In a year riddled with highly disappointing blockbusters (“Terminator Salvation,” “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra”), 2009 also featured a number of quality films worth renting for a second view. Here’s a roundup of the most notable highlights.

“The Hurt Locker”
Realistic, dense and tense, Kathryn Bigelow’s modern wartime character study focused brilliantly on the micro, showing that it’s not just the IEDs that might have some explosively bad wiring.

“Outlander”
One lost lawman fights to protect a small community from catastrophe and find his way home. But seriously, vikings vs. aliens? What’s not to love?

“Star Trek”
TV wunderkind JJ Abrams pulls his own personal Kobyashi Maru, taking Kirk, Spock and Bones right back to school with this wily, fun (and expensive) mulligan of the cherished series.

“King Kong”
OK, so it was released in 1933. But thanks to The Music Hall’s Big Screen Series, folks on the Seacoast got a rare chance to see him in his natural habitat in all his glorious, chest thumping ginormity.

“Up”
Pixar’s unrivaled capacity to spin true, heartfelt stories, along with their ability to manifest the most endearing human characters ever to climb out of a hard drive, deftly showed that a sense of adventure is truly meant to last a lifetime.

“District 9”
As we look back on 2009, it might be remembered as the year the little guy got a break. Backed by a modest budget and FX team provided by Peter Jackson, freshman director Neill Blomkamp knocked out a raucous—and possibly even educational—sci-fi reflection of an Earth gone mad.

”Inglourious Basterds”
A WWII retcon featuring a lot more soft talking than big stick carrying than the trailers might have us believe, but still, when Quentin has fun, the world has fun with him.

“Coraline”
Celebrated stop-motion meister Henry Selick’s meticulously rendered models and subtle application of 3D effects completely pull you in to Neil Gaiman’s surprisingly creepy tale of a little girl trying to keep her eyes open—proving that horrific, magnificent things can come in very small packages.

“The Fantastic Mr. Fox”
The other side of the stop-mo coin. Throwing the form right back to its fidgety, wild-haired roots was exactly the right way to illustrate Roald Dahl’s slyly subversive story of one beastly community that just can’t ignore its more feral, and funnier, instincts.

“Up In the Air”
True, it’s got Oscar bait written all over it, but this moving, entertaining story of isolation on the move puts some fabulously imagined and complex characters in original, topical situations, and goes a long way to show that director Jason Reitman (“Thank you for Smoking,” “Juno”) won’t be remembered as Ivan Reitman’s (“Stripes,” “Ghostbusters”) son for long, but Ivan as Jason’s father.

“Zombieland”
As tongue-in-cheek ZomComs go, this might not be “Shawn of the Dead,” but any movie that puts Woody Harrelson in a cowboy hat is bound to be awesome. Plus the zombie kill of the day!

“Food Inc.”
Sensible, insightful and downright scary, this may be the best documentary ever to ruin your appetite.

special bonus feature: “Trick ’r Treat”
Left festering on studio shelves for two years, this fantastic little creep-show, a pitch-black perfect celebration of all things All Hallowed, finally got out in 2009 (though only on DVD) and absolutely killed.