Best Direct-to-DVD Horror Film: Laid to Rest (read the original review here)

Best Wide Release Horror Film: (TIE) Zombieland (read the original review here); The Collector (read the original review here).

Best Documentary: The Cove (read the original review here)

Best Limited Release Film: Medicine for Melancholy (read the original review here)

Honorable Mention Films: Che (here), The Girlfriend Experience (here), Coraline (here), Food, Inc. (here), and Observe and Report (here).

And now (insert drum roll) my Best Films of 2009, all in alphabetical order:

(500) Days of Summer

You know ladies, guys can be crushed from break-ups as well, as this film does so wonderfully well to depict. A great soundtrack, a clever premise and construction of the falling in and then out of love, with two solid leads, makes for one superb film.

Antichrist

Brutal, sickening, demented, and sorely misunderstood. There are images here so talked about, that will never leave your memory, but Von Trier gives us more than some gore scenes. The story of a couple’s descent into depression is harrowing, yet beautifully photographed. One of the prettiest films of the year, as well as, a borderline masterpiece. A modern Salo: Or, the 120 Days of Sodom. (read the original review here)

Avatar

I was one of this film’s biggest skeptics, until I saw it in the glorious IMAX 3-D. Say what you will about it’s simple story arc, it’s the event of the film, with the scope of Cameron’s vision, that makes the culture of aliens so appealing. This is what the Star Wars prequels should have been: a spectacle of effects, story, and event. (read the original review here)

Goodbye Solo

An intimate film about a friendship and tragedy and hope. Some superb acting, with Ramin Bahrani’s distinct direction. A small film in terms of budget, but a great film that I hope finds some Oscar love. (read the original review here)

Hunger

Riveting and heart-wrenching, a film I’m sure many of you haven’t caught theatrically. Please get the Criterion DVD soon, because you’ll be treat to some astounding filmmaking of the Irish Hunger Strike. There’s a 25 minute scene done in one take that is as powerful, as any 90 minute feature. (read the original review here)

The Hurt Locker

In a star making role, Jeremy Renner anchors this unique Iraq war film, that doesn’t parade heroism. Some people are just war junkies, and this film explores the why. (read the original review here)

Inglourious Basterds

Tarantino’s best script.  Granted the whole Mike Myers sequence could have been deleted, the first 45 minutes are so good, who cares? Funny, epic, a sprawling American fantasy of how WWII should have ended. (read my original review here)

The Messenger

A heart-breaking look at the team sent out to notify loved ones that their kin has died in war. Ben Foster is excellent, as is the under-appreciated Samantha Morton. (read the original review here)

The Princess and the Frog

Disney return to the Princess formula and cell animation is a stunning showcase of wonderful animation, great songs, and great storytelling. Pixar is not needed this time. (read the original review here)

Up in the Air

A keen look at both our economic woes and a man finding redemption, makes for a comedy that could nab the one Oscar, comedies don’t win: Best Picture.

What are you favorites from this year? Feel free to leave a comment!

Best Feature

• The Hurt Locker

Best Documentary

• Food Inc.

Breakthrough Director Award

• Robert Siegel – Writer/Director – Big Fan

Breakthrough Actor Award

• Catalina Saavedra – The Maid

Best Ensemble Performance Award

• Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty, Ralph Fiennes, Guy Pearce, David Morse and Evangeline Lilly – The Hurt Locker

Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You

• You Won’t Miss Me

Here’s the complete list of the fifteen films still in the running. Check them out below and let us know what you think of the decision they made with what stayed and went. The Oscars will take place on March 7th, 2010:

• The Beaches of Agnes
• Burma VJ
• The Cove
• Every Little Step
• Facing Ali
• Food Inc.
• Garbage Dreams
• Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders
• The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
• Mugabe and the White African
• Sergio
• Soundtrack for a Revolution
• Under our Skin
• Valentino: The Last Emperor
• Which Way Home

Welcome to Killer Film’s New Release Tuesday for November 3^rd! Feel free to order from Amazon by clicking on the cover art.

G.I. Joe – Rise of Cobra

This movie is bad, but I would consider it a “so-bad-it’s-good” type of movie. Play my drinking game: whenever there’s a flashback, take a shot! (Formats: Blu-ray/DVD) Jon says: Avoid Donny says: Rent

Food, Inc.

This is one of this year’s better documentaries, and one that has changed how I eat, or rather what I eat. Seek it out ASAP. (Formats: Blu-ray/DVD) Jon says: Buy Donny says: Rent

Taking of Pelham 1 2 3

This certainly came and went at the box office, but it’s a pretty decent, yet predictable thriller. (Formats: Blu-ray/DVD) Jon says: Rent Donny says: Rent

Walt Disney Treasures: Zorro – Seasons 1 and 2

Disney’s Treasures line are superb releases, no matter the title. Full of pristine transfers and extras, they’re worth the coin each and every time. So, this release should definitely be just as solid and curious. Can’t remember the last time I saw these. (Formats: DVD only) Jon says: Buy Donny says: Buy

Aliens in the Attic

It is what it is: a silly kids film. Parents might be bored out of there mind, but here’s one interesting thing to keep your eyes on: Ashley Tisdale, as she’s in a wet bikini for most of the film (remember this is a kid’s film). (Formats: Blu-ray/DVD) Jon says: Rent Donny says: Rent

New to TV

Star Wars: The Clone Wars- The Complete Season 1 (Formats: Blu-ray/DVD)

New to Blu

North by Northwest: 50^th Anniversary

Forrest Gump

Say Anything

It’s a Wonderful Life

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

Keep it here at Killer Film for reviews of these discs and more!

It’s been a tough time for the food industry in documentaries this year, and as the films have shown, justly so. Food, Inc. unraveled the food industry in a stunning display of facts and terror. Tapped, the debut film from Stephanie Soechtig, feels like a companion piece in certain ways, but is just as vital and maybe more important. The film examines the bottled water industry with stunning revelations. Water is a necessity of life. Humans can live on water, and water only, far longer than food, but there are these companies that are treating water like a commodity that is their right to be bought and sold. It would be a fair argument to say the water industry is a lot like the oil business. Both are natural resources that are being mined without regard to the Earth and nearby citizens, and then turned around for top dollar.

Who would’ve thought that the water you’re sipping on right now, as you are reading this review, is the cause of so much misery and confusion?

Stephanie Soechtig wisely allows the facts to tell the tale, and trust me the facts are pretty scary in themselves, without anyone trying to spin it. By default, the film has an undercurrent of being green, but it never slaps you with it, but treats it as common sense-because it is. I feel that, again, this a wise decision, because a single scene of plastic bottles and litter floating in a lake is more terrifying than any filmmaker or narrator could muster in fiction. The water business, in global terms, is an 800 billion dollar industry, that thrives without much regulations. The FDA does little, and is often mislead by the corporations. Possibly the most staggering fact is that the business uses near 500 million gallons of oil to create the plastic bottles for the water and to transport it to our supermarkets.

The film is filled with these facts, yet it never feels like a lecture. The film hits past statistics by showing the human element, which shows some people’s pain like an unnecessary nuance to the industry. Companies that are producing this chemical called Bisphenol A to make the plastic bottles for the water, and it’s having a massive negative effect on the people who happen to live nearby these plants, let alone the chemical is a neurotoxin that is leading to neurological disorders. When Soechtig interviewed the FDA about this, they sidestepped the question, and told her that if they knew she was going to ask about Bisphenol A, they wouldn’t have granted the interview to her! Incredible! When a dollar is to be made, our safety dies.

Running 76 minutes, Soechtig allows the facts to be heard, without letting the film stumble over all this information, while also making the film move at an incredible clip. Also, Soechtig isn’t a slave to letting just the facts tell the story, as she’s well versed with her subject and during interviews, she clearly outsmarts the interviewees at their own game. They often have no answers to her questions, making the facts all that more revealing. With an industry aiming to privatize water, Tapped lifts the curtain back to show a slaughterhouse. Something so simple like water, is being re-released to us for top dollar, but in return of that hope that this bottled water is good for us, is essentially killing us one sip at a time. Tapped is one of the most pivotal documentaries made to save our lives.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

For more information, go to Tapped‘s official site: here

Dear reader, I would like you to put that food down. Yeah, right now please, if you could. Not that I think you’ll accidentally have your greasy fingers slip and click on another website, no, I know how much you love us here at Killer Film, but because I want you to know about this film and what you have been putting in your mouth all these years. Seriously, do you know what you are putting into your mouth? Food, Inc. is a 21^st Century The Jungle. I fully expect it to change the industry like Sinclair’s novel did. It’s the most vitally important film to see this year.

We don’t question what were putting in our stomachs, as long as we are full and it doesn’t cost too much. Many of us work around the clock, and have little time to sit and cook, so it’s so easy to grab and go through a drive-thru. Be forewarned. Food, Inc. largely gathers its information from two leaders in uncovering the truth in the food industry, Michael Pollan (author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma) and Eric Scholsser (author of Fast Food Nation). The provide the back bone to the film with insights and facts. The film is divided into neat chapters, making all of the information easy to follow and understand.

But besides facts and charts, it’s never dull or boring. Robert Kenner the director, places key stock footage and interviews, all highlighting the knowledge we have just learned. The heart of the film is a piece with Barbara Kowalcyk, who lost her healthy son in less than a week due to what he ate. Who would have ever thought that eating a quick hamburger from a popular fast food chain would lead to death from E. coli? She didn’t, but you are now. That’s the way this documentary works on you. It made me sick to see what I am putting in my body. The terror doesn’t stop there and with exposing companies like Tyson, you start to see this large web of interconnecting parts, making it daunting to fight back. The FDA and USDA aren’t helping. Their pockets are feed by people within the government and these companies.

It’s not all doom and gloom, there are options to change. Buy local, buy organic, go to a farmer’s market, plant your own gardens, all easy alternatives to McDonalds. You know there’s a reason why a McDs taste the same in Montana as they do in China. Gross. Gene manipulation. There’s no respect in the food industry for employees, the animals, and ourselves. It’s such a simple concept and question: what are you eating? Food, Inc. removes the veil in the food industry and exposes Oz. We all know that pop or dollar menu burger is bad for you, know with Food, Inc. we know why. The highest recommendation I can give Food, Inc. is that it killed any future trips to a fast food restaurant for me. That TV dinner will never look the same.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars