Edge of Darkness
Martin Campbell | USA | 2009
117 min
Underneath the generic sounding title and a misleading advertising campaign, Edge of Darkness is a talky political thriller with uncommon depth. It is packaged as a revenge flick, but finds firm footing as a vehicle signaling Mel Gibson’s return after an eight year hiatus. continue reading »»
Invictus
Clint Eastwood | USA | 2009
133 min
Invictus is a triumphant fusion of sports film and historical drama. Like the latter it serves as a placeholder of a period, recreating an era from the recent past but also retaining all of the genre conventions viewers have come to expect from the former. The film isn’t particularly well balanced, nor is it anything but simplistic in its outcome, but none of this prevents it from being both rousing as a sports film and stirring as a drama. continue reading »»
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Lee Daniels | USA | 2009
110 min
Precious isn’t subtle. In telling the story of a black, extremely obese, underprivileged, teenage single mother with a down’s syndrome inflicted child who is abused (physically, emotionally, verbally) by both her parents and finds herself the victim of incest, the film has time to give us one last shocking reveal by the end, that Clareece ‘Precious’ Jones suffers from AIDS as well. Is there any predicament that doesn’t befall her? continue reading »»
The Hurt Locker
Kathryn Bigelow | USA | 2009
131 min
In the risky business of fighting wars, the riskiest tasks belong to the bomb disposal squad of Bravo Company at Camp Victory. The Hurt Locker zeroes on these soldiers in Iraq, thrusting us dead centre in the midst of one bravura bomb sequence after the other. The film is a collection of taut vignettes and up until its last act where it gets personal, remains fairly objective and observant without any obvious sermonizing. continue reading »»
Despite the box office records that were broken in 2009, no one can deny that the lack of quality films was universally felt. Sure there were good movies, some of them dazzling too, but in general they either didn’t live up to their hype or were outright disappointing. As for bad films, boy, did we see a lot of those! Below you will find a list of what we consider the worst of the year. Some of them are in this list because even though we were excited about them, the final product left us cold, while others were just plain friggin’ bad, and should never have been made!
#10: Sherlock Holmes
You know that feeling when there’s someone in the audience who keeps announcing to the world what next to expect from a scene in a movie? That irritating annoyance building into anger as the movie progresses? He then laughs loudly when what he predicted does happen? That most annoying member in the cinema, in this particular case, was the movie itself. Robert Downey Jr. and Guy Ritchie transformed Doyle’s suave and intelligent Sherlock Holmes into a filthy know-it-all rascal with a faux English twang unable to get over his love for Jude Law’s bum. The movie further suffered from the hammed-up theatricality of Mark Strong’s Illusionist-inspired Lord Blackwood. With Sherlock Holmes, Guy Ritchie seemed to have one intention: to make the world more mediocre. continue reading »»
Up In The Air
Jason Reitman | USA | 2009
109 min
Up in the Air finds Clooney as a “career transition specialist”. His work requires him to travel frequently, feeling little remorse in letting go of people earmarked for downsizing by companies too afraid to handle them personally, because of the mess. Welcome to another view of the modern world by way of director Jason Reitman, him of Juno and Thank You for Smoking fame. continue reading »»
The Messenger
Oren Moverman | USA | 2009
112 min
The Messenger treads a noteworthy path. It is a slice-of-life film, focusing on essentially three characters in everyday America, yet is about a lot more than it shows. It brings a global conflict to our doorstep and down to a personal level. Although it is about grief, the movie is not heavy-laden with the emotion itself. This becomes the movie’s biggest accomplishment. continue reading »»
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans
Werner Herzog | USA | 2009
122 min
I realised very late into Bad Lieutenant that perhaps it was not meant to be taken seriously. Werner Herzog is an eccentric director — his inquisitiveness knows no bound (as evident by his wonderful documentaries); but as a filmmaker he seems to enjoy unorthodox approaches, you know, the kind that conventional Hollywood rarely takes. Bad Lieutenant is just such a film. Edgy without being hip, uplifting in a strange way without making its central character possess any redeemable quality. continue reading »»
