I watched 77 films in 2009, with an average rating of 6.45, a bit down on last year, so either things were a bit more mediocre or I'm getting fussier. I didn't get to see many 2009 films though.

 By the numbers

• 77 films in total (down 1 from last year)

• 70 films that were new to me

• 38 films via LoveFilm (which when added to the 14 tv dvds I rented, works out less than two quid a dvd... not bad at all)

• 11 2009 films (bolded in list below)

• 10 films seen in the cinema

• 0 films in 3D (because Avatar was sold out on first attempt and I’m not going until next week)

• 6.45 average rating

• 33 films I consider good

• 39 films I consider mediocre (Last year there were more good then mediocre, this year not so much)

• 5 films I consider bad

• 13 scifi/fantasy

• 12 comedies

• 10 action

• 6 animations

• 4 documentaries

• 4 horror

• 28 miscellaneously drama type things

• 21 from imdb's top 250 (as of Jan 1st 2009)

• 6 Films off the new American Film Institute top 100 films (7 from the 1997 list – Manchurian Candidate was dropped)

• 5 Oscar winners (and an additional 8 nominees)

• 50 films from the 00s

• 11 from the 90s

• 6 from the 80s

• 1 each from 70s and 60s

• 3 from 50s

• 5 from 40s

My reviews of all these films can be found here.

I’ve only seen 11 2009 films this year, which is pretty crap to be honest. Due to the increasing costs and decreasing quality of the experience, I only really went to the cinema to see films that I thought would suffer from not being on the big screen and a lot of the blockbusters didn’t interest me (Transformers and New Moon for example). Of that small selection of films easily the standouts were the science fiction – Moon, District 9, Star Trek and Watchmen – the first two being pretty stunning debut films and sure to be classics of the future. Star Trek and Watchmen are interesting comparisons, Star Trek did a superb job of reinventing the franchise while not pissing off the fans, and Watchmen did a pretty job of just recreating almost scene for scene the comic book. I’m sure if I’d got to see Avatar I’d be including it as another example of why it’s been a great year for SF.

I think of all those Moon would be my film of the year. It was a great story, a fantastic script, beautifully acted by Sam Rockwell and was extremely well directed and edited, slow but never dragging. Rounding out the top three would be District 9 which was a lot of fun and Up which was a little all over the place, but deserves third place if only for the beautiful opening 5 minutes (and how hard I laughed at “squirrel!”).

The rest of my viewing has been the usual weird collection of stuff which comes from me adding both fun stuff and worthy stuff to my dvd rental scheme. On the worthy front I finally saw City of God, The Green Mile, Trainspotting, Braveheart, Das Boot, The Best Years of Our Lives which were all surprisingly (to me) entertaining; and Gandhi, Ben-Hur and Bridge Over the River Kwai which were not so entertaining. Two of 2008’s big films that I finally picked up – Revolutionary Road and Frost/Nixon I also thought were pretty mediocre.

LoveFilm developed a small obsession with sending me documentaries and thanks to that I now have a new lowest ranked film. Out of 508 films which I have rated on my site, Fahrenheit 9/11 holds the honour of being the only film with a rank of 2 out of 10. Any film that makes me feel sorry for President Bush because he’s being picked on deserves burning. There’s also a new 3/10 film - the migraine inducing Mamma Mia

Looking forward to 2010, I wish I could make the resolution to see more films as they come out, but until my finances pick up that’s not really an option. I’m looking forward to several of the award baiting films that should make it to the UK in the next couple of months, most notably George Clooney’s Up in the Air and Peter Jackson’s Lovely Bones. At the opposite end of the year there’s gonna be a good couple of Christmas films with the first half of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (part 2, July 2011 – sigh) and the next Narnia.

Three film makers I respect have new films out that I’m looking forward to. Joss Whedon’s Cabin in the Woods isn’t really in my genre of choice, but I worship the ground he walks on so must be enthusiastic. Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland could be great... although I’d rather like it if he’d get some different actors involved for a change. And I’m intrigued at what Christopher Nolan will do after Batman – Inception sounds a bit pretentious and has Leonardo DiCaprio in it who I’m not fond of, but we’ll see.

I’m nervous about the re-imagining of The A-Team, but following Star Trek and Battlestar I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. I’m nervous about Clash of the Titans and Ridley Scott's Robin HoodToy Story 3, Iron Man 2 and Tron Legacy might each be a film too far, and Shrek Forever After is almost certainly doomed.