Celebrating 50 Years With 50 Movie Quotes: Part II
In conjunction with our 50th anniversary, my wife Karen and I have compiled a year-by-year list of favorite films that left often repeated quotes stuck in our minds. The first 25 appeared in my last Screenings column. Here is the much anticipated next 25 years.
1992 Kathy Bates yelling: “Towanda!” just before crashing her car into the one that stole her parking space in Fried Green Tomatoes.
1993 Robin Williams as The Genie: “Keep your hands and arms inside the carpet!…In case of emergency, the exits are here-here-here-here-here-here-here-here-here-here-here—anywhere! ” in Aladdin.
1994 Jeff Goldblum as chaos-theoritician Dr. Ian Malcolm: “A Tyrannosaur doesn’t follow a set pattern or park schedules—[it is] the essence of chaos.” in Jurassic Park.
1995 Mykeleti Williamson as shrimp fisherman Bubba Blue saying: “Dey’s uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir fried. There’s pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich..” in Forest Gump.
1996 Tom Hanks as astronaut Jim Lovell: “Houston, we have a problem.” in Apollo 13.
1997 Larissa Kokernot as a prostitute answering questions about two murder suspects (one of whom is Steve Buscemi): “Well, the little guy was kinda funny-lookin.” Frances McDormand as Sheriff Marge Gunderson: “In what way?” Kokernot “I dunno… just funny-lookin.” in Fargo.
1998 Danny DeVito as crime photographer Sid Hudgens: [voiceover] “Come to Los Angeles! The sun shines bright, the beaches are wide and inviting, and the orange groves stretch as far as the eye can see. There are jobs aplenty, and land is cheap. Every working man can have his own house, and inside every house, a happy, all-American family. You can have all this, and who knows… you could even be discovered, become a movie star… or at least see one. Life is good in Los Angeles… it’s paradise on Earth.” Ha ha ha ha. That’s what they tell you, anyway.” in L.A. Confidential.
1999 Paul Walker to Reese Witherspoon: “I don’t know if I ever told you this before, but I think you’re just about the keenest girl in the whole school!” in Pleasantville.
2000 John Cusack: “Nobody’s looking for a puppeteer in today’s wintry economic climate.” in Inside John Malkovich.
2001 George Clooney: ”Me an’ the old lady are gonna pick up the pieces and retie the knot, mixaphorically speaking.” in Oh Brother Where Art Thou?
2002 Bob Balaban as a 1920‘s Hollywood movie producer talking about a silent film he is going to make: “It’s called “Charlie Chan In London. It’s a detective story.” Maggie Smith: “How horrid. And who turns out to have done it?” Bob Balaban: “Oh, I couldn’t tell you that. It would spoil it for you.” Maggie Smith: “Oh, but none of us will see it.” in Gosford Park.
2003 Kathy Bates talking to Jack Nicholson at the lunch table: “I’m an extremely sexual person, I can’t help it…The point is that I have been always very easily aroused and very orgasmic. More soup?” in About Schmidt.
2004 Rawiri Paratene teaching young Maori villagers (including Keisha Castle-Hughes): “When you extend your tongues, you’re saying to your enemies: I’m gonna eat you.” in Whale Rider.
2005 Paul Giamatti to Thomas Hayden Church: “First thing, hold the glass up and examine the wine against the light. You’re looking for color and clarity. Just, get a sense of it. OK? Uhh, thick? Thin? Watery? Syrupy? OK? Alright. Now, tip it. What you’re doing here is checking for color density as it thins out towards the rim. Uhh, that’s gonna tell you how old it is, among other things. It’s usually more important with reds. OK? Now, stick your nose in it. Don’t be shy, really get your nose in there. Mmm… a little citrus… maybe some strawberry…[smacks lips]… passion fruit…[puts hand up to ear]… and, oh, there’s just like the faintest soupçon of like asparagus and just a flutter of a, like a, nutty Edam cheese….” in Sideways.
2006 Dawn French (as Mrs. Beaver): “You should have brought a map!” Ray Winstone (as Mr. Beaver): “There wasn’t room next to the jam!” in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
2007 Greg Kinnear to his family in their VW minibus: “Oh my God, I’m getting pulled over. Everyone, just… pretend to be normal.” in Little Miss Sunshine.
2008 Tom Hanks to Philip Seymour Hoffman: “Were you standing at the goddamn door listening to me? How could you even … that is a thick door! You stood there and you listened to me?” Hoffman: I didn’t stand at the door. Don’t be an idiot. I bugged the Scotch bottle…It’s got a little transmitter on it, I’ve got a little thing in my ear, get past it.” in Charlie Wilson’s War.
2009 Robert Downey Jr. to a television interviewer: “Being an actor’s no different than being a rugby player or construction worker, save for the fact that my tools are the mechanisms which trigger human emotion.” in Tropic Thunder.
2010 Woody Harrelson to Ben Foster before they knock on a door to deliver news of a relative’s death: “One more thing. You do not touch the next-of-kin. Avoid physical contact, unless it’s a medical emergency, like they’re having a heart attack or something. You’re representing the Secretary of the Army, not Will Montgomery, so in case you feel like offering a hug or something… don’t.” in The Messenger.
2011 Leonardo Di Caprio to Ellen Page: “Well dreams, they feel real while we’re in them, right? It’s only when we wake up that we realize how things are actually strange. Let me ask you a question, you, you never really remember the beginning of a dream do you? You always wind up right in the middle of what’s going on..” in Inception.
2012 George Clooney: (voiceover) “My friends on the mainland think just because I live in Hawaii, I live in paradise. Like a permanent vacation. We’re all just out here sipping Mai Tais, shaking our hips, and catching waves. Are they insane?” in The Descendants.
2013 Five-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis (voiceover): “All the time, everywhere, everything’s hearts are beating and squirting, and talking to each other the ways I can’t understand. Most of the time they probably be saying: I’m hungry, or I gotta poop..” in Beasts of the Southern Wild.”
2014 Scarlett Johansson (as the voice of the Operating System Samantha) to Joaquin Phoenix: “Well, right when you asked me if I had a name I thought, yeah, he’s right, I do need a name. But I wanted to pick a good one, so I read a book called “How to Name Your Baby, and out of 180,000 names that’s the one I liked the best.” in Her.
2015 Tom Wilkinson: (voiceover) “People think the writer’s imagination is always at work, that he’s constantly inventing an endless supply of incidents and episodes; that he simply dreams up his stories out of thin air. In point of fact, the opposite is true. Once the public knows you’re a writer, they bring the characters and events to you.” in The Grand Budapest Hotel.
2016 Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa “When I yell “fool,” you drive out of here as fast as you can.” in Mad Max: Fury Road.
Happy New Year. Comments? Email [email protected].
