the movie meme 2: electric boogaloo
all right, here's the final list. i've taken out the folks who guessed and added in my "why do i love this movie" commentary. all the guessing winners are listed back in the other post.
of all the movies on the list, i was most shocked that no one guessed or knew #12. casablanca, man. afi's #2 movie (which i think is ROBBERY).
i think y'all just need to come over and watch movies with me more. i have wine and my kitty is cute (but she serves the dark lord, so be sure not to stand in front of any dark drapery).
1) "see that clock on the wall? in five minutes you are not going to believe what i just told you." - blue velvet
why i love this movie: people always look at me funny when i tell them blue velvet is one of my top five movies of all time, and i understand why, i suppose. blue velvet is not for everyone. but i am also a huge david lynch fan and i think this (plus the first 7 episodes of "twin peaks") is the best thing he's ever done. in fact, if he hadn't made this movie, i doubt seriously that "twin peaks" would have been as good.
2) "'more human than human' is our motto." - blade runner
why i love this movie: c'mon, what's not to love? harrison ford! rutger hauer! cyborgs! THE UNICORN! a cyberpunk classic, if there ever was. i won't go in to the damage i've had from this movie, which really isn't the movie's fault, but more the fault of MY DUMB ASS LIT TA... suffice it to say i'm over it. no really. really! it's on the list, isn't it? what more do you want from me!?
3) "if you can't laugh at yourself, life is going to seem a whole lot longer than you'd like." - garden state
why i love this movie: before i saw garden state, i didn't think they made movies like this any more. i've never been happier to be wrong. zach braff, you have my undying love. also my body, to do with what you will. ;)
4) "what shall we hang... the holly, or each other?" - the lion in winter
why i love this movie: this was me, watching the movie: "omg, richard the lionhearted is gay and gettin' it on with the king of france!! WTF?!" oh man, and then katharine hepburn takes everyone to sk00l, boyeeee... and ends up going back to prison anyway. and it's got some of the best dialogue ever put to screen.
5) "do i know what i'm doing today? no. but i'm here, and i'm gonna give it my best shot." - zoolander
why i love this movie: i can't tell you how many times i've watched this movie, but it's a lot. i put this movie in whenever i need to be cheered up. hell, i can't even quote this movie without busting a gut. try me sometime and you'll see. i think the last time i tried to quote from this movie, i embarrassed manda_in_sd and timmu2 at whatever restaurant we were at.
6) "what did you learn in school today?" "revenge." - hackers
why i love this movie: omg. OMG! for 1995, this movie got a lot more right about the internet and hacking than any other movie at the time. (can someone say the net? yeah, i didn't think anyone wanted to.) also, jonny lee miller and mrs. jonny lee miller, before she went completely insane and started carrying billy bob thornton's blood around her neck. they hacked a gibson, man! with 5 powerbooks! oh, and an army of hackers. let's not forget the army of hackers. HACK THE PLANET!
7) "perhaps I didn't properly explain the fundamentals of the slowdown plan." - the american president
why i love this movie: say what you will about aaron sorkin and his pot smoking, but if this is the kinda stuff he comes up with stoned? i'd hate to see what absolute genius he would wreak on the world while sober. (also, GO CARDINAL!)
8) "what i really want to do with my life - what i want to do for a living - is i want to be with your daughter. i'm good at it." - say anything
why i love this movie: sophomore year in college, manda_in_sd and i racked up $50 in late fees over this movie. i think, aside from our obvious laziness, that fact speaks volumes about my love for this movie. really, we just couldn't see taking it back when we were just going to WATCH IT AGAIN! (i think the second runner up on the late fee front was heathers, also on the list.)
9) "generally speaking, things have gone about as far as they can possibly go, when things have gotten about as bad as they can reasonably get." - rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead
why i love this movie: if i went through all the things i love about this movie, we'd be here a really long time. bless my ap english teacher, who introduced me to this play as a hs senior. i don't remember how i found out about the movie... i think it was because we were putting on a student production of "the real inspector hound" and i got to talking about my great and t00by love of stoppard and someone mentioned it to me? i dunno, but am so glad the universe sent this movie my way. in college, we biked to the (at the time) reeely far blockbuster to rent it, and then snuck into the history building to watch it from one of the class projectors. 12 years of watching this flick, and it just doesn't get dull. i am stark raving sane about this movie. and the play. and tom stoppard. :)
10) "life is pain, highness. anyone who says differently is selling something." - the princess bride
i have a very vivid memory of watching this movie for the first time... wondering who the man in black was (i was 12, give me a break), the swordfight(!), vizzini and the land war in asia. i remember being afraid they wouldn't make it out of the fire swamp, gasping at the six fingers on count rugen's hand, praying wesley would make it to the ceremony on time, and cheering when he stands and says, "drop your sword." after watching the movie all weekend, i rushed out to my nearest bookstore and ordered the book (they didn't have a copy in stock), read the book the day i bought it, and loved it just as much. i had the privilege of seeing william goldberg speak at the writer's guild a couple of years ago... can you believe that he thought he was just writing a bedtime story for his daughter?
11) "i know something of a woman in a man's profession. yes, by god, i do know about that." - shakespeare in love
why i love this movie: i want to say that this is one of the first movies, if not the first movie, i saw by myself in the theatre. i'd taken vacation for xmas and had the flu for most of it; going to see this movie was my first time out of the house in like a week. i bought a popcorn and an icee (my favorite movie foods!) and was the only person laughing throughout the entire movie. john webster and the rats, c'mon! dr. orgel, i love you so much. and let us not forget my great and t00by love for tom stoppard.
12) "how extravagant you are, throwing away women like that. some day they may be scarce." - casablanca
why i love this movie: mainly, i love this movie for the dialogue. the entire script is a work of supreme brilliance, and i can't imagine any other actor of the time pulling it off the way humphrey bogart did. you think he bagged a 19yo wife for nothin'?
13) "there's nothing tragic about being fifty. not unless you're trying to be twenty-five." - sunset boulevard
why i love this movie: i've always liked the way this story was told, with the end as the beginning and poor william holden face down in the pool. i also thought gloria swanson was a nice little ironic bit of casting (which i am sure did not escape mr. wilder at all). the insider hollywood/los angeles bits were nice, too!
14) "real life sucks losers dry. you want to fuck with the eagles, you have to learn to fly." - heathers
why i love this movie: you know, sometimes i think it's kinda weird that i dig this movie... because my high school experience was NOTHING like this. or if it was, i was completely oblivious to it. but the dialogue was kinda pre-buffy hip, and my favorite KROQ dj, the poorman, had a little "cameo". and they used the word "myriad" correctly!
15) "i don't know who you are or where you've come from, but from now on you'll do as I say, okay?" - star wars
why i love this movie: when we got our first vcr-type thingy in the house, my mom bought three movies shortly there after: star wars, annie and raiders of the lost ark. i probably watched them over 300 times each before they were completely worn out. my brother and i could recite the whole star wars movie together. and i wanted to be princess leia AND han solo, but also had a raging crush on han solo. (mainly because han solo was cool and kicked ass and had a wookie friend and his own ship and stuff and there weren't any other girls in the movie who kicked that much ass and... yeah. is that weird? but i liked princess leia because even though she didn't kick ass, she was IN CHARGE, YO... and i thought that was cool.) hey, it all made sense to me when i was, what... 7? 8? oh yeah, and then there was this luke guy and something about a jedi, i dunno. BUT HAN SOLO KICKED ASS. and mom made sure we saw the next two in the theatre. pretty much stood in line all day in those days to see it...!
16) "until I get back my five thousand dollars, you're gonna get more than you bargained for." - raiders of the lost ark
why i love this movie: was anyone else always creeped out by the medallion burned into the dude's hand? i was so scared of getting stuff burned into my hand for permanent after i saw this movie. i also closed my eyes every time they opened the ark, because a) my brother told me there were melty faces and that didn't sound good and b) i didn't want my face to melt, too! no really. i was like a teenager before i would see this scene. this was another one of those movies mom made sure we saw in the theatre. btw, do you think my mom had a harrison ford fixation? no? maybe just a little. oh, that silly billie rae.
17) "i love money, i love power, i love capitalism. i do not now and never will love children." - annie
why i love this movie: so many great songs, and i know them all by heart. in fact, i've sung bits of "i think i'm gonna like it here" to my mother when i've checked in from new jobs / places. i had the annie dress when i was 10 (and not the red one, like everyone else.. the one she went to radio city in, because that was my favorite bit). it made me want to see camille... the whole thing! (which i saw recently on the cable at like 2am.) i also liked ann reinking's crooked teeth and the fact that daddy warbucks loved her anyway. i'm getting verklempt!
18) "bitch, what you don't know about me I can just about squeeze in the grand fucking canyon." - chasing amy
why i love this movie: this movie has so many classic moments. the one i always think of, at least once a year, is the comic book convention q&a with hooper x. every time i see kevin smith speak, i'm waiting for some dude to ask him, "what's a nubian?" also, the part right after this quote, when silent bob does the scary las vegas showgirl head wiggle thingy? gets me every time. and let's not forget: ben affeck kisses jason lee. big stuff for 1997!
19) "at the beginning of the evening, i was in the hallway. i know because i was there." - clue
why i love this movie: when we did our production of "the real inspector hound", we used this movie for inspiration. i'd played the game at home with my brother since i was about 8? 9? something like that. when i heard they were making a movie, it sounded like the most awful thing ever. and was like, "um, i saw murder by death... why do i want to see this movie?" but then i heard it had three different endings... and that depending on which theatre you went to, you could see a different one! i thought that was pretty clever. and then i finally saw the movie when it came out on video and was in lurve.
20) "hey, it's a thingie! a fiendish thingie!" - help!
why i love this movie: yet another movie i rented over and over and over. my poor mother. i don't know what it is about this movie that makes me like it better than a hard day's night. (yeah, i said it. what?) maybe it's the crazy indians after ringo's ring. i always think of the scotland yard scene, where the religious group assassins call up the beatles at scotland yard and start chanting through the phone, "go..to..the window." and then, a big arrow with a balloon full of red paint! good times, good times. also, the soundtrack to this movie is one of my favorite beatles albums (also better than "a hard day's night").
of all the movies on the list, i was most shocked that no one guessed or knew #12. casablanca, man. afi's #2 movie (which i think is ROBBERY).
i think y'all just need to come over and watch movies with me more. i have wine and my kitty is cute (but she serves the dark lord, so be sure not to stand in front of any dark drapery).
1) "see that clock on the wall? in five minutes you are not going to believe what i just told you." - blue velvet
why i love this movie: people always look at me funny when i tell them blue velvet is one of my top five movies of all time, and i understand why, i suppose. blue velvet is not for everyone. but i am also a huge david lynch fan and i think this (plus the first 7 episodes of "twin peaks") is the best thing he's ever done. in fact, if he hadn't made this movie, i doubt seriously that "twin peaks" would have been as good.
2) "'more human than human' is our motto." - blade runner
why i love this movie: c'mon, what's not to love? harrison ford! rutger hauer! cyborgs! THE UNICORN! a cyberpunk classic, if there ever was. i won't go in to the damage i've had from this movie, which really isn't the movie's fault, but more the fault of MY DUMB ASS LIT TA... suffice it to say i'm over it. no really. really! it's on the list, isn't it? what more do you want from me!?
3) "if you can't laugh at yourself, life is going to seem a whole lot longer than you'd like." - garden state
why i love this movie: before i saw garden state, i didn't think they made movies like this any more. i've never been happier to be wrong. zach braff, you have my undying love. also my body, to do with what you will. ;)
4) "what shall we hang... the holly, or each other?" - the lion in winter
why i love this movie: this was me, watching the movie: "omg, richard the lionhearted is gay and gettin' it on with the king of france!! WTF?!" oh man, and then katharine hepburn takes everyone to sk00l, boyeeee... and ends up going back to prison anyway. and it's got some of the best dialogue ever put to screen.
5) "do i know what i'm doing today? no. but i'm here, and i'm gonna give it my best shot." - zoolander
why i love this movie: i can't tell you how many times i've watched this movie, but it's a lot. i put this movie in whenever i need to be cheered up. hell, i can't even quote this movie without busting a gut. try me sometime and you'll see. i think the last time i tried to quote from this movie, i embarrassed manda_in_sd and timmu2 at whatever restaurant we were at.
6) "what did you learn in school today?" "revenge." - hackers
why i love this movie: omg. OMG! for 1995, this movie got a lot more right about the internet and hacking than any other movie at the time. (can someone say the net? yeah, i didn't think anyone wanted to.) also, jonny lee miller and mrs. jonny lee miller, before she went completely insane and started carrying billy bob thornton's blood around her neck. they hacked a gibson, man! with 5 powerbooks! oh, and an army of hackers. let's not forget the army of hackers. HACK THE PLANET!
7) "perhaps I didn't properly explain the fundamentals of the slowdown plan." - the american president
why i love this movie: say what you will about aaron sorkin and his pot smoking, but if this is the kinda stuff he comes up with stoned? i'd hate to see what absolute genius he would wreak on the world while sober. (also, GO CARDINAL!)
8) "what i really want to do with my life - what i want to do for a living - is i want to be with your daughter. i'm good at it." - say anything
why i love this movie: sophomore year in college, manda_in_sd and i racked up $50 in late fees over this movie. i think, aside from our obvious laziness, that fact speaks volumes about my love for this movie. really, we just couldn't see taking it back when we were just going to WATCH IT AGAIN! (i think the second runner up on the late fee front was heathers, also on the list.)
9) "generally speaking, things have gone about as far as they can possibly go, when things have gotten about as bad as they can reasonably get." - rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead
why i love this movie: if i went through all the things i love about this movie, we'd be here a really long time. bless my ap english teacher, who introduced me to this play as a hs senior. i don't remember how i found out about the movie... i think it was because we were putting on a student production of "the real inspector hound" and i got to talking about my great and t00by love of stoppard and someone mentioned it to me? i dunno, but am so glad the universe sent this movie my way. in college, we biked to the (at the time) reeely far blockbuster to rent it, and then snuck into the history building to watch it from one of the class projectors. 12 years of watching this flick, and it just doesn't get dull. i am stark raving sane about this movie. and the play. and tom stoppard. :)
10) "life is pain, highness. anyone who says differently is selling something." - the princess bride
i have a very vivid memory of watching this movie for the first time... wondering who the man in black was (i was 12, give me a break), the swordfight(!), vizzini and the land war in asia. i remember being afraid they wouldn't make it out of the fire swamp, gasping at the six fingers on count rugen's hand, praying wesley would make it to the ceremony on time, and cheering when he stands and says, "drop your sword." after watching the movie all weekend, i rushed out to my nearest bookstore and ordered the book (they didn't have a copy in stock), read the book the day i bought it, and loved it just as much. i had the privilege of seeing william goldberg speak at the writer's guild a couple of years ago... can you believe that he thought he was just writing a bedtime story for his daughter?
11) "i know something of a woman in a man's profession. yes, by god, i do know about that." - shakespeare in love
why i love this movie: i want to say that this is one of the first movies, if not the first movie, i saw by myself in the theatre. i'd taken vacation for xmas and had the flu for most of it; going to see this movie was my first time out of the house in like a week. i bought a popcorn and an icee (my favorite movie foods!) and was the only person laughing throughout the entire movie. john webster and the rats, c'mon! dr. orgel, i love you so much. and let us not forget my great and t00by love for tom stoppard.
12) "how extravagant you are, throwing away women like that. some day they may be scarce." - casablanca
why i love this movie: mainly, i love this movie for the dialogue. the entire script is a work of supreme brilliance, and i can't imagine any other actor of the time pulling it off the way humphrey bogart did. you think he bagged a 19yo wife for nothin'?
13) "there's nothing tragic about being fifty. not unless you're trying to be twenty-five." - sunset boulevard
why i love this movie: i've always liked the way this story was told, with the end as the beginning and poor william holden face down in the pool. i also thought gloria swanson was a nice little ironic bit of casting (which i am sure did not escape mr. wilder at all). the insider hollywood/los angeles bits were nice, too!
14) "real life sucks losers dry. you want to fuck with the eagles, you have to learn to fly." - heathers
why i love this movie: you know, sometimes i think it's kinda weird that i dig this movie... because my high school experience was NOTHING like this. or if it was, i was completely oblivious to it. but the dialogue was kinda pre-buffy hip, and my favorite KROQ dj, the poorman, had a little "cameo". and they used the word "myriad" correctly!
15) "i don't know who you are or where you've come from, but from now on you'll do as I say, okay?" - star wars
why i love this movie: when we got our first vcr-type thingy in the house, my mom bought three movies shortly there after: star wars, annie and raiders of the lost ark. i probably watched them over 300 times each before they were completely worn out. my brother and i could recite the whole star wars movie together. and i wanted to be princess leia AND han solo, but also had a raging crush on han solo. (mainly because han solo was cool and kicked ass and had a wookie friend and his own ship and stuff and there weren't any other girls in the movie who kicked that much ass and... yeah. is that weird? but i liked princess leia because even though she didn't kick ass, she was IN CHARGE, YO... and i thought that was cool.) hey, it all made sense to me when i was, what... 7? 8? oh yeah, and then there was this luke guy and something about a jedi, i dunno. BUT HAN SOLO KICKED ASS. and mom made sure we saw the next two in the theatre. pretty much stood in line all day in those days to see it...!
16) "until I get back my five thousand dollars, you're gonna get more than you bargained for." - raiders of the lost ark
why i love this movie: was anyone else always creeped out by the medallion burned into the dude's hand? i was so scared of getting stuff burned into my hand for permanent after i saw this movie. i also closed my eyes every time they opened the ark, because a) my brother told me there were melty faces and that didn't sound good and b) i didn't want my face to melt, too! no really. i was like a teenager before i would see this scene. this was another one of those movies mom made sure we saw in the theatre. btw, do you think my mom had a harrison ford fixation? no? maybe just a little. oh, that silly billie rae.
17) "i love money, i love power, i love capitalism. i do not now and never will love children." - annie
why i love this movie: so many great songs, and i know them all by heart. in fact, i've sung bits of "i think i'm gonna like it here" to my mother when i've checked in from new jobs / places. i had the annie dress when i was 10 (and not the red one, like everyone else.. the one she went to radio city in, because that was my favorite bit). it made me want to see camille... the whole thing! (which i saw recently on the cable at like 2am.) i also liked ann reinking's crooked teeth and the fact that daddy warbucks loved her anyway. i'm getting verklempt!
18) "bitch, what you don't know about me I can just about squeeze in the grand fucking canyon." - chasing amy
why i love this movie: this movie has so many classic moments. the one i always think of, at least once a year, is the comic book convention q&a with hooper x. every time i see kevin smith speak, i'm waiting for some dude to ask him, "what's a nubian?" also, the part right after this quote, when silent bob does the scary las vegas showgirl head wiggle thingy? gets me every time. and let's not forget: ben affeck kisses jason lee. big stuff for 1997!
19) "at the beginning of the evening, i was in the hallway. i know because i was there." - clue
why i love this movie: when we did our production of "the real inspector hound", we used this movie for inspiration. i'd played the game at home with my brother since i was about 8? 9? something like that. when i heard they were making a movie, it sounded like the most awful thing ever. and was like, "um, i saw murder by death... why do i want to see this movie?" but then i heard it had three different endings... and that depending on which theatre you went to, you could see a different one! i thought that was pretty clever. and then i finally saw the movie when it came out on video and was in lurve.
20) "hey, it's a thingie! a fiendish thingie!" - help!
why i love this movie: yet another movie i rented over and over and over. my poor mother. i don't know what it is about this movie that makes me like it better than a hard day's night. (yeah, i said it. what?) maybe it's the crazy indians after ringo's ring. i always think of the scotland yard scene, where the religious group assassins call up the beatles at scotland yard and start chanting through the phone, "go..to..the window." and then, a big arrow with a balloon full of red paint! good times, good times. also, the soundtrack to this movie is one of my favorite beatles albums (also better than "a hard day's night").