2009 Calvins: David Mumpower's Ballots
March 2, 2009
Refocusing on the positive, Burn Notice Season One is the DVD I have enjoyed the most over the past calendar year. I've watched every episode several times. As for Best Album, I'm officially too old to have any sort of valued opinion in the category, but O.A.R.'s Shattered and Karmina's The Kiss were far and away my favorite two singles of the year. This news bothers Les Winan and Calvin Trager to an epic degree. For Best Videogame, my choice would have been Halo 3 had it qualified. This long after the game's release, I still have a group of friends who join me for Halo matches almost every weekend. Since I can't vote for it, I instead chose the game that I loved so long ago, Chrono Trigger. I am so thrilled that Square continues to reinvent their game library on the Nintendo DS. Chrono Trigger is one of my favorite games ever and its added content is...well, I promised myself I wouldn't cry.
The most brutal category this year by far was Best TV Show. Whereas I struggled to name ten things in some other categories, my initial list of worthy selections here was 18 shows long. Particularly brutal for me was having to cut My Boys, which I instantly regretted when the latest season of Lost started by being boring yet again. Picking out the top five was also rough. Top Chef is far and away my favorite reality show these days, but I still couldn't put it ahead of my beloved Simpsons. Leverage hadn't even had a full season when the balloting came due, but I was already head over heels in love with it by then. Is my favorite character Hardison or Parker? It's just so hard to pick. While I have loved Battlestar Galactica since the mini-series, I thought it struggled a bit with the episodes aired in 2008, relative to past episodes anyway. Mediocre BSG episodes are still night and day better than almost anything else on television. Still, I couldn't pick it over Burn Notice, which had what I consider to be a perfect first season that has carried over magnificently in season two. I see the duo clashing again for my choice next year as well. BSG appears to be delivering a best case scenario finish to its four seasons of greatness.
|
Best Picture
|
| Position |
Film |
| 1 |
Iron Man |
| 2 |
Frost/Nixon |
| 3 |
Definitely, Maybe |
| 4 |
Kung Fu Panda |
| 5 |
WALL-E |
| 6 |
In Bruges |
| 7 |
Bolt |
| 8 |
The Bank Job |
| 9 |
Forgetting Sarah Marshall |
| 10 |
Meet Bill |
|
Best Director
|
| Position |
Director |
Film |
| 1 |
Jon Favreau |
Iron Man |
| 2 |
Christopher Nolan |
The Dark Knight |
| 3 |
Darren Aronofsky |
The Wrestler |
| 4 |
Ron Howard |
Frost/Nixon |
| 5 |
Jonathan Demme |
Rachel Getting Married |
| 6 |
Martin McDonagh |
In Bruges |
| 7 |
Thomas McCarthy |
The Visitor |
| 8 |
Andrew Stanton |
WALL-E |
| 9 |
Nicholas Stoller |
Forgetting Sarah Marshall |
| 10 |
Adam Brooks |
Definitely, Maybe |
|
Best Actor
|
| Position |
Actor |
Film |
| 1 |
Frank Langella |
Frost/Nixon |
| 2 |
Robert Downey Jr. |
Iron Man |
| 3 |
Aaron Eckhart |
Meet Bill |
| 4 |
Brendan Gleeson |
In Bruges |
| 5 |
Jason Statham |
The Bank Job |
| 6 |
Mickey Rourke |
The Wrestler |
| 7 |
Michael Sheen |
Frost/Nixon |
| 8 |
Richard Jenkins |
The Visitor |
| 9 |
Sean Penn |
Milk |
| 10 |
Colin Farrell |
In Bruges |
|
Best Actress
|
| Position |
Actress |
Film |
| 1 |
Anne Hathaway |
Rachel Getting Married |
| 2 |
Rebecca Hall |
Vicky Cristina Barcelona |
| 3 |
Isla Fisher |
Definitely, Maybe |
| 4 |
Anne Hathaway |
Get Smart |
| 5 |
Erika Christensen |
How to Rob a Bank |
| 6 |
Audrey Tautou |
Priceless |
| 7 |
Keira Knightley |
The Duchess |
| 8 |
Rosemarie DeWitt |
Rachel Getting Married |
| 9 |
Helen Hunt |
Then She Found Me |
| 10 |
Freida Pinto |
Slumdog Millionaire |
|
Best Supporting Actor
|
| Position |
Actor |
Film |
| 1 |
Heath Ledger |
The Dark Knight |
| 2 |
Robert Downey Jr. |
Tropic Thunder |
| 3 |
Russell Brand |
Forgetting Sarah Marshall |
| 4 |
James Franco |
Pineapple Express |
| 5 |
Ralph Fiennes |
In Bruges |
| 6 |
Mather Zickel |
Rachel Getting Married |
| 7 |
Haaz Sleiman |
The Visitor |
| 8 |
Tom Cruise |
Tropic Thunder |
| 9 |
Sam Rockwell |
Frost/Nixon |
| 10 |
Jeff Bridges |
Iron Man |
|
Best Supporting Actress
|
| Position |
Actress |
Film |
| 1 |
Kristen Bell |
Forgetting Sarah Marshall |
| 2 |
Penelope Cruz |
Vicky Cristina Barcelona |
| 3 |
Mila Kunis |
Forgetting Sarah Marshall |
| 4 |
Elizabeth Banks |
Definitely Maybe |
| 5 |
Alison Pill |
Milk |
| 6 |
Clémence Poésy |
In Bruges |
| 7 |
Gwyneth Paltrow |
Iron Man |
| 8 |
Olivia Thirlby |
The Wackness |
| 9 |
Scarlett Johansson |
Vicky Cristina Barcelona |
| 10 |
Danai Jekesai Gurira |
The Visitor |
|
Best Screenplay
|
| Position |
Person(s) |
Film |
| 1 |
Jenny Lumet |
Rachel Getting Married |
| 2 |
Martin McDonagh |
In Bruges |
| 3 |
Fergus, Ostby, Marcum, Holloway |
Iron Man |
| 4 |
Jonathan and Christopher Nolan |
The Dark Knight |
| 5 |
Andrew Stanton and Jim Reardon |
WALL-E |
| 6 |
Peter Morgan |
Frost/Nixon |
| 7 |
Simon Beaufoy |
Slumdog Millionaire |
| 8 |
Andrews Jenkins |
How to Rob a Bank |
| 9 |
Drew Goddard |
Cloverfield |
| 10 |
Adam Brooks |
Definitely, Maybe |
|
Best Cast
|
| Position |
Film |
| 1 |
Frost/Nixon |
| 2 |
In Bruges |
| 3 |
Forgetting Sarah Marshall |
| 4 |
The Dark Knight |
| 5 |
The Wrestler |
| 6 |
Slumdog Millionaire |
| 7 |
Milk |
| 8 |
The Bank Job |
| 9 |
Iron Man |
| 10 |
Rachel Getting Married |
|
Best Scene
|
| Position |
Scene |
Film |
| 1 |
Vampire Puppet Cancer |
Forgetting Sarah Marshall |
| 2 |
The Bank Heist |
The Dark Knight |
| 3 |
The initial attack |
Cloverfield |
| 4 |
Bolt Saves the Fiery Day |
Bolt |
| 5 |
Building the Suit |
Iron Man |
| 6 |
Chase across campus |
Indiana Jones 4 |
| 7 |
WALL-E and Eve dance outside the Axiom. |
WALL-E |
| 8 |
Iron Man returns to Afghanistan |
Iron Man |
| 9 |
The Wedding Toast |
Rachel Getting Married |
| 10 |
Randy working the deli counter |
The Wrestler |
|
Best Use of Music
|
| Position |
Film |
| 1 |
The Wackness |
| 2 |
Mamma Mia! |
| 3 |
Rachel Getting Married |
| 4 |
Iron Man |
| 5 |
Bolt |
| 6 |
Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist |
| 7 |
In Bruges |
| 8 |
The Visitor |
| 9 |
Forgetting Sarah Marshall |
| 10 |
The Bank Job |
|
Best Overlooked Film
|
| Position |
Film |
| 1 |
Frost/Nixon |
| 2 |
In Bruges |
| 3 |
Meet Bill |
| 4 |
Rachel Getting Married |
| 5 |
Traitor |
| 6 |
Milk |
| 7 |
How to Rob a Bank |
| 8 |
The Duchess |
| 9 |
The Wackness |
| 10 |
Then She Found Me |
|
Breakthrough Performance
|
| Position |
Person |
Film |
| 1 |
Jason Segel |
Forgetting Sarah Marshall |
| 2 |
Dev Patel |
Slumdog Millionaire |
| 3 |
Rebecca Hall |
Vicky Cristina Barcelona |
| 4 |
Rosemarie DeWitt |
Rachel Getting Married |
| 5 |
Odette Yustman |
Cloverfield |
| 6 |
Russell Brand |
Forgetting Sarah Marshall |
| 7 |
Mila Kunis |
Forgetting Sarah Marshall |
| 8 |
Olivia Thirlby |
The Wackness |
| 9 |
Danny McBride |
Pineapple Express |
| 10 |
Haaz Sleiman |
The Visitor |
|
Best DVD
|
| Position |
Film |
| 1 |
Burn Notice Season One |
| 2 |
Charlie Wilson's War |
| 3 |
Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog |
| 4 |
WALL-E |
| 5 |
Iron Man |
| 6 |
The Simpsons Season 11 |
| 7 |
The Dark Knight |
| 8 |
Kung Fu Panda |
| 9 |
Bottle Rocket [Criterion] |
| 10 |
Juno |
|
Worst Performance
|
| Position |
Person |
Film |
| 1 |
Mike Myers |
The Love Guru |
| 2 |
Amy Poehler |
Baby Mama |
| 3 |
Ray Liotta |
Dungeon Siege |
| 4 |
Ben Kingsley |
Transsiberian |
| 5 |
Eddie Murphy |
Meet Dave |
| 6 |
Zooey Deschanel |
The Happening |
| 7 |
Hayden Christensen |
Jumper |
| 8 |
James McAvoy |
Wanted |
| 9 |
Mark Wahlberg |
The Happening |
| 10 |
Diego Luna |
Milk |
|
Worst Picture
|
| Position |
Film |
| 1 |
The Love Guru |
| 2 |
Doomsday |
| 3 |
The Happening |
| 4 |
The Hottie and the Nottie |
| 5 |
Meet Dave |
| 6 |
Meet the Spartans |
| 7 |
In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale |
| 8 |
Religulous |
| 9 |
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed |
| 10 |
27 Dresses |
|
Best Album
|
| Position |
Artist |
Album |
| 1 |
O.A.R. |
All Sides |
| 2 |
Karmina |
Backwards into Beauty |
| 3 |
Jason Mraz |
We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things |
| 4 |
Matt Nathanson |
Left & Right: Live @ Fingerprints, Live @ Park Avenue |
| 5 |
Gnarls Barkley |
The Odd Couple |
| 6 |
Prototypes |
Synthetique |
| 7 |
Saliva |
Cinco Diablo |
| 8 |
All American Rejects |
When the World Comes Down |
| 9 |
Duffy |
Rockferry |
| 10 |
The Ting Tings |
We Started Nothing |
|
Best TV Show
|
| Position |
Show |
| 1 |
Burn Notice |
| 2 |
Battlestar Galactica |
| 3 |
Chuck |
| 4 |
Leverage |
| 5 |
The Simpsons |
| 6 |
Top Chef |
| 7 |
Friday Night Lights |
| 8 |
Reaper |
| 9 |
Supernatural |
| 10 |
Lost |
|
Best Videogame
|
| Position |
Game |
| 1 |
Chrono Trigger |
| 2 |
Too Human |
| 3 |
Left 4 Dead |
| 4 |
Super Smash Brothers Brawl |
| 5 |
Professor Layton and the Curious Village |
| 6 |
Wii Fit |
| 7 |
Final Fantasy Tactics A-2: Grimoire of the Rift |
| 8 |
Gears of War 2 |
| 9 |
LittleBigPlanet |
| 10 |
Scene It? Box Office Smash |
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