Last Sunday, I was invited to attend Diana Lee Inosanto’s DVD release party of her directorial debut, The Sensei.

For most martial artists, you’ll recognize the name. She is the daughter of martial arts legend Dan Inosanto and the “honorary niece” of one of the world’s biggest icons, Bruce Lee. But what you might not realize is that she’s also an actress, stuntwoman, and producer.

Now, she can add writer/director to her long list of accomplishments.

The Sensei is about a female martial arts instructor who secretly takes on a gay student in 1980s Colorado during the height of the AIDS scare. Though not flawless, the movie is a courageous and powerful piece — particularly considering it’s a low-budget independent and is Diana’s first ever directing gig.

More details about the project later. For now, I highly recommend you check it out on DVD when it’s released on March 9.

My Top 8 now becomes a Top 9. I didn’t bump anybody off the list because they’re all stellar work. But at the same time, I didn’t put Kathryn Bigelow’s intense drama (about a U.S. Army bomb squad unit) in the Top 5.

Why? It just didn’t blow me away (pun totally intended). Don’t get me wrong: I thought it was quite powerful. And critics lavished it with all sorts of honors (i.e. Writers Guild Award for Best Original Screenplay), but I felt the screenplay didn’t provide much an arc for the main character, Staff Sgt. William James, played by Jeremy Renner. He starts off as a cocky cowboy-in-fatigues figure and — save for a subplot about him befriending a locale Iraqi boy — he pretty much ends the movie in exactly the same fashion.

Almost no change. Nothing learned. Zero character development.

In my book, that’s not Top 5 screenwriting material. But still, the script by Mark Boal offers plenty of good things: a strong supporting cast, an exotic setting, a timely subject, and an intrinsically butt-clenching premise (a gung-ho bomb specialist takes over an Explosive Ordinance Disposal squad and clashes with his by-the-book subordinates in the midst of roadside bombs, insurgent snipers, and unrelentingly harsh Iraqi environment.

Some of the praise should go to Bigelow, who does an amazing job of capitalizing on the hair-raising tension and mind-numbing lulls (much like real-life military life) with her mix of documentary style camerawork and slow-mo visuals.

But then again, that’s why both Bigelow and Boal received Oscar nominations in their respective categories, eh?

1. Up
Written by Bob Peterson & Pete Docter
The first three on my list are all running neck and neck and neck for the top spot, but ultimately, I had to give it to Up, this funny, emotional, unpredictable, and technically brilliant animated film from (where else?) Pixar Studios. It has everything a near-perfect screenplay should have: real (and really flawed) characters, realistic (yet witty) dialogue, strong (and strongly motivated) villains, and a believable character arc (there’s two actually, one for each of the main characters). Who knew a cartoon about a senior citizen and a chubby kid in a balloon-powered floating house would be so riveting?

2. District 9
Written by Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell
“Wow.” That was my first impression after seeing this movie. Smart on so many levels and wholly different from anything Hollywood could ever hope to produce, District 9 is a ticking time-bomb of a story: it starts off like a real-life documentary about alien refugees, sprints off like an action movie on fire, and ends with one cataclysmic sci-fi bang that leaves you blown away.

3. Avatar
Written by James Cameron
James Cameron’s screenplay for this year’s most anticipated film and history’s most expensive movie ever is by no means subtle. But it does exactly what a good script should do: act as the solid blueprint for an amazingly sound yet beautiful cinematic monolith to be built upon. From paying off small first-act setups to putting a 22nd-Century twist on cliched elements, the Avatar story is breathtaking, intense, and otherworldly — it reminds us of the very reasons we go to the cinema in the first place.

4. Star Trek
Written by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman
Director J.J. Abrams is a pop-culture God. Just look at his recent credits. And his re-imagining of the original Star Trek series was a pretty damn good balance between appeasing the Trekkers and Trekkies (depending on your level of geekdom) and telling a suspenseful, witty, and action-packed sci-fi opera for the newbies. But it’s really the screenwriting duo of Orci & Kurtzman who should share in the glory. Though their screenplay has a few flaws ([spoiler until the end of the parenthesis] why the Hell does Kirk go from ensign to captain of the Enterprise in less than a day???), its solid structure is what allowed Abrams to pull off the sacrilegious move of remaking a classic.

5. Inglourious Basterds
Written by Quentin Tarantino
This historical fantasy made a big splash because it was Quentin Tarantino’s return to form, his entree back into pop-culture consciousness after the dismal performance of his half of Grindhouse, Death Proof. Unique anti-heroes (a band of covert U.S. Army Jews infiltrating Nazi-occupied France), long-winded monologues, and the most delicious villain we’ve seen in a long time. Sure some of his scenes needed to be trimmed (the pub scene was way too long!) and the alternate-history ending didn’t sit well with me, but overall, Inglourious Basterds was one of the most unique screenplays of the year and one of the most enjoyable movies.

6. Taken
Written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen
A stellar example of how a script with a simple premise -– Liam Neeson plays an ex-CIA agent who must find his daughter’s kidnappers in France -— can result in a tight, suspenseful thriller so long as the execution is done right.

7. The Hangover
Written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore
There was no single funnier movie in 2009 than The Hangover. Lucas and Moore take the tired “bachelor party in Vegas” subgenre, put a subtle Memento-like slant on it, and deliver one of the most jaw-droppingly, surprisingly hilarious films of the year.

8. The Hurt Locker
Written by Mark Boal
This is an intense war thriller about a gung-ho bomb specialist who takes over a U.S. Army Explosive Ordinance Disposal squad and clashes with his by-the-book subordinates in the midst of roadside bombs, insurgent snipers, and internal demons. Not perfect and lacks a strong character arc, but otherwise pretty invigorating. Makes me glad I never joined the military — and grateful to those who have.

8. 9. The Blind Side
Written by John Lee Hancock
I usually don’t fall for the based-on-a-true-story, tear-jerking, feel-good dramas, but this Sandra Bullock-starring football movie took me by surprise. Why? Because the screenplay had well-rounded characters and a simple but effective plotline — all causing you to empathize with the main character. An effective family-friendly drama if ever there were one this year.

Honorable Mentions:

• Paranormal Activity
• I Love You, Man
• Watchmen
• The International

ttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt0409459/

He’s got some common-sense advice mixed in with some real-world experience. Here’s a taste:

“…you simply want to intrigue them enough so that they can’t wait to read the entire screenplay. If you have a twist ending you can tell them about the twist without giving it away. Make them want to read the full script.”

Meyers actually wrote a book called, coincidentally enough, Selling Your Screenplay. I haven’t read it, but it seems solid.

No, this isn’t an entry about a screenwriter starring in his own horror comedy.

John August, writer of the most recent Charlie and the Chocolate Factory adaptation, posted an interesting blog today about being interviewed for a new book called Tales from the Script: 50 Hollywood Screenwriters Share Their Stories.

It seems like a cool book, and John is one of my favorite writers (though I’ve erased from my mind the fact that he penned both Charlie’s Angels movies). So, it’s something I’m probably going to pick up. But, I’m more interested in seeing how John reacted to being in the book and what he thought of the finished product.

Ponder this: What’s it like for a writer to read something written about him or her? For me, I’m always way too critical a writer to really appreciate the writing. But that’s just me.

A trio of new releases failed to topple James Cameron’s Avatar, which claimed the top spot at the box office for the fourth weekend in a row. The 3-D epic earned $13.3 million on Friday, bringing its domestic total to a staggering $393.8 million, according to early estimates

Finally, a smash hit that I can actually support and that doesn’t feature poorly-written vampires who glisten like diamonds in sunlight.

It’s kinda hard to judge a screenplay by watching the resultant film without reading the actual screenplay. But I’ll do my best here to strip away the director’s gorgeous choices, the actors’ brilliant human touches, and the rest of the crew’s awesome work, so I can focus on the movie’s spine: the script. (Keep in mind I have not yet seen the usual late-in-the-year Oscar bait, such as Precious, Up in the Air, or Nine, or highly praised smaller movies, like The Hurt Locker.)

Below is my list of 2009’s Best Produced Screenplays:

1. Up
Written by Bob Peterson & Pete Docter
The first three on my list are all running neck and neck and neck for the top spot, but ultimately, I had to give it to Up, this funny, emotional, unpredictable, and technically brilliant animated film from (where else?) Pixar Studios. It has everything a near-perfect screenplay should have: real (and really flawed) characters, realistic (yet witty) dialogue, strong (and strongly motivated) villains, and a believable character arc (there’s two actually, one for each of the main characters). Who knew a cartoon about a senior citizen and a chubby kid in a balloon-powered floating house would be so riveting?

2. District 9
Written by Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell
“Wow.” That was my first impression after seeing this movie. Smart on so many levels and wholly different from anything Hollywood could ever hope to produce, District 9 is a ticking time-bomb of a story: it starts off like a real-life documentary about alien refugees, sprints off like an action movie on fire, and ends with one cataclysmic sci-fi bang that leaves you blown away.

3. Avatar
Written by James Cameron
James Cameron’s screenplay for this year’s most anticipated film and history’s most expensive movie ever is by no means subtle. But it does exactly what a good script should do: act as the solid blueprint for an amazingly sound yet beautiful cinematic monolith to be built upon. From paying off small first-act setups to putting a 22nd-Century twist on cliched elements, the Avatar story is breathtaking, intense, and otherworldly — it reminds us of the very reasons we go to the cinema in the first place.

4. Star Trek
Written by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman
Director J.J. Abrams is a pop-culture God. Just look at his recent credits. And his re-imagining of the original Star Trek series was a pretty damn good balance between appeasing the Trekkers and Trekkies (depending on your level of geekdom) and telling a suspenseful, witty, and action-packed sci-fi opera for the newbies. But it’s really the screenwriting duo of Orci & Kurtzman who should share in the glory. Though their screenplay has a few flaws ([spoiler until the end of the parenthesis] why the Hell does Kirk go from ensign to captain of the Enterprise in less than a day???), its solid structure is what allowed Abrams to pull off the sacrilegious move of remaking a classic.

5. Inglourious Basterds
Written by Quentin Tarantino
This historical fantasy made a big splash because it was Quentin Tarantino’s return to form, his entree back into pop-culture consciousness after the dismal performance of his half of Grindhouse, Death Proof. Unique anti-heroes (a band of covert U.S. Army Jews infiltrating Nazi-occupied France), long-winded monologues, and the most delicious villain we’ve seen in a long time. Sure some of his scenes needed to be trimmed (the pub scene was way too long!) and the alternate-history ending didn’t sit well with me, but overall, Inglourious Basterds was one of the most unique screenplays of the year and one of the most enjoyable movies.

6. Taken
Written by Luc Besson and Robert Mark Kamen
A stellar example of how a script with a simple premise -– Liam Neeson plays an ex-CIA agent who must find his daughter’s kidnappers in France -— can result in a tight, suspenseful thriller so long as the execution is done right.

7. The Hangover
Written by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore
There was no single funnier movie in 2009 than The Hangover. Lucas and Moore take the tired “bachelor party in Vegas” subgenre, put a subtle Memento-like slant on it, and deliver one of the most jaw-droppingly, surprisingly hilarious films of the year.

8. The Blind Side
Written by John Lee Hancock
I usually don’t fall for the based-on-a-true-story, tear-jerking, feel-good dramas, but this Sandra Bullock-starring football movie took me by surprise. Why? Because the screenplay had well-rounded characters and a simple but effective plotline — all causing you to empathize with the main character. An effective family-friendly drama if ever there were one this year.

Honorable Mentions:

• Paranormal Activity
• I Love You, Man
• Watchmen
• The International

“I deduce that this movie is elementary entertainment, my dear boy.”

Bad joke aside, Sherlock Holmes could have been an excellent action thriller…but it’s hampered by a slow second act and unoriginal third act, resulting in only an above average popcorn flick, despite Robert Downey Jr. starring in the title role and Jude Law as his sidekick Dr. John Watson.

A lot of gripes have been made that director Guy Ritchie’s take on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s literary detective is a bastardization, or Hollywoodization, an attempt to make Holmes into some sort of action superhero. And it’s partly true: the script by Michael Robert Johnson, Anthony Peckham and Simon Kinberg immediately establishes that this ain’t your great grandfather’s Sherlock Holmes. His intellect is matched only by his physical prowess.

But this might be a more faithful take on the character (I’ve never read any of the stories or novels myself, but apparently Holmes has always been a swordsman, boxer and martial artist) and is certainly more interesting than previous iterations of Holmes.

Sadly, Ritchie’s handling of the action scenes are something to be desired: While the gunplay and explosions are shown in clear (sometimes even slow-motion) angles, the hand-to-hand combat is shot in the very annoying, very trendy fashion of vomit-inducing handheld camera work and seizure-sparking rapid-fire editing. Shame, considering that Downey can actually fight (he practices Wing Chun). The villains are fairly stock and Holmes’ archnemesis, Moriarty, makes nothing more than a cameo.

Fortunately, Downey and Law are excellent as Holmes and Watson, so they save the movie from becoming a Hollywood-rapes-literary classic scenario. Their rapport is palpable and witty. Plus, their takes on their respective characters are smart and realistic.

A franchise this most certainly will be.

If you haven’t already, treat yourself to a holiday present and watch Avatar.

Is it the best movie ever made based on the best screenplay ever written? No, of course not. But it’s certainly one of the better movies I’ve seen in a long, long time. Though it’s wrapped in the most mind-blowing special-effects package, the true gift inside is the no-gimmicks heart-felt action-packed story — it’ll satisfy your mind and heart long after you toss the goofy-looking 3D glasses that the box-office attendant hands you before you enter the theater.

If you’ve been living under a rock lately or swamped with holiday shopping, here’s a rundown: Avatar is set in the far future when humans have consumed Earth and is looking to extract minerals from the planet of Pandora for fuel. But aliens called Na’vi live there and refuse to make way for bulldozers. Enter Jake Sully, a paraplegic ex-Marine (played by Sam Worthington) who volunteers to control a Na’vi-human hybrid to inflitrate and influence the natives. One problem: Jake realizes he’s playing for the wrong team when he falls in love with a Na’vi princess.

Writer-director James Cameron has been working on this movie for 12 years, and his hard work and persistence pays off plenty of dividends. His script combines so many great elements (action, sci-fi, romance, politics, and history) in one unified, poetic tale.

It’s not Cameron’s most subtle script (the aliens in Avatar are clearly a parallel to Native Americans), but it’s certainly his most ambitious. Twelve years and $300 million later, he still doesn’t let that all that overshadow the action-packed love story.

Sure, I’m a little biased, as Cameron is probably my favorite writer-director out of the myriad of filmmakers I admire. Aside from also being a Canadian-born Southern Californian like me, Cameron is one of the rare auteurs who can handle both visuals and story, action and drama.

He’s never made a bad movie. (OK, I’ve never seen his first one, Piranha Part Two, but I’m certain if I did watch it, I’ll think it’s the greatest B-movie ever.) From the original The Terminator to Aliens to Terminator 2: Judgment Day to Titanic, every one of Cameron’s movies are epic entertainment.

Why?

Because he understands how to use intense action to further a compelling story, rather than the other way around.

So sprinkle a little holiday cheer on yourself and watch Avatar.