Pop Culture 101: Today's Class - KNOCKED UP

I finally got to see Judd Apatow's hit comedy KNOCKED UP (newly released on DVD) which I really regretted missing last summer in the theaters. I thought it was very funny though it was more of a James L. Brooks style drama than I expected - the 2 hour 13 min. running time should have tipped me off. What really got to me about this anti rom-com about slacker stoner Ben (Seth Rogen) unintentionally impregnating way-out-of-his-league Allsion (Katherine Heigl), is the incredible amount of pop culture referencing going down. The abundance of name dropping, bad impersonations, and snarky wise-cracks would put Kevin Smith and Quentin Tarentino to shame! It's almost like without these media touch points these people would have nothing to talk about at all. Since I would have nothing to talk about without them let's take a look at the cinematic schooling KNOCKED UP provides us in pop culture profundity:

WARNING : Many Potential Spoilers

A large percentage of the riffing comes from Ben's room-mates (Jason Segel, Martin Starr, Jay Barachel, and SUPERBAD's Jonah Hill - who all use their real names in the movie). They all have a what they call "the dirty man competition" - a bet that air-headed Martin can't grow his hair and beard without cutting or shaving for a year. If he lasts that long they have to pay his rent for a year - If he caves and shaves he'll have to pay all of their rents for a year. So they hurl insults relentlessly at him - calling him SERPICO, Charles Manson, Chewbacca by way of Jay's horrible impression, and Jonah asking him if he had a hard time changing his name from Cat Stevens to Yusef Islam. Martin: "yeah, it was awkward."

The gang has a website in the works - Ben's pitch: "only at fleshofthestars.com * will customers be able to find exactly into what movie their favorite stars are exposed". It seems to be a premise created soley to riff on Jamie Lee Curtis' infamous full-frontal in TRADING PLACES, Julianne Moore's pantless appearance in SHORT CUTS , we actually see them watch the Denise Richards/Neve Campbell lesbian love scene in WILD THINGS on TV, and Meg Ryan's nude scenes in IN THE CUT. To their later dismay Pete (Paul Rudd) tells Ben there is already a celebrity nudity website called Mr. Skin. Ben rationales - "Good things come in pairs you know? VOLCANO, DANTE'S PEAK. DEEP IMPACT, ARMAGEDDON, right? WYATT EARP, TOMBSTONE." To which Jay adds - "Panda Express, Yashinoya Beef Bowl."

* Yep, it's a real site now.

Random Reference Riffing :

Shortly before Ben and Heigl meet, the guys discuss Speilberg's MUNICH - all agreeing on its awesomeousity. Ben : "Dude, every movie with Jews we're the ones getting killed. MUNICH flips it on its ear. We're capping motherfuckers!" They all drink to Ben's proclamation - "if any of us get laid tonight it's because of Eric Bana in MUNICH!"

Paul Rudd's character Pete is a A & R guy for some never named record label. Photos of him with Elvis Costello and framed album covers (Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers "Damn The Torpedos" can be seen a few times) decorate the walls of his suburban home. Pete does a number of impressions throughout the film including Robert Deniro (not bad) and in the deleted scenes - Austin Powers (awful). He and Rogen disagree on music - Ben: "If I ever listen to Steely Dan, I want you to slice my head off with an Al Jarreau LP!" The most defining straight-forward statement that Pete makes of course is encased in pop culture - "marriage is like that show, Everybody Loves Raymond but it's not funny."

Pete and wife Debbie (Leslie Mann - Judd Apatow's real-life wife) have kids (played by Apatow's daughters Maude and Iris) who argue over whether to listen to the soundtrack to "Rent" or the band Green Day from the back seat of Allison's car on the way to school. Not far from the tree obviously.

Of course you've got to have a "boy loses girl" 3rd act conflict development with both couples spliting temporarily. Ben and Pete take a trip to Las Vegas in which they plan to take mushrooms (acquired by Pete from a roadie for The Black Crowes no less) and go see Cirque de Soleil quoting SWINGERS all along the way - "you're so money!"

On a hotel room TV a scared Ben, tripping out of his mind on those Crowes roadie 'shrooms, watches CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN (we see shots of Steve Martin running around surrounded by his kids' wacky shenanagins) and remarks "He's got 12 kids...that's a lot of responsibility to be joking about. That's not funny."

When Ben starts getting his life together and moves out of what was essentially a clubhouse into a respectable apartment he replaces his framed Bob Marley smoking a big ass spleef poster (obviously pictured on the right) for a ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND poster which he hangs in the soon to be nursery.

Dr. Kuni (Ken Jeong) who delivers the baby angrily tells Ben in the hallway - "if you want a special experience go to a Jimmy Buffett concert!" In the bonus features there is a line-o-rama feature that has dozens of alternate lines for many scenes. There's an amusing run with trying out variations on the Jimmy Buffett line - some examples: "go to Disneyland", "go to freaking Busch Gardens", "go to Korea", and "go to my apartment, it's phenomenal."

Another run on the line-o-rama has Jonah Hill saying "Mr. Skin is like the Beatles and we're like the Monkees" and "Mr. Skin is like Alec Baldwin and we're like Billy Baldwin."

The opening credits sequence shower scene from CARRIE is viewed by Ben and Allison for further fleshofthestars.com research.

Loudon Wainwright III plays Dr. Howard and also contributes the songs "Daughter", "Grey In L.A.", and "Lullaby" to the soundtrack.

One of the deleted scenes has Jonah spouting out a hilarious rant about BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN which he says "was made by, like, fuckin' homophobes in my mind!" He drags MASTER AND COMMANDER and Bruce Willis's full frontal in COLOR OF NIGHT down into his profanity filled diatribe.

Harold Ramis makes a nice (albeit too brief) showing as Ben's father. He attempts to console his son in an extended scene with an Indiana Jones analogy - "So, he could be like little Indy and you could be Sean Connery."
Ben: "Or, I could be the guy that got melted when he looked in the Ark."

Uncredited cameos by obvious Apatow and Co. friends Steve Carrell, James Franco (plugging SPIDERMAN 3 which was released at the same time as KNOCKED UP and is mentioned several times), and Andy Dick are brief blips on the reference radar - helped by Heigl's character being a reporter for E! Entertainment Television. That definitely hooked up the attitude-infused Ryan Seacrest appearance. Also swift bit parts from SNL's Kirsten Wiig and Bill Hader should be noted too.

Whew! That's a lot of TRAINSPOTTING for one movie. I didn't even mention the mentions of Robin Williams, Taxicab Confessions, Martin Scorsese, Cartman from South Park, Doc Brown from BACK TO THE FUTURE, Ben's Mr. Bill T-shirt, Pete's Tom Waits "Rain Dogs" T-shirt, Vince Vaughn, Matthew Fox from Lost, Fellicity Huffman from TRANSAMERICA, as well as Ben and gang's posters of Pink Floyd, Hunter S. Thompson, and Fraggle Rock. Okay, now I 've mentioned them.

There will be a test on all this so I hope you took good notes.

More later...

10 Definitive Films-Within-Films

We’re talking meta-movies here this time out! In particular - movies that contain sometimes just an inkling, sometimes an almost fully formed movie of its own inside their film framework. Fictitious films abound through cinema history - a fake title mentioned here, a fabricated clip seen in passing there but these examples cited below are unique in that their film within a film is practically their sole reason for being.



1. “Mant” in MATINEE (Dir. Joe Dante, 1993)

A comic valentine to the end of the 50’s sci-fi B-movie era MATINEE is set in Key West, Florida, during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. This is the perfect setting for schlock meister showman Lawrence Woolsey (John Goodman) to unveil “Mant” billed as “Half Man...Half Ant...All Terror!” and presented in Atomo-Vision and Rumble-Rama.

Woolsey (who was supposedely based on like-wise schock -meister William Castle but his silhouette and appearance in his trailers are pure Hitchcock) gets his girlfriend played by Cathy Moriarty to dress as a nurse to get patrons to sign “medical consent forms” in the theater lobby, rigs the seats with electric buzzers, and even hires a guy to dress up as a giant ant and appear at a pivotal moment to scare the audience. All these gimmicks are employed to enhance the experience that is “Mant,” a black and white spoof of vintage monster movies in which a man mutates into a giant ant.





Appearances from veteran actors Kevin McCarthy (the original INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS), Robert Cornthwaite (the original WAR OF THE WORLDS, the original THE THING) and William Shallert (CRY TERROR! - '58) give it creature feature cred while Moriarty does double duty as the actress playing the Mant’s distressed wife. As the high price on the Amazon ad to the right indicates MATINEE is sadly out of print but it must be noted that the original widescreen version laserdisc (circa '94) has a stand-alone extra of the entire “Mant!” movie, running about 20 min. With hope a DVD re-release with this bonus will arrive some day and give this under-rated gem its deserved due.



2. “A Fistful Of Yen” in THE KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE (Dir. John Landis, 1977) 

At just over 30 minutes this is the longest film within a film on this list. Sandwiched inside a hodge-podge of TV commercial parodies, movie trailer send-ups, and other media mocking mayhem, “A Fistful Of Yen” is a savage satire of 70’s Kung fu cinema in general but mostly it takes on the seminal Bruce Lee vehicle ENTER THE DRAGON (Dir. Robert Clouse, 1973). 



As KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE was the first feature by sketch comedy trio the Zucker bros. (David and Jerry) and Jim Abrahams, this extended piece was essentially a warm-up piece to AIRPLANE! and a introduction to their joke-a-second sight gag style. Evan C. Kim plays the Lee stand-in who accepts an assignment by the Government (U.S.? British? Does it matter?) to infiltrate Dr. Klahn’s (Master Bong Soo Han) island fortress of extraordinary magnitude, foil his destructive master plan and "kill fifty, maybe sixty people."



3. “Habeas Corpus” in THE PLAYER (Dir. Robert Altman, 1991) 

Major Spoiler! - Andy Civella (Dean Stockwell) and Tom Oakley (Richard E. Grant) pitch a premise to slick but sleazy studio exec.Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) - a dark thriller about an innocent woman sentenced to death. Oakley insists that the project be done with no stars and no happy ending – “she’s dead because that’s the reality – the innocent die” and “when I think about this - this isn’t even an American film” he stresses. 



When "Habeas Corpus" emerges a year later we see its final scenes in a studio screening room as the creators and execs look on. It’s now completely populated by stars (Bruce Willis, Julia Roberts, Susan Sarandon, Peter Falk, Louise Fletcher, Ray Walston, etc) and has a contrived feel-good one-liner ending – “traffic was a bitch” Willis retorts after rescuing Roberts from the gas chamber. Why was this vision so disgustingly comprised? With dollar signs in his eyes Oakley responds “what about the way the old ending tested in Canoga Park? Everybody hated it, we reshot it now everybody loves it – that’s reality!” SNAP!





4.“Je Vous Presente, Pamela (Meet Pamela)” in DAY FOR NIGHT (NUIT AMERICAINE) (Dir. Francois Truffaut, 1974)

The making of “Meet Pamela” is the entire premise of the Oscar Award winning DAY FOR NIGHT. Truffaut plays a director much like himself who is consumed with every detail of his latest production. His cast and crew, all seemingly playing versions of themselves toil and plod through the never ending chaotic shooting schedule. The beautiful American actress Jacqueline Biset (who is one of the only actors that has a few lines in English) plays Pamela who in the mist of movie passion gets caught up in a romance with Jean Peirre Leaud (Truffaut regular and alter ego in the ANTOINE DOINEL series) who continually asks everyone he meets “are women magic?”

The first scene shows a busy Parisian street with dozens of people walking, children playing, a bus passing, and a man (Leaud) walking up the stairs from a subway tunnel to confront another man on the sidewalk then slap him. The director yells “cut!” and we have a unit director through a bullhorn - “the bus was 2 seconds late, the background activity was late too!” We are immediately inside both the film being made and the outer film about making it. And so it goes throughout the whole picture – we get a sense that "Meet Pamela" is a cliched melodrama far less interesting than what goes on behind the camera – which of course is in front of the camera in this film but before I blow my meta-mind out I digress…

5. “Chubby Rain” in BOWFINGER (Dir. Frank Oz, 1999) Another movie about the making of a fictional movie but this one is so uniquely American in its con-artistry. BOWFINGER has many detractors but I consider it the best Steve Martin movie of the last 10 years. Granted that’s not saying much – I mean CHEAPER BY THE DOZEN, BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE, PINK PANTHER – uh, anybody? The movie being made was chosen by Martin’s not so wild but at times completely crazy small-time movie-maker wannabe Bobby Bowfinger character from a sci-fi script by his accountant (Adam Alexi-Malle) about aliens who come down in the raindrops hence “Chubby Rain.”



After a cursory script skimming by slimey studio exec Robert Downey Jr. Bowfinger finds that his project would get greenlit if he gets self proclaimed “biggest black action star in the world” Kit Ramsey (Eddie Murphy). So when Ramsey is uninterested in the doing the film, especially after meeting Bowfinger – the cast and crew (including Heather Graham, Jamie Kennedy, and Christine Baranski) stalk him shooting film of him without his knowledge to star in “Chubby Rain.”



The hoax works for a bit but Ramsey being extremely paranoid and a pawn of a Scientology-like organization called Mindhead goes ballistic at the movie manipulations surrounding him. In the end though a deal is struck and the completed “Chubby Rain” is a pure crowd pleaser from the unknowing participation from Ramsey and the knowing participation from his geeky twin brother Jiff who serves as his double (of course also played by Murphy).



A glimpse at another ficticious film “Fake Purse Ninjas” starring Bowfinger and Jiff is seen at the end. Sure "Chubby Rain" as a film within a film is silly beyond belief but even in its fake truncated form when we see a montage of scenes from it at its premiere it looks more valid and a more solid credible film than say DADDY DAY CARE, I SPY, HAUNTED MANSION, or even NORBIT for Christ’s sake!



6. “The Purple Rose Of Cairo” in THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO
(Dir. Woody Allen, 1985) 

Since the Woodman is a fully functioning film historian himself, the idea that he would construct a completely realized movie to be watched and worshipped during the depression especially by domestically abused Celcelia (Mia Farrow) is not far fetched at all – in retrospect it seems natural as all get out. It’s just harmless escapism involving dapper dressed witty socialites on a Egyptian expedition before enjoying "a madcap Manhattan weekend" until protagonist pith-helmet wearing explorer Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels) walks offscreen into Farrow's life and a world of trouble.



Then the actor playing the character - Gil Shepherd (also Daniels) has to appear to talk his alter-ego back onto the screen so the movie can play out.

The other characters in "The Purple Rose Of Cairo" remain on the screen squabbling about their predicament and sometimes ridicule the few audience members while Cecelia is torn between the two men - "I just met a wonderful new man. He's fictional but you can't have everything.." One of Allen's greatest lines ever in his entire cinematic canon is spoken by an extra - credited as "Moviegoer" an irrate old lady (too lazy to do the full research on this one - several women are listed as "Moviegoer" on IMDb) complains at the box office - "I want what happened in the movie last week to happen this week; otherwise, what's life all about anyway?" 



7. "Codename Dragonfly" in CQ (Dir. Roman Coppola, 2001)

So the story goes, this movie about a movie is a pastiche of the movies BARBARELLA (Dir. Roger Vadim, 1968) and DANGER: DIABOLIK (Dir. Mario Bava, 1968) - that is it's a nod to Italian knock-off spy thriller/cheap "it came from outer space" spoofs. Jeremy Davis plays an idealistic 60's film-maker in Paris in 1969 whose ego gets in the way of his artistic ambition when he works as an editor on "Codename Dragonfly". In the commentary cinematographer Bob Yeoman says "it's actually 3 movies within a movie" - the first being the black and white documentary that Davis's Paul character is self indulgentely making, the second - the sexy sci-fi "Dragonfly" project, and the third being I guess the entire CQ ("seek you") project surrounding it - I think that's it - maybe I need to watch it with commentary again. Anyway "Codename Dragonfly" is available as an extra on the CQ DVD in 2 different versions each running roughly over 10 min. - one is Paul's (Davis) the other director Andrezej's (Gerald Depardieu) compromised cut with fake "scene missing" bits and incomplete matte paintings. 



8.“Home For Purim” (later changed to “Home For Thanksgiving”) in FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION (Dir. Christopher Guest, 2006)





As one of Guest's lesser ensemble comedy works the film within a film here is actually pretty funny. The plot of the movie being made is about a daughter's confession of her lesbianism to her ailing mother upon coming home for a traditional holiday. Such issue driven content must be Oscar rewarded, right? So goes the premise here - funny in spurts - some of which spurts have studio exec Martin Gibb (Ricky Gervais) suggesting that they should "tone down the Jewishness" - hence the title and holiday change. Insinuated online Oscar buzz goes to the heads of the cast of "Home For Thanksgiving" particularly to unfortunately and cruelly named Marilyn Hack (Catherine O'Hara) and pretentious veteran actor Victor Allan Miller (Harry Shearer). From the evidenced quality (or lack of) in said film within film we can see way in advance how their fortunes (or lack of) will turn out. 



9. “The Orchid Thief” in ADAPTATION (Dir. Spike Jonze, 2002)



It could be argued that this entire movie is a movie within a movie here - it is hard to see where the screenplay Charlie Kaufman (Nicholas Cage) is writing ends and his brother Donald's (also Cage) begin. Hired to adapt Susan Orlean's (Meryl Streep) bestselling "The Orchid Thief" Kaufman sweats bullets on how exactly to make a story out of a story-less book. He declares "I don't want to cram in sex or guns or car chases or characters learning profound life lessons or growing or coming to like each other or overcoming obstacles to succeed in the end." His brother Donald is working on a populist thriller called "The 3". When Charlie realizes that Donald may have the accessible keys to making his work adaptable they collaborate and the movie concludes with sex, guns, a car chase, characters growing, coming to like each other, learning profound life lessons, and overcoming obstacles to succeed in the end.

Charlie: “I’ve written myself into my screenplay.”
Donald: “That’s kind of weird, huh?”



10. “The Mutants of 2051 AD” in STRANGE BREW (Dirs. Rick Moranis & Dave Thomas, 1983)

SCTV's beloved beer-swilling Canadian spokesmen Doug and Bob McKenzie introduce their new movie at the beginning of STRANGE BREW. It's a cheapie sci-fi epic set in the future after a worldwide holocaust. We see Bob (Moranis) drive their beat-up van suspended on very visible wires through what he calls "the forbidden zone" - "I was kinda like a one man force, eh? Like Charlton Heston in OMEGA MAN. Did you see it? It was beauty." The film breaks down, the audience revolts wanting their money back and STRANGE BREW regresses to a regular comedy setting. Too bad - if they kept the non-existant budget sci-fi thing going through the whole movie we might have really had a classic here.

Honorable Mention : “The Dueling Cavalier” (later changed to "The Dancing Cavalier" in SINGIN' IN THE RAIN (Dirs. Stanley Donen & Gene Kelly) We see little of this film within a film but its production meeting brainstorming makes the concept take on a life of its own. Especially as Wikipedia notes - "The film "The Dueling Cavalier" is probably a reference to THE CAVALIER (Dir. Irvin Willat, 1928) a largely silent picture notable only for its poorly dubbed songs that were thrown in when it became clear talkies were popular."

"American Scooby" in STORYTELLING (Dir. Todd Solondz, 2001) The second half of STORYTELLING entitled "Non-fiction" details documentary film-maker Toby Oxman (Paul Giamatti) filming Scooby (Mark Webber) - a high school student and his family (including father John Goodman * and mother Julie Hagerty) through the college application process. The film that results - "American Scooby" with its title, identical soundtrack and right on down to the "straw wrapper blowing in the wind" (a substitute for that plastic bag of course) is obviously a huge dig at AMERICAN BEAUTY. Apparently this is because Director Sam Mendes put down Solondz's work so file this under pay-back time.

* 



Goodman, again. He is surely the meta-man to go to for fictional film appearances!

"Stab" in SCREAM 2 (Dir. Wes Craven, 1997) Robert Rodriguez filmed the film-within-a-film here that dramatized the events of the first SCREAM. Also it should be noted that SCREAM 3 which was the series concluder also featured the fictional series concluder "Stab 3: Return to Woodsboro."



Also: “Tristram Shandy” in TRISTHAM SHANDY: A COCK AND BULL STORY
(Dir. Michael Winterbottom, 2005) and "Raving Beauty" in CECIL B. DEMENTED (Dir. John Waters, 2001)





Dishonorable Mention :

S1m0ne (Dir. Andrew Niccol, 2002) Computer generated actress Simone (Rachel Roberts) created by washed-out film maker Viktor Taransky (Al Pacino) stars in 3 fictional films - "I Am Pig", "Sunrise Sunset", and "Eternity Forever". What we see of them is just as unconvincing as she is.

"Jack Slater IV" in LAST ACTION HERO (Dir. John McTiernan, 1993) The less said about this Schwarzenegger dud the better. Don't know why I even brought it up.

"Time Over Time" in AMERICA’S SWEETHEARTS (Dir. Joe Roth, 2001) Diddo. 



Send your favorite film-within-a-film to

boopbloop7@gmail.com 



More later...

100 Years, 100 Better Quotes

The American Film Institute just unveiled another mighty list - this one is of 100 movie quotes :

AFI'S 100 YEARS, 100 MOVIE QUOTES

Thinking that many of the lines while great are too obvious we here at film babble compiled an alternate list. 



Some lines come from the same movies, some are more profane but all are ones we cherish more than the AFI's precious official annointing. Enjoy!



FILM BABBLE BLOG'S 100 YEARS, 100 BETTER QUOTES



1. Girl: "What're you rebelling against, Johnny?"
Johnny Strabbler (Marlon Brando): "Whaddya got?"
- THE WILD ONE (1953) Can't believe this didn't make the AFI's list! Heh - losers.



2. "My teenage angst now has a body count" - Veronica Sawyer (Winnona Ryder) HEATHERS (1989)



3. "Well, let's not start sucking each other's dicks just yet." - The Wolf (Harvey Keitel) PULP FICTION (1994)





     

4. "You aren't too bright. I like that in a man. " - Matty (Kathleen Turner) BODY HEAT (1981)



5. "We figured there was too much happiness here for just the two of us, so we figured the next logical step was to have us a critter." - H.I. (Nicolas Cage) RAISING ARIZONA (1987)



6. "Into the mud, scum queen!" - Dr. Hfuhruhurr (Steve Martin) THE MAN WITH TWO BRAINS (1982)



7. "I don't know, I'm making this up as I go. " - Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981)



8. "Mother! Oh God, mother! Blood! Blood!" - Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) PSYCHO (1960)




9. "But, I'm funny how? Funny like a clown? I amuse you? I make you laugh? I'm here to fuckin' amuse you?" - Tommy (Joe Pesci) GOODFELLAS (1990)



10. "Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock." - Harry Lime (Orson Welles) THE THIRD MAN (1949)



11. "I'll show you a life of the mind!" - Charlie Meadows (John Goodman) BARTON FINK (1991)



12. "These go to eleven" - Nigel Tufnel (Christopher Guest) THIS IS SPINAL TAP (1984)



13. "All I'm saying is that if I ever start referring to these as the best years of my life - remind me to kill myself." - Randall 'Pink' Floyd (Jason London) DAZED AND CONFUSED (1993)



14. "One of us, one of us!" - A freak from FREAKS (1932)



15. "Who did the president, who killed Kennedy, fuck man! It's a mystery! It's a mystery wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma! The fuckin' shooters don't even know! Don't you get it?" - David Ferrie (Joe Pesci) JFK (1991)



16. "His brain has not only been washed, as they say... It has been dry cleaned." Dr. Yen Lo (Khigh Dheigh) THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1960)



17. "I don't want to sell anything, buy anything, or process anything as a career. I don't want to sell anything bought or processed, or buy anything sold or processed, or process anything sold, bought, or processed, or repair anything sold, bought, or processed. You know, as a career, I don't want to do that." - Lloyd Dobbler (John Cusack) SAY ANYTHING (1988)



18. "Oh please, if everyone around here is going to start telling the truth, I'm going to bed."
- Jackie O. (PARKER POSEY) HOUSE OF YES (1997)



19. "Can I borrow your towel? My car just hit a water buffalo." - Fletch (Chevy Chase) FLETCH (1985)



20. " I'm a goddamn marvel of modern science." - McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST 1975



21. " Come on, man. I had a rough night and I hate the fuckin' Eagles, man!" - The Dude (Jeff Bridges) THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998)

22. "Sticks and stones may break your bones but words cause permanent damage." - Barry (Eric Bogosian) TALK RADIO (1988)



23. "I will not be ignored, Dan!" - Alex Forrest (Glenn Close) FATAL ATTRACTION (1987)



24. "This is so bad it's gone from good back to bad again" - Enid (Thora Birch) GHOST WORLD (2001)



25. "Why do I hear 50 thousand dollars worth of pyscho-therapy dialing 911?" - Gabe (Woody Allen) HUSBANDS AND WIVES (1992)



26. "Well, then, I just HATE you... and I hate your... ass... FACE!" - Corky St. Clair (Christopher Guest) WAITING FOR GUFFMAN (1996)



27. "You see, if it bends, it works. If it breaks, it doesn't work." - Lester (Alan Alda) CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS (1989)







28. "One through nine, no maybes, no supposes, no fractions. You can't travel in space, you can't go out into space, you know, without, like, you know, uh, with fractions - what are you going to land on - one-quarter, three-eighths? What are you going to do when you go from here to Venus or something? That's dialectic physics." - Photojournalist (Dennis Hopper) APOCALYPSE NOW (1979)



29. "Don't call me chicken" - Jim Stark (James Dean) REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE (1955)



30. "I'm not even supposed to be here today!" - Dante Hicks (Brian O'Halloran) CLERKS (1994)



31. "I'm so rich, I wish I had a dime for every dime I had" - Arthur (Dudley Moore) ARTHUR (1981)




32. "So it's sorta social, demented and sad, but social. Right?" - John Bender (Judd Nelson) THE BREAKFAST CLUB (1985)



33. "I am not your problem to solve!" - Alice Green (Meg Ryan) WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN (1994)



34. "Why are frogs falling from the sky?" - Phil Parma (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) MAGNOLIA (1999)



35. Gonzo (Dave Goelz): "Well, I want to go to Bombay, India to become a movie star."
Fozzie (Frank Oz): "You don't go to Bombay to become a movie star. You go where we're going, Hollywood." Gonzo: "Well, sure, if you want to do it the *easy* way."
- THE MUPPET MOVIE (1978)



36. "If Mike Tyson dreams about whuppin' my ass , he better wake up and apologize."
- SWEET WILLIE DICK (Robin Harris) DO THE RIGHT THING (1989) - Tarantino used a variation of this line in RESERVOIR DOGS 1992- "You shoot me in a dream, you better wake up and apologize." - Mr. White (Harvey Keitel)



37. "I am so glad that I got sober now so I can be hyper-conscious for this series of humiliations." - Suzanne (Merle Streep) POSTCARDS FROM THE EDGE (1990)



38. "Nothing happens in the world? Are you out of your fucking mind? People are murdered every day. There's genocide, war, corruption. Every fucking day, somewhere in the world, somebody sacrifices his life to save someone else. Every fucking day, someone, somewhere makes a conscious decision to destroy someone else. People find love, people lose it. For Christ's sake, a child watches her mother beaten to death on the steps of a church. Someone goes hungry. Somebody else betrays his best friend for a woman. If you can't find that stuff in life, then you, my friend, don't know crap about life. And why the FUCK are you wasting my two precious hours with your movie? I don't have any use for it. I don't have any bloody use for it."
- Robert McNee (Brian Cox) ADAPTATION (2001)



39. "I am the motherfucking shore patrol, motherfucker!" - Budduskey (Jack Nicholson) THE LAST DETAIL 1973






40. "In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, then you get the women." - Tony Montana (Al Pacino) SCARFACE (1983)



41. "Where does he get those wonderful toys?" -The Joker (Jack Nicholson) BATMAN (1989)



42. "Come on, fellas. Rome wasn't built in a day." - Coach Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau) "Yeah, it took several hundred years." -Ogilvie ( Alfred Lutter III)
BAD NEWS BEARS (1976)






43. "Harold, *everyone* has the right to make an ass out of themselves. You just can't let the world judge you too much."
- Maude (Ruth Gordon) HAROLD AND MAUDE (1971)



44. "Make like a tree...and get outta here." - Biff (Thomas F. Wilson) BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985)



45. "I'll bet you're the kind of guy that would fuck a person in the ass and not even have the goddam common courtesy to give him a reach-around." - Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (R. Lee Ermey) FULL METAL JACKET (1986)



46. "Sex without love is an empty experience, but as empty experiences go it's one of the best." - Boris (Woody Allen) LOVE AND DEATH

47. "You're right, I did lose a million dollars last year. I expect to lose a million dollars this year. I expect to lose a million dollars *next* year. You know, Mr. Thatcher, at the rate of a million dollars a year, I'll have to close this place in... 60 years. - Charles Foster Kane (Orson Welles) CITIZEN KANE (1941)



48. "Wouldn't this be a great world if insecurity and desperation made us more attractive? If "needy" were a turn-on?" - Aaron Altman (Albert Brooks) BROADCAST NEWS (1987)



49. "Just when I thought that I was out they pull me back in." - Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) GODFATHER PART III - Funny how everyone's least favorite GODFATHER film has one of the most quoted lines., huh?



50. "You have clearance Clarence, roger Roger, what's our vector Victor?" - Captain Clarence Oveur (Peter Graves) AIRPLANE! (1980) - You gotta admit this is better than the 'Shirley' line.



51. "Only one is a wanderer; two together are always going somewhere." - Madeleine (Kim Novak) VERTIGO (1958)






52. "The first rule of Fight Club is you don't talk about Fight Club." - Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) FIGHT CLUB (1999)



53. "I swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me me." - God (George Burns) OH GOD (1977)





54. Sam Burns (John Lithgow) - "You're a very rude young woman. I know Douglas from the Rotary and I can't believe he'd want you treating customers so badly." Checkout Girl : "I don't think I was treating her badly." Sam Burns : "Then you must be from New York." - TERMS OF ENDEARMENT (1983)



55. "If you don't get the President of the United States on that phone, do you know what's gonna happen to you?...You're gonna have to answer to the Coca-Cola Company." - Colonel Bat Guano (Keenen Wynn) DR. STRANGELOVE (1964)



56. "I have a head for business and a bod for sin. Is there anything wrong with that?" - Tess McGill (Melanie Griffith) WORKING GIRL (1988)



57. "That is one nutty hospital." - Jeff (Bill Murray) TOOTSIE (1982)



58. "I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way." - Jessica Rabbit (Kathleen Turner) WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT (1988)



59. "Roads? Where we're going we don't need - roads." - Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) BACK TO THE FUTURE (1985)



60. "He's got a real purty mouth, ain't he?" - Toothle



61. "They're not gonna catch us. We're on a mission from God." -Elwood Blues (Dan Aykroyd) THE BLUES BROTHERS (1980)

62. "It's okay with me." - Philip Marlowe (Elliot Gould) THE LONG GOODBYE (1973)



63. "Withdrawing in disgust is not the same as apathy." - Written on a piece of a paper recited by some dude in SLACKER (1991) - also quoted in R.E.M.'s "What's The Frequency Kenneth" - "Richard said, Withdrawal in disgust is not the same as apathy".



64. "Back and to the left." - Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner) JFK (1991)



65. "Worry is like interest paid in advance on a debt that never comes due." - George Lang (Ricky Jay) THE SPANISH PRISONER (1997)



66. "It really tied the room together" - just about everybody in THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1997)



67. "What in the wide world of sports is going on here?!!?" - Taggart (Slim Pickens) BLAZZING SADDLES (1974)



68. "I've got a bad feeling about this" - Luke Skywalker(Mark Hamil), Han Solo (Harrison Ford), Obi Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), C-3PO (Anthony Daniels, Lando Calrissian (Billy Dee Williams), etc. said in every STAR WARS movie (1977-2005)



69. "Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion." - Kitty Farmer (Beth Grant) DONNIE DARKO (2001)



70. "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." - Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin) THE PRINCESS BRIDE (1987)



71. "I believe in the cock, the pussy, the small of a woman's back, the hanging curve ball, high fiber, good scotch, that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft-core pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days." - Crash Davis (Kevin Costner) BULL DURHAM (1987)



72. "As long as there's, you know, sex and drugs, I can do without the rock and roll." - Mick Shrimpton (R.J. Parnell) THIS IS SPINAL TAP (1984)






73. "Ah Kirk, my old friend. Do you know the Klingon proverb that tells us revenge is a dish that is best served cold? It is very cold in space." - Khan (Ricardo Montalban) STAR TREK II : THE WRATH OF KHAN (1982)



74. "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it." - Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) FERRIS BUELLER'S DAY OFF (1986)



75. "I think you're the opposite of a paranoid. I think you go around with the insane delusion that people like you." - Harry Block (Woody Allen) DECONSTRUCTING HARRY (1997)



76. "Human sacrifices, dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!" - Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) GHOST BUSTERS (1984)



77. "Pimps is an ugly word. We could call ourselves love brokers!" - Bill Blazejowski (Michael Keaton) NIGHT SHIFT (1981)



78. "Look at me, jerking off in the shower... This will be the high point of my day; it's all downhill from here." - Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey) AMERICAN BEAUTY (1999)



79. "Don't point that finger at me unless you intend to use it." - Oscar Madison (Walter Matthau) THE ODD COUPLE (1968)



80. "I'd buy that for a dollar!" - Bixby Snyder (S.D. Nemeth) ROBOCOP (1988)



81. Superman (Christopher Reeve) : "Is that how a warped brain like yours gets its kicks? By planning the death of innocent people?
Lex Luther (Gene Hackman) : "No, by causing the death of innocent people."
SUPERMAN : THE MOVIE (1978)



82. "Strange game--the only winning move is not to play." - Joshua (computer) WAR GAMES (1983)




83. "This is the most uncomfortable coffin I've ever been in" - Bela Lugosi (Martin Landau) ED WOOD (1994)



84. "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist." - Verbal (Kevin Spacey) THE USUAL SUSPECTS (1995)



85. "Strange things are afoot at the Circle K" - Ted Logan (Keanu Reeves) BILL AND TED'S EXCELLENT ADVENTURE (1989)

86. "I know what you're thinking: "Did he fire six shots, or only five?" Well, to tell you the truth in all this excitement, I've kinda lost track myself. But, being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off, you've got to ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?" Well, do ya punk?" - Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) DIRTY HARRY (1971)



87. "It was the classic mother B.B. gun block: "You'll shoot your eye out." That deadly phrase uttered many times before by hundreds of mothers, was not surmountable by any means known to kiddom." - Ralphie (Jean Sheppard) A CHRISTMAS STORY (1983)



88. "Now that's a real shame when folks be throwin' away a perfectly good white boy like that." - Tree Trimmer (Steven Williams) BETTER OFF DEAD (1985)



89. "No, I have to do this my way. You tell me what you know, and I'll confirm. I'll keep you in the right direction if I can, but that's all. Just... follow the money." - Deep Throat (Hal Holbrook) ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN (1976)



90. " I may go back to hating you. It was more fun." - Roger (Cary Grant) NORTH BY NORTHWEST (1958)



91. "Well, we lost the first game of the season. I know it shouldn't bother me, but it does. We always lose the first game of the season and the last game of the season. (pause)
AND ALL THOSE STUPID GAMES IN BETWEEN!" - Charlie Brown (Peter Robbins) A BOY NAMED CHARLIE BROWN (1969)



92. "Now that I've met you, would you object to never seeing me again?" - Claudia Wilson Gator (Melora Walters) MAGNOLIA (1999) - this line was lifted from the Aimee Mann song "Deathly".





93. "I was just thinking what an interesting concept it is to eliminate the writer from the artistic process. If we could just get rid of these actors and directors, maybe we've got something here." - Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) THE PLAYER (1992)



94. "Can you imagine what this man would be like had anyone ever loved him?" - Henry Kissinger (Paul Sorvino) NIXON (1995)



95. "No, if anyone orders Merlot, I'm leaving. I am NOT drinking any fucking Merlot!" - Miles (Paul Giamatti) SIDEWAYS (2004)


96. "At this moment, I didn't feel shame or fear, but just kind of blah, like when you're sitting there and all the water's run out of the bathtub." - Holly (Sissy Spacek) BADLANDS (1973)



97. "Last time I saw a mouth like that, it had a hook in it." - Al (Rodney Dangerfield) CADDYSHACK (1980)



98. "Your car is uglier than I am. Oops, that didn't come out right." - Carol (Mackenzie Phillips) AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973)



99. "You're an errand boy, sent by grocery clerks, to collect a bill." - Kurtz (Marlon Brando) APOCALYPSE NOW (1979)



100. "You see the whole culture. Nazis, deodorant salesmen, wrestlers, beauty contests, a talk show. Can you imagine the level of a mind that watches wrestling? But the worst are the fundamentalist preachers. Third grade con men telling the poor suckers that watch them that they speak with Jesus, and to please send in money. Money, money, money! If Jesus came back and saw what's going on in his name, he'd never stop throwing up." - Frederick (Max Von Sydow) HANNAH AND HER SISTERS (1986)



Take that AFI! 




More later...