NEOAVATARA

I see tons of movies…it is one of my guilty pleasures.  Between the movie theater, Netflix, and my absurd DVD purchasing budget, I see the bulk of the popular movies every year.  Admittedly, I miss a fair amount of the independent films, so take my list for what it is worth…

Honorable Mention:  Watchmen, Inglorious Bastards, Where The Wild Things Are, The Lovely Bones, Sherlock Holmes, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Road, Disney’s Earth,  The Hurt Locker, Corraline, Drag Me To Hell.

10.  Adventureland – A tribute to the 80s classic movies…this is the movie that Kristen Stewart fans should watch.

9.  Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – The darkest of the series…until the next two, that is.

8.  The Princess and the Frog – Something nice and quaint about still action movies from Disney…and this is the first good one in decades.

7.  Zombieland – A roadtrip movie in a world of Zombies.  Really.  And the surreal scene with Bill Murray…priceless.

6.  The Hangover – The one truly falling-out-of-your-seat laughter movie this year…and it has Mike Tyson!

5.  Up In The Air – Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking, Juno) has developed his own niche of comedies…and this might be his best.

4.  Avatar – The beginning of real 3-D movies.  The story is so-so…but if you have not seen it in IMAX 3-D…you are missing an cinematic experience.  Even the liberal propaganda aside, it is a beautiful movie.

3.  Star Trek – A franchise reborn.  J.J. Abrams (Lost) created a whole new universe for Star Trek fans to look forward to…without alienating hardcore fans.

2.  District 9 – Science fiction at its best:  as a social commentary.

1.  Up – This will remain a classic for years to come.  A brilliant and touching animated movie that both adults and children can love.  This goes to the top of the pyramid of the great Pixar movies; somehow, every time they come out with a new movie, we say that, don’t we?  They are the greatest stoytellers of our generation.  Not to mention, look what they accomplished:  this is the ONLY movie this year that got the approval of both my son (age 3) and my wife.

Hopefully, I will post my top 10 movies of the decade early next week…