2009 Best Reviewed Movies (Page #20)

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

Serious Moonlight

22% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 37 reviews

A high-powered attorney duct tapes her adulterous husband to the toilet right before their home is invaded by burglars.

Comedy

New York / Los Angeles

Info

Next Day Air

21% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 66 reviews

Donald Faison stars as a hapless delivery man who finds himself at the center of a drug deal gone horribly awry in "Next Day Air", an uproarious action comedy with an all-star cast. Life isn’t going smoothly for Leo Jackson(Faison). He still lives at home, he just broke up with his co-worker girlfriend and he’s had so many complaints about his sloppy work habits that his own mother is threatening to fire him. But Leo isn’t one to let a few bad breaks ruin his day—as long as he’s got plenty of weed to take his mind off his troubles. But when the wacked-out courier accidentally delivers a box containing 10 kilos of high quality cocaine to the wrong apartment, it sets in motion a hilarious and harrowing chain of events that could cost him his life.

Crime

Nationwide

Info
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Spread

21% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 61 reviews

"Spread" is a fresh, funny, and racy look at the trials and tribulations of sleeping your way to a life of privilege in Los Angeles. Comic and karmic, the film is an “immorality tale” about a gorgeous guy who gives women what they want in order to live exactly as he likes.

In "Spread", Nikki (Ashton Kutcher) isn’t a gigolo. He’s a sexual grifter, a fun-loving, freeloading hipster who understands his greatest assets are his looks and sexual prowess, which he uses to charm his way into the hearts of the city’s richest women and enjoy their lifestyle. Nikki gets a free place to live, fantastic gifts, A-list access, and plenty of sex. The women get to feel young, beautiful… and utterly fulfilled in the bedroom. It’s a mutually beneficial set-up.

Nikki’s latest conquest is Samantha (Anne Heche), a stunning middle-aged lawyer who gives him more than he’s ever had before. But then he meets a gorgeous waitress his own age named Heather (Margarita Levieva). She comes to visit Nikki at Samantha’s house while Samantha is out of town, sees what an incredible place it is… and comes to the mistaken conclusion it’s his. Unbeknownst to Nikki, Heather lives by playing the same game.

When Samantha comes home, she discovers Nikki’s infidelity and he’s put out on the street. With nowhere else to turn, Nikki pulls out all the stops to win Heather over and they begin to form their own kind of bond. Sexually charged by a game of one-upsmanship, each shows the other their best grifts, and they unexpectedly begin falling in love – the one thing they can’t do in the life they lead. Soon, the truth of their unfolding relationship forces a choice between love and money, and Nikki has to decide whether he can live on his own once and for all in the hopes of finding something real.

Comedy

Limited

Info

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

20% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 252 reviews

In "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen," two years have passed since Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf) and the Autobots saved the human race from the invading Decepticons. Now he's preparing for the biggest challenge of his life: leaving home for college. Despite his extreme heroics, the battle of Mission City has become an urban legend believed only by conspiracy theorists. Sam is still an average teenager with everyday anxieties and excitement about heading off into adulthood, separating from his parents (Kevin Dunn and Julie White) for the first time, and vowing to be faithful to girlfriend Mikaela (Megan Fox). Of course, he also has to explain his departure to his guardian robot, Bumblebee.

Leaving home is something the Autobots understand only too well. With the destruction of the Allspark, the Transformers home planet of Cybertron is uninhabitable, and the Autobots make the best of their lives on earth, working in league with the military as part of a TOP SECRET team called NEST. Operating alongside their human counterparts, field commanders Major Lennox (Josh Duhamel) and USAF Master Sergeant Epps (Tyrese Gibson), the NEST TEAM seeks to hunt down whatever remaining Decepticons are still hiding on earth. Unfortunately, even as the Autobots try to make a new life among humans, they discover they may not be welcome.

National Security Advisor Theodore Galloway (John Benjamin Hickey), driven to prove that all Transformers should be banished from earth, endeavors to terminate NEST, believing the Autobots' very presence may endanger the human race. Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots, agrees to leave our planet if the governments of the world wish it... but he warns Galloway to consider what happens if the Autobots leave earth defenseless.

Meanwhile at school, Sam adjusts to his pushy, legend-in-his-own mind roommate, Leo (Ramon Rodriguez), and an equally aggressive temptation in the form of a new co-ed, Alice (Isabel Lucas). Sam does his best to navigate college life, until suddenly he's besieged by visions flashing across his brain like thunderbolts. The Decepticons soon learn what Sam doesn't know; that he alone holds the key to the outcome of the struggle between evil and the ultimate power of good.

A normal life will have to wait. With the help of the Autobots, the soldiers of NEST, and an old adversary-turned-ally (John Turturro, returning as former Sector 7 Agent Simmons), Sam and Mikaela must uncover the secret history of the Transformers presence on earth, and the sacrifices that have to be made to save it from an ancient threat sworn on returning here for revenge... an ancient Decepticon named THE FALLEN.

Sci-Fi

Nationwide

Info

Amelia

20% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 166 reviews

The story centers on pilot Amelia Earhart in the early stages of her career and how she is chosen to be the first female pilot to attempt the daring nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

Biography

Nationwide

Info

Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel

20% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 84 reviews

In the "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel", pop sensations Alvin, Simon and Theodore end up in the care of Dave Seville’s twenty-something nephew Toby (Zachary Levi). The boys must put aside music superstardom to return to school, and are tasked with saving the school’s music program by winning the $25,000 prize in a battle of the bands. But the Chipmunks unexpectedly meet their match in three singing chipmunks known as "The Chipettes" – Brittany, Eleanor and Jeanette. Romantic and musical sparks are ignited when the Chipmunks and Chipettes square off.

Family

Nationwide

Info

Gentlemen Broncos

20% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 80 reviews

Benjamin, home-schooled by his eccentric mother, is a loveable loner whose passion for writing leads him on an offbeat and hilarious journey as his story gets ripped off by the legendary novelist Ronald Chevalier and then is adapted into a disastrous movie by the small town's most prolific homespun filmmaker.

Comedy

New York / Los Angeles

Info

Motherhood

20% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 51 reviews

"Motherhood" is a bittersweet comedy that distills the dilemmas of the maternal state (marriage, work, self, and not necessarily in that order) into the trials and tribulations of one pivotal day. "Motherhood" forms a genre of one – no other movie has dedicated itself in quite this way to probing exactly what it takes to be a mother, with both wry humor and an acute sense of authenticity.

Comedy

Limited

Info

Obsessed

19% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 90 reviews

Derek Charles (Idris Elba), a successful asset manager who has just received a huge promotion, is blissfully happy in his career and in his marriage to the beautiful Sharon (Beyoncé Knowles). But when Lisa (Ali Larter), a temp worker, starts stalking Derek, all the things he's worked so hard for are placed in jeopardy.

Suspense

Nationwide

Info

I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell

19% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 36 reviews

"I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell" chronicles Tucker Max’s (Matt Czuchry) trip to a friend’s bachelor party. On that trip, Tucker gets the groom into trouble then abandons him to pursue his own carnal pleasures. After getting banned from the wedding, Max must attempt to get back into his friend’s favor.

Comedy

Limited

Info

Downloading Nancy

19% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 32 reviews

The film centers on Nancy (Bello), an unhappy wife who, instead of committing suicide, meets a man (Liotta) over the Internet and hires him to kill her. Problems arise when they form a relationship.

Suspense

Limited

Info

The Fourth Kind

18% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 115 reviews

In 1972, a scale of measurement was established for alien encounters. When a UFO is sighted, it is called an encounter of the first kind. When evidence is collected, it is known as an encounter of the second kind. When contact is made with extraterrestrials, it is the third kind. The next level, abduction, is the fourth kind. This encounter has been the most difficult to document...until now.

Structured unlike any film before it, "The Fourth Kindis" a provocative thriller set in modern-day Nome, Alaska, where—mysteriously since the 1960s—a disproportionate number of the population has been reported missing every year. Despite multiple FBI investigations of the region, the truth has never been discovered.

Here in this remote region, psychologist Dr. Abigail Tyler (Milla Jovovich) began videotaping sessions with traumatized patients and unwittingly discovered some of the most disturbing evidence of alien abduction ever documented.

Using never-before-seen archival footage that is integrated into the film, "The Fourth Kind" exposes the terrified revelations of multiple witnesses. Their accounts of being visited by alien figures all share disturbingly identical details, the validity of which is investigated throughout the film.

Suspense

Nationwide

Info

Dance Flick

18% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 96 reviews

A rich, white girl from the suburbs finds herself on a series of misadventures when she moves to the mean streets of the inner-city.

Comedy

Nationwide

Info

The Mutant Chronicles

18% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 34 reviews

Thomas Jane stars as Major Mitch Hunter, a 23rd century soldier who leads humans in a fight against a demonic, marauding army of underworld NecroMutants.

Action

New York / Los Angeles

Info