Saturday, June 16, 2007
13 Compulsively Rewatchable, Quotable Movies
This list isn't quite the same as my 13 favorite movies, some of which I'm not quite so inclined to see over and over or randomly spew lines from, usually with my brother. As always, I may slightly misquote the lines when I do them from memory.
1. Tombstone
Best scene: Johnny Ringo and Doc Holliday threaten each other in Latin.
Favorite line to say: "You know, Frederic fucking Chopin."
2. Monty Python's Life of Brian
Best scene: The stoning.
Favorite line to say: "Worse? How could it possibly be worse? Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah!"
3. Heat
Best scene: The massive gunfight following the bank robbery.
Favorite line to say: "She's got a GREAT ASS! And you got your head all the way up it." I can't possibly replicate in text the way Pacino says that.
4. The Princess Bride
Best scene: The duel between Wesley and Inigo.
Favorite line to say: "Rodents of unusual size? I don't believe they exist." (WHOMP)
5. Get Shorty
Best scene: Travolta throws a pre-Sopranos James Gandolfini down the stairs in some well-known restaurant. Great camera work for all the going up and down the stairs.
Favorite line to say: "This is strictly between you and I." Has to be said with Dennis Farina's hilarious inflection.
6. The Naked Gun
Best scene: Lesley Nielsen impersonates the national anthem singer and an umpire at a baseball game as he tries to find out who's going to kill the Queen of England.
Favorite line to say: "I can't hear you! Don't fire the gun while you're talking!"
7. Goodfellas
Best scene: Long tracking shot as Ray Liotta narrates the various strangely named mobsters at a restaurant.
Favorite line to say: "Now go home and get your fucking shine-box!"
8. Thunderheart
Best scene: The final chase and confrontation.
Favorite line to say: "Listen to the wind. Listen to the owl. He also said don't trust Mr. Magoo."
9. Field of Dreams
Best scene: Shoeless Joe shows up on the field for the first time.
Favorite line to say: "You're a pacifist!" "Shit."
10. Young Frankenstein
Best scene: Gene Hackman as a blind hermit tortures the monster with attempted kindnesses.
Favorite line to say: "Blucher!" (Neeeeeeeigh)
11. Bowfinger
Best scene: Eddie Murphy's character, unaware he's the star of a movie being filmed, is confronted by a menacing man telling him about aliens and plutonium.
Favorite line to say: "My gonads! My gonads!" (accompanied by electronic chirps from a polygraph-type device)
12. Ronin
Best scene: The wrong-way tunnel chase.
Favorite line to say: "What color was the boathouse at Hereford?" "How the hell should I know?"
13. Scarface
Best scene: The climactic shootout.
Favorite line to say: "I bury those cockaroaches!" Another movie helped infinitely by Pacino's hamminess
1. Tombstone
Best scene: Johnny Ringo and Doc Holliday threaten each other in Latin.
Favorite line to say: "You know, Frederic fucking Chopin."
2. Monty Python's Life of Brian
Best scene: The stoning.
Favorite line to say: "Worse? How could it possibly be worse? Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah!"
3. Heat
Best scene: The massive gunfight following the bank robbery.
Favorite line to say: "She's got a GREAT ASS! And you got your head all the way up it." I can't possibly replicate in text the way Pacino says that.
4. The Princess Bride
Best scene: The duel between Wesley and Inigo.
Favorite line to say: "Rodents of unusual size? I don't believe they exist." (WHOMP)
5. Get Shorty
Best scene: Travolta throws a pre-Sopranos James Gandolfini down the stairs in some well-known restaurant. Great camera work for all the going up and down the stairs.
Favorite line to say: "This is strictly between you and I." Has to be said with Dennis Farina's hilarious inflection.
6. The Naked Gun
Best scene: Lesley Nielsen impersonates the national anthem singer and an umpire at a baseball game as he tries to find out who's going to kill the Queen of England.
Favorite line to say: "I can't hear you! Don't fire the gun while you're talking!"
7. Goodfellas
Best scene: Long tracking shot as Ray Liotta narrates the various strangely named mobsters at a restaurant.
Favorite line to say: "Now go home and get your fucking shine-box!"
8. Thunderheart
Best scene: The final chase and confrontation.
Favorite line to say: "Listen to the wind. Listen to the owl. He also said don't trust Mr. Magoo."
9. Field of Dreams
Best scene: Shoeless Joe shows up on the field for the first time.
Favorite line to say: "You're a pacifist!" "Shit."
10. Young Frankenstein
Best scene: Gene Hackman as a blind hermit tortures the monster with attempted kindnesses.
Favorite line to say: "Blucher!" (Neeeeeeeigh)
11. Bowfinger
Best scene: Eddie Murphy's character, unaware he's the star of a movie being filmed, is confronted by a menacing man telling him about aliens and plutonium.
Favorite line to say: "My gonads! My gonads!" (accompanied by electronic chirps from a polygraph-type device)
12. Ronin
Best scene: The wrong-way tunnel chase.
Favorite line to say: "What color was the boathouse at Hereford?" "How the hell should I know?"
13. Scarface
Best scene: The climactic shootout.
Favorite line to say: "I bury those cockaroaches!" Another movie helped infinitely by Pacino's hamminess
Labels: movies, not poetry
Sunday, May 06, 2007
13 Great Movie Action Scenes
So I watched Children of Men this weekend, and in addition to being a good all-around movie (though so dark that it'd be hard to watch it again), it has a great sequence near the end where Clive Owen has to get into a building during a full-scale battle (with tanks and rocket launchers in addition to automatic weapons) between government and rebel forces, neither of which would mind him being dead. The whole thing is very well executed, simultaneously chaotic and coherent, exciting and excruciating, and it got me thinking about my favorite movie action sequences. Here are 13 of them, with no real attempt to rank them.
1. The gun battle after the bank robbery in Heat. Great sound and cinematography, real squad-level tactics, and an amazing kinetic feel.
2. The bus/train wreck in The Fugitive. Harrison Ford's last movie before he entered the Mr. Frownyface Grump portion of his career, in which I don't think he's made a single good movie. Ford leaping out of a crashed bus and fleeing a derailing train while wearing shackles is a great set piece.
3. The Wesley/Inigo duel in The Princess Bride. Clever, funny, and thrilling all at once, plus compulsively quotable. "I am not lefthanded either!"
4. The chase at the end of The Road Warrior. About 20 minutes of a massive car/truck/motorcycle/helicopter chase.
5. The final gunfight in The Wild Bunch. Four outlaws commandeer a machine gun (plus some grenades) and take on an entire Mexican army to get revenge for a dead friend, killing dozens before they're overwhelmed. I think Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid would have ended the same way if Sam Peckinpah had directed it.
6. The Liam Neeson/Tim Roth swordfight in Rob Roy. It's rare for the villain to come off as well in the climactic fight as Roth does here, and Neeson's final dispatching of him is really brutal.
7. The Battle of Helm's Deep in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Almost entirely CGI, so it may seem a little cheap to have it here, but it was well executed. The Battle of Pellenor Fields in The Return of the King was also very nicely done.
8. The saloon shootout in Unforgiven. The movie does an amazing job of constraining the violence and building the foreboding right up until the end, when it all finally breaks out all at once with Clint Eastwood killing at least a half dozen men in the space of about fifteen seconds.
9. The D-Day landing in Saving Private Ryan. Another long, grueling, successfully rendered battle. I found the rest of the movie to be something of a letdown after it.
10. The swordfight with the black knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Okay, it's not really a great action scene, but it's hilarious in its deliberate low-budget grossness, and of course the quotability is off the charts. "All right, we'll call it a draw."
11. The three-way duel (thruel?) in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. This movie took flak for being incoherent and loud and overlong from people who claimed they liked the first one, conveniently ignoring that the first one was exactly the same way. This scene is totally over-choreographed, but it's still tons of good fun.
12. The lightsaber fight in The Empire Strikes Back. The two-on-one fight in The Phantom Menace was better staged as a pure action scene, but damned if I'm going to pick the scene from the vastly inferior movie.
13. The tennis racket/ski pole fight at the beginning of Roxanne. Remember when Steve Martin was funny? And appeared in decent movies?
I've already thought of honorable mentions too: the train-station shootout in The Untouchables and the wrong-way tunnel car chase in Ronin. Anyone else?
1. The gun battle after the bank robbery in Heat. Great sound and cinematography, real squad-level tactics, and an amazing kinetic feel.
2. The bus/train wreck in The Fugitive. Harrison Ford's last movie before he entered the Mr. Frownyface Grump portion of his career, in which I don't think he's made a single good movie. Ford leaping out of a crashed bus and fleeing a derailing train while wearing shackles is a great set piece.
3. The Wesley/Inigo duel in The Princess Bride. Clever, funny, and thrilling all at once, plus compulsively quotable. "I am not lefthanded either!"
4. The chase at the end of The Road Warrior. About 20 minutes of a massive car/truck/motorcycle/helicopter chase.
5. The final gunfight in The Wild Bunch. Four outlaws commandeer a machine gun (plus some grenades) and take on an entire Mexican army to get revenge for a dead friend, killing dozens before they're overwhelmed. I think Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid would have ended the same way if Sam Peckinpah had directed it.
6. The Liam Neeson/Tim Roth swordfight in Rob Roy. It's rare for the villain to come off as well in the climactic fight as Roth does here, and Neeson's final dispatching of him is really brutal.
7. The Battle of Helm's Deep in The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Almost entirely CGI, so it may seem a little cheap to have it here, but it was well executed. The Battle of Pellenor Fields in The Return of the King was also very nicely done.
8. The saloon shootout in Unforgiven. The movie does an amazing job of constraining the violence and building the foreboding right up until the end, when it all finally breaks out all at once with Clint Eastwood killing at least a half dozen men in the space of about fifteen seconds.
9. The D-Day landing in Saving Private Ryan. Another long, grueling, successfully rendered battle. I found the rest of the movie to be something of a letdown after it.
10. The swordfight with the black knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Okay, it's not really a great action scene, but it's hilarious in its deliberate low-budget grossness, and of course the quotability is off the charts. "All right, we'll call it a draw."
11. The three-way duel (thruel?) in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. This movie took flak for being incoherent and loud and overlong from people who claimed they liked the first one, conveniently ignoring that the first one was exactly the same way. This scene is totally over-choreographed, but it's still tons of good fun.
12. The lightsaber fight in The Empire Strikes Back. The two-on-one fight in The Phantom Menace was better staged as a pure action scene, but damned if I'm going to pick the scene from the vastly inferior movie.
13. The tennis racket/ski pole fight at the beginning of Roxanne. Remember when Steve Martin was funny? And appeared in decent movies?
I've already thought of honorable mentions too: the train-station shootout in The Untouchables and the wrong-way tunnel car chase in Ronin. Anyone else?
Labels: movies, not poetry
