95 Movies in 2009: The Rankings

I watched 95 movies in 2009 and only had 1 rule: it had to be a movie I had not seen yet. After a year of watching many films, here is my ranking of all 95 movies, #1 being my favorite and #95 being my least. Let me know what you think!

1. (500) Days of Summer

2. Up

3. Big Fish

4. Taken

5. Slumdog Millionaire

6. The Blind Side

7. Best In Show

8. High Fidelity

9. French Kiss

10. Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed

11. Into The Wild

12. Garden State

13. The Brothers Bloom

14. Happy Feet

15. Seven Pounds

16. The Butterfly Effect

17. Behind Enemy Lines: Axis of Evil

18. Gran Torino

19. Secondhand Lions

20. Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

21. Madea Goes To Jail

22. The Sure Thing

23. Reservation Road

24. Mystic River

25. Chaos Theory

26. Waiting For Guffman

27. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

28. For Your Consideration

29. North Country

30. Hotel Rwanda

31. Obsessed

32. James Bond: Quantum of Solace

33. A Good Year

34. Snakes On A Plane

35. He's Just Not That Into You

36. Mamma Mia

37. Gomorrah

38. Let The Right One In

39. Yes Man

40. Memoirs of A Geisha

41. The Big Lebowski

42. Broadcast News

43. Rabbit-Proof Fence

44. Transformers: Rise of the Fallen

45. Eagle Eye

46. Night At the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

47. Pride & Prejudice

48. The Second Chance

49. Evan Almighty

50. Everything Is Illuminated

51. Henry Poole Is Here

52. Death Race

53. Bride & Prejudice

54. The Wrestler

55. Australia

56. Bride Wars

57. The Proposal

58. Public Enemies

59. The Last of the Mohicans

60. The Ultimate Gift

61. Spinal Tap

62. Darjeeling Limited

63. The Soloist

64. Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants

65. Dark Water (American)

66. I Love You, Man

67. Waitress

68. School of Rock

69. Blue Hawaii

70. Burn After Reading

71. Grosse Pointe Blank

72. In Bruges

73. 17 Again

74. Inkheart

75. Ratatouille

76. The International

77. Role Models

78. The National Tree

79. Dark Water (Japanese)

80. Fast Times At Ridgemont High

81. Mean Girls

82. I Want Someone To Eat Cheese With

83. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

84. Harem Scarem

85. Backwoods

86. Martian Child

87. The Haunting In Connecticut

88. Behind Enemy Lines: Columbia

89. August Rush

90. Step Brothers

91. Life As a House

92. The Goods: Live Hard. Sell Hard.

93. Year One

94. Gone, Baby, Gone

95. Miss Castaway

Never Been Kissed.

This blog is about movies. But not just any movie. And not about whole movies. I am only writing about how movies end. My favorite movie ending happens in "Never Been Kissed." The movie is just all around good. Remember high school and the politics that happen with students dividing into groups based on smarts, athletic ability, musical or theatrical skill, and life attitudes and then the system of judging which of these groups contains the popular people? This movie reminds us of such adolescent behavior, and it's quite funny. But anyways, back to the point of this: the end of the movie. Drew Barrymore's character "Josie" is standing on a pitcher's mound before the start of the high school state championship baseball game. Five minutes is put on the clock and begins to tick down. She is waiting on a high school teacher, "Mr. Coulson" (Sam) played by Michael Vartan, to show up and then they can live happily ever after. It was a classic setup: they both liked each other but then an obstacle got in the way (he found out she was lying about her life) and all hope was lost. Except for this last ditch effort by Josie to win her man. Let's not get into the details of this teacher getting upset about Josie lying about being a student. So he gets upset when he finds out this girl he is totally in love with is not a student in real life? Would he rather her have been a student? Exactly why I don't want to get into the details of that right now.

Ok, so she's on the mound. The clock ticks down to zero and he doesn't show up. Now any hope that was left is completely gone. She drops the microphone onto the dusty mound. When we see her face, she is not crying her eyes out, she's not devastated. There is a look of "OK, this wasn't meant to be. I made myself available and he didn't act on that. Time to move on." She had the look of a person who was totally content with herself, her satisfaction and self-worth completely independent of another person. If the movie had ended there, I still think it would have been a great ending. However, the crowd at the baseball stadium begins to look to a corner of the bleachers. The excitement and chatter build quickly. The Beach Boys "Don't Worry, Baby" begins to play. Sam is energetically descending the stadium steps. He makes his way onto the field and takes Josie into his arms and they kiss. The camera circles around them and everything else fades away except for the two of them hugging and kissing. A phenomenal ending! As if that wasn't enough, Sam says, "Sorry, I'm late. It took me forever to get here." That last line of his dialogue is heavy with meaning and depth! In those few words, he confesses two completely different things: his literal lateness (because remember the clock ticked to zero about 3 minutes ago), and also his emotional journey leading up to his relationship with Josie (whose response, "I know what you mean," cleverly answered to both of his meanings). They both had to experience a lot to get to this point in their individual lives and in their newly established relationship. From the emotional climax of the scene, to the cleverly and well written dialogue, I can't think of a better ending in any movie I've seen. It just all worked so well! And using the Beach Boys to highlight the climax of the movie? Truly rufus!

Do you have a favorite movie ending? Is there a scene that finishes a story better than any other ending you know of? If so, tell me about it!