RTL Awards 2009

Best Picture

An Education

(500) Days of Summer

The Hurt Locker

Inglorious Basterds

Up in the Air [winner]

Even though The Hangover was my number 1 movie of 2009, it still wasn't the BEST Picture compared to the other nominees. Just my favorite. Up in the Air was a no brainer pick. It clearly had what most movies don't have to offer, a sense of reality. It's not easy to take losing a job. It took true courage to make this type of film involving our economy and no one could have doe it better than Jason Reitman.

Best Popcorn Flick

Avatar

The Hangover 

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

2012

Watchmen

Zombieland [winner]

Once again; even though The Hangover was my number 1 film of the year, it still wasn't the Best POPCORN Flick. Zombieland did its job here. A great year for popcorn movies no doubt looking at the nominees, yes even 2012 I loved. All fun movies to watch, but it'd be hard for me to go at least a few months without watching Zombieland. Definitely a popcorn flick, and a very great one.

Best Animated Film

Fantastic Mr. Fox [winner]

Ponyo

Up

All three of these were excellent no doubt, but Fantastic Mr. Fox I thought was the best one made for all ages. Great story adaptation, great voiceovers, and amazing animation which in my opinion puts Wallace & Gromit to shame. Glad it got the award recognition it deserved even if it didn't win. I do wish Ponyo could've been nominated though.

Best Director

District 9 (Neill Blomkamp)

(500) Days of Summer (Marc Webb)

The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow) [winner]

Inglorious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)

Up in the Air (Jason Reitman)

A great year for visionary directors, including ones like James Cameron, Zack Snyder and Spike Jonze who almost made the list. Amazingly, it's the chick that came out the strongest. Trying to define modern warfare on screen requires a lot of skill if you plan to be right. Bigelow conquered reality with this work of art. Glad she got to be the first female to ever win Best Director at the Oscars. :) 

Best Actor

(500) Days of Summer (Joseph Gordon-Levitt)

The Hurt Locker (Jeremy Renner)

Up in the Air (George Clooney) [winner]

Whatever Works (Larry David)

Where the Wild Things Are (Max Records)

I can't think of any better nominees than these five. Clooney I did believe have the best among all, but I was so impressed with all these nominees that part of me still thinks I should give the RTL award to all five. With Gordon-Levitt's battle with romance, Renner's addiction to war, Clooney's will to fire people for a living, Larry David's literal connection to the audience on his weird events, and Max Record's portrayal of figuring out his place in fiction and reality, all seem to live up to the same amount of challenging work and trying to carry on the movie. There can only be one winner, but there can always be multiple actors that put great effort in characters they play.

Best Actress

The Blind Side (Sandra Bullock)

An Education (Carey Mulligan) [winner]

(500) Days of Summer (Zooey Deschanel)

Inglorious Basterds (Melanie Laurent)

Trucker (Michelle Monaghan)

When it comes to a great performance by a newcomer for a coming of age character besides Ellen Page for Juno, it'd be Mulligan. I can't believe she never won any big awards for her brilliant performance. Even though she got nominated for the big ones, it just didn't seem like enough when she didn't win any of them. At least she won the majority of critic awards for Best Actress. How is it that the critic awards seem to be more correct with my opinions than the Oscars or Golden Globes? Weird. Also Deschanel, Laurent and ESPECIALLY Monaghan were completely overlooked.

Best Supporting Actor

An Education (Alfred Molina)

The Hangover (Zach Galifanakis)

Inglorious Basterds (Christoph Waltz)

Watchmen (Jackie Earle Haley)

Zombieland (Woody Harrelson) [winner]

As crazy as it sounds, I thought the zombie killer gave the best performance among the ones nominated. He never once changed character and showed true devotion throughout. I know a lot of you probably hate me for not giving it to Christoph Waltz, but Harrelson played I character I was more invested in and to me had more challenge with his character. Waltz did show better facial expressions, but Harrelson showed better charisma with his fellow actors. I will admit Waltz did deserve the Oscar and I'm still glad Harrelson was nominated not for Zombieland but his other film The Messenger. This award was just my own personal pick.

Best Supporting Actress

An Education (Emma Thompson)

Funny People (Leslie Mann)

Inglorious Basterds (Diane Kruger)

Up in the Air (Vera Farmiga)

Up in the Air (Anna Kendrick) [winner]

I don't see how Monique gave a better performance in Precious than Kendrick for Up in the Air. Kendrick's role was challenging and unique with big dialogue. Monique's was just the same character we see in every movie, only it was one-note and uninteresting. Well I can admit in my own personal opinion that Kendrick is the real winner and that Monique doesn't live up to the rest of the nominees as well. That be that. 

Best Original Screenplay

(500) Days of Summer 

Funny People

The Hangover [winner]

The Hurt Locker

Inglorious Basterds

I was debating between The Hangover and (500) Days of Summer. I decided The Hangover because it was super clever at putting everything together and adding character after character without having to question the reasons why because it's so perfectly setup. Also the plot may be a slight rip off of Dude Where's My Car?, but the jokes are actually funny and it has a better ending. I was very surprised when (500) Days of Summer didn't get nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars though. That was a shame.

Best Adapted Screenplay

An Education

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Up in the Air [winner]

Watchmen

Where the Wild Things Are

Another no brainer. I thought it would also be that way at the Oscars until Precious undeservingly took it away. Now Jason Reitman is still empty handed. Well hear me out: there is NO WAY in my opinion that there was a better written screenplay this year than Up in the Air. It will always be the true winner in my book.

Technical Categories

Cinematography: Inglourious Basterds

Art Direction: Avatar

Costume: The Young Victoria

Film Editing: Up in the Air

Sound: The Hurt Locker

Visual Effects: 2012

Makeup: District 9

Score: Fantastic Mr. Fox

Song: “All is Love” Where the Wild Things Are

Robert Richardson continues to impress me with recent work he's done like Inglourious Basterds. Avatar had a perfect new world design even though they are a slight rip off of "Yes" album covers. Couldn't think of a better job done than The Young Victoria for costuming. I loved the editing for The Hurt Locker but Up in the Air had better pacing and jump cuts. Probably all of you may disagree but the effects of destroying the earth in 2012 I thought were better than the Pandora effects in Avatar, sorry. Same thing goes with The Hurt Locker for sound. I didn't hate Avatar, I just thought some aspects in other movies were better. It still had a great production. Same thing goes for District 9 which I can't believe wasn't nominated for Best Makeup. Not one of my most favorite movies of the year, but the makeup seemed really challenging. Alexandre Desplat I hope wins an Oscar one day because with Fantastic Mr. Fox, he shows he can score more than just period pieces. As cheesy as the song "All is Love" sounds, I like the melody and the feeling of it seems to match up with the movie itself. At least I think so.

Best Ensemble

An Education

The Hangover

The Hurt Locker [winner]

Inglourious Basterds

Zombieland

Tough choice, but I thought every role in The Hurt Locker was extremely challenging, especially Renner's role. I wish it could've won the SAG for Best Ensemble but Inglourious Basterds was as deserving and at least The Hurt locker won Best Picture. I think that's a fair trade.

Best Film Debut

District 9

(500) Days of Summer [winner]

The Messenger

Moon

Zombieland

A great year for film debuts. I thought (500) Days of Summer was the best not because it's my highest ranked movie but because it had the most creativity put into it and got great audience response. Glad to see director Marc Webb is working on the new Spiderman reboot. Hope he pulls it off.

Most Overrated/Underrated

Overrated: Precious

Underrated: Funny People

Precious was good, but no where near Oscar worthy in my book. Why? Because I've seen that type of film A MILLION TIMES BEFORE! I don't see why all the sudden it finally got noticed by critics and the Academy. Also, it stole Jason Reitman's Oscar! Not cool. Now with Funny People I can't see why so many people hated it. It may be long, but it's build up can't make it any shorter. Also most people didn't realize it's supposed to be more of a drama than a comedy. It's pretty much a serious story featuring some jokes. Well I'm glad that at least me, my friends, and my favorite critics all loved this movie.

Best Hero/Villain

Hero: Harry Potter (The Half-Blood Prince)

Villain: Hans Landa (Inglorious Basterds)

There were a lot of heroes this year, but Harry Potter showed more bravery and ambition than any other movie character in 2009, even more than Tallahassee in Zombieland. There shouldn't be any question at all for Hans Landa. He is the best villain of the year. He's a Nazi, is all about business, and scary as shit when you look at his suspicious face for more than 10 seconds. Truly a devoted villain.

Best Scene

(500) Days of Summer (Feel Good Dance Line)

(500) Days of Summer (Expectation/Reality)

2012 (Escaping from L.A)

Up in the Air (Ryan’s “rebirth” speech)

Zombieland (Tallahasee’s Showdown in 

            the Park) [winner]

I don't think there's ever been a scene where you're shooting zombies with a shotgun while riding a roller coaster. That to me was very cool to see in theaters. As for the rest, if I had to choose a second place winner it would be Ryan's "rebirth" speech from Up in the Air. That was so emotional and so well acted. All are great are all scenes you must YouTube on your spare time.

Best Quote

Columbus: Rule #32, enjoy the little things.

(Zombieland)

A very well thought out quote because it actually is one of those phrases you should be saying in real life. People always focus on big problems or just think outside the box too much. You can always get that positive feeling by enjoying what you have now even if it's not much. A great quote indeed.