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Your Favorite Movie of the Summer of 2009

An Evening Comment Diversion / Dustin Rowles

Comment Diversions | September 2, 2009 | Comments (58)

As the summer winds down, we’ve already looked back, now, at the summer’s box office — the successes and failures. I also ran down my top five list of favorite summer movies, which means absolutely nothing. Except that I like making lists.

But what about y’all? What was your favorite movie of the summer? And why?

And for giggles and shits, here’s a poll where you can choose your favorite, and we can get a fairly nice sampling of where our readership lies.

poll by twiigs.com

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Comments

I have yet to see (500) Days of Summer, if Mr. Rowles keeps it up, I won't need to.

Posted by: Eyvi at September 2, 2009 9:09 PM

agreed. it's going on a future list of Movies I Won't See Because Dustin Wouldn't STFU About It.

Posted by: gp at September 2, 2009 9:13 PM

I've only seen two of the movies in the poll and I'm pissed about it. Stupid movie theater won't take beads or homemade cookies in exchange for tickets. Assholes.

Posted by: Pinky McLadybits (aka Dangle McGee) at September 2, 2009 9:13 PM

I'm not sure I can truly answer, since I would suspect my favorite might be Moon or Brothers Bloom, but I've not been able to see them yet.

Based on what I have seen, I'll vote District 9. It was different, interesting, smart, funny, horrifying, sad, conversation provoking and it stayed with me for days.

Posted by: Cindy at September 2, 2009 9:15 PM

Away We Go! I saw it twice and cannot wait until it is on DVD.

500 disappointed me so. Not worth all the praise this site has given it. Good not great.

Posted by: Kate at September 2, 2009 9:17 PM

My favorite movie of the summer was district 69.

Posted by: Guess Who! at September 2, 2009 9:21 PM

Moon and Hurt Locker in a dead heat...

had to go with Moon.

Posted by: Colin at September 2, 2009 9:22 PM

Ummm...okay, I've only seen one movie this summer. If it wasn't for MiniScotiaBacon, I probably wouldn't have seen any (so thanks, lordhelmet, for saving me from total loserdom!).

Nonetheless, The Hangover was the funniest damned movie I've seen in ages, and I'm a comedy gal, so I'm going to go out on a limb and say that it will be my favourite of the Summer 2009 crop of movies even after I've caught up on the others from the comfort of my couch.

Posted by: meaux at September 2, 2009 9:24 PM

Star Trek => EYECANDY!!!

Posted by: Vi at September 2, 2009 9:28 PM

Up and Inglourious Basterds battle for the #1 and #2 spots. Drag Me To Hell and District 9 battle for #3 and #4. Black Devil Doll ranks #1 as most disappointing.

Posted by: David at September 2, 2009 9:30 PM

That's a very hard choice. There are films I saw this summer and enjoyed, like Orphan, The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, and Big Fan, aren't even on the list. Then to choose between available choices like (500) Days of Summer, District 9, Inglourious Basterds, Drag Me To Hell, The Hurt Locker, and Ponyo it becomes even harder.

Three of these left a smile on my face the entire time: Drag Me To Hell, Ponyo, and (500) Days of Summer. Drag Me To Hell has that awful Justin Long performance, so let's just pretend that Allison Lohman and Adrianna Barrazza don't balance that out to great for modern horror and drop it. Ponyo pushed me a bit too far into I don't get it land, leaving (500) Days of Summer. Is it precious? Yes. Is it weird at times for the sake of being weird? Of course. Is that ending a real groaner? Absolutely. It's still magic.

Posted by: Robert at September 2, 2009 9:34 PM

But I haven't seen all the movies on this list... (sniffle)

And how come Transformers isn't on there?
[kidding kidding kidding kidding kidding kidding]

Posted by: MM at September 2, 2009 9:34 PM

I've only seen two of the movies on that list (and it'll be a cold goddamn day in hell before I'll watch that twee 500 Days of Blah, Blah, Blah bullshit) and The Hangover was a lot funnier, but Away We Go really hit home for Mrs. Bullet so it's a toss-up.

Posted by: Tracer Bullet at September 2, 2009 9:36 PM

Oh, and Baby Bullet raved about Ponyo.

Posted by: Tracer Bullet at September 2, 2009 9:38 PM

Aw fuck. Completely meant to click Up.

Posted by: Mick J at September 2, 2009 9:39 PM

I've seen 3 movies this summer, and The Hangover was far and away the best of them. (Thank youuuu Baconeast.)

There are 2.5 up there that I really want to see, but, like Meaux, I'm a comedy girl, so I doubt they would overtake Galifinakis wiener.

Posted by: SaBrina at September 2, 2009 9:45 PM

It was a toss-up between District 9 and The Hurt Locker, although I vaguely suspect Inglourious Basterds would have beaten them both had I seen it yet - in the end though, I gave it to District 9.

Posted by: Dill The Devil at September 2, 2009 9:50 PM

hard call between Star Trek and District 9 but I had to go wtih Star Trek for the awesome movie mixed with Nostalgia of seeing Star Trek movies as a kid with my dad.

Posted by: Ben at September 2, 2009 10:02 PM

Can I vote twice? Because 500 Days and Drag Me to Hell are just about tied in my mind. I had a shit ton of fun at DMTH but 500 Days was fucking magical.

Posted by: Optimus Rhyme at September 2, 2009 10:07 PM

500 days ripped my heart out of my chest and stomped on it, hard. Seriously, it was a great movie, but one I will most definitely never watch again. Am I the only one so affected by it? It was utterly heartbreaking to me and my tears rolled right through the optimistic ending.

Posted by: MB at September 2, 2009 10:08 PM

ZZYZZYX ROAD.

Posted by: Jo 'Mama' Besser at September 2, 2009 10:11 PM

Public Enemies???? You've GOT to be joking. Whoever oversaw the editing and hi-def imaging for shootout scene in that film, should be forced to watch that tripe over and over again. A baboon's ass could have done a better job editing. Were it not for the crazy drunk lady in the theater I was in, as well as Mr Depp, I would have demanded my money back.

Gonna admit- I REALLY liked The Hangover. Not sure if it's as high up as Wedding Crashers- I've got to see it a few more times to see if it holds up- but that movie and many lines from it, have stuck with me this summer.

Posted by: Be Adequite! at September 2, 2009 10:25 PM

My fav so far is the Hurt Locker. I won't be seeing 500 days until friday however, because my local theater sucks giant donkey balls. Fuck you harkins!

Posted by: the_wakeful at September 2, 2009 10:37 PM

Star Trek by far. It had everything. Including hotness.

Posted by: Amy at September 2, 2009 11:13 PM

Torn between Hangover-Moon-District 9.

Posted by: laredo at September 2, 2009 11:14 PM

District 9, I liked (500) Days of Summer, but Dustin, you're getting awfully annoying about it. It's no wonder the backlash develops like this.

I also have to say that you're the only person in the universe who has Joseph Gordon-Levitt backlash going on, nobody else cares that he was in G.I. Joe. Wait until backlash is warranted before you start.

Take Shia Le Beouf, I didn't start hating him until he did Indy 4 and Transformers, in addition to thousands of other shitty flicks I've never seen. He earned his hatred, you shouldn't spread it around unwarranted.

Posted by: George at September 2, 2009 11:19 PM

Two munchkins and limited availabity for babysitters means I've only seen Up on this list. BUT I imagine I would have really loved Away We Go.

Posted by: Sara at September 2, 2009 11:21 PM

We've been very lucky this summer. The overall quality throughout the board has been good. At least the bad stuff was obvious a mile away and could be easily avoided.

I go with District 9 over 500 Days of Summer and Inglourious Basterds by the flimsiest of margins. I just think what Neill Blomkamp managed to do was epic -- to give that much scope, depth, thrills and heart on such a budget and (from all accounts) blow James Cameron and his alien-encounter movie out of the water.

By the way, Blomkamp, Marc Webb and Duncan Jones all had a hell of a start with D9, 500 Days and Moon. Here's hoping they follow it with equal quality.

Posted by: Fredo at September 2, 2009 11:34 PM

I usually don't see movies twice, but I saw Inglourious Basterds, Star Trek, and Drag Me to Hell all twice this summer, although one of my viewings of Drag Me to Hell was a free preview.

Drag Me to Hell was definitely the most fun I had at a theater all summer (both times). But the two movies I was the most engaged by and that I felt were the most artistically accomplished were Inglourious Basterds and Hurt Locker. And while Hurt Locker was great, I'll be damned if I wasn't blown out of the water by Inglourious Basterds. I've never been so thrilled by conversation before, the directing and acting (even the overacting) is really superb, and I love the fact that a movie that's 2/3 subtitles and in four languages can easily top the box office.

Oh man, and I've never checked my watched so many times at a movie as I did at Public Enemies. I was so relieved when Dillinger started making plans to go the movies.

Posted by: Macafee at September 2, 2009 11:43 PM

D9 for me.

Posted by: , (the commenter formerly known as bucdaddy) at September 2, 2009 11:46 PM

Up. Not even a fucking question here. (500) Days of Summer was fucking awesome too, but let's face it: Only Up could make me cry in the first ten minutes without so much as saying a word. And it had Dug. Everyone loved Dug. My apologies to 500.

Oh, and also loved Star Trek for filling me with the desire for face rape.

Posted by: Jeremy Feist at September 2, 2009 11:55 PM

I have only seen about half the movies on the list, and I really liked most of them. However, it was Brothers Bloom that really captured me. As a chronic sufferer of Adrien Brody Effect (in which at the beginning of each film starring Adrien Brody one finds him to be unattractive, but by the end one is wiping the puddle of drool off one's lap), not mention a huge fan of light hearted jaunts, I thought it was great. Star Trek was really fun, I fell asleep during Harry Potter, (500) Days of Summer was sweet but at times felt like the quirk was forced, and I cried for the entirety of Up. Overall I thought this was a really good summer for movies, and I'm looking forward to renting some of the ones that I didn't get to see in theaters.

Posted by: Zuzu at September 2, 2009 11:57 PM

I saw Hurt Locker and District 9 on consecutive days, and I found Hurt Locker to be far and away the better flick. It's a tougher task to make me care about a gung-ho Army lifer than a displaced alien with adorable offspring, but Hurt Locker made that happen.

My feelings about The Hangover are clouded by a single shot -- over the end credits, the first snapshot of the forgotten debauched stag party was of Zack Galawhozits in bed with an African-American prostitute who was a bit overweight. It was played as a sight gag, and the audience I saw it with responded accordingly, and it erased a great deal of the good will I felt towards the movie. It was a stupid choice, and I'm not able to shake it.

Posted by: sansho1 at September 3, 2009 12:00 AM

500 was good, but it was too cute by half. It wasn't until about an hour in that I found it engaging. The archetypal wunderkind little sister and the cookie-cutter best friends lowered it for me. And next to the giants of the genre (Say Anything, ESOTSM, etc.), it really is pretty thin, not to mention predictable.

District 9 was better, but I guess I wanted a little more out of the satire. The last act certainly is a lot of sound and fury. Granted, it's a great action movie, but if you're going to strive for the heights of sci-fi, you need to give me a little more depth.

Moon was very good too, but - again - I have high standards when it comes to sci-fi, and Moon did not wow me in the originality department or surprise me.

My winner for the summer is Basterds. It worked on absolutely all levels for me. It has the fun surface and the subtext, which is both witty and ponderous, not to mention Quentin's top directing form.

Posted by: DarthCorleone at September 3, 2009 12:03 AM

It is my considered opinion after taking this poll that many more Pajibans need to see The Hurt Locker. I saw Moon (really liked it) and District 9 (really liked it), but both really don't measure up to the raw, powerful story telling in The Hurt Locker. So, come on, people: really, really, really. Go See It.

Posted by: Tira at September 3, 2009 12:17 AM

Sadly, The Hangover was the ONLY movie I saw this summer so it gets my vote. Wasn't Wolverine as summer movie??...because that's the only other one I have seen.

Posted by: wsapnin at September 3, 2009 12:48 AM

Wow. Don't know.
Officially too drunk to comment.

Posted by: Odnon at September 3, 2009 1:12 AM

There were some solid movies this year. Up made me cry then laugh. Star Trek, Inglorious Basterds and The Hangover were great, 500 Days of Summer was decent and Funny People and Public Enemies were a disappointment. I didn't see the others...

That being said, The Hurt Locker was a film that stuck with me for days after I saw it. The only movie I was on the edge of my seat for the whole time. I was wiped out emotionally walking out of that theater. Jeremy Renner deserves an Oscar. 3% means that enough of you didn't see it. Run to the theater and see this movie, you won't be disappointed.

Posted by: Rubble44 at September 3, 2009 1:23 AM

Hmmm... I may have to try to catch Hurt Locker in the theater. It's only playing tomorrow and then Friday the theater switches to something else.

Ack!

Posted by: MM at September 3, 2009 2:43 AM

Saved! It's switching to another indie theater over the weekend.

I know you all care very much about whether I am able to see The Hurt Locker in the theater or have to wait for the DVD.

Posted by: MM at September 3, 2009 2:49 AM

Away We Go is an amazing accomplishment. I can see why people could have problems with it, but I say fuck 'em. I loved every damned second of it, I thought each segment was like a mini-masterpiece of a short story, and I can't wait to wear out the DVD watching it over and over and over again.

And (500) Days of Summer is a solid second for me, but truly, Dustin: stop manufacturing a backlash. We get it: it was good. Really good, actually. And it gets better upon subsequent viewings. Fantastic. Can we move on to the fall now?

Can we also please get down to discussing what a huge fucking overrated heap District 9 is?

Posted by: whatBENwatches at September 3, 2009 3:08 AM

500 Days of Summer, Up and District 9 aren't out here yet, and I haven't even heard of some of the other movies on the list. So based on what I've seen, my vote goes to Drag Me To Hell. I thought Star Trek and The Brothers Bloom were great too, but neither of them had the effect on me Drag Me To Hell had. :)

Posted by: Thijs at September 3, 2009 5:20 AM

(500) Days of Summer comes out tomorrow, over here, so I'm going to see it next week. Hence I voted for the majestic In The Loop. Oh god, I can't wait to see it again.

Posted by: Caspar at September 3, 2009 7:30 AM

Anyone (and that's too many of you) who didn't vote Drag Me To Hell might as well hand me their buttons now; I'm going goat-demon on your arses.

Posted by: mj88 at September 3, 2009 7:30 AM

I only saw 5 movies this summer:
Star Trek - very good
Drag Me To Hell - goofy and fun, looking forward to the Unrated cut for some true insanity.
Transformers 2 - no movie with giant robots and an explosion every 22 seconds should be this boring.
Harry Potter - good, but need to see it again. I really liked it after I saw it but can't remember all that much about it right now.
District 9 - best movie I saw this summer. Intense, exciting, can't wait to see it again and for once I'm really looking forward to the sequel.

Of the many movies I missed and will catch up on at home I'm most looking forward to The Brothers Bloom, Moon, The Hangover, Inglorious Basterds, and The Hurt Locker. Also Julie & Julia if I'm being honest.

Posted by: TylerDFC at September 3, 2009 8:34 AM

I'm always bemused by those of you who claim to be drunk in the comments. You're drunk and your best option is to troll Pajiba? Yeah, the comments might be funnier but shouldn't you be off fucking or rubbing one out to "The Squirt Locker" or "Humping Ms. Daisy"?

Posted by: ed newman at September 3, 2009 9:20 AM

Jeremy Feist already took the words out of my mouth, but I'll reinstate it: Up qualifies as my favorite film of the Summer as well as my favorite film of the year. Because it made me cry after ten minutes, then got me laughing hysterically, then got me sobbing towards the end (The Photo album! *Sob*), but all in all it was truly perfect.
(500) Days of Summer is a really, really close competitor. Nonetheless, it was one of those films that made me feel so happy after I left the theater. I got a similar feeling after I saw Away We Go, which was absolutely adorable and amazing and, gah, I need to see it again!

Posted by: Kamikaze Feminist at September 3, 2009 10:01 AM

What do you expect Newman, these homos around here don’t know how to do drunk.

Posted by: Guess Who! at September 3, 2009 10:45 AM

Actually, my favorite movie of the summer is the "Zombieland" trailer, but that wasn't an option. Can't get here fast enough.

BTW, for its proponents, I saw "The Hurt Locker" and ... what story? It's a series of very intense, very well-done suspense scenes. But really, there wasn't much of a story, was there? I liked it for edge-of-the-seat tension, but I could sum up the plot in less than one sentence.

Posted by: , (TCFKAB) at September 3, 2009 10:55 AM

I voted for District 9 but really it's a tough call between that and Moon. Still haven't seen 500 Days of Summer (because it only just came to my stupid little town).

Posted by: Eva at September 3, 2009 11:07 AM

Damn you for making me choose between Up and (500) Days of Summer!!!

But Summer won. Nothing has touched my heart quite like that in a long while. Any movie to evokes a 10 minute cry fest in my car in the theater parking lot has to be a damned good movie.

Posted by: The Pink Hulk at September 3, 2009 11:14 AM

What? No Julie and Julia?

Posted by: Neon at September 3, 2009 1:11 PM

Has 'Big Fan' already been released and/or blown through the theatres??
I live in Orange Co (like 40 min S of L.A., so tis not the boondocks).
It seems like several persons have seen it already. Hmmm.

Posted by: Ms MoMo at September 3, 2009 1:18 PM

I gave it to In the Loop, although I would have preferred to vote for three or four of those. I saw Up, at last, two days ago, and it damn near destroyed me, while Inglourious Basterds and Drag Me to Hell were to most fun I've had in a cinema in a good long time.

Can there be a most overrated movie of the Summer poll? Because 500 Days was charming, but not that good, while District 9 was - despite having so, so much going for it - bordered on being bad. I don't understand the hype for that movie. Just me?

Posted by: Simon A at September 3, 2009 1:52 PM

I was going to say Adventureland, but I think that came out in March. So, it's my favorite of the year.

Posted by: Nicole at September 3, 2009 2:35 PM

Awwwwww. No love for Funny People. I really liked that movie. So what that it dealt with death. It was still hilarious in other parts. A bit too long but still great.

Hurt Locker was the bomb too. Pun definitely intended.

Posted by: Natalie at September 3, 2009 3:22 PM

I'm going to assume that most Pajibans didn't have the ability to see Hurt Locker and excuse them for this transgression. This was by far the most superior movie, in almost all aspects.

Posted by: commanderfunky at September 3, 2009 3:56 PM

Saw Black Devil Doll for the second time at the Rue-Morgue fest and it was GREAT! Sick, twisted and down right hilarious. Can't wait for the dvd. You are clueless.

Posted by: Raymond Love at September 14, 2009 3:15 PM