What great movies have I missed in the past year?

A really good drama is The Wrestler. I thought that was an awesome movie.

Crazy Heart
Up in the Air
The Hurt Locker
The Ghost Writer
State of Play

Um. Movies on DVD? I don’t know. But I just saw Date Night in theaters today and it was hilarious, a really good movie. So if you ever feel like actually going out to see a movie, that’s a good one.

Bit of a Poll this, isn’t it?

Simply?

Julie and Julia
Seraphine
The Last Station
Paris
The Class
Precious

My most recent favorite movie is The Invention of Lying with Ricky Gervais and Jennifer Garner. The premise is that in the movie’s world, humans have never evolved the ability to lie, so they say whatever is on their mind. That would be funny enough for me (the writing is good and I kept cracking up at the conversations we in this world would never have due to politeness/lying), but then Ricky Gervais tells the world’s first lie and things get even funnier from there.

Anyway, it was smart, cute, and it made me laugh out loud a lot, which not many movies do.

Late 2008, The Dark Knight, Burn After Reading, Tropic Thunder, Iron Man. From 2009 DVDs, I can recommend Milk, Coraline, The Soloist. 2010, the Hurt Locker, The Invention of Lying, Fantastic Mr Fox

@MissAnthrope I agree with that recommendation, I watched it when it came out on DVD and I thought it was very funny and interesting.

I second MagsRags 2009 DVD list.

I suppose you saw Avatar.

The blind side.

I second gailcalled’s recommendation of Precious. Very good movie

@slick44 Grand Torino? I caught half of it on HBO a few days ago and am looking forward to seeing the whole movie.

Gran Torino was great

@MagsRags .. thank you i couldnt remember, but i loved it, it was by far one o the best movies i have ever seen.

zombieland

Blind Side

Some of the movies suggested where ok, and some I haven’t seen. But as far as I know there hasn’t been a great movie in Years. Let you know when I see one.

Thanks for all the suggestions! I’ve got to get that queue up to speed.

@lloydbird Nope. A simple poll would be: “What’s your favorite movie?” or “Which movie is better, A or B?” :P

@slick44 I had to remove your Gran Torino suggestion, due to the spoiler. Luckily, that’s one of the movies I had already seen! :)

I don’t know if Sci-Fi is your cup of tea, but I’d check out Moon. I thought it was fantastic. None of this explosion-ridden mindless space nonsense. A clean, beautiful and striking science fiction story.

Also, you should check out Defendor. It’s a recent Canadian indie flick. Also a great story, a very poignant and entertaining film.

@augustlan… i am sorry, it never crossed my mind.

the Men Who Stare At Goats
Up
The Hurt Locker
The Blind Side
Julie and Julia

Moon is okay, if you like Sci Fi. District 9 sucks ass.

District 9 was excellent.

The only thing I can add about Gran Torino is to bring the kleenex. It was so good.

Moon
District 9
Hurt Locker
Up In The Air
Elegy

Inglourious Basterds
World’s Greatest Dad – It’s a dark comedy. I was pleasantly surprised.
Martyrs – I’m not sure what kind of horror movies you like, but it’s one of my favorites since The Descent.
Where The Wild Things Are
Earth
Whip It
The Hangover

And I absolutely agree with Precious, The Blind Side and Hurt Locker.

the wrestler! invention of lying was so so. it was promising but it just didnt follow through

Just saw The Hurt Locker yesterday, and I must say it deserves the award for best picture, not like last year’s slumdog millionaire.
I also enjoyed Avatar (I don’t give a fuck what people say, I liked it), Up (probably the only recent disney movie I actually enjoyed), Precious, and Zombieland.
The most overrated would have to be Inglourious Basterds, District 9 and The Hangover.

I loved Slumdog and didn’t love Hurt Locker. Hurt Locker was, to me, one of those movies that didn’t ever go anywhere. I kept waiting and waiting, and then the movie was over.

@Michael_Huntington Absolutely disagree with Inglourious Basterds being overrated. I thought it was excellent. Even if you don’t like Tarantino, the first 15 minutes of that movie are cinematic legend.

Inglourious Basterds was way overrated. Typical B (B+) movie Tarantino although there was a stellar performance by the Nazi dude. He hasn’t made a really good movie since Pulp Fiction or Kill Bill. And alas Reservoir Dogs is a distant memory. His style is just overtaking any substance in his movies and he’s more and more just immersed in banality.

@SeventhSense I gotta disagree. Inglourious Basterds was terrific. Tarantino’s work since Pulp Fiction (other than producing, and ignoring walk ons in film or television) would be Jackie Brown, Kill Bill, Death Proof (part of the Grindhouse movie), his 20 minute portion of Four Rooms, From Dusk Til Dawn (which he did not direct, but wrote and acted in), and Basterds. Ah, if only my career were only that banal. Jackie Brown is terrific on every level. D til D is a family favorite. Yes, Death Proof was a bit odd, but I enjoyed it tremendously.
And Kill Bill is one of the best 5 films of the last 10 years. I can’t wait for part 3.

I agree with @SeventhSense about Inglorious Basterds, banal, puerile (The finger and bullet hole scene. Complete with squelching!), and disturbing. Yet, not disturbing in an interesting, entertaining or clever way. Could it be that Tarantino gets some kind of kick out of seeing good-looking people being killed or tortured? Because plenty of that was going on. What’s that about?
Doesn’t this glorified revenge fantasy also do a disservice to Jewish people, and to the truth about the real horrors that happened in that period?
Is it not also insulting to Native Americans? An extension of the fantasy?

I stand corrected. @augustlan :)

I definitely agree with @filmfann on Up. It was excellent. Funny, and sad too.

@filmfann
Pray tell what was terrific about it. Was it the well paced and interesting movie that just disintegrated into an adolescent revisionist fantasy or the predictable and comical gore fest at the end?
Kill Bill was clever as are all of his concepts. Dusk to Dawn complete joke and they managed to make Salma Hayek not sexy which is almost impossible to do. Grindhouse is just more gorefest trailer trash masterpiece theater. His skit from Four Rooms was brilliant and his pacing and timing was was exceptional but the pacing and the very severe split in Basterds was apparent after the basement bar scene. It was like another movie and very apparent that it was filmed at a very distinct and different time. There was no congruence between the former and the latter. It was like two different directors had a go at it.

He’s a good director but he’s too taken with himself, his budget and his questionable tastes. And far too many people in Hollywood have been blowing smoke up his ass because he can make some coin. But making tons of cash doesn’t automatically equate with exceptional directing. Just ask Robert Altman or Woody Allen. Not to mention when dealing with such a monumental historical topic such as the Holocaust I think it’s almost unethical to create such historical inaccuracies within the popular culture.

@SeventhSense I don’t like historically inaccurate movies either, but this was just fun.
Changing pace during a movie is common. He did it between Kill Bill 1 and 2, and did it again in Dusk Till Dawn and Death Proof. Other directors do it too, like Scorsese’s Goodfellas.
Most actors want to work with Tarantino. This is not because his movies make money. It is because they recognize him as a maverick artist filmmaker. Michael Bay movies make money, but noone would turn down Tarantino to work with Bay.

Fantastic Mr. Fox was a great and under-appreciated comedy. It’s got a star-studded cast (George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Owen Wilson..) for a stop motion animated film. Definitely check it out.

I just watched Up In the Air tonight. It was really good, and not what I expected.

@augustlan Very good and very poignant.

True Grit
Cell 211
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy