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Movie Meme

The polls are now closed. For the lines you did NOT guess, you might want to check the answer and appropriately update your netflix queue. Kudos to those of you who have correctly identified movies. You have to satisfying warmth of knowing that there is someone in the universe who pays as much attention to the movies as you do.

This meme has been going around and rather than continue to post the bad news ( yes there is more) I thought I would post this instead. The rules are simple: 12 movies-a line or two from each-as you identify the movie I will post why that film means something to me.

1. "You're talking about my brain. That's my second favorite organ."

from the same film

"That's Bela Lugosi. He was mayor of New York for awhile. You can see what that did to him there."

Indeed this film is Sleeper. Both lines are from Woody Allen's character. This film was a favorite in my household, and one of the first films my father and I bonded over. He and I often traded lines from our favorite movies. This one was probably the first we stole lines from. Other movies included Dr. Strangelove "Look Lt. Batguano, if that is indeed your name" (My father actually liked that line so much he got Lt Batguano stenciled on to the lapel of his skiing jacket) MP and the Holy Grail "She turned me into a newt." and Love at First Bite "Drowsier and drowsier, Rosenberg." My favorite line from Sleeper is, of course, "Shut up and eat your shiksa."

2. "Killing you and what you represent is sending a message to the American People. I'm not 100% sure what it's saying."

Taken from the end of Natural Born Killers. I actually teach an essay written by, of all people, John Grisham called Unnatural Killers. Grisham attempts to exhort the American people to sue Stone for manufacturing a faulty or defective product because in Grisham's opinion the film was intended to make people kill. An interesting stance considering Grisham is the author of "A Time to Kill."

3. "Insanity runs in my family. In fact, it practically gallops."

Yes Smitty this is indeed Arsenic and Old Lace, directed, quite surprisingly by Frank Capra. My mother loved old black and white screwball comedies particularly those featuring Cary Grant, Kate Hepburn, and Tony Curtis. Thus I grew up watching Operation Petticoat, Bringing Up Baby, the Philadelphia Story, and, of course, Arsenic and Old Lace. This film represents the film appreciation I got from my mother lest you think my father is responsible for all of it.

4. "We joke about the terrible things we do, we don't actually DO them."

No one got this one. Minnie Driver in Grosse Pointe Blank. Being a child of the 80s I had to include at least one John Cusack film (I've written about him in Identity). I include this film for several reasons. First of all, I have a lot of respect for Minnie Driver specially after that jackass Damon broke up with her RIGHT BEFORE THE OSCARS and she had to sit there and watch him win an award for let's face it a fairly predictable movie ( troubled genius bonds with down and psychiatrist to the benefit of all-no didn't see THAT coming-and before you say hey bunni that movie got an Academy Award I would remind you that Goodfellas lost film of the year to freakin' Dances with Wolves for Best Picture. Oh yeah, mistakes were made.) So Driver has a role in this film for which I have great compassion.

The script for this film is fabulous, very reminscent of the patter one would find in the forties. Lots of good one liners in the script (You can't go home again Hoberman, but I guess you can shop there is just one example). And it features a truly fabulous love scene(no spoiler).

5. "People who talk in metaphors should shampoo my crotch."

One of my favorite more obscure lines from a very popular movie. Upon analysis this film is, well, crap with a lot of good one liners and some very fine acting. And really the truth is it is hard to fuck up a Jack Nicholson script. I will watch that man in almost anything.

6. "When a person is crazy, as you clearly are, do you know that you're crazy? I mean are sitting at home masterbating in your own feces while reading guns and ammo magazine and think, "My G-d, I really am nuts?"

Joelle pegged it again. It is indeed Seven. The director of Seven and Brad Pitt would team up again for the ever quotable Fight Club. "The're like Martha Stewart polishing brass on the Titanic. It's all going down." For me, of course, the best part of this movie is Kevin Spacey as John Doe. Those last fifteen minutes are just fabulous. Of course the style of the beginning credits have been stolen and mimicked in many other films including Red Dragon (which added an innovative touch to the device-the journal is used to tell the story of what happens after Will's attack).

7. "Well I kind of thought it should be the one of us who has the capacity for abstract thought"

Courtesy of the Coen brothers who have made many other personal faves including the Big Lebowski, Fargo, and Raising Arizona. The acting in this film is outstanding, and I feel personally violated that Tim Nelson Blake did not get an academy award nomination for his portrayal of Delmar.

8. "Well that's no reason to think that I can be pushed out of a car for random recreation."

from the same film

"Oh Eddie, I'm going to need a magnifying glass to find what's left of your finer points."

An obscure film based on a play that is now being brought back to the theater in NYC. This is Meg Ryan (both lines) as a coked out go go dancer in Hurly Burly. The film features stunning perfomances from Sean Penn ( who need to get a sense of humor) Kevin Spacey, Gary Shandling, and Anna Paquin (again cast against type as a punky runaway). Perhaps though as too talky it does capture semantic madness as no other movie can.

10. "You look like a normal person, but you are really the angel of death."

Surprising no one recognized this line from one of the single most popular 80s movies When Harry Met Sally. (This movie is part of my film legacy to my mother.)This film is close to my heart because it revealed to millions the truth about days of the week panties. I actually knew this from childhood when my mother opened a package and finding no Sunday returned to the store thinking she had gotten a defective package. They informed her about the Sunday rule. Interestingly now you CAN get days of the week panties with Sunday. We shall overcome.

11."Shut up. This is a rhetorical conversation."

Can't believe that no one got this line from the Producers one of the single best comedies ever made. Don't argue. Just agree. The first time I remember seeing this movie on an island in Maine. The island was owned by two economics professors friends of my father. There is nothing like seeing that movie on a black and white monitor fueled by a generator in the midst of moosehead lake. Well, at least they had priorities.

12"There goes one of G-d's own creation. Too wierd to live. Too rare to die."

In honor of the dearly departed this is from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Obviously I have issues with Las Vegas. Eric the summer I spent a month there worked at Circus Circus (which refused to allow Gilliam to film). In fact, almost all the locations int he film have some sort of personal resonance, which may be why I haven't seen it since it was in the theater. Also Gilliam is one of my favorite directors.

Extra bonus: 13. "I've never patronized bunny rabbits."

Joelle amazingly pegged this one. It is indeed Heathers probably one of the first comedies about homicidal teens. prefiguring other dark "comedies" such as Idle Hands and Jawbreaker. A comedy about teens who kill is fairly hard to pull off, and to make a funeral scene funny is even harder. Yet all this week I've been thinking "I love my dead gay son." Heather is also marked for being a pre-Colombine movie. I'm fairly sure such a film couldn't be made now, but it was extremely popular in circle of friends in HS. We often quoted the film to each other. The line I have quoted here always struck me as particularly funny, but I never saw anyone else laugh at it. Of course, being Bunni I thought I needed to have at least one rabbit line. (Actually at one point I thought of doing this meme with ONLY rabbit lines, but you know there are very few rabbit lines in movies , so I decided to go with a big closer.)

Bad Bunni posted at 2/23/2005 03:28:00 PM |

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