1. 7 must-watch movies in the second half of 2009 

    500 Days Of Summer (2 September)

    Sigh. When I first saw the trailer way back in May I already had bittersweet feelings about this movie - the kind of feeling you get when you discover a really neat band really early on but you know the classroom douchebag will eventually pick up on it , buy the t-shirt, disseminate it to the public and make it terminally uncool by mass association.

    Same rules apply. I will watch this a the feeling akin to discovering during the first night of boning your virgin childhood sweetheart , that she is actually the town whore.

    Zombieland (9 October)

    I look forward to the day when zom coms (my proudly coined term) go mainstream, there’s really nothing funnier than juxtaposing cerebral comedy with actual brains spewed over pavements. Throw in lots of cheap prosthetics and Woody Harrelson as a redneck zombie killer and I’ve all but bought my cinema tickets. Read more.

    New York, I Love You (16 October)

    I think I’m excited to watch this out of sheer obligation. Any movie that has such a long list of big screen luminaries banking on a paper-thin premise that it could either succeed as easily as it could tank - you gotta wonder if they pull it off.

    If anything, Natalie Portman makes it Round #2 for the “I Love You” series. Up next: “Naboo, I love you”. More.

    Where The Wild Things Are (16 October)

    Tasteful use of Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up” in movie soundtrack, big furry monsters and Spike Jonze at the helm - it could’ve been a lot worse. It could’ve been directed by Tarantino.

    Gentleman Broncos (30 October)

    Home-schooled teenage outcast / aspiring fantasy writer gets his work ripped off by a pompous novelist. Cuts between the fantasy story of a transvestite hero who flies around on a missle-equipped reindeer.

    If you’re gonna go toe-to-toe with Twilight on the absurdo-meter, at least this features the hugly comedic talents of Jemaine Clement and Sam Rockwell. Fuck them glittering, virgin vampires I say!

    Fantastic Mr Fox (13 November)

    The way I see it, Wes Anderson = monotone delivery of dialogue, lots of yellow and captions done in some Gothic-y font, Mr Fox stages his crime caper, pan to sunset, yellow getaway car, Simon & Garfunkel pipes into the soundtrack.

    OR he could spring a surprise by going all Guy Ritchie on us - “Mr Fox, Badger Barry and Jarvis Cocker. Mr Fox gets framed but manages to somehow turn the tables on his antagonist by sheer dumb luck/irony. Soundtrack by The Kinks.

    Sherlock Holmes (25 December)

    That bastard Robert Downey! With the exception of Tropic Thunder, he’s been on such a roll, you can’t bank on him messing up an audaciously over-sexed version of Sherlock “Proper” Holmes.

    Directed by Guy Ritchie, also featuring Jude Law, Rachel McAdams and Robert Downey’s eerily buff upper body.