And here we go with everybody's top films for the past year.

1. Up
2. Avatar
3. Star Trek
4. Michael Jackson's This Is It
5. Sherlock Holmes

There are a lot of other movies I have a feeling would go on this list above Holmes but that I haven't had a chance to see (most because they haven't come to Japan yet).  Said movies include The Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, District 9, Moon, Coraline and Up in the Air.

Up easily takes my number one spot - without out a doubt it was the most entertaining and satisfying movie I've seen this year.  I would almost rank Star Trek above Avatar for sheer entertainment value and high-impact storytelling but the technological achievements and pseudo-scientific depth of Avatar give it the advantage.  This Is It was the big surprise of the year and made me wonder what a truly spectacular event MJ's concert tour would have been.  Sherlock Holmes feels more like a 9th or 10th place but deserves a spot on the list for its exciting, sometimes creative action sequences and Downey's trademark (if peculiar) charm.

Edit: Retroactively adding Up in the Air to my list, which I just saw and was excellent - the type of role George Clooney was meant for.  Would place it just above This is It and below Star Trek.

1. District 9
2. Inglourious Basterds
3. Zombieland

That's the "big three," and I saw a lot more movies this year than any year previous (had to do something while I was unemployed! Apparently that even meant spending taxpayer money to see movies!)

Other movies seen: Helloween 2, The Final Destination (a guilty pleasure of a series, but this one didn't feel like it belonged with the other 3 - I blame the title), Terminator Salvation, Jennifer's Body, Public Enemies (nowhere as good as you'd expect),

Did want to see but didn't: The Stepfather (local theater didn't get it), Saw VI (haven't even seen IV and V and refuse to buy them blind because I think the "series" sits well at I~III), The Box, Brothers (kinda), Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (which had extremely selective distribution)

1. Up
2. Star Trek
3. Watchmen
4. Monsters & Aliens
5. Harry Potter & The Half-blood Prince

That's pretty much it. Didn't watch many films this year, and liked even fewer.

1. Mother (South Korea)
2. Thirst (South Korea)
3. Breathless (South Korea)
4. District 9
5. Pandorum
6. Avatar
7. X-Men Origins: Wolverine
8. Star Trek
9. Private Eye (South Korea)
10. Watchmen

I still haven't seen Moon and A Serious Man, as well as many Korean releases. While some of the movies on my favorite list require no introduction, others are not as well known. Pandorum did terrible in sales, but everyone that I've talked to about the movie liked it. It falls into the same class as 28 Days Later, a movie that is not well understood, even by the editors of DISCOVER magazine. I have many times stumbled upon the classification of 'zombie' when reading about 28 Days Later, but there is not a single zombie in the film. Zombies are dead people that eat living people, while the humans in 28 Days Later were infected with a virus. Likewise, the creatures on the spaceship in Pandorum were not aliens; they were genetically modified humans (the movie explains that). Both 28 Days Later and Pandorum are what I consider realistic, because the events are not terribly far-fetched.

My first three picks from 2009 all fall into the class of transcendent. You must find a way to see Mother; maybe it'll pop up on the Asian channel or become rentable (not to be confused with the Mother from 2008; Koreans routinely re-use simple names like that in movie titles) at Ramen City: http://www.ramencity.com/eshop/dvdindex … korean+dvd:

If you like vampires, then Thirst offers a bizarre interpretation. Some people truly, honestly, I bullshit you not, get absolutely fucked up.

Breathless is an art film and those almost never do well in box-office sales in Korea, yet they tend to win awards at film festivals (especially in Europe). It did fairly well: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1373120/awards

1. Coraline
2. Inglourious Basterds
3. Star Trek
4. The Princess and the Frog
5. Avatar

You can read up on the talky version here.  While Coraline was pretty much undisputed since day one, it was a painstaking toss-up between Trek and the Basterds for second.  Both come about as close to a tie than anything I've ever ranked before.

Said talky version also contains the list of movies that I missed out on, but have been dying to see.  The Hurt Locker tops that list, along with Ponyo, Ninja Assassin, and Zombieland.

Question: This poll had expired on 1/12, yet the option to 'Answer Poll' is still open.  Can people still submit answers at this point?

Avatar - epic, beautiful film. I saw it 2 times in cinema (second time in 3D). It was awesome . Soundtrack is very nice (i want download it ).
I think, it is film of the year!

Oopsie, didn't click the link to tally the poll yet.  Will do so tonight.

If any of you want to add your last-minute picks or adjust them before then, feel free to do so.  Angela if you're thinking to add THL it would be a great chance to test out the functionality for re-ordering answers for me.  It's pretty nifty.

Done and done.  Actually, I made a stealth edit yesterday to add THL (in addition to four more to make the full ten) -- but made one last revision just now.

Just two that were really worth mentioning to me (although I haven't seen Dr. Parnassus yet):

1. Inglourious Basterds
2. Moon

Hey, this may sound odd, but did anyone else find that District 9 wasn't as great the second time around? I don't know, when watching it home the second time around something seemed kinda off....

Displaying the top results out of 22 unique answers submitted.
The percentage of respondents who selected each answer is in parentheses.

1. Avatar (57%)
1. Star Trek (57%)
3. Inglourious Basterds (43%)
3. Up (43%)
5. District 9 (29%)
5. Harry Potter & The Half-blood Prince (29%)
5. Sherlock Holmes (29%)
5. Watchmen (29%)

So, any predictions or personal votes you wanna throw out for the Oscars this year?  While I've not seen every film that's been nominated, I am surprised that I saw the majority -- more than previous years.  '09 was definitely robust, especially in light of the doubling of nominees for Best Motion Picture this time around.

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Best Director and Best Screenplay should definitely go to Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds.  Additionally, Christoph Waltz MUST be awarded Best Actor In A Supporting Role, or they'll be hell to pay.

Avatar is the obvious choice for Best Art Direction and Best Visual Effects, but Bruno Delbonnel's work on The Half-Blood Prince deserves a shot at Best Cinematography.

To the surprise of no one, my Best Animated Feature goes to Coraline.  I'd only seen Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death, so that automatically wins Best Animated Short by default. 

Of the nominees, I'd be inclined to give Best Music to Alexandre Desplat's Fantastic Mr. Fox -- but my personal pick would be a toss-up between Bruno Coulais's wonderfully eclectic Coraline and Giacchino's dynamic and highly enjoyable Star Trek.  I'm really surprised The Hurt Locker got nominated here; incredible film, but music wasn't exactly its most distinguished feature.

I don't even have to think twice about Best Original Song.  There can be no other than Randy Newman's "Down In New Orleans" from Princess And The Frog, particularly Anika Noni Rose's showstopping rendition for the finale.

Star Trek for Best Sound Editing and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen for Best Sound Mixing -- even if the latter really should go to the "HOLY SHIT, THAT WAS SPEAKER SHATTERING" Terminator Salvation.  As an aside, Ben Burtt deserves mad props for his sound design in Trek. 

Finally, for Best Motion Picture, I'm going with Inglourious Basterds.  However, and despite my reservations about the film (and just because it would be mindblowingly AWESOME if an animation actually won), I'm secretly hoping the award goes to Pixar's Up.

I don't care about Tarantino, but yeah, Christoph Waltz better win. If they ever reprint the movie his name should be next to Brad Pitt's on the cover.

I've managed to find all of them online, and it's a very good crop. I'm expecting Loaf and Death to take it (the Academy's tendencies with animation are usually predictable), but I'm kind of pulling for the very charming Lady and the Reaper as a dark horse. I'm kind of surprised Logorama hasn't been obliterated under the weight of potential lawsuits, but it's worth catching just to see some of the crazy things they get away with.

After listening to the Mr. Fox soundtrack more extensively, I think I'm going to change my vote.  Despite a very likeable main theme for Boggis, Bunce, and Bean (reprised to great effect in the track "Just Another Dead Rat In A Garbage Pail (Behind A Chinese Restaurant)", when you strip out all of the licensed songs and classical pieces, you're really only left with a scant twenty minutes of Desplat's original score.

Despite my believing that Star Trek is the better of the two Giacchino scores, I'm throwing my vote over to the substantially beefier "Up" for Best Music.

I just watched Moon via Amazon's streaming service and it was more cerebral than average. I couldn't watch it in 2009 because they didn't release it near me.

The trailer looked good, thanks for the tip!  I'll check it out.

Huh.  Seems iTunes JUST released this, the Fantastic Mr. Fox (Additional Music from the Original Score ~ The Abbey Road Mixes), which appears to focus more extensively on Desplat's score.  Gonna have to check it out; just may have to reciprocate my vote yet again.

That's an uber-bingo!

I'm pleased that Giacchino won Original Score. None of the other scores nominated came close (although "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" has its charms). "The Hurt Locker" barely has a score at all and was really only nominated because of the popularity of the movie.

The Academy Awards wrap-up, here and here.

Kudos to Bigelow and The Hurt Locker for netting Best Director and Motion Picture; her victory is a milestone that's right up there with The Return of The King being the first fantasy film to ever win best picture.  Figured Avatar would take home the Best Art Direction, Visual Effects, and Cinematography awards.  I'm gonna have to check out Best Animated Short's Logorama sometime.

This was my first time hearing Best Original Song's "The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)".  Despite my thinking it sounds like a sedative-inducing take on Springsteen's Tougher Than The Rest, the lyric and tone do seem like a contextually excellent fit for the film itself.

After watching, MOON certainly is a unique mind trip. Nice visuals/effects too.
Thanks again for mentioning this.

I'll throw in another nod for Moon.  Awesome independent movie with a spectacular score by Clint Mansell of "Requiem for a Dream" fame.