2009

[Rec] 2

(2009)
52
Watch Trailer
02 Oct 2009
? R
85 min
Jaume Balagueró, Manu Díez, Paco Plaza
5 wins & 3 nominations.
The medical Dr. Owen leads a three-men SWAT team inside the sealed off building to get blood sample from the girl Medeiros to develop an antidote. They are attacked by the zombie-like creatures and Dr. Owen locks a zombie inside a room using a crucifix. He discloses that the patient zero was possessed by the evil and the Vatican sent him to save mankind. Further, they will only leave the building under his voice command. Meanwhile, three teenagers follow a fireman and a man that breaks into the building through the sewage system to rescue his colleague and daughter respectively and they are trapped inside. They are lured and release the evil creature that was locked by Dr. Owen in a room. Out of the blue, the lead team meets the journalist Ângela Vidal hidden inside the building.

2012

(2009)
49
Watch Trailer
13 Nov 2009
? PG-13
158 min
Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser
4 wins & 20 nominations.
Dr. Adrian Helmsley, part of a worldwide geophysical team investigating the effect on the earth of radiation from unprecedented solar storms, learns that the earth's core is heating up. He warns U.S. President Thomas Wilson that the crust of the earth is becoming unstable and that without proper preparations for saving a fraction of the world's population, the entire race is doomed. Meanwhile, writer Jackson Curtis stumbles on the same information. While the world's leaders race to build "arks" to escape the impending cataclysm, Curtis struggles to find a way to save his family. Meanwhile, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes of unprecedented strength wreak havoc around the world.

A Prophet

(2009)
90
26 Mar 2010
? R
155 min
Thomas Bidegain (screenplay), Jacques Audiard (screenplay), Abdel Raouf Dafri (original screenplay), Nicolas Peufaillit (original screenplay)
Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 47 wins & 39 nominations.
Nineteen year-old Franco-Arab Malik El Djebena is just starting his six year prison sentence in Brécourt. Although he has spent the better part of his life in juvenile detention, this stint is his first in an adult prison. Beyond the division of Corsicans and Muslims in the prison (the Corsicans who with their guard connections rule what happens in the prison), he has no known friends or enemies inside. He is just hoping to serve his time in peace and without incident, despite having no prospects once he's out of jail since he's illiterate and has no support outside of the prison. Due to logistics, the head of Corsican inmates, a sadistic mafioso named César Luciani, co-opts Malik as part of the Corsicans' activities, not only regarding what happens inside the prison, but also continued criminal activities outside. The innocent Malik has no idea what to do but cooperate. This move does not sit well with the other Corsicans, who only see Malik as a dirty Arab, and the Muslims who now mistrust him. But as time goes on, Malik works to save himself while in prison, while setting up his life post prison on his own terms. Both his demon and his salvation in prison is the specter of one of the first people he really got to know during his incarceration.

All Tomorrow's Parties

(2009)
14 Mar 2009
? N/A
82 min
N/A
1 nomination.
A kaleidoscopic journey into the parallel musical universe of cult music festival All Tomorrow's Parties.

Angels & Demons

(2009)
48
Watch Trailer
15 May 2009
? PG-13
138 min
David Koepp (screenplay), Akiva Goldsman (screenplay), Dan Brown (novel)
1 win & 5 nominations.
Following the murder of a physicist, Father Silvano Bentivoglio, a symbolist, Robert Langdon, and a scientist, Vittoria Vetra, are on an adventure involving a secret brotherhood, the Illuminati. Clues lead them all around the Vatican, including the four altars of science, Earth, Air, Fire and Water. An assassin, working for the Illuminati, has captured four cardinals, and murders each, painfully. Robert and Vittoria also are searching for a new very destructive weapon that could kill millions.

Avatar

(2009)
83
18 Dec 2009
? PG-13
162 min
James Cameron
Won 3 Oscars. Another 80 wins & 121 nominations.
A paraplegic marine dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world he feels is his home.

Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans

(2009)
69
11 Dec 2009
? R
122 min
William M. Finkelstein (screenplay)
3 wins & 9 nominations.
After Katrina, police sergeant Terence McDonagh rescues a prisoner, hurts his back in the process and earns a promotion to lieutenant plus an addiction to cocaine and painkillers. Six months later, a family is murdered over drugs; Terence runs the investigation. His drug-using prostitute girlfriend, his alcoholic father's dog, run-ins with two old women and a well-connected john, gambling losses, a nervous young witness, and thefts of police property put Terence's job and then his life in danger. He starts seeing things. He wants a big score to get out from under mounting debts, so he joins forces with drug dealers. The murders remain unsolved. A bad lieutenant gets worse.

Brooklyn's Finest

(2009)
43
Watch Trailer
06 Mar 2010
? R
132 min
Michael C. Martin
1 win & 10 nominations.
In Brooklyn, amid drug deals, violence, casual racism, poverty, housing projects, and corrupt cops, we follow three officers: Tango, African-American, working undercover, believing he's earned a promotion to a desk job but told he has to set up the bust of an ex-con who saved his life; Sal, who'll commit murder to get cash; and, Eddie, the precinct's oldest beat cop, a week to go before retirement, assigned to mentor an earnest rookie. Can this end well for any of the three?

Cell 211

(2009)
Watch Trailer
15 Jul 2011
? 18
113 min
Jorge Guerricaechevarría (adaptation), Daniel Monzón (adaptation), Francisco Pérez Gandul (novel)
42 wins & 24 nominations.
Juan Oliver wants to make a good impression at his new job as a prison officer and reports to work a day early, leaving his pregnant wife, Elena, at home. His destiny is forever changed by this fateful decision, as during his tour of the prison, an accident occurs that knocks him unconscious. He is rushed to the empty but visibly haunted walls of cell 211. As this diversion unfolds, inmates of the high security cell block strategically break free and hijack the penitentiary. Aware of the violence that is to come, the prison officers flee, leaving Juan stranded and unconscious in the heart of the riot. When Juan awakens, he immediately takes stock of the situation; in order to survive, he must pretend to be a prisoner. Juan develops a dialogue with the violent leader of the riot, Badass, and the two begin a partnership, Badass fully believing that Juan is a new inmate. Negotiations go smoothly until the rioters take three ETA (the militant Basque separatist organization) prisoners hostage. When this hits the news, it triggers a stream of prison riots throughout the country as well as demonstrations in the Basque Country. Juan quickly realizes that he is on his own as the situation becomes more politicized and the government gets involved, afraid of potential ramifications in the Basque community. As the drama heightens, unexpected shifts in character both within and without the prison occur.

City of Life and Death

(2009)
85
22 Apr 2009
? R
133 min
Chuan Lu
9 wins & 9 nominations.
In 1937, Japan occupied Nanjing, the Chinese capital. There was a battle and subsequent atrocities against the inhabitants, especially those who took refuge in the International Security Zone.

Dead Snow

(2009)
61
09 Jan 2009
? NOT RATED
91 min
Tommy Wirkola, Stig Frode Henriksen
1 win.
A ski vacation turns horrific for a group of medical students, as they find themselves confronted by an unimaginable menace: Nazi zombies.

Defendor

(2009)
57
13 May 2010
? R
101 min
Peter Stebbings
1 win & 7 nominations.
Arthur Poppington, a regular man who adopts a superhero persona, known as 'Defendor', combs the city streets at night, in search of his arch-enemy, Captain Industry.

Devil Riders

(2009)
01 Dec 2009
? R
97 min
Bertie Higgins, Julian Higgins, Larry Madill
1 win.
Poker Run - Live to Ride, Ride to DIE! Robert and Allan are two upstanding lawyers, suburbanites, husbands caught in the grip of boring normalcy that sometimes plagues us all - the wife, ...

Dorian Gray

(2009)
Watch Trailer
09 Sep 2009
? R
112 min
Toby Finlay, Oscar Wilde
1 nomination
A naïve young man. A lovelorn artist. A corruptible Lord. A deal with the Devil. It all paints a dark picture of a Victorian London and how the rich and infamous party at their peril. Here, the telling of time and its consequence of experience for life's treasures' takes its toll on the body, mind and soul. The haunting and bleak tale of power, greed, vanity and inevitable self-destruction is ever present amongst the deceit, opium dens and sin.

Drag Me to Hell

(2009)
83
29 May 2009
? PG-13
99 min
Sam Raimi, Ivan Raimi
6 wins & 16 nominations.
Christine Brown is a loans officer at a bank but is worried about her lot in life. She's in competition with a competent colleague for an assistant manager position and isn't too sure about her status with a boyfriend. Worried that her boss will think less of her if she shows weakness, she refuses a time extension on a loan to an old woman, Mrs. Ganush, who now faces foreclosure and the loss of her house. In retaliation, the old woman place a curse on her which, she subsequently learns, will result in her being taken to hell in a few days time. With the help of a psychic, she tries to rid herself of the demon, but faces several hurdles in the attempt.

Enter the Void

(2009)
69
05 May 2010
? NOT RATED
161 min
Gaspar Noé, Lucile Hadzihalilovic (with the help of)
3 wins & 7 nominations.
Tokyo's nasty underside, seen primarily through the eyes of Oscar, a heavy drug user, whose sister Linda is a stripper. Oscar also has flashbacks to his childhood when trauma upends the siblings. Oscar's drug-fed hallucinations alter Tokyo's already-disconcerting nights, and after the police shoot him, he can float above and look down: on his sister's sorrow, on the rooms of a love hotel, and on life at even a molecular level. The spectrum's colors can be beautiful; it's people's colorless lives that can be ugly. And what of afterlife, is there more than a void?

Exam

(2009)
17 Jun 2010
? NOT RATED
101 min
Stuart Hazeldine, Simon Garrity (story), Stuart Hazeldine (story)
Nominated for 1 BAFTA Film Award. Another 1 win & 1 nomination.
Eight talented candidates have reached the final stage of selection to join the ranks of a mysterious and powerful corporation. Entering a windowless room, an Invigilator gives them eighty minutes to answer one simple question. He outlines three rules they must obey or be disqualified: don't talk to him or the armed guard by the door, don't spoil their papers and don't leave the room. He starts the clock and leaves. The candidates turn over their question papers, only to find they're completely blank. After the initial confusion has subsided, one frustrated candidate writes 'I believe I deserve...,' and is promptly ejected for spoiling. The remaining candidates soon figure out they're permitted to talk to each other, and they agree to cooperate in order to figure out the question: then they can compete to answer it. At first they suspect the question may be hidden in their papers like a security marker in a credit card, and they figure out ways to change their environment to expose the hidden words. But light, liquids and other plans all come to naught. Soon enough, the candidates begin to uncover each other's background, prejudices and hidden agendas. Tensions rise as the clock steadily descends towards zero, and each candidate must decide how far they are willing to go to secure the ultimate job . . .

Fish Tank

(2009)
81
11 Sep 2009
? NOT RATED
123 min
Andrea Arnold
20 wins & 27 nominations.
Everything changes for 15-year-old Mia when her mum brings home a new boyfriend.

Harry Brown

(2009)
55
14 May 2010
? R
103 min
Gary Young (screenplay)
1 win & 3 nominations.
In England, retired Royal Marine Harry Brown spends his lonely life between the hospital, where his beloved wife Kath is terminally ill, and playing chess with his only friend Leonard Attwell in the Barge pub owned by Sid Rourke. After the death of Kath, Len tells his grieving friend that the local gang is harassing him and he is carrying an old bayonet for self-defense; the widower suggests him to go to the police. When Len is beaten, then stabbed to death in an underground passage, Inspector Alice Frampton and her partner Sergeant Terry Hicock are sent to investigate. They pay Harry a visit but don't have good news; the police have not found any other evidence, other than the bayonet, in order to arrest the hoodlums. This mean that should the case go to trial the gang would claim self-defense. Harry Brown sees that justice will not be granted and decides to take matters into his own hands.

In the Loop

(2009)
83
04 Sep 2009
? NOT RATED
106 min
Jesse Armstrong (screenplay), Simon Blackwell (screenplay), Armando Iannucci (screenplay), Tony Roche (screenplay), Ian Martin (additional dialogue)
Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 15 wins & 36 nominations.
The US President and UK Prime Minister fancy a war. But not everyone agrees that war is a good thing. The US General Miller doesn't think so and neither does the British Secretary of State for International Development, Simon Foster. But, after Simon accidentally backs military action on TV, he suddenly has a lot of friends in Washington, DC. If Simon can get in with the right DC people, if his entourage of one can sleep with the right intern, and if they can both stop the Prime Minister's chief spin-doctor Malcolm Tucker rigging the vote at the UN, they can halt the war. If they don't... well, they can always sack their Director of Communications Judy, who they never liked anyway and who's back home dealing with voters with blocked drains and a man who's angry about a collapsing wall.