Mark's Top Ten movies that I watched in 2009

I'll try to keep this to current releases but there are always films that come out at the end of the year that probably would be on the list (The Road) or that played the Chicago International Film Festival (Mother) that I did not get the chance to see, that probably would be on this list.

1. Love Exposure by Sion Sono (Japan)
A four hour film about sinning and the bible. And a character dresses up as "Female Prisoner Scorpion".



2. Thirst by Park Chan-Wook (South Korea)
For the second year in a row a vampire film made the list and neither of them are called Twilight.



3. Gomorrah by Matteo Garrone (Italy)
Amazing expose of the criminal life in Naples, Italy.



4. Ip Man by Wilson Yip
First of a trilogy about Bruce Lee's kung fu teacher. Wong Kar Wai is also adapting the teacher's story so look for it on my list in about 5 years.



5. Drag Me To Hell by Sam Raimi (USA
I was impressed by Raimi's return to his horror roots. If he makes another one I won't wait for dvd to see it. Sorry for the intro to the trailer.



6. Shinjuku Incident by Derek Yee (Hong Kong)
On this list for two reasons. Jackie Chan plays a bad guy and as a producer of the movie he refused to cut the movie's violence and scenes of criminal life to get released in China.



7. In The Loop Armando Iannucci (United Kingdom)
Some awesome swearing and put downs in this movie and it is scary how close to what really happened this is.



8. Beast Stalker by Dante Lam (Hong Kong)
The trailer has some spoilers. Good crime drama with good acting from Nick Cheung and Nicholas Tse.



9. Red Cliff 2 by John Woo (China)
The trailer is not subbed but shows John Woo's return to action.



10. Crank 2 by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor
Just watched this last night and it makes the list because twice during the movie I said "I haven't seen that before" Stupid over the top fun action. Much better than Transporter 3. If these directors could hire Corey Yuen to help film the action they might just find their way on to future top ten lists.



Also the worst film I saw in a theater this year was "Ninja Assassin"