All Time Top 5 (Best and Worst Movies of the Year)

It's the end of the year (well it was a few days ago). Blogs everywhere are releasing best/worst lists at a torrid pace. In fact, bip-bip. has already released our list of the ten best albums of the year. And, as you'd expect, we're bringing you our favorite movies of the year as well. You'll have to forgive the fact that we're not posting it until 2010, but I wanted to wait until I saw Up In The Air because I had a feeling it might make the list (and sure enough it did). We're also bringing you our most hated movies of the year. Now, to be fair to the movies on that list, there were probably worse movies made, but these were the movies that actually had a chance to be good (as opposed to films that were doomed from the start -- think Old Dogs).

Here's the All Time Top 5 (Best Movies of the Year)

5

Zombieland/Adventureland (tie) -- I decided to put both of these at number 5 for two reasons. First, they are both great movies that deserve to be on this list (even though most readers probably never saw either of these). Second, they both star Jesse Eisenberg, an actor who had an absolute breakout 2009.

4

Avatar -- At this point, I feel like there's not much left to say about Avatar. The movie was an absolute smash hit (it's tally is now up to over $1B worldwide) and belongs on a pedestal along with some of James Cameron's other hits.

3

The Hangover -- The highest-grossing R-rated comedy in American history was this year's best comedy by far. I couldn't be more excited for the sequel (scheduled to come out around October 2010). I'd join Alan's wolfpack any day.

2

Up In The Air -- As I said earlier, I specifically waited to make this list because I thought Up In The Air would have a shot to make it. That being said, I still didn't expect it to be as good as it was. Even though this was Clooney's best film ever, the real story to me was a new star being born in Anna Kendrick.

1

Inglourious Basterds -- Perhaps the most polarizing movie on my list, Tarantino's WWII gorefest was an absolutely brilliant piece of filmmaking in this blogger's opinion. Christoph Waltz is almost a guarantee to win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. And I really hope Tarantino wins Best Director.

All Time Top 5 (Worst Movies of the Year)

5

Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen -- Sure, the special effects were what we expected. Sure, I'll go see the next one. But the storyline was one of the dumbest things ever. Don't believe me? Read this FAQ on the film (warning: some foul language).

4

Observe and Report -- Seth Rogen had been in a series of really funny movies, but this mall cop comedy was just plain stupid. I expected bad things from Paul Blart: Mall Cop (I never saw it, but apparently a lot of you did) but had higher hopes for this one.

3

I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell -- As a fellow Duke Law alum, I was hoping for a movie that would at least do some justice to Tucker Max's hilarious stories. Unfortunately, the movie was just plain garbage.

2

The Informant -- How the combination of Matt Damon and Steven Soderbergh resulted in this terribly boring (yet surprisingly well received by most critics) film is beyond me.

1

My Sister's Keeper -- Honestly the worst book adaptation I've ever seen. It's essentially a collection of scenes with sad songs playing that are intended to make women cry but never really develops any characters or a plot that would give them a reason to.

The United States of Zombieland

Comedy/horror movie Zombieland is really good. I saw it expecting something along the lines of Shaun of the Dead, but what I saw was much better. Be warned that it's more than a little gory, but the movie boasts a great cast, great writing, and pretty good special effects (it really does a nice job of using slow motion -- I know that sounds weird, but trust me). It also finds a way to actually develop the characters like most comedies struggle to do. Put all this together and you've got the ultimate zombie flick and comedy combo.

The story revolves around four main characters all trying to survive in a US that has been overrun with zombies. It stars Jessie Eisenberg, an actor who has had a fantastic year in this blogger's opinion with both Adventureland and Zombieland. Granted, he plays basically the same awkward-and-constantly-nervous-yet-somehow-still-cool character (think the character that Michael Cera always plays) in both movies, but they were exactly what the role called for, and neither would have been great movies without his performance. Eisenberg's "Columbus" (the characters all just call themselves by the towns they were born in) narrates the story, and his narration really adds to the film's humor. He starts the movie off on a high note by filling in audience members on some of the rules of his "Survival Guide to Zombieland." And these constantly come up throughout the movie. Trust me when I say you'll laugh more than once when a rule pops up.

Columbus teams up with zombie-slaying, twinkie-obsessed badass "Tallahassee," played by Woody Harrelson. I've never been a huge Harrelson fan (aside from his role as Roy Munson in Kingpin), but he's probably the funniest guy in the movie. The two eventually team up with two girls, "Wichita" and "Little Rock." Wichita, played by Emma Stone (Superbad, The Rocker), plays Columbus's love interest, and it's pretty funny when he finally gets the girl. And increasingly popular Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine, Definitely, Maybe, My Sister's Keeper) plays Little Rock.

Audience members are given a real treat when Bill Murray (reuniting with Harrelson after his turn as "Big Ern McCracken" in Kingpin) cameos as himself. It's not quite on the level of Matt Damon in Eurotrip or Val Kilmer in Entourage, but it's pretty damn good.

Bottom line: If you go to this movies this week, go see Zombieland; just good old fashioned family fun (for families where everyone is 17+). (B+)

Here's the preview:

Sidenote: I saw the preview for Saw VI before movie. Can we please stop making these?