Favourite film of 2009: "The Box," followed by "The Hurt Locker" and guilty-pleasure, "Law Abiding Citizen."

Rating System:

A+ = Don’t Miss It, Life-Changing, Classic
A = Very Solid Recommendation, Very Well Made
B+ = Solid Recommendation
B = Recommended
B- = Alright, still worth a watch
C = Watch at your own risk
D = Avoid
F = Waste of Film, Time and Money

This includes every film I watched in 2009, including films previously screened, and rated as per that individual viewing. It also combines film screenings with DVD rentals. However, they are not listed in any order beyond the general grade rating.

• Click here for ratings for movies watched in 2008.

1. Waltz With Bashir — A
2. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button — B+
3. Revolutionary Road — B+
4. The Wrestler — A
   
5. The Reader – B+
6. Milk — A+
   
7. Gomorrah — A+
   
8. Rachel Getting Married – B+
   
9. The Watchmen — A
10. Role Models — A
11. The International — B+
12. Notorious — C
13. The Spirit — F
14. Angels and Demons — B+
15. Twilight — C
16. Star Trek — C
17. The Day the Earth Stood Still – B
18. 50 Dead Men Walking — A+
19. Up — A
20. Flight of the Navigator — A+
21. Fanboys – B+
22. Mean Guns — A
23. Fast and the Furious 4 — A
24. He’s Just Not that Into You — F
25. Moon — A
26. Hurt Locker — A+
27. JCVD – B+
28. Race to With Mountain (2008) — C
29. Adventureland — C
30. Knowing — B+
31. Bruno — D
32. District 9 — A+
33. V (miniseries) — A
34. I Love You, Man — B+
35. Inglourious Basterds — A
36. Starman — A
37. Coraline — B+
38. Jurassic Park 3 — B-
39. Repo! The Genetic Opera — B
40. Misery — A
41. The Silence of the Lambs — A
42. State of Play — B
43. Close Encounters of the Third Kind — A+
44. Kill Bill, part one — A+
45. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs — B+
46. Year One — F
47. Zombieland — B
48. Where the Wild Things Are — B+
49. Away We Go — D
50. Rocky Horror Picture Show — A+
51. Watchmen — A+
52. Into the Wild — A
53. The Brothers Bloom — A
54. Fireproof — B
55. Law Abiding Citizen — B+
56. The Box — A+
57. A Serious Man — B
58. Fantastic Mr. Fox — A+
59. The Machinist — D
60. The Running Man — A
61. The Road — C
62. Up in the Air — A+
63. Disney’s Christmas Carol — B
64. Jingle All the Way — B+
65. Jack Frost – B+
66. Die Hard — A
67. Avatar — B-
68. Julie & Julia — C
69. Terminator: Salvation — C
70. Total Recall – A+
71. Taking Woodstock — A
72. Monkey Warfare — C
73. The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus — A
74. Die Hard: With a Vengeance — A+

I began 2009 by making copious use of my Phillips DVD player with USB port, which meant lots of movies not acquired by above-the-board methods… however, I have seen the errors of my ways and have since removed all BitTorrent software from my computers. I can’t endorse pirating any more; despite the errors that the industry has made in terms of DRM and copyright issues. Unless the product is given away freely (under say, a “Creative Commons” license or otherwise), my conscience knows that it’s still theft.

Movie theatre tickets may be too expensive, DVD/Blu-rays maybe ugly and overpriced, but that doesn’t give me the right to steal that content. Maybe it’s because I’m a content producer myself (both as a writer and musician), but when that content is taken from me (or my employer) without recognition, I know that it’s wrong.

I do see the value in freely giving away content: Keith Green did this in the 1980s for the sake of spreading the Gospel, and today writers like Cory Doctorow share their books online, entirely for free, in the fight for publicity — I myself participate in a  blend of these approaches to a certain extent with my own Christmas recordings.

So instead of downloading, I’ve started watching more matinee movies, more movies “solo,” and I’ve even signed up for a DVD rental service, Zip.ca (let me know if you want to sign up and I can “refer” you). I expect that next year the number of movies I’ll have see will be lower, and will have a higher number of “old” films, thanks to the weird rental structure of online rental services.