on a specific night because
I watch a bunch of these every month).
Instead we will have:
Documentary Monday (1st Monday)
Animation Thursday (3rd Thursday)
Linda's Chick Flick Night (2nd Saturday)
in addition, I will have a segment called,
"Catching up with a Director."
Every month I choose a director that I like but haven't seen
all their films and I will watch 5 of their films
throughout a month.
(For example: I haven't seen the early works of
Stanley Kubrick. So throughout February, I will watch five
films I haven't seen by Kubrick.)

We're done with the year, but before I leave you,
here's a random video moment from
the Low Budget Theatre Room.
I was about to see my #1 movie of the year
for the 3rd time.

Happy New Year!!!

A Perfect Getaway

A Perfect Getaway
Perfect adrenaline movie.
I liked the performances.
Love the twist and love the beginning of the third act.

Spoiler up ahead:
Didn't understand why that girl
all of a sudden had a change of heart towards her "husband"
when she was with the police?
In fact, there's a few plot holes.
Other than that, I was entertained.
I also want to add, the wonderful shots of Hawaii were great.
It's like I was there.

Favorite part: when the main bad guy gets stabbed in the hand
while hanging on a cliff.
Also, when Nick comes out from the water and
gets ready for action.
Worth the peek!!

9

New Release Tuesdays Presents:

9
On this last New Release Tuesday of the year, I saw this
decent animated apocalyptic flick.
Think Terminator mixed with Nightmare before Christmas.
You get 9.
The characters fit perfect in this gloomy world.
There's not one happy moment until we hear the song,
"Somewhere over the Rainbow" towards the end.
And that part was still a little dark.
The story is simple and straightforward.
Good graphics.

I don't think I would buy it, but was worth the rent.
Once again, short and simple.

Wrong Turn at Tahoe

Wrong Turn at Tahoe
I'm trying to catch up on some of these movies I missed over
the holidays. I saw this gangster/revenge flick tonight.
There were some good scenes throughout this flick.
My favorite, is when the messengers get killed at the stairs.
Beautiful scene.
I don't buy Cuba Gooding Jr's character.
I do however, like Miguel Ferrer as a gangster.
He's used to these roles.
Harvey Keitel's role here was typical.
Nothing new to offer.
To me, it seemed that they were trying too hard
with the dialogue.
The story was entertaining.
But I got one major problem with a plot hole I found.
If Joshua (Cuba G.) knew who killed his father,
why wait until the end to do his revenge???
That bothered me after the movie.

This is worth the rent, but it will offer nothing new
you haven't seen before.

Extract

Extract
This latest flick from Mike Judge was okay.
Let's rate the acts.
1st act: average.
2nd act: funny and awesome.
3rd act: not that great.
There's interesting characters on here.
Some of them reminded me of Beavis and Butthead
kind of characters. Duh, it's freaking Mike Judge.
I like some of the stupidity on here.
The only character I didn't like as much was the lawyer
played by Gene Simmons. It was a joke putting him on here.
Other than that, good writing and acting by other people,
except the part where Cindy starts "crying" to Joel where
she gives up easily.

This movie should only be viewed if you're a fan or
have the Mike Judge collection.

(500) Days of Summer

(500) Days of Summer
I saw this decent flick with the wife.
We enjoyed it.
Just like the beginning says, "this is not a love story,"
the movie is exactly that.
The performances are believable, especially towards the end.
Love the split screen scene, where it shows on one side,
the expectation and the other, the reality.
Another scene I liked was the almost kind of a musical
scene, where the main dude was dancing in the park.
The ending was okay. Would of wanted some things
to be a little different. But, let it be.

It was worth the watch.
The only reason I would buy it, because,
Zooey Deschanel is my wife's favorite actress.
We got to have that in the Zooey section.

District 9

New Release Tuesdays Presents:

District 9
If Shakespeare was alive and he wanted
to write something sci-fi,
this movie would be close to it.
This was a great sci-fi flick.
I wouldn't say that this was total mind blowing,
but it was a good original tragic story.
Love the concept behind it all.
My favorite part is when our hero gets
inside this robot machine and starts blasting
people away.
Didn't like the music, it was kinda of a downer.
I was also lost towards the beginning,
I didn't know if I was going to be watching a
Cloverfield kind of movie.
Thankfully, the cameras from the documentary stopped.
On another note, love the colors on this movie.
This was my first Bluray experience.
Some scenes weren't great on blu, but the action
scenes were awesome.

It will be a debate for myself if this should be on
my top 10 best films of the year list.
It definitely has a shot.

Il Divo

Gangster Film Night and Special Advanced
Foreign Film Night Presents:


Il Divo
I got mixed feelings for this Italian gangster movie.
Part of me liked this slow drama with
good performances and awesome shots.
The other part of me wanted to see more action.
Can't win 'em all. Love the ending with the song by Trio.
The cinematography is genious.
The direction is good.
But, for my personal gangster film taste,
would of love to see more scenes like the ones in the beginning
of this film.

Expect a long slow drama. It is based on a true story.
In a way that's good that there wasn't a lot of action.
It felt more real.

Staten Island

Staten Island
Not bad for a film about three people and their desire in life.
It's edited good.
Love the way the stories connect at the end.
Ethan Hawke does good for a lowlife, dumb, and skeptic tank worker.
He should stick to these kind of role instead of trying to be
a bad ass.
My favorite character here is
the deaf mute guy played by Seymour Cassel.
The story is kinda simple and easy to follow.
The gangster stuff in this film is nothing we haven't seen
before.

Worth the rent.

Galaxy Quest

Galaxy Quest
This movie was a little fun.
Love some of the comedy on here.
My favorite character was Guy played by Sam Rockwell.
The effects were awesome.
The story was a little cheesy but it was all for kicks.
Didn't like that Tim Allen's character all of a sudden
had a change of heart when he discovered he was in space.
That could of been better.
Other than that, good entertainment flick.

"Never Surrender."

Star Trek

Star Trek
Spetacular big popcorn movie.
Props to the million dollar effects.
And big props to the story, very good.
This is my first Star Trek experience.
I don't know jack about the shows or anything.
But this was a fantastic adventure.
I liked the way it ended.
My least favorite part is when James Kirk and Spock
were kids. Although, they were cool scenes, I didn't think that
was important to the story. Especially, when they only showed
them for about a minute, then they're grown up in the next scene.
Still, this is one hell of a good movie.

Worth to check out and worth to buy for any sci-fi collection.

A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die

Spaghetti Western Night Presents:

A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die

Tonight was my last spaghetti western night.
I'll still be watching some spaghetti westerns next year,

but I won't have a specific night for it anymore.
Tonight's western was okay.
It's a little Americanized.

Two things I love about this western was the shots

and some of the music.

I like all the beatings in this movie.

Reminded me of how "The Bride" in Kill Bill

was beat up during her wedding rehearsal.

This is worth a rent for spaghetti western lovers.

I couldn't find a trailer for this.

Since tonight was my last Spaghetti Western Night,

I'm going to put my favorite spaghetti westerns that I

saw this year for the first time.

(From most favorite to least favorite)

1. Run Man Run
2. The Hellbenders
3. The Big Gundown
4. Death Rides A Horse
5. Navajo Joe

6. Compañeros
7. A Minute to Pray, A Second to Die
8. Four of the Apocalypse
9. Today We Kill, Tomorrow We Die
10. They Call Me Trinity
11. My Name is Nobody
12. A Bullet for the General
13. Ace High

Machine Girl

Asian Cinema Night Presents:

Machine Girl
This is a Japanese gorefest.
The story it's not so great, but if you're looking for a
bloody good time, this won't disappoint.
The first five minutes grabbed my attention.
The story slowed for a bit then we're thrown into action.
Some things confused me before the third act,
like the parents discovering their dead kids.
The timeline was confusing. Did we go back to the present?
In what moment did this happen?
Other than that, this is a movie not to take seriously.
This was made all for the gore.
Like a Japanese Troma movie.

If you're fan of Ichi the Killer, then this is another recommendation.
Still, Ichi was far better.
This movie would go well with some sushi.


------------------------------------
There will be no post for New Release Tuesday tomorrow
due to the DVD release of The Inglourious Basterds.
Will come back Wednesday for Spaghetti Western Night.

5 Minutes of Heaven

5 Minutes of Heaven
Saw this tonight.
During the first act, I noticed this
had excellent scriptwriting.
Good character driven story and direction.
It was only 90 minutes but had good flow.
There was a shot I enjoyed a lot.
The shot started upstairs at an empty building and
it moved through the window and made a pan down to
the characters that were on the street.
This movie had a nice independent feel to it.

I don't know if I'll add it to my "to buy list," but
it was worth the peek.

The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard

The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard
All the funny stuff from this movie, it's on the trailer.
Sure, there some good moments here and there.
But, the trailer pretty much covers it up.
Enjoyed the first act.
The second and third act didn't deliver the goods.
Bad writing.
The relationship between some of the characters weren't
developed well enough.

Just see this funny trailer, that would be a lot better
than wasting 89 minutes of your time.

World's Greatest Dad

New Release Tuesdays Presents:


World's Greatest Dad
This is one of those movies that is kinda funny stupid
but darker and weird. I like that combination.
Good for a few laughs, but nothing classic.
There's some unexpected things that happen in the plot.
It made the movie entertaining.
The ending/climax was weird but okay.
I'm not a big Robin Williams fan, but I enjoyed his performance here.
This is directed by Bobcat Goldthwait,
(the funny voice weird guy from the Police Academy movies).

If you're looking for a decent dark comedy, check this one out.
It'll hit you 30 minutes into the movie.
Make sure to have some special brownies and
watch a zombie movie marathon after this.

Paraiso Travel

Paraiso Travel
Decent independent flick.
Love the opening shot.
Didn't like the ending shot.
The story was good.
I like the message the movie was going for:
moving on.
It also shows the struggle people go through to make it to the U.S.
Nothing new there, I just like that they incorporated that into
the main story.
Good acting and awesome shots.
It was worth the rent. Not worth to buy,
I rather get Sin Nombre, (which is almost the same story, but better).

Terminator 3 / Terminator Salvation

This weekend I saw all four Terminator movies.
I've never seen part 3 and 4.
So here are my comments on those.


Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines
I went in with low expectations.
I was satisfied. It was entertaining.
The only problem was that this story is the same
as T2. Just different bad Terminator.
The plot was the same. It felt like it needed more
scenes towards the end.
But, I did like the ending.
The start of the war.
Bad writing but good action sequences.




Terminator Salvation
Finally saw the latest Terminator.
It was still good and entertaining.
This one had more information than part 3,
but it kinda confuses the timeline of events.
I guess I was expecting to see the year 2029 more
than the year 2018.
The year 2029 was the year they sent back those Terminators in T2.
So I thought they were going to somehow link that together.
They went all out on the special effects.

Overall, I thought this was good as Terminator 1 and 3.
But it's not a match for Terminator 2, of course.
When will this end??? I hope soon.

Slaughter Hotel / Turkey Shoot

Friday at the Grindhouse Presents:


Slaughter Hotel
This first movie I saw tonight definitely had
the grindhouse feel to it.
It kinda felt like the movie, Thriller: A Cruel Picture,
but it didn't have a great story.
Can't believe Fernando Di Leo directed this.
He's the director behind some of the exploitation gangster flicks
that I like.
Slaughter Hotel had a lot of places where the movie
jump from one scene to another.
It was also a little bizarre, especially this weird animal like
dance sequence.
And they made sure to have a lot nudity in almost
every scene.
I would of liked some of the murders to be a bit more violent.

You have to be in the mood to watch this grindhouse flick,
if not, then you may not enjoy it.




Turkey Shoot
The second half of my grindhouse night, I decided
to watch this ozploitation flick.
This is a movie that I first heard about when I saw
the documentary, "Not Quite Hollywood."
Man, these guards from this camp are meaner than the nazis.
The story was good.
There's a lot of cheesy moments anyone can
expect from these kinds of films.
Like some of the dialogue. It's classic.
The reason I saw this was because I heard
about some of the great gore.
But to me, it didn't deliver in that department.
Don't get me wrong, the gore was okay but
not as good as the hype.
I've seen better.
Some scenes got a little boring for me
that I was falling asleep. But it could of also been
the time, (it was around 3:00 a.m).

This one had wonderful shots.
Good prisoner camp movie.

Paper Heart

New Release Tuesdays Presents:

Paper Heart
Tonight I saw this decent independent love story with Linda.
Not much comedy as I expected.
More of a documentary.
I thought that there were parts when they were acting and
some parts that were more real.
So, in a way, it's a confusing documentary about love.
You have to be in the mood for it or else
this can get boring very quickly.

This kind of reminded me of a
nice musical called: "Once" (which I recommend).

Death Note 2: The Last Name

Death Note 2: The Last Name
I was blown away with part one which I saw three weeks ago.
Tonight, I saw the second part which actually ends the story.
It was long but sweet.
There's a lot of information to process.
I was lost in certain moments but excellent storytelling.
The character, L, was getting on my nerves.
But, he's the good guy.
Just like the first one, there's hardly any violence,
mostly character driven.
I prefer the first one more than this one because
it flowed better.
But this one was worth watching because it completes the story.
There's a part three but it's not a sequel, it's
a prequel with one of these characters, and has nothing
to do with this story.
The next time you see death, make sure to give him an apple,
he will appreciate it.
Good Japanese movie.

Fateless

(To explore cinema from all over the world,
every fourth Thursday of every month, I will see
a Foreign Film that I haven't seen before.
Any film not Asian or American.

Foreign Thursday was this last Thursday, but
due to the Thanksgiving Holiday, I moved the movie until today.
The movie is a Hungarian/German movie.


Fateless
I got the message they were going for but
I don't think they expressed it very good.
This is a decent WW2/Holocaust flick.
Like all flicks in this specific genre, the mood
is always sad and gloomy.
This is based on a true story.
Bad side of this was that it was way too long.
But in the good side, there were wonderful shots.
And the sound was magnificent.
Made me feel like I was suffering with these people
inside the concentration camp.
Kudos for that, just wished they would of expressed
the message more clear on why this kid loved the camp
more than being free again.

Dead & Breakfast / Tokyo Zombie

For the hell of it, today I had me zombie double feature.

Dead & Breakfast
I heard this was a funny stupid zombie movie.
And that's what I expected going into this.
However, I didn't like it as a whole.
It was stupid alright, but not the kind
of stupidity I can handle. The story was annoying,
especially when they insert music from this band
in between certain scenes.
The movie gets better towards the end.
A lot of gore in those final scenes made it watchable.
I'm not a fan of zombie movies where people
become zombies because of some voodoo spell.
That was the case here.

I bought this movie at a cheap price for the zombie collection,
but I'm not very proud of it.
This is a great example why I shouldn't buy just any movie
without seeing it first.
Even if it was for a very low price, I'm still a little disappointed
to have this on the shelf.
Who knows when I'll see it again??



Tokyo Zombie
This is my first Japanese zombie flick experience.
It was weird but alright.
It had a little better story than the previous zombie film I saw,
but not good to say that it's a classic.
I love the intro.
There's good scenes but not enough gore
for a zombie flick.
I like some of the comedy in this.
They say this is the Shaun of the Dead from Asia.

This is far from Shaun of the Dead masterpiece but it's worth
a peek if you want to see a weird zombie story.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Fantastic Mr. Fox
This latest Wes Anderson film was entertaining
as his other films.
This director doesn't disappoint.
The pace, the music, and the movement of every shot
creates the typical Anderson film mood experience.
I need to get a hold of this soundtrack.
All the characters are good too.
I like the scene towards the end where it felt like a western.
It was short and simple but yet I was wanting more.

Good to check out. I can see why this was released
during Thanksgiving holiday, it's perfect for it.