The Pitters' Place

Hi guys. I hope you are doing well. This is my first post this year. I haven't seen anything in the last couple of weeks of the last year. I started this year very slowly as well, seeing only 6 films in January.

1. Casino (1995; Martin Scorsese) 10/10
Definitely one of my 3 favourite Scorsese films. I keep returning to this one, mostly because it is so entertaining. Just great cinematography, editing, excellent use of voice-overs, great performances. I really love James Woods in this, he just might be my favourite of the cast.

2. Holes (2003; Andrew Davis) 7/10
Pretty good film which offers fairly imaginative and original plot/scenario. Good performance from young Shia LaBeouf.

3. 48 Hrs. (1982; Walter Hill) 7/10
A cop (Nick Nolte) and a criminal (Eddie Murphy) team up to track down a cop killer. This was good, with mostly good screenplay/dialogues, very good direction from Walter Hill (he loves his neon lights), and really great performances from Nolte/Murphy duo.

4. The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean (1972; John Huston) 7/10
Actually a pretty good revisionist Western with a very good performance from Paul Newman.

5. Porco Rosso (1992; Hayao Miyazaki) 8.5/10
This was my 3rd time seeing this. It is an excellent animated film from legendary Hayao which brilliantly combines adventure, drama, romance, action, comedy. And those flying sequences were just beautiful.

6. The Quick and the Dead (1995; Sam Raimi) 8/10
Raimi is a great director. I loved all of his films I've seen, and this underrated Western is no exception. His direction was awesome (great editing and great use of close-ups). As far as the performances are concerned, the legendary Gene Hackman dominates the film. Pretty much as expected, you might say.

Any thoughts, guys?

Your review of Quick and the Dead sounds like we share the exact same opinion! I’ve seen Casino and Holes but only once. I can’t quite remember if I saw Porco Rosso; I think I did way back in college. I unfortunately have only seen a few Miyazaki films so far.

Lord_Lyndon wrote: ↑Fri Jan 31, 2025 10:44 pm1. Casino (1995; Martin Scorsese) 10/10
Definitely one of my 3 favourite Scorsese films. I keep returning to this one, mostly because it is so entertaining. Just great cinematography, editing, excellent use of voice-overs, great performances. I really love James Woods in this, he just might be my favourite of the cast.

Yeah I find this one underrated myself. Great fun.

2. Holes (2003; Andrew Davis) 7/10
Pretty good film which offers fairly imaginative and original plot/scenario. Good performance from young Shia LaBeouf.

Loved both the original novel and this film as a kid. Even read the sequel novel, Small Steps! Not quite sure how they hold up but I have fond memories of them.

5. Porco Rosso (1992; Hayao Miyazaki) 8.5/10
This was my 3rd time seeing this. It is an excellent animated film from legendary Hayao which brilliantly combines adventure, drama, romance, action, comedy. And those flying sequences were just beautiful.

Yeah I largely agree with this I think. I read the original manga this is based on a few months ago and it was shockingly different- very short and even had some 4th wall breaking bits. Film was huge improvement.

6. The Quick and the Dead (1995; Sam Raimi) 8/10
Raimi is a great director. I loved all of his films I've seen, and this underrated Western is no exception. His direction was awesome (great editing and great use of close-ups). As far as the performances are concerned, the legendary Gene Hackman dominates the film. Pretty much as expected, you might say.

Wonderful film which I gave an even higher rating than you did.

Hi guys! I was having some fun today and I made my top 30 of all time. What is interesting about this list is that I ranked them from my favourite to my least favourite. Definitely check out the list guys and I'm looking forward to your thoughts if you have some!

1. Apocalypse Now (1979; Francis Ford Coppola)
2. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966; Sergio Leone)
3. Barry Lyndon (1975; Stanley Kubrick)
4. Days of Heaven (1978; Terrence Malick)
5. Fallen Angels (1995; Wong Kar-wai)
6. Ran (1985; Akira Kurosawa)
7. Taxi Driver (1976; Martin Scorsese)
8. Casino (1995; Martin Scorsese)
9. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998; Terry Gilliam)
10. The Revenant (2015; Alejandro González Iñárritu)
11. Seven Samurai (1954; Akira Kurosawa)
12. Mirror/Zerkalo (1975; Andrei Tarkovsky)
13. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972; Werner Herzog)
14. The Turin Horse (2011; Béla Tarr)
15. The Passenger (1975; Michelangelo Antonioni)
16. Memories of Murder (2003; Bong Joon-ho)
17. Touch of Evil (1958; Orson Welles)
18. Shadow of a Doubt (1943; Alfred Hitchcock)
19. The Seventh Seal (1957; Ingmar Bergman)
20. Lady Vengeance (2005; Park Chan-wook)
21. Yi Yi (2000; Edward Yang)
22. Brazil (1985; Terry Gilliam)
23. Breathless (1960; Jean-Luc Godard)
24. Dog Day Afternoon (1975; Sidney Lumet)
25. Werckmeister Harmonies (2000; Béla Tarr)
26. 3-Iron (2004; Kim Ki-duk)
27. Blade Runner (1982; Ridley Scott)
28. Chungking Express (1994; Wong Kar-wai)
29. The Shining (1980; Stanley Kubrick)
30. Ugetsu (1953; Kenji Mizoguchi)

I've only seen 10 of those; largely because I just haven't seen enough foreign films. Barry Lyndon and Brazil are in my collection but not yet seen, which means I'll almost certainly watch them this year.

Doug Walker (AKA The Nostalgia Critic) just released a video of his top 20 films; Fear and Loathing was in there, and Brazil was number 1.

Lord_Lyndon wrote: ↑Mon Mar 03, 2025 10:15 am Hi guys! I was having some fun today and I made my top 30 of all time. What is interesting about this list is that I ranked them from my favourite to my least favourite. Definitely check out the list guys and I'm looking forward to your thoughts if you have some!

1. Apocalypse Now (1979; Francis Ford Coppola)
2. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966; Sergio Leone)
3. Barry Lyndon (1975; Stanley Kubrick)
4. Days of Heaven (1978; Terrence Malick)
5. Fallen Angels (1995; Wong Kar-wai)
6. Ran (1985; Akira Kurosawa)
7. Taxi Driver (1976; Martin Scorsese)
8. Casino (1995; Martin Scorsese)
9. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998; Terry Gilliam)
10. The Revenant (2015; Alejandro González Iñárritu)
11. Seven Samurai (1954; Akira Kurosawa)
12. Mirror/Zerkalo (1975; Andrei Tarkovsky)
13. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972; Werner Herzog)
14. The Turin Horse (2011; Béla Tarr)
15. The Passenger (1975; Michelangelo Antonioni)
16. Memories of Murder (2003; Bong Joon-ho)
17. Touch of Evil (1958; Orson Welles)
18. Shadow of a Doubt (1943; Alfred Hitchcock)
19. The Seventh Seal (1957; Ingmar Bergman)
20. Lady Vengeance (2005; Park Chan-wook)
21. Yi Yi (2000; Edward Yang)
22. Brazil (1985; Terry Gilliam)
23. Breathless (1960; Jean-Luc Godard)
24. Dog Day Afternoon (1975; Sidney Lumet)
25. Werckmeister Harmonies (2000; Béla Tarr)
26. 3-Iron (2004; Kim Ki-duk)
27. Blade Runner (1982; Ridley Scott)
28. Chungking Express (1994; Wong Kar-wai)
29. The Shining (1980; Stanley Kubrick)
30. Ugetsu (1953; Kenji Mizoguchi)

Seen most of these and, and for ones I've not seen I've at least other films from their director (Except Kim Ki-duk and Bela Tarr). Other than Lumet who I don't get the love for, the rest I find to be good.

Thanks guys! I really appreciate your thoughts.
Regarding what Gendo said, I just looked at the list and half of those films are not in English. That is a bit surprising.
Regarding what Rax said, here are my very short thoughts about Lumet. I think he is a director who is remembered as someone who did not necessarily have a strong visual style, but he often worked with really good material/screenplays and with some really good actors. I think why I love Dog Day Afternoon so much is mostly because, honestly, Pacino gives one of my three favourite performances of all time (the other two being De Niro in Taxi Driver and Brando in Last Tango in Paris). Regarding other Lumet films, I really did enjoy Network (1976) and Prince of the City (1981) the most.

Hi guys. I apologize in advance, but it looks like I'm going completely crazy. I changed my top 30 AGAIN, and I just wanted to share the list with you guys. I think this new list is more reflective of what I love at the moment, at least compared to that list I posted some weeks ago.

1. Apocalypse Now (1979)
2. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)
3. Barry Lyndon (1975)
4. Days of Heaven (1978)
5. Fallen Angels (1995)
6. Ran (1985)
7. Taxi Driver (1976)
8. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998)
9. Casino (1995)
10. Seven Samurai (1954)
11. The Godfather Part II (1974)
12. Badlands (1973)
13. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
14. Full Metal Jacket (1987)
15. The Thin Red Line (1998)
16. Werckmeister Harmonies (2000)
17. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
18. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
19. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)
20. Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
21. Interstellar (2014)
22. The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
23. Nostalghia (1983)
24. Blade Runner (1982)
25. Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
26. Blood Simple (1984)
27. Goodfellas (1990)
28. Mean Streets (1973)
29. Dances with Wolves (1990)
30. The Dark Knight (2008)

This time I've seen 20 of them. Just very recently Once Upon a Time in America and I really loved it. Of the ones I've seen, The Dark Knight Rises is my least favorite, it's the only Nolan film I don't love. I haven't seen Zack Snyder's Justice League, but I can't imagine I'll like it, given that I didn't like the theatrical cut at all, and also pretty much don't ever like Snyder.

Gendo wrote: ↑Thu Mar 20, 2025 3:50 pm This time I've seen 20 of them. Just very recently Once Upon a Time in America and I really loved it. Of the ones I've seen, The Dark Knight Rises is my least favorite, it's the only Nolan film I don't love. I haven't seen Zack Snyder's Justice League, but I can't imagine I'll like it, given that I didn't like the theatrical cut at all, and also pretty much don't ever like Snyder.

Okay, Gendo. I will try to guess the ones you haven't seen from the list. Here we go:

Barry Lyndon (1975)
Days of Heaven (1978)
Fallen Angels (1995)
Ran (1985)
Badlands (1973)
The Thin Red Line (1998)
Werckmeister Harmonies (2000)
Nostalghia (1983)
Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
Mean Streets (1973)

How did I do, Gendo?

100%! I already mentioned I should finally be seeing Barry Lyndon soon, and I’ve always wanted to see The Thin Red Line and Ran.

Fallen Angels, Werckmeister Harmonies, and Nostalghia for me. I keep contemplating doing a Tarkovsky deep dive sooner rather than later, so maybe I'll get to that last one of these days...

Raxivace wrote: ↑Sat Mar 22, 2025 2:10 am Fallen Angels, Werckmeister Harmonies, and Nostalghia for me. I keep contemplating doing a Tarkovsky deep dive sooner rather than later, so maybe I'll get to that last one of these days...

I really glad you saw and loved Cries & Whispers (1972), Rax! That one is in my top 3 Bergman films, with The Seventh Seal (1957) and Wild Strawberries (1957). Really made me happy that you loved it!

Yeah on a whim I put that one on the other day and was surprised at how much I liked it. Devastating film tbh.

Just purchased The Thin Red Line to add to my DVD collection of movies I need to watch.

That really deserves at least a blu-ray. Just beautiful movie to look at.

Yeah I can see that… but it was $2.00!

Hi guys. I saw 6 films back in February. All of those were rewatches.

7. The Nice Guys (2016; Shane Black) 8/10
Very good film which combines several different genres (buddy film, neo-noir, comedy, action). Very good performances from Crowe and Gosling. Shane Black is just great at writing funny dialogue and putting his characters in extremely funny situations.

8. Days of Heaven (1978; Terrence Malick) 10/10
Linda Manz' voice-over narration is one of the key elements here. It provides the film with a certain distancing effect, framing the film as hazy (or half-remembered) recollections/memories. When you combine this with beautiful cinematography and haunting Morricone score, you get one of the most beautiful and poetic films ever made.

9. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001; Peter Jackson) 9.5/10
This film is a wonderful fantasy adventure. A beautiful tale about friendship and bravery. It features so many lovable characters, and battle sequences that definitely do not overwhelm those same characters and their interactions.

10. Full Metal Jacket (1979; Stanley Kubrick) 10/10
Another rewatch of this, and I could really appreciate what Rax said about this film, especially its ending: that characters end up being 'broken and subsumed by the war'. I still think that the second act is the best part of the film: very funny, satirical, visually stunning.

11. Days of Heaven (1978; Terrence Malick) 10/10
20 days after seeing this for the 9th time, I decided to watch this for the 10th time. And just watching those beautiful wheat fields swaying in the wind made me feel a certain calmness, serenity. It was a nice feeling.

12. The Shining (1980; Stanley Kubrick) 10/10
This film is definitely an unsettling masterpiece. It has some of the best camerawork of all time (I liked how one user referred to it as 'camera that discovers around corners'). Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall gave great performances. Really just an amazing horror film with excellent atmosphere and many memorable scenes/sequences.

Rest in peace Val Kilmer. He really was a very good actor who was in some really great movies. Thank you for the beautiful memories, for all the beautiful performances you have given to us, Val. We won't forget you.

Just saw that KIlmer passed, huge bummer.

I have just 12 Val Kilmer movies in my collection; my favorite is probably Kiss Kiss Bang Bang.

Hi guys. I'm back after 50 days. I hope you are doing well. I saw 5 films back in March. I'll post about that today, and do the rest tomorrow.

13. Only God Forgives (2013; Nicolas Winding Refn) 7/10
I've seen two films from this director before (Fear X (2003) and Drive (2011)). Those two were very good. This one was good. It was very slow, violent and had some neat symbolism. It takes place in Bangkok and Ryan Gosling and Kristin Scott Thomas are in it.

14. The Beekeeper (1986; Theodoros Angelopoulos) 8/10
Rewatch. This very good film portrays a man in a spiritual dead-end (played by Marcello Mastroianni). The film was suffused with melancholia, which was a nice touch.

15. Voyage to Cythera (1984; Theodoros Angelopoulos) 8/10
Rewatch. An old communist returns to his family in Greece after 32 years in the Soviet Union. This is a very good, beautiful, poetic film that portrays life as something beautiful, but also sometimes very much absurd.

16. Werckmeister Harmonies (2000; Béla Tarr, Ágnes Hranitzky) 9.5/10
Another rewatch. This film is one of the greatest art films of all time. It is 2 hours 25 minutes long, and comprised of only 39 elegant long takes. Beautifully shot in black and white, it compellingly portrays an impending doom that comes upon some small town in Hungary. Masterful film.

17. Babylon A.D. (2008; Mathieu Kassovitz) 7/10
I thought this was a rather solid scifi action film with solid performance from Vin Diesel. It got really bad reviews, but it thought it was fun.

I haven't seen any of those. Really interested in Only God Forgives now though; I liked Drive a lot. I vaguely remember seeing Fear X back when it was first released on DVD.

Sadly, I only managed to see two films in April and two films in May. All of those four were rewatches. Here are my short write-ups:

18. The Dark Knight Rises (2012; Christopher Nolan) 10/10
I still love everything about this film: visuals, plot, performances. It was so epic and entertaining. I always love Anne Hathaway, but she was especially great in this one.

19. The Belly of an Architect (1987; Peter Greenaway) 8/10
It is a film that tries to juxtapose the eternal city of Rome (with its beautiful architecture) against human transience, human folly. It does that very well. This film is a delight for Greenaway fans, as well as fans of art films in general.

20. The Master (2012; Paul Thomas Anderson) 8.5/10
Excellent film that creates an interesting dynamic between two leading characters. Joaquin Phoenix delivers a mesmerizing, astonishing performance. Definitely one of my favourite performances of all time.

21. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966; Sergio Leone) 10/10
Leone's legendary direction and Morricone's iconic score work together to create one of the greatest films of all time. My second favourite film of all time.

I still place The Dark Knight Rises as easily my least favorite Nolan film. There are several things about it I do like; it has a lot of inidivual moments that are great. But the plot is just such a convoluted mess.

Just wanted to post about anime series I finished in May.

The Vision of Escaflowne (1996) 8.5/10
This fantasy mecha anime series is yet another great recommendation by Rax. I really loved everything about it: animation, story, characters. Thematically speaking, it was one of the more interesting anime series I've seen so far, featuring themes of fate, predetermination, how one's state of mind is the catalyst to one's destiny, strong anti-war message. My favourite character was definitely Dilandau. I loved his crazy antics. Overall, just great stuff.

Escaflowne is wonderful imo, one of the peaks of '90's anime as well as isekai as a genre as well as for Sunrise as a studio. Great OST too.

Movie is worth giving a look too- the story isn't as good as the TV show's (It's just too much for 80 minute runtime or whatever it is), but its got very gorgeous animation in its own right.

I love Escaflowne, though I haven't seen it in about 23 years at this point. I still listen to the music from it, though.

Saw 10 films this month already. Here are write-ups for first four:

22. White Hunter Black Heart (1990; Clint Eastwood) 7/10
This film is superficially about making of John Huston's 'The African Queen', but it certainly veers off in some other, more interesting directions. Clint Eastwood was excellent in this.

23. Mickey 17 (2025; Bong Joon Ho) 7/10
It is a good mixture of scifi and dark comedy, with a good performance from Robert Pattinson.

24. Badlands (1973; Terrence Malick) 10/10
Seen this many times, and it is still one of the most beautiful and poetic films of all time. Beautiful cinematography/visuals, great use of voice-overs, great music. Excellent performance from Martin Sheen.

25. Walker (1987; Alex Cox) 7/10
This film is a satire of how US government tried to establish 'democracy' in 19th century Nicaragua. It also features some really cool Peckinpah-like violence. Ed Harris was great.

Lord_Lyndon wrote: ↑Fri Jun 13, 2025 10:46 pm 22. White Hunter Black Heart (1990; Clint Eastwood) 7/10
This film is superficially about making of John Huston's 'The African Queen', but it certainly veers off in some other, more interesting directions. Clint Eastwood was excellent in this.

I saw this one a year and a half or so ago and also liked it. One of the weirder spins Eastwood did on deconstructing "macho" type characters/personas since it uses John Huston, but definitely fits into his general themes.

There's also weird accusation from Oja Kodar floating around that Eastwood "stole" his performance from seeing ancient footage of Orson Welles' The Other Side of the Wind back in the late 80's.

Wikipedia wrote:Before a deal was put together in 1998, Oja Kodar screened Gary Graver's rough cut of the film for a number of famous directors in the 1980s and 1990s, seeking their help in completing the film, but they all turned it down for various reasons. These included John Huston (who was by then terminally ill with emphysema and was unable to breathe without oxygen tubes), Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone, Clint Eastwood and George Lucas. Lucas reportedly claimed to be baffled by the footage, saying he did not know what to do with it, and that it was too avant-garde for a commercial audience. Kodar subsequently accused both Eastwood and Stone of plagiarism from the film, citing Eastwood's performance in White Hunter Black Heart (1990) as a copy of John Huston's, including one line of dialogue ("I'm Marvin P. Fassbender." "Of course you are."), and Stone's adoption of the film's distinctive rapidly cut editing and camera style for his JFK (1991), Nixon (1995) and Natural Born Killers (1994).

Don't think I buy that the performance was plagiarized (How can a performance even be plagiarized, exactly?) since its not like there wasn't plenty of other footage of Huston to look at over the years like in Chinatown lol.

Thanks for sharing this, Rax. This is the first time I hear of someone accusing someone else of plagiarizing a performance. I seriously doubt Eastwood did something wrong in this situation.

Anyway, I also saw three animated films:

26. The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023; Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic, Pierre Leduc) 8/10
The story and characters were pretty simple and straightforward, but the set-pieces were quite exhilarating and spectacular. Really enjoyed this one.

27. Despicable Me (2010; Pierre Coffin, Chris Renaud) 8/10
I feel like the focus in this one was more on the relationship between our main guy and those three little girls, but there were still some really fun visuals and set-pieces.

28. The Lego Batman Movie (2017; Chris McKay) 8/10
Really enjoyed how the Batman and Joker were portrayed (and their relationship). The visuals and set-pieces were astonishing.

I’m tried watching Super Mario Brothers with my 6 year old who loves Mario; but didn’t get past the beginning because he was too scared of Bowser. Maybe next year.

Despicable Me is great; and I’ve heard good things about the sequels too. Though I think I preferred Megamind which is a very similar premise.

I really love Lego Batman. Hilarious with a lot of great writing.

I wasn't a huge fan of how the Super Mario Bros. movie Americanized those characters tbh. Like this is most obvious with the "girlboss" version of Peach being kinda whatever to me compared to version in the videogames that appears dainty on the surface before whacking you in the head with a frying pan.

Like honestly the personality they gave her seems like it'd be a better fit for Daisy but these movies will never go to Sarasaland.

Just a quick reply to Gendo: I also love Megamind. It's actually one of my favourite animated films.

I saw 8 more films so far. 6 new films and 2 rewatches:

29. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023; John Francis Daley, Jonathan Goldstein) 8/10
Great fantasy film with awesome characters and beautiful visuals.

30. White House Down (2013; Roland Emmerich) 7/10
Very good action flick with awesome gunfights and explosions.

31. Taxi Driver (1976; Martin Scorsese) 10/10
I decided to revisit one of my top 10 favourite films of all time. This is Marty's greatest film, and his direction is just magnificent. Just great ambiance, camerawork, editing.

32. Gamer (2009; Mark Neveldine, Brian Taylor) 7/10
Good scifi action film which employs a cool video game aesthetic at times.

33. The Expendables (2010; Sylvester Stallone) 7/10
This high-octane action flick has Sylvester Stallone in top form as an actor/director.

34. Conan the Barbarian (2011; Marcus Nispel) 7/10
A visual spectacle which successfully jumps from one action sequence/set piece to another.

35. Kraven the Hunter (2024; J.C. Chandor) 7/10
It's a good mixture of some family drama, mafia film and a superhero/fantasy film with some good action sequences.

36. The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (1939; Kenji Mizoguchi) 8/10
I rewatched 'Ugetsu', 'Sansho' and 'Oharu' before, so I decided to rewatch this one as well. It was very good, and Mizoguchi is always excellent with camera placement and compositions.