Category: Movies

Running The Numbers: 2009 in Movies

What I watched in 2009. Only counting things I saw for the first time.

  1. 300 (2006)
  2. 633 Squadron (1964)
  3. 88 Minutes (2007)
  4. A Dangerous Profession (1949)
  5. The Ambushers (1967)
  6. Angels And Demons (2009)
  7. Avatar (2009)
  8. Der Baader Meinhof Komplex (2008)
  9. Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call, New Orleans (2009)
  10. Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead (2007)
  11. Blood Freak (1972)
  12. Blueprint (2003)
  13. The Brain Eaters (1958)
  14. The Brothers Bloom (2008)
  15. California Split (1974)
  16. Cassandra’s Dream (2007)
  17. The Cat’s Meow (2001)
  18. Changeling (2008)
  19. Devil Girl From Mars (1954)
  20. District 9 (2009)
  21. Don’t Look Now (1973)
  22. Don’t Make Waves (1967)
  23. Extract (2009)
  24. Freebie And The Bean (1974)
  25. Frost/Nixon (2008)
  26. Frozen River (2008)
  27. Fukkatsu no hi (1980)
  28. Fuzz: The Sound That Revolutionized The World (2007)
  29. Giant (1956)
  30. The Girl From Monday (2005)
  31. Girl On A Motorcycle (1968)
  32. God Told Me To (1976)
  33. Gomorra (2008)
  34. The Hangover (2009)
  35. Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)
  36. Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay (2008)
  37. The Horror At 37,000 Feet (1973)
  38. The Hurt Locker (2008)
  39. I Love You Man (2009)
  40. Impact (1949)
  41. Inglourious Basterds (2009)
  42. The International (2009)
  43. Knowing (2009)
  44. La fille coupée en deux (2007)
  45. La fille de Monaco (2008)
  46. La louve solitaire (1968)
  47. La vallée (1972)
  48. Last Chance Harvey (2008)
  49. Let The Right One In (2008)
  50. The Lost Missile (1958)
  51. Made In U.S.A. (1966)
  52. Malice (1993)
  53. The Men Who Stare At Goats (2009)
  54. Milk (2008)
  55. The Mist (2007)
  56. Model Shop (1969)
  57. Moon (2009)
  58. Moon Zero Two (1969)
  59. Ne le dis à personne (2006)
  60. Nid de guêpes (2002)
  61. The Notorious Bettie Page (2005)
  62. Oldboy (2003)
  63. Paranormal Activity (2007)
  64. Primer (2004)
  65. Public Enemies (2009)
  66. [REC] (2007)
  67. S*P*Y*S (1974)
  68. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
  69. Star Trek (2009)
  70. Transsiberian (2008)
  71. Up (2009)
  72. Valkyrie (2008)
  73. Vantage Point (2008)
  74. Watchmen (2009)
  75. Winter A-Go-Go (1965)

The Perfect Billboard

perfect_billboard.jpg

The Perfect Billboard. Eggshell white with romalian type. Nice. Raised lettering, a subtle 7 inch bone border, and just look at the tasteful thickness of the headline. All perched on four evenly spaced 3.2 metre powder coated stanchions. My god, it even has a watermark.

Ad for American Psycho on TV2 in New Zealand. As found on Ads Of The World (and many others). Larger version at AOTW too.

Metatext shoutout – you heard it here first!

Before we go any further here let’s just agree that complaining about Michael Bay is like trying to punch out the wind. Even if he’s the noisier little brother of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, his movies almost always come in on time, within budget, and make a profit. Not too many people doing that in 21st century Hollywood.

A month or so back Kristin and I were confronted with the trailer to Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen a month or so back and our feeling was that it was the first completely metatext movie trailer. Ignore everything you know about narrative because the trailer isn’t a convention preview, it’s a list of ingredients: explosions, Egypt, explosions, military hardware, explosions, robots, shouting, explosions, Megan Fox’s butt, explosions, conspiracy mysticism b.s., more explosions.

Anyway, I posted this in an ILX thread and on Twitter and apparently I was right. One long two and a half hour blipvert. I’ll hold off for the eventual RiffTrax version of this. The RiffTrax version of Transformers was actually pretty good.

Right in front of you and not at all

I’ve seen Double Indemnity probably a dozen or more times over the years and until now I had no idea that was Raymond Chandler sitting there in the hallway while Fred MacMurray walks intently past him. I wonder what he’s reading?

chandler_doubleindemnity2.jpg

He certainly seems to be annoyed at the interruption. Though taking into account Chandler’s memo to the studio, he’s probably just annoyed in general.

chandler_doubleindemnity.jpg

I ran into a similar effect with recent viewings of 2001: A Space Odyssey. It’s the first movie I ever saw in a movie theater (thanks dad!) and I can confidently say that I’ve seen it thirty to forty times over the years. However it wasn’t until a couple months ago at a recent Arclight viewing that I noticed that the monolith and the moon formed a pyramid.

2001_monolith_pyramid.jpg

More fodder for the “what does it all mean?” pile I suppose, but interesting nonetheless. I suspect a crash course in Zoroastrianism is in my future.

2001_aeroflot.jpg

Speaking of hidden items in 2001… Did anyone back in 1968 seriously expect Aeroflot to still be around in the real 2001? Or to put it another way:

It’s 1968. Which brand will be the only one remaining in 2001?

  1. Pan Am
  2. Bell System
  3. Aeroflot