The time of the year when I rank things:

Movies of the year edition.

The Top 7
1. Fantastic Mr. Fox – I rarely get to say everyone should see a particular movie. Everyone should see this particular movie.
2. Zombieland – So fun. Everyone was at the top of their game. And the game was fun.
3. In the Loop - Viciously funny.
4. Avatar - I liked this movie. It’s my 4th favorite of the year. But it didn’t make me giddy like the top 3.
5. I Love You, Man – The Hangover is the more innovative comedy. But I just like Paul Rudd, Jason Segel and Rashida Jones too much to let them get beat.
6. District 9 - Overrated (by nerds at least, if not the general public), but still pretty darn good.
7. The Hangover - Not hilarious the entire time, but when it wasn’t hilarious it was at least amusing.

The Penultimate 7
8. Coraline- Aesthetically pleasing. Pleasingly creepy. Creepily entertaining.
9. (500) Days of Summer – A flawed, but ultimately enjoyable film. Many of the flourishes may not have worked, but I appreciated the effort.
10. Drag Me To Hell – Not the scariest film of the year, but the return to old-school tactics, masterfully done, elevates the film.
11. Star Trek – They did almost everything right. But even if they had, I’m not sure it would’ve cracked my top 7.
12. Ponyo – It was weird, it was aimed at kids, I still had a good time.
13. Watchmen – Honestly, I can’t tell you what went wrong. But something did. And that something made this good, but not great.
14. Paranormal Activity – This was the scariest film of the year. But even at 86 minutes, it was 15 minutes too long, and those 15 minutes sucked the fear out of it.

7 That were still pretty pretty good
15. Observe and Report – There were some things I loved about this movie. Just not enough. It did feature the funniest near fatal shooting I’ve ever seen.
16. Adventureland – Dramadies are hard to do. This didn’t have quite enough comedy to pull it through. Both the drama and comedy were good, they just need to get the ratio right.
17. Funny People – The people were funny, the story was flat.
18. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – I enjoyed the film. But it had Megan Fox in it so everything else was just icing.
19. Sherlock Holmes – Not bad by any means. But for a movie about the world’s greatest detective, by a director famous for complicated frenetic plots, it was pretty straightforward and predictable. Predictable but fun.
20. Terminator: Salvation – It was dumb fun. It would’ve been better with Megan Fox.
21. Fanboys – Only made the list because of Kristen Bell.