Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here. This is the War Room!
Thursday, November 18, 2004AFI has found yet another way to construct a TV special out of a Top 100 list: 100 Years… 100 Quotes. The 400 nominated quotes are available for viewing, and while it’s filled with some classics, it’s also filled with some duds.
AFI seems to confuse “great quote” with “great character” or “iconic actor”. Inspector Clouseau is a great character but “Is this your dog?” doesn’t really stack up to “Here’s looking at you, kid.”. But then again, this is a list that has quotes from Ace Ventura and Austin Powers alongside those from Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz.
Some favourites that were overlooked:
“You know—for kids!”—The Hudsucker Proxy
“Hey you… get your damn hands off her.” —Back to the Future
“We’re all in it together.”—Brazil
“How are the twins?”
“Triplets!”
“My how time flies!”—Brazil
“I think what we got on our hands is a dead shark.”—Annie Hall
“Don’t worry. We can walk to the curb from here. “—Annie Hall
“That’s the way it crumbles… Cookie-wise.”—The Apartment
“Don’t drink that poison! It’s $4.00 an ounce!”—A Day at the Races
“I’ve got a mind to join a club and beat you over the head with it!” --Duck Soup
“You can’t really dust for vomit.”—This is Spinal Tap
“Such a fine line between stupid and… clever.”—This is Spinal Tap
“It’s like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none. None more black.”—This is Spinal Tap
“Who designed these costumes? It looks like Edith Head puked, and that puke designed these costumes.”—State and Main
“I have a vewy good fwiend in Wome named Biggus Dickus.”—Life of Brian
“A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men.”—Willy Wonka
“I’m sorry, but all questions must be submitted in writing. “—Willy Wonka
“So much time and so little to do. Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it.”—Willy Wonka
“The suspense is terrible… I hope it lasts.”—Willy Wonka
“For what we are about to see next, we must enter quietly into the realm of genius.”—Young Frankenstein
“I had a mad impulse to throw you down on the lunar surface and commit interstellar perversion with you.”—Manhattan
“You ought to put handles on that skull. Maybe you could grow geraniums in it.”—The Lady Eve
“It’s K-k-k-ken! Coming to k-k-k-kill me!”—A Fish Called Wanda
“Now you see that Evil will always triumph because Good is dumb.”—Spaceballs
“...and call off Christmas!!”—Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves
“People always mean well. They cluck their thick tongues, and shake their heads and suggest, oh so very delicately.”—Psycho
“Back off, man. I’m a scientist.”—Ghostbusters
...oh, and Office Space in its entirety.
What are yours?
DH. says:
You just scratched the surface with A Fish Called Wanda:
“Asshole!” - Otto
“Wait… what was that middle part again?” - Otto
“Ah, but apes don’t read Nietche.”—“Yes, they do! They just don’t understand it!”
And then there’s Princess Bride:
“Anybody wanna peanut?”
“Inconceivable!”
“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
“My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”
“He’s just *mostly* dead.”
Oy. Back to work, or I’ll think of another movie.
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Robot Johnny says:
Actually the Inigo Montoya line made AFI’s list!
Amanda says:
Spinal Tap quotes! Yippee!
Joe says:
“You said your finger was a gun!”
- James Earl Jones (Field of Dreams)
“Listen… do you smell something?”
- Dan Aykroyd or Harold Ramis; can’t remember (Ghostbusters)
Armchair says:
“Say what you want about the tenants of national socialism dude, at least it’s an ethos.”
- Walter Sobchak, The Big Lebowski
Robot Johnny says:
“You call him Dr. Jones, doll!”
Pierce says:
“We got no food. We got no jobs. Our pets heads are falling off!”
- Lloyd (Dumb and Dumber).
“I’m putting in a chase sequence. So the killer flees on horseback with the girl, the cop’s after them on a motorcycle and it’s like a battle between motors and horses, like technology vs. horse.”
- Donald Kaufman (Adaptation).
Jared says:
“What? The crops?!"- President Russell P. Kramer (Jack Lemmon) from MY FELLOW AMERICANS
patricia says:
“Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses? Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?” - Ghost of Christmas present throwing Scrooge’s words back in his face; A Christmas Carol with Sir Alistair Sim.
Fink says:
Maybe it’s ‘cos I’m Irish, but The Commitments is about as quotable as a movie gets…
“Is this the band then? Betcha U2 are shittin’ themselves.”
Jimmy Rabbitte, Sr.
Ward says:
I love love Wes Anderson’s work:
“You look like a little banana in that thing.” - Bottle Rocket
“Just a little girl from Paraguay.” - Bottle Rocket
“Is that latin?” - Rushmore
Also others:
“Is this a musical table?” - Flirting With Disaster
“Cats and dogs! Living together! Mass hysteria!” - Ghostbusters
Ryan says:
“Hi! ... Not you ... Hi!”
-Bill Murray, King Pin-
John says:
Can’t go wrong with;
“You gunna skin that smoke wagon?” and “I’m you Huckleberry” - Tombstone.
mel says:
“Name’s Barf. I’m a mog. Half man, half dog. I’m my own best friend” - John Candy in Spaceballs!
rique says:
I’M SPARTACUS!!!
Marisa says:
So I got that goin’ for me. Which is nice.
- Bill Murray, Caddyshack
Have you the wing?
- Peter Cook, The Princess Bride
Murdered by pirates is good.
- Fred Savage, The Princess Bride
Roses are red, violets are blue, I’m a schizophrenic and so am I.
- Bill Murray, What about Bob?
As you wish.
- Cary Elwes, The Princess Bride
Joe says:
“Why don’t you make like a tree, and get outta here?”
or
“That’s about as stupid as a screen door on a battleship.”
Biff Tannen, Back to the Future II
james says:
You beat me to it, Johnny. I was going to blog about how at least half of the quotes are spoken by morons: idiot-savants, action heroes, overgrown adolescents. It makes me shake my head. Plus, no Big Lebowski quotes? Ludicrous. In fact, there was a marked paucity of Coen Brothers quotes.
Alexandra says:
“As you wish” -Princess Bride
“The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return” - Moulin Rouge
“Be excellent to one another.” - Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure