2009 Best Reviewed Movies (Page #7)

Based on third-party critic ratings, the best reviewed 2009 movie releases.

Bronson

76% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 83 reviews

A young man who was sentenced to 7 years on prison for robbing a post office ends up spending 30 years in solitary confinement. During this time, his own personality is supplanted by his alter ego, Charles Bronson.

Action

New York / Los Angeles

Info

Tokyo!

76% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 66 reviews

A cinematic anthology of three Tokyo-based stories.

Drama

Limited

Info
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The Headless Woman

76% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 54 reviews

A mysterious and intriguing tale of a woman who may have killed someone or something while driving on a dirt road. Dazed and confused, she tries to piece together what happened, while her husband systematically tries to erase her tracks.

Thriller

New York

Info

Cold Souls

75% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 126 reviews

Is your soul weighing you down? Paul Giamatti has found a solution! In the surreal comedy "Cold Soul", Paul Giamatti plays an actor named… Paul Giamatti. Stumbling upon an article in The New Yorker about a high-tech company that extracts, deep-freezes and stores people’s souls, Paul very well might have found the key to happiness for which he’s been searching. But, complications arise when he is the unfortunate victim of "soul-trafficking." Giamatti’s journey takes him all the way to Russia in hopes of retrieving his stolen soul from an ambitious but talentless soap-opera actress. Balancing a tightrope between deadpan humor & pathos, and reality and fantasy, "Cold Soul" is a true soul searching comedy. Also starring David Strathairn, Dina Korzun and Emily Watson.

Comedy

New York / Los Angeles

Info

American Violet

75% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 59 reviews

A woman takes on a powerful District Attorney in Texas when she was caught up in a drug raid.

Drama

Limited

Info

The Yes Men Fix the World

75% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 57 reviews

Troublemaking duo Andy Bichlbaum and Mike Bonanno, posing as their industrious alter-egos, expose the people profiting from Hurricane Katrina, the faces behind the environmental disaster in Bhopal, and other shocking events.

Documentary

New York

Info

Five Minutes of Heaven

75% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 44 reviews

Two men struggle to come to terms with the murder of a fellow 19-year-old Catholic soldier years after the conflict that raged between Republican and Loyalist paramilitary groups, the British Army and the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

Drama

New York

Info

The Road

74% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 217 reviews

Academy Award nominee Viggo Mortensen, Academy Award winners Robert Duvall and Charlize Theron, Guy Pearce and 12-year-old Kodi Smit McPhee star in the big-screen adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's best-selling, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "The Road" – the story of a man (Mortensen) and his young son (Smit-McPhee) traveling through a desperate, post-apocalyptic world.

Thriller

Limited

Info

Capitalism: A Love Story

74% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 190 reviews

"Capitalism: A Love Story" will explore the root causes of the global economic meltdown and take a comical look at the corporate and political shenanigans that culminated in what Moore described as “the biggest robbery in the history of this country” - the massive transfer of U.S. taxpayer money to private financial institutions.

Documentary

New York / Los Angeles

Info

Sunshine Cleaning

74% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 179 reviews

Once the high school cheerleading captain who dated the quarterback, Rose Lorkowski (Amy Adams) now finds herself a thirty something single mother working as a maid. Her sister Norah, (Emily Blunt), is still living at home with their dad Joe (Alan Arkin), a salesman with a lifelong history of ill-fated get rich quick schemes.

Desperate to get her son into a better school, Rose persuades Norah to go into the crime scene clean-up business with her to make some quick cash. In no time, the girls are up to their elbows in murders, suicides and other…specialized situations. As they climb the ranks in a very dirty job, the sisters find a true respect for one another and the closeness they have always craved finally blossoms. By building their own improbable business, Rose and Norah open the door to the joys and challenges of being there for one another—no matter what—while creating a brighter future for the entire Lorkowski family.

Comedy

Nationwide

Info

Where the Wild Things Are

73% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 270 reviews

Innovative director Spike Jonze collaborates with celebrated author Maurice Sendak to bring one of the most beloved books of all time to the big screen in "Where the Wild Things Are," a classic story about childhood and the places we go to figure out the world we live in. The film tells the story of Max, a rambunctious and sensitive boy who feels misunderstood at home and escapes to where the Wild Things are. Max lands on an island where he meets mysterious and strange creatures whose emotions are as wild and unpredictable as their actions. The Wild Things desperately long for a leader to guide them, just as Max longs for a kingdom to rule. When Max is crowned king, he promises to create a place where everyone will be happy. Max soon finds, though, that ruling his kingdom is not so easy and his relationships there prove to be more complicated than he originally thought.

Family

Nationwide

Info

Monsters vs. Aliens

73% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 218 reviews

When California girl Susan Murphy is unwittingly clobbered by a meteor full of outer space gunk on her wedding day, she mysteriously grows to 49-feet-11-inches tall. Alerted to the threat of this new monster, the military jumps into action and Susan is captured and secreted away to a covert government compound. There, she is renamed Ginormica and placed in confinement with a ragtag group of other monsters: the brilliant but insect-headed Dr. Cockroach, Ph.D.; the macho half-ape, half-fish The Missing Link; the gelatinous and indestructible B.O.B.; and the 350-foot grub called Insectosaurus. Their confinement is cut short, however, when a mysterious alien robot lands on Earth and begins storming the country. In a moment of desperation, The President is persuaded by General W.R. Monger to enlist the motley crew of Monsters to combat the Alien Robot and save the world from imminent destruction.

Family

Nationwide

Info

The Boys Are Back

73% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 126 reviews

The true story of a man who must suddenly raise his two sons alone after the untimely passing of his second wife. The ill-prepared Joe, who is dealing with his own loss, is confronted with the daily challenges of parenthood while coping with his young son Artie's expressions of grief. They soon are joined by Harry, Joe's teenage son from his first marriage, who brings his own personal "baggage" into the mix. Without a roadmap for how to move forward, the three boys decide its best to leave the conventional rules and responsibilities of the grown-up world behind and lead a life based on the mantra 'just say yes.' When things go terribly awry, Joe is forced to step up and behave like a parent, but must figure out how to do so without completely abandoning the joy and exuberance shared in their more child-like world.

Drama

Limited

Info

Rudo y Cursi

73% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 113 reviews

Tato (Gael García Bernal) and Beto (Diego Luna), two brothers living a hard life of manual labor in rural Mexico, have a simple dream of saving enough money to build their mother her dream house. But fate has other plans; a friendly game of soccer leads to first one, then the other being taken on by the nation’s top talent scout, Batuta, and gives rise to the first of many emotional head to heads between brothers. Suddenly, they find themselves living the high life of star athletes—fame, riches, fast cars, and beautiful women. But every dream has a dark side, and when they are forced to compete on rival teams, bitterness brews between them. Mutual trust gives way to resentment and betrayal, while the dangers of their wild new lifestyles threaten debt and the safety of their entire family. In the end, all will ride on the one big game between their two clubs. Tato and Beto must face each other on the pitch but also reunite again as brothers before they lose everything they had once dreamed of.

Sports

Limited

Info

Julia

73% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 59 reviews

An alcoholic woman becomes involved in a nefarious ransom kidnapping scheme with a stranger from an AA meeting.

Drama

New York / Los Angeles

Info