Hot damn! What a year, eh? Big movies. Small movies. Big movies that weren't supposed to be all that big (Paranormal Activity). And small movies that were supposed to be big (Funny People, among others). And, of course, oodles of celebrity death.

Side note: Why is it that, whenever a celebrity has passed on, the first bit of info we get is her age? I know we want that fact, but why? Is it so we can say, "Wow, she died so young!" or so we can say, "Hey! I didn't even know she was still alive! How old was she?"

So what was 2009 all about? We saw some interesting and wonderful films, but better than that were the wonderful oodles of hype that were heaped upon us collectively. As an audience, it is always this – better then the event, better usually than the memory – the anticipation, that gets our cockles flowing.

I still remember looking forward to the 1989 Batman movie with Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson. (They starred in the movie; I didn't sit next to them or anything). It's rare that a movie delivers on that level of hype, but not so rare that that level of hype is generated for a movie.

I reckon that's why kids are so excited about seeing lots of movies. They haven't been jaded by the overhyping rampant in the Hollywood machine. Ah, to see those ad campaigns with the eyes of a child.

Anyway, what hyped us up in the past year, and what are we hyped to see? If you want to talk about big money spent on building up excitement for them, or if you want to talk about how much they ended up making, the top two are Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. But if you want to talk about a movie that was actually 100% inarguably worth seeing, you'd have to go to the No. 3 movie: Disney and Pixar's Up.

Other films this past year that had us talking were The Hangover – a film that was as crude as it was unexpectedly funny – and The Twilight Saga: New Moon – a movie that was patronized mainly by adolescent girls, was the sequel to a movie patronized by adolescent girls, and will itself receive a sequel in 2010 that will doubtlessly be patronized by … well, I'll let you deduce the end of that statement.

What is there to look forward to in 2010? Brother, I don't like to kick-start the hype machine myself, but I just heard about the A-Team movie. With a cast that includes Bradley Cooper, Liam Neeson, "Rampage" Jackson, and Sharlto Copley, the potential is high for some memorable moments on film.

Common, rather than Jackson, was rumored to have the role of B.A. Baracus … that also could have been good. If he were to play someone named Keebler or E.L. Fudge, I would say it could be uncommonly good. And then you would punch me in the face for making a pun.

Paul Giamatti and Benicio Del Toro in a Three Stooges film? I like the idea of ostensibly low-brow entertainment perpetrated by people whose names you often hear preceded by "And the nominees are..."

Speaking of which, comic book movies will abound this year, as they do every year, but there is one that you should pay attention to. Folks familiar with my man Billy Shakes (or, as the general populace calls him, "William Shakespeare") and movies will no doubt have heard of Kenneth Branaugh. He directed and/or starred in silver screen productions of Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, and Othello (though he didn't play the Moor – or the Moop). And this guy is directing a movie about the Marvel superhero Thor! With Anthony Hopkins!

This may not come out until 2011, but keep your eyes open. This could be the best thing to happen to movies in general and comic book movies in particular since casting Sir Patrick Stewart as Professor Charles Xavier.

There are plenty of other movies to be excited about in 2010, and I'll be here to make fun of most of them. I have to run now. I'm trying to get a restraining order dropped.

See you in February for some unnecessary mushiness,

James "Steeped in Hype" Brown!