January 2010 Movies

Ah, a new year. Not much on my radar for the coming months, and all sequels: Iron Man 2 (7 May), Toy Story 3 (18 June), Harry Potter 7 (19 Nov), and Tron 2 (17 Dec). Hopefully something else will pique my interest (Hot Tub Time Machine?), or this could be a year of catching up on Dexter, Weeds, Wire in the Blood, and Deadwood. I've also been meaning to watch The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles from start-to-finish now that it's on DVD.

November and December were good to me from a movie perspective. I managed to catch Night at the Museum 2 (ridiculous, but better than I thought it would be), District 9 (amazing), Watchmen Director's Cut(disappointing), Lovely by Surprise (wtf?), Angels & Demons (meh + distracted by Ewan's vanished mole), Extract (didn't laugh once), Zombieland (overrated), Year One (awful), Fanboys (outstanding), A Perfect Getaway (kind of stupid), and Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (love Clancy Brown as Lex Luthor), and Persepolis (not as interesting as I'd envisioned).

As usual, here's my top 10 or so movies in theaters or on DVD to see, with movies in my collection starred:

1. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
2. The Invention of Lying
3. Sherlock Holmes
4. Avatar 3D
5. Moon
6. The Fall*
7. The Departed*
8. The Brothers Bloom
9. Public Enemies
10. Pan's Labyrinth*

Top 10 Movies of the '00s

I saw a lot of movies over the last 10 years. That number has declined considerably since my son was born, but I still manage to see most things worth seeing (although there are a few inexplicable outliers like The Departed that have slipped through the cracks).

After several weeks of careful consideration, these are the top 10 movies of the Aughts:

1. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)
2. Cidade de Deus (City of God) (2003)
3. WALL·E (2008)
4. The Incredibles (2004)
5. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
6. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
7. Hot Fuzz (2007)
8. Nueve Reinas (Nine Queens) (2002)
9. The Dish (2000)
10. Two Family House (2000)

Honorable Mention: District 9 (2009) completely blew me away, but it'll take a few years before I know whether or not the mark is indelible.

Top 10 Albums of the '00s

I know you've all been waiting for this, so I'm not going to keep you in suspense any longer. After an exhaustive review of my music collection from the last 9 years and 50 weeks, these are the top 10 albums released during the Aughts:

1. Dandy Warhols - thirteen tales from urban bohemia (2000)
2. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (2002)
3. Lily Allen - Alright, Still (2006)
4. Jimmy Eat World - Bleed American (2002)
5. Fountains of Wayne - Welcome Interstate Managers (2003)
6. Franz Ferdinand - You Could Have It So Much Better (2005)
7. Robbie Williams - Sing When You're Winning (2000)
8. Jude - King of Yesterday (2001)
9. Jon Brion - Meaningless (2001)
10. Ben Kweller - Sha Sha (2002)

Honorable Mention: Sufjan Stevens - Illinois (2005) is a weird and wonderful album that I could listen to over and over, but it's not exactly BOTA material.

Next up: The Top 10 Movies of the '00s!