Top 50 Favorite Movies

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I like Back To The Future and it's always an easy and fun watch, but I've never understood the all encompassing love for it. Even though I was just about the perfect age to see it when it was released and saw it at the cinema and many times since, it's just never had its claws into me.
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5-time MoFo Award winner.



Back to the Future is so good, such an entertaining movie, and fun for the whole family.

The Human Condition Trilogy and Fanny and Alexander are both on my watchlist.



I like Back To The Future and it's always an easy and fun watch, but I've never understood the all encompassing love for it. Even though I was just about the perfect age to see it when it was released and saw it at the cinema and many times since, it's just never had its claws into me.
Same here. I kinda enjoyed the movie while I was watching it, but not enough to check out the sequels. I watched it only about 5 years ago, though, so maybe it's a bit dated. Still, wasn't really impressed.



@ Citizen Rules, I included it in my list also because I had a strong emotional connection with it, stronger than other famous fun blockbusters, such as Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Avengers.



41. Gunbuster (1988) (Anno, Japan)

Train harder!



Hideaki Anno's directorial debut, whose Japanese title was based on that cheesy American movie, Top Gun, is a masterpiece of science fiction. Many regard it as Anno's masterpiece and superior to EVA, though it lacks the (abundant) experimental elements of EVA it is still a more conventional title, with linear narrative with clearly defined beginning middle and ending.



Anno was only 27-28 at the time he was directing Gunbuster and it shows it was something made by a young nerd for young nerds. It contains all the elements associated with nerdy anime and in generous quantities. Including abusive use of the sense of scale with battles involving millions of enemies as it follows the lives of mecha pilots (all girls, of course) through interstellar warfare.



Tells the story of Earth's desperate struggle to fight "space monsters", which according to the Gunbuster mythology are the galaxy's natural anti-bodies against humanity, which Via Lactea apparently regards as a disease. So to deal with the menace of the constant flux of space monsters coming into the solar system, humanity has a plan to destroy the blackhole at the center of the galaxy, so as "to kill the galaxy" and hence it's anti-bodies.

Gunbuster known's it's references :


To fight the space monsters, mankind's technological development is sent into overdrive mode as it is supposed to be set in the early to mid 21st century and technology apparently progressed much faster than historically happened after 1988, by now we would be supposedly building hundreds of massive spaceships and giant combat mechas (with terribly poor taste in design):



Also, 1/6 of it's run-time it is in black and white:


Which makes it artsy.

It's a great animated science fiction classic.



40. Taxi Driver (1975) (Scorsese, US)



A visceral masterpiece. It's my Scorsese pick for this top 50. Expertly acted and directed, it's a brutal film, very powerful and haunting. The scene where he applauds the politician sent shivers down my spine. Scorsese's films are characterized by their visceral intensity and brutality (specially this, Goodfellas and Ranging Bull), and he is a master of these crafts.



It's a movie where we watch and feel as someone who goes down into metal breakdown, basically watching someone getting "crazy", in an extremely life-like fashion as I strongly identified with the character. As an young person also living alone for most of the past decade. Though I never tried to buy a gun and kill someone, yet!



The portrait of 1970's New York is also very poignant as it shows the largest city in the US during it's period of decadence.



Also, De Niro was so thin at the time!

It's because his square face looks like of someone who is much bulkier.



39. Werckmeister Harmonies (2000) (Tarr, Hungary)



The first time I watched it I though it was an ok film, but it grew on me eventually as it became more memorable with the passage of time. It's an incredibly austere film, with minimal amount of complexity, dialogue or anything that might distract from the visual aspects of the camera. Each shoot takes on average 4 minutes, 30-40 times longer than average movies do.



It's a pure film, in the sense of being a film about film. Tarr claims he doesn't understand Hollywood movies with their "plots", so he makes movies without any of the characteristics of Hollywood films.



Bela Tarr's work can be understood as significant in terms of providing a window which we can understand from a local point of view the chaos of Eastern Europe during it's traumatic experiences during the 20th century, specially regarding this film, which even shows it explicitly in the form of revolution/social unrest. I guess that is partly the reason why Mr. Minio likes it so much since it resonates with this child of post-Cold War Eastern Europe.



Though the film's power partly comes from it's mysterious/ambiguous significance. It's pure film, in the sense of being a film for those who loves film in itself.



38. The Road Warrior (1982) (Miller, Australia)



If the previous movie was a study of the atmosphere of Eastern Europe during it's traumatic processes of revolutionary change, then The Road Warrior is a study of the fears of Western civilization regarding it's own long term feasibility in light of the oil shocks of the 1970's. It's also much more explicit and less ambiguous in that regard, considering it states that explicitly on it's opening narration.



It also has a ton of explosions and testosterone driven action sequences which have not been surpassed yet in some ways.



I think this movie is heavily influenced by movies like Yojimbo, though that might be indirect influence rather than direct. What I particularly love about this film is it's very characteristic atmosphere. I don't know why but it really resonates with me on a personal level.



It's among the best "pure action" film I ever watched. If not the best depending which films among the next 37 you would define as pure action.



Of course I love Taxi Driver, behind only Goodfellas on my own favorite's list. I'm glad you appreciate it as well.

Never heard of Gunbuster; it looks interesting from the images you posted, but I have a hard time with Sci-Fi.

I haven't seen The Road Warrior in a while. I liked it but definitely prefer Mad Max.

I liked The Werckmeister Harmonies, very different for me, but it was a positive viewing.



I'm a huge fan of The Road Warrior and it's sequel Beyond Thunder Dome. I wish they would have done a 4th installement shorty after Thunder Dome, before Mel became to old to drive
I included it in my list also because I had a strong emotional connection with it, stronger than other famous fun blockbusters, such as Raiders of the Lost Ark or The Avengers.
Guap, I have to ask...what was the emotional connection that you had to Back To the Future? (if you don't mind answering)



I don't know precisely why, but I just felt great after watching it. The whole film feels like a masterpiece in a sense, that elusive feeling that I have with all the movies here. Basically, it's so well made that after the movie ended, I appreciate the whole two hour narrative as a beautiful thing, from the perspective after the film ended and not while watching it.

Gunbuster is the same in that way, if you watch it might appear only a cheesy sci fi action flick (though it has some "very heavy direction" in some scenes, one would understand what I mean by that by watching Gunbuster or EVA I think) but it had that elusive feeling of greatness.



37. Ping Pong (2014) (Yuasa, Japan)



In the field of sports movies and animation the vast majority of it is very mediocre and very few rise above the others to the upper stratosphere of artistic achievement. The only piece of sport fiction that I watched which is an a masterpiece of the purest form and also the newest entry into my top 50, is Ping Pong. Yep, it's a movie all right because it's even on MUBI.



It utilizes the possibilities of animation to the fullest extent to depict the tragic occurrences of this series. It's essentially a study about the hardships of life and it uses the sport as a scaffold of it's main thematic elements.



When I watched it I might have regarded it as the masterpiece of masterpieces of anything. Now I am less hyped up by it so I can evaluate it in a more objective way.



It's indeed a masterpiece, one of the very few animations to be masterpieces in their purest form. It's incredibly creative in it's use of cinematography, sound and direction. Being even more exceptional considering it was made as an animated TV series (just think it was made on a smaller budget than Family Guy ),



While I think very few people here have watched it I think it's a very sage bet because it lacks all the tropes common in anime being of more universal appeal. Though the style is quite noncommercial looking in a way.



36. The Terminator (1984) (Cameron, US)



James Cameron is one of the world's greatest directors of science fiction action films. Movies like this, Aliens and Terminator 2 are classics of their genres (horror/sci-fi action for the first two, sci fi action for the last). Film critics don't give enough credit to these genres even though audiences love them (I guess the reason is partly because audiences love them so to prove their superiority over casual film watchers they "dislike it/like it less" than would unbiased).



It's a film that like The Road Warrior, reflected on the rather apocalyptic prospects of the world at the time. I also love Cameron's use of blue, his films are all very bluish, though his last one was a bit too much on the blue factor . His films also declined in quality specially after T2 they became just soulless money grabbers, though with excellent special effects.



The Terminator is very different from his other films in that he works with little money and hence the movie works better than his other ones. Another reason why it is still in my top 50 it's because of nostalgia factor as I watched all the terminator movies as a kid. The original movie has the feeling of freshness that is lacking in the other Terminator films as well, which feel derivative, as if only they were sequels of something that was greater, what was that? The Terminator.




I disagree. I think T2 is better than The Terminator, but they're both great movies.
I change my mind with those two all the time. Right now I prefer The Terminator since I rewatched it not long ago.

Also for Taxi Driver of course.