While it’s traditional for critics to assemble lists of the best and worst films of the year, for some reason, I’m a lot more worked up about my list of the worst films. Maybe it’s because there are so many of them that represent everything that’s wrong with movies today.

But let’s start with my list of the 10 best films of 2009:

1. “Up in the Air”

2. “The Hurt Locker”

3. “A Serious Man”

4. “Precious”

5. “Up”

6. “Avatar”

7. “In the Loop”

8. “Inglourious Basterds”

9. “The Cove”

10. “Duplicity”

That really doesn’t tell the story of the year. Because while several of these are among my favorites, there are a number of other movies I could just as easily assemble into a list of movies I would highly recommend from this year’s lineup. For example, here’s a list of what I thought were the best films that hardly anybody saw:

1. “Cold Souls”

2. “Big Fan”

3. “Food, Inc.”

4. “(Untitled)”

5. “Taking Woodstock”

6. “The Baader-Meinhof Gang”

7. “Adventureland”

8. “Crude”

9. “Julia”

10. “The Boys Are Back”

And here’s a list of movies that may not have quite made it into the Top 10 but were among the most fun films of the year:

1. “The Hangover”

2. “Watchmen”

3. “Bruno”

4. “The Fantastic Mr. Fox”

5. “The Damned United”

6. “World’s Greatest Dad”

7. “District 9”

8. “(500) Days of Summer”

9. “Humpday”

10. “Star Trek”

And there are still a number of films I haven’t mentioned that I’d like to: “Crazy Heart,” “A Single Man,” “The Private Lives of Pippa Lee,” “Me and Orson Welles,” “The Messenger,” “The Maid,” “Where the Wild Things Are,” “Capitalism: A Love Story,” “The Informant!”, “Away We Go,” “Departures,” “Tyson,” “State of Play,” “Anvil! The Story of Anvil,” “Hunger,” “Thirst,” “Sin Nombre.”

That seems like a lot of titles but, actually, it’s only 48. There were, however, more than 400 films released in 2009 and many, many more of them ran the gamut from mediocre to downright dreadful.

I’d like to go into those at a bit more length. So here is my list of the worst films and film trends of 2009:

1. “Antichrist”: Lars von Trier creates the cinematic equivalent of the emperor’s new clothes. The festivals and critics who supported this film can be seen as enablers – or just easily conned.

2. Obscenely expensive special-effects action movies, minus brains: Topping the list, of course, is “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” with “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” not far behind. All involved in the production of this garbage should be banned from ever making movies again – or perhaps even watching them. Yes, I’m talking to you, Michael Bay.

3. Obscenely expensive special-effects comedies, minus brains: “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian,” “Year One,” “Land of the Lost.” Ben Stiller, Will Ferrell, Jack Black – you’ve cashed the check and now you’ve paid the price.

4. Unfunny chick flicks that are insulting to both chicks and flicks: “Bride Wars,” “New In Town,” “Confessions of a Shopaholic,” “Ghosts of Girlfriends Past,” “I Love You, Beth Cooper,” “The Ugly Truth.” Many of these seem to be clustered in the early months of the year, as though our standards are lowered and our brains are still impaired from New Year’s revelry. But it’s movies like this that kill brain cells.

5. Pretentious art films: Jim Jarmusch’s “The Limits of Control,” Jane Campion’s “Bright Star,” Ramin Bahrani’s “Goodbye Solo.” Many people were suckered into these tedious, pointless exercises either by the director’s name, overarching critical praise – or both.

6. The actor as auteur: Ricky Gervais’ “The Invention of Lying” was funny for 20 minutes, then died. Drew Barrymore’s “Whip It” got the year’s dancing-bear award: a bouquet of “oh, it’s fun, even if it’s not great” reviews that overlooked the facts that a) it wasn’t that much fun and b) not great actually meant pretty bad.

7. Nia Vardalos films: Inexplicably, two of them – “My Life in Ruins” and “I Hate Valentine’s Day” – were released within a couple of weeks of each other and sank quickly from sight – thus proving that “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” was indeed a one-hit wonder.

There are a lot of other titles I could mention: “Amelia,” “Angels and Demons,” “Sherlock Holmes,” “Gentlemen Broncos,” “Imagine That.” But I think you get the point.

I’ll put together my list of the best films of the decade next week. Watch this space.

Meanwhile, better luck next year.

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