2009 was another big year for movies thanks to, in varying degrees, the recession, 3D ticket prices and Taylor Lautner’s abs. For funsies we have compiled a fairly trivial movie calendar for the year that was. Here you will find all the big events that, for whatever reason, may not have gotten a lot of media coverage.  Hit the jump to begin reminiscing about the past 12 months:

Sam Raimi is a sadist. He has to be. Maybe he doesn’t have a whip collection at home, maybe he doesn’t have his own dungeon room, maybe he’s a pacifist in real life. When he gets behind the camera, he believes in torture. The exquisite pain of making both his main characters and his audience suffer. And that’s why Drag Me to Hell is a whole lot of fun. Because Sam Raimi is a master-class sadist, and he knows how to twist the screws in. My review after the jump.

The fact that Pixar would take number one this weekend with its tenth feature release, “Up”, was never in question.  The Disney-based studio has built a reputation for quality and success that has stood unchallenged for over a decade.  The only real question for “Up”, the first of Pixar’s toons to be released in 3D, was how high it would soar.  The film’s cranky old man protagonist was a potential stumbling block as was the continued presence of the similarly family-geared “Night at the Museum” sequel.  So how did “Up” fare?  With $68 million over its first three days, the animated adventure bested Pixar’s $63 million take for “Wall-E” in 2008 and came within spitting distance of the $70 million starts from the studio’s top two earners – 2004′s “The Incredibles” and 2003′s “Finding Nemo”.

If last weekend’s box office represented a true fight between “Terminator Salvation” and “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian”, then this week’s receipts bring us back to a more familiar summer scenario: one clear front-runner poised to pummel one counter-programming ‘also-ran’ option.  “Up”, the 10^th feature from the always-outstanding Pixar Studios, blew into theaters with a $21.4 million take on Friday – the second best debut for the studio after “Wall-E” took in $23.2 million last June.  A weekend total above $65 million should pose no problem for Pixar, especially considering that nearly half of the 3,766 bookings for “Up” are in the more-costly 3D venues.  Sam Raimi’s “Drag Me to Hell”, meanwhile, brought in $6.4 million from 2,508 bookings and should be very happy to get above $18 million by Sunday.  Check back tomorrow to see how it all plays out.

“Drag Me to Hell” is a film that only Sam Raimi could make.  After spending almost a decade devoted to “Spider-Man”, Raimi has finally come home to his singular brand of horror/comedy that manages scares and laughs through B-movie schlock and gross-out visuals that will both shock and tickle the audience like only his films can.

Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) isn’t a bad person.  She’s got a nice psychology professor boyfriend (Justin Long), an inoffensive demeanor, and she’s desperately trying to put her past as an overweight farm girl behind her as she fights for an assistant manager position at the bank where she works as a loan officer.  And then some damn evil gypsy woman (Lorna Raver) has to come along and mess it all up.  By denying the old crone a third extension on her mortgage payments (in order to prove to her boss that she can make the “tough decisions” like an assistant manager), she is cursed with the “Lamia” which will torment her for three days before (wait for it), dragging her to hell.

Opening this Friday is director Sam Raimi’s “Drag Me To Hell”. As I’ve said many times, it’s an awesome movie and one that you should absolutely go and see – especially if you’re a fan of old school Sam Raimi. While you might have been nervous that the “Spider-Man” movies made him forget how to scare an audience, “Drag Me To Hell” shows he’s still got it. I can’t say enough how much I enjoyed this movie.

So to help promote the film, I recently got to interview Mr. Raimi and the interview is after the jump. During my time we discussed all the press you have to do when you release a movie, how he worked with the same crew from “Evil Dead II” on “Drag Me To Hell”, his directing process, and is he going to make another Ghost House picture. If you’re a fan, I promise you’ll like the interview.

Opening this Friday is director Sam Raimi’s “Drag Me To Hell”. As I’ve said a few times on the site, it’s an awesome movie and one that you should absolutely go and see – especially if you’re a fan of old school Sam Raimi. While you might have been nervous that the “Spider-Man” movies made him forget how to scare an audience, “Drag Me To Hell” shows he’s still got it. I can’t say enough how much I enjoyed this movie.

So to help promote the film, I recently got to interview the cast and Mr. Raimi himself. My plan is to post an interview everyday and up next is Justin Long.

In the film, Justin plays’s Alison Lohman’s boyfriend. What’s great about his character is that he’s not the typical boyfriend with tons of issues. Instead, Justin plays someone really in love and he’s willing to do anything to help when things start to go wrong.

Opening this Friday is director Sam Raimi’s “Drag Me To Hell”. As I’ve said a few times on the site, it’s an awesome movie and one that you should absolutely go and see – especially if you’re a fan of old school Sam Raimi. While you might have been nervous that the “Spider-Man” movies made him forget how to scare an audience, “Drag Me To Hell” shows he’s still got it. Can’t say enough how much I enjoyed this movie.

So to help promote the film, I recently got to interview the cast and Mr Raimi himself. My plan is to post an interview everyday and up first is the star of “Drag Me To Hell”, Alison Lohman.

In the film, Alison plays an ambitious L.A. loan officer with a great boyfriend. Life is good until she meets the mysterious Mrs. Ganush – who has come to her bank asking for an extension on a loan. When Alison refuses to grant one, Mrs. Ganush places her under an ancient curse and she has to decide how far she’s willing to go to break its spell. And if you know Sam Raimi, this is where the fun starts…