Complex’s Best of 2009 (So Far): The Top 10 Movies

#5: Up

DIRECTOR: Pete Docter

STARS: Ed Asner, Christopher Plummer

PLOT: To avoid going to a retirement home and fulfill a promise he made to his deceased wife, a lonely old man uproots his home with balloons and flies away, accidentally taking a young boy scout with him on his adventure.

THE COMPLEX CO-SIGN: Like Wall-E in 2008, Up is proof that animated movies aren’t just for kids. It’ll keep you riveted with stunning visuals and a moving story, so if you’re looking to finger blast a MILF while her kid stares at some family-friendly junk, take ’em to see an Eddie Murphy flick.

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#4: Taken

DIRECTOR: Pierre Morel

STARS: Liam Neeson, Maggie Grace, Famke Janssen

PLOT: When Euro-thugs abduct, drug, and sell his teenage daughter into sex slavery, an ex-secret service agent (Neeson) uses his investigative and kill skills in a desperate attempt to save her and savage the shit out of dudes.
THE COMPLEX CO-SIGN: Out of nowhere, Neeson single-fistedly brought back the badass Charles Bronson brand of violent vengeance. Disagree with this selection and we’ll stab you in the brain with your nose bone!

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#3: Sin Nombre

DIRECTOR: Cary Jôji Fukunaga

STARS: Paulina Gaitan, Edgar Flores

PLOT: A Honduran teenager (Gaitan) in search of a better life and a runaway Mexican gangbanger (Flores) who’s being hunted by his old homeboys cross paths while riding atop trains to the U.S. border.

THE COMPLEX CO-SIGN: Fukunaga’s debut doesn’t focus exclusively on life in La Mara Salvatrucha, one of the world’s most notorious gangs, but it’s still the best movie about bangin’ that’s been made in years. Menacing face tats, homemade shotguns, and machetes—trust us, you want to get jumped in for this one.

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#2: Drag Me To Hell

DIRECTOR: Sam Raimi

STARS: Alison Lohman, Justin Long

PLOT: When loan officer Christine Brown (Lohman) publicly shames a gypsy, the old hag curses her with an evil spirit that will drag her to hell in three days if she doesn’t figure out a way to save her soul.

THE COMPLEX CO-SIGN: Nobody does legitimately scary LOL horror like Raimi, creator of The Evil Dead trilogy. After years caught in the web of the Spider-Man franchise, he pops up like a ghoul hand from the ground to show these lames how it’s done. (Boo, bitches!) It’s worthy of the #1 spot, if not for…

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#1: Star Trek

DIRECTOR: J.J. Abrams

STARS: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Eric Bana, Zoë Saldana, Karl Urban, Anton Yelchin, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Leonard Nimoy

PLOT: James Tiberius Kirk (Pine) and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise fight to protect the universe from the time-traveling Romulan terrorist (Bana) who killed Kirk’s father and altered the time-space continuum.

THE COMPLEX CO-SIGN: It’s damn near impossible to make a movie that appeals to longtime devotees, newbies, and everyone in between (see: Watchmen and Terminator Salvation—or, better yet, don’t see them). Abrams pulled it off with a blockbuster that has the perfect balance of action and intelligence, comedy and drama, insider references and accessibility, and actually left us amped to see sequels. Of course, we’d like to see intergalactic playboy Kirk invade more alien chicks’ inner space, but that’s why we have face paint, flip-cams, and lighting rigs in our crib.