There are two types of people in this world: people who like quoting movies and me.
I can’t remember lines from movies. I’m occasionally decent with Shakespeare, but only because I’ve taught some of the Bard’s plays a dozen or more times. But when it comes to movies, I tank faster than a cruise ship off the Italian coast, remembering little except the odd line from Office Space or The Sixth Sense.
Yes, if I could just go ahead and quote movies . . . that’d be great.
My husband can. I’m pretty sure he’s memorized the entire screenplays of Apocalypse Now, Alien, The Godfather, Braveheart, Taxi Driver, and Glengarry Glen Ross. And don’t even get him started on Monty Python. Please.
My son seems to have inherited this love of movie lines.
Last Saturday night, I was cozy in my bed under a couple of duvets. I had just discovered the secret to reading with enough light while keeping my hands warm under the duvet. William was lying beside me, flipping through one of his books.
With his face inches away from a picture of a Mako shark’s brain, William looked up at the ceiling and said, “You have beautiful eyes.”
I smiled, touched by his compliment. I broke my book-blanket balance and shifted onto my side.
“Thanks, Will,” I said. “That’s really sweet.”
William looked at me, dumbfounded. “Mom,” he said, “I wasn’t talking about you. I was being Sid from Ice Age.”
Of course he was.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEmVtViMlFo]
Vivian later told me that the follow up line to this quote – as you can see at 0:22 in the video clip – is, “Get off my face.”
I’ve said those four words to my kids before. See my face for evidence.
*
Are you a movie quoter? Do you know one? What’s your favourite movie line to drop into a random conversation?
If you could just go ahead and leave a comment . . . that’d be great.
Another place where we have cosmic kismet.
A) cannot recite let alone remember movie lines 3 minutes after they have been spoken.
B) Hubby is awesome at it and does it all the time.
C) Tech Support is better at it than Hubby.
D) I have eyes.
We both have eyes! I knew we were sisters from another mister. Still can’t believe I’ve only known you for months, not years. Time is a liar.
I *wish* I could remember movie lines well enough to quote them. Lines from books I love: yup, I can quote Faulkner and Salinger and FS Fitzgerald, but if I only heard it, I forget it. That said, the opening few scenes from the movie Elizabethtown, where he walks around reassuring everyone, “I’m fine, really, I’m fine” when he is anything but . . . yep, I quote that all the time. It’s funny and sad and ultimately sweet, which is what I’m all about.
I think we should have an I-can’t-quote-movies party on Twitter. Or maybe IRL. I’ll bring the wine. We can put on a DVD, ignore it, and chat and laugh into the wee hours.
As a husband I can honestly say that it is easy for us to remember movie lines since we never hear nor remember what it was our wives just said to us. I love the post. I’ll have to remember it to tell others.
Ha. Good point. I’ve heard, “You never told me that” a lot from my husband. Oh yes I did. Evidently his head was reciting some Python sketch for the 538th time.
I think the movie A Few Good Men is full of great lines. One of my favorites ALWAYS comes to mind when I am getting lectured by somebody, when Nicholson barks, “Why don’t you just say Thank You and I’ll be on my way!”. I can only imagine it would be a lot more satisfying if I would ever ‘say it’ instead of just thinking it ~ I’m so not Jack Nicholson.
That reminds me. There was a line from As Good As It Gets that I used to quote. But now I forget it. Sigh…
I would have to say that in this post, you really go to the mattresses in proving your point. You can’t quote movies. Oh, well. Alas, poor Yorick.
😉
“I knew him well.”
I had to google the mattress quote to know it’s from The Godfather. Hamlet though? No problem. (And I wonder why dinner party invites are scarce).
I can’t remember movie plots let alone specific lines from movies! It’s terrible. I can’t remember books either. Unless I read them over and over again. My husband gets annoyed because he’ll be quoting all these random things and I’ll know he’s quoting but have no idea where the quote is from. Loses all of it’s humor that way. 🙂
I’m very good at forgetting books, especially if I read them quickly and don’t talk to anyone about the plot. It’s a bit scary, really…
I’m definitely a movie quoter. I kill at that game Scene It.
“But when it comes to movies, I tank faster than a cruise ship off the Italian coast”—Too soon, too soon. Just kidding!
Game on, Thoughtsy! Game. On. 🙂
I have TV version, Disney version and I think the original. Which would you prefer???
I’ll be the bartender…
Amaretto Sour please.
Original…or even Disney.
My husband, my 2 children and I are all movie quoters. (apparently quoters isn’t a word because my spell check is going nuts)
Our favorites:
1. Would you like to join me in my quarters this night for some toast?
2. Everything you just said is my favorite thing to do – EVERY day.
3. No he’s not retarded..
4. My lips hurt real bad.
Let’s see if your readers can name the movies! (Hint – the first two are from the same movie.)
Ha. I can’t get any of them. I sit here scratching my head…
There are just a few classic movies that stick in my head, where the lines are memorable: Casablanca (so quotable), The Philadelphia Story, and Charade. And then, of course, there’s that restaurant scene from When Harry Met Sally: “I’ll have what she’s having.” LOL!
Best. Scene. Ever.
I remember the lines that get worked over time and time again…”I’ll be back, You can’t handle the truth, Go ahead, make my day…” But mostly I remember clever sentences from books or magazines. My all time favorite is from an interview with Sheryl Crow in “Rolling Stone” ~ “She looked at me rather beadily- A lipsticked, sulky fashion tramp with hooded eyes who just might be getting ready to spit at somebody.” …. Brilliant!
That is brilliant. Nothing like great description to make you almost glad you weren’t there. (My sentence made sense in my head…)
Well, you know where I stand on the whole movie line issue, so I’m very proud of Will. I once asked a friend who knew multiple languages which one he thinks in. I don’t know anything but English, but I think in movie lines.
You seem a decent fellow. I hate to kill you.
YOU seem a decent fellow . . . I hate to die.
Sorry, I’m compulsive with that movie. Just couldn’t resist. 🙂
I can recognize The Princess Bride, only because I’ve seen it more than 5 times. And it has so many juicy lines.
The fact that you don’t quote movies only makes me want to be your friend all the more.
Perhaps your next post could be about those people who break out in song.
Yes! I cannot stand movie musicals. I have limited patience for them on stage, but on screen? When I watched Tangled with my daughter, I was nearly shouting, can’t you go 5 minutes without breaking into song? Just speak!
I am pretty sure the movie-quote-remembering thing is genetic. My husband and sister-in-law are the reigning champions, moreso my SIL, which I actually find a little disturbing. So far, my kids are immune, but there’s time.
*Shudders*
Hmm. Maybe it is. I don’t think my siblings are movie quoters either. My brother is a movie buff, more in the artsy/indie circuit, but I haven’t heard him quote much…
Robin Hood: Men in Tights. Favorite movie to quote from (or ‘from which to quote’ if we’re being grammatically correct)
I also quote the movie ‘The Mummy’ with one of my best girlfriends.
My boyfriend quotes lots of movies- Ghostbusters, Animal House, several others…. Every time he quotes something and I don’t know it’s a movie quote, I respond as if it were, you know, a normal conversation. And then he gives me a pained look and says he was quoting something. Of course.
I like that naive response. I think I do that naturally.
I am married to a movie quoter. Except that all of his quotes (with only a few exceptions for Spaceballs and Goonies) come from When Harry Met Sally. And while I’m pretty sure it’s a plus to marry the kind of guy who quotes often and exclusively from When Harry Met Sally, it’s definitely embarrassing at dinner parties. My 3-year-old is starting to take it up, too. When he’s frustrated, he yells “OH NO you don’t, you just want to grab MORE STUFF!” This is from the Magic School Bus. He yells it with conviction, even when it makes absolutely no sense contextually, which is every time he says it.
O.M.G., Wendy, I recognized your 3yr old’s line right away! We’ve watched a lot of MSB around our house, with 3 boys. Not so much anymore, now that the youngest is a 5th grader. I loved that series.
That is TOO funny! I had no idea anyone would get that. 🙂
Oh. I’m pretty I’ve quoted the restaurant scene from When Harry Met Sally. Perhaps without knowing I was quoting. 😉
I can’t help it. I need to quote movie lines because I a) have a photographic memory and b) am on the autism spectrum, so they’re a nice go-between when I have no frickin’ clue what to say in a particular social situation. So, it works out kinda OK for me. Terrific post.
Hilarious explanation, Heather. And truth is … I’m kind of envious!
It is a well known fact not to quote Spaceballs or The Princess Bride around me or risk having the entire movies played back quote by quote.
I love movie quotes. Love them. Of course, all of mine are from movies released prior to having children when my brain still had memory.
Love the Princess Bride!
“As you wish”
Christi Corbett
“As you wish” is engraved on my wedding ring.
I nearly cried when I read it. So. Damn. Perfect.
🙂
Stop that right now; I mean it. Anybody want a peanut?
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
My way isn’t very sportsman-like.
My husband and his 2 brothers are notorious for quoting movie lines. Their favourites are: dumb and dumber, anchor man, and zoolander. And then the rest of us have to sit around and guess what they just said while they laugh about it. Like you, my head just doesn’t have enough storage space for stuff like that 🙂
I always feel like the kid who doesn’t get the joke…
Likely because I am. The kid, I mean. Not the joke. Well, maybe I”m the joke too…
Movie quotes are so much fun. My wife and I often spit them back and forth. One of us would say something and the other would fire right back. At times, responding with a quote can be hilarious when you consider what the first quote’s context was as opposed to the context of the second quote.
I was trying to hold an elevator the other day until my wife could get here to ride up with me. Another woman got in and started to press the “door close” button. I said “Leave my elevator alone!”. She looked at me very strangely and then cracked up. “I loved that movie!” (‘Blast from the Past’)
I’m thinking my husband must be “Disappointed!” (A Fish Called Wanda).
My college friend and I can still quote almost every line from Risky Business “Joel, get off the babysitter” (and others that I won’t print on a family blog)
Our family can quote Princess Bride, Muppet Christmas Carol and almost every line Jeff Dunham has pushed from his lips or the “lips” of his dummies.
The men can quote (and do, sadly) Robin Hood Men In Tights and Blazing Saddles.
It is a genetic trait that I’m proud to pass on to our family. 🙂
I’m pretty sure the trait I’m passing on to my kids is my sticky-up toe.
I am a movie quote fanatic. In fact, yesterday the hubby and I sent emails to each other featuring movie quotes from Point Break (It was a snowy day here in Oregon and neither of us had a lot going on)
Here’s my favorite one from that movie…
“Utah! Get me two!”
Christi Corbett
I am an F.B.I AGENT!!
Point Break also has my absolute favorite part of a chase scene ever…when the bad guy throws the dog at Utah. Throwing a DOG at someone is all kinds of awesome!
Christi Corbett
Umm…ya…haven’t seen that either…
I am not one of those who quote movies. My husband and youngest son have turned it into a sport! They like to see how much dialogue they can recite together from various movies, and the weirder the better. Their two favs are Dumb & Dumber and Spaceballs – ah the classics! Funny how they have not quite mastered The Notebook.
Ha. The Notebook. Now there is a funny image. If we ever get together, Monique, we’ll go out for a glass of wine and our husbands can quote movies…
Guilty as charged…my favorite line comes from one of the all-time classics:
“Leave the gun, take the cannoli.”
That’s got to be The Godfather, right?
I am so guilty of this. The ones that seem to constantly swirl around in my brain are from Princess Bride and Office Space . . .
You’ve got a case of the Mondays . . . Yeah, um, so I’m gonna need you togo ahead and come in on Saturday, Mmmm-kay?
Inconceivable!! . . . You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means . . . Be honest, it’s for posterity . . . Never go up against a sicilian when DEATH is on the line . . .
Ok, I could go all day. But I won’t. I’ll stop now.
Oh, and a friend of mine used to quote Say Anything and Breakfest Club to each other probably more than we would have actual conversations. It is too normal! :p
“No, it was a flare gun. It went off in my locker.”
LOVE that movie 🙂
Christi Corbett
I love Office Space, too. I am often saying, “If you could just go ahead and take out the garbage, that’d be great…”
I am so not a movie line quoter.
Not only can I never remember the lines from the movie, I have in the past actually rented a movie I had already rented and not realized it until I was half way through watching it.
My husband and kids can all recite lines from movies, though.
We are sisters. I know lines from 3 movies. I just recycle them often…
And don’t get all my family started on Monty Python either. But I still can’t do the quotes, even after years of listening to them quoting ad nauseam……
I know. How can people know the whole sketch?
I love quoting movies! My best friends and I have quite a few in our repertoire. My friend Annie likes to throw out a random quote every so often as an impromptu quiz. Whenever I guess right, I feel like I’ve just won Jeopardy. The movies I quote most often: Anchorman, Zoolander, Can’t Hardly Wait, Reality Bites, Billy Madison, The Breakfast Club, When Harry Met Sally, Mansfield Park, While You Were Sleeping, Monty Python, The Princess Bride, Office Space…that’s enough for now.
Wow. I can quote only two from that list. Sigh. I know my weaknesses..
Monty Python’s “nobody expects the Spanish Inquistion!” shouted in a high witchy voice is often heard in our house. But the line that gets bandied about most often is a tiny one from The Princess Bride. Whenever someone (i.e., my husband, always my husband) says, “it’s possible…” someone invariably pipes up with, “…pig. I might be bluffing.” It drives him NUTS, but he keeps saying “it’s possible” so we figure he’s pretty much asking for it.
I think my husband’s given up on me being a movie wife. I almost feel sorry for him.
My kids (mostly Big Brother) loves to quote his cartoons and movies too. He will also act like one of the characters or do the dance along with the movie. It’s cute and Little Sister gets in on the dancing! Imitation is the highest form of flattery 🙂 (I’m sure Hollywood vs Silicone Valley would love to hear that one!)
We do a lot of dancing in my house. It’d be an interesting experiment to show Big Brother and Little Sister a Bollywood movie.
Wish Granted! Favorite line in Ice Age right after Sid says I wish I could jump like that. Found this after google search http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ice_Age
My sister and I use this line frequently with our kids if whining. LOL
I have to watch that movie again. And by again, I mean once.
A random Mr Spock quote on a first date snagged my husband……dork love.
Trekkie-fate!
I can’t quote movies either, because frankly I rarely get to watch movies anymore. Then when people put movie quotes in their Facebook status, I never understand what they are talking about!
I don’t think I’ve figured out that people do that, which might explain why I don’t always understand status updates…
I’m like you. I bungle any movie line (and am even better at distorting song lyrics into something my husband and 8-year old find hilarious). I can quote poetry, because I’ve taught it. We should send our husbands on a blind date. They’d get along swimmingly. They could tell each other that famous line about leads from Glengarrry Glenn Ross. (I’m not going to attempt it in a public forum).
I remind myself that I’m a big-idea kind of girl. I can tell you the themes, the plot line, and historical events related to the movie. Just not the lines.
I like your spin on us as big-idea girls. I can go for that. And motifs. I can spot a motif…
I’m all for the blind date. Can we have wine?
I’m better at song lyrics than movies. Maybe if I could put the movie lines to a melody…
I think I am too, but only after 20 listens or more.
Man. Favorite movie line. So many to choose from. I’ll go ahead and start by saying that anything Channing Tatum has said in any movie is automatically my LEAST favorite movie.
Favorite comedy movie line: “I wanna say something. I’m gonna put it out there; if you like it, you can take it, if you don’t, send it right back. I want to be on you.” – Ron Burgundy from Anchorman
Favorite non-comedy movie line: “I guess you either get busy living or you get busy dying.” – Andy Dufresne from The Shawshank Redemption
That Shawshank line is poetry. Really.
Definitely not a movie quoter. Other than “Go ahead, make my day” and “Beam me up Scotty”. The latter was never actually said but I had a t-shirt with it for years!
I’m not even good with Shakespeare: “All the world’s a stage and all the men and women on it merely players. They have their exists and their entrances….” is about the best I can do.
The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner I was quite good at for years, as every time I got caught talking after lights out at boarding schoo, I had to learn another verse.
You can quote more Shakespeare than 90% of the population.
Almost my entire family loves to quote movie lines and, worse yet, break in to song from the musical ones. My youngest daughter (22) finds this highly embarrassing and refuses to play along, especially since so many of the quotes tend to come from the Muppet movies and other children’s movies, probably because we watched them so many times. However, we’re pretty good with Star Trek and Mel Brooks movies, as well. And, of course, Monty Python! We can have entire conversations consisting of only movie lines. It’s one way to weed out my children’s potential mates – if they’re mystified by our conversations, or embarrassed by the singing, they probably aren’t going to last long. ;P
The breaking into song has me laughing! Now that is something I have to see…or hear…
I usually have a terrible memory for movie quotes, except when it comes to the movie Clueless. I can pretty much find the right Clueless quote for any situation.
I’ve been getting back into video work-out tapes, so lately I’ve been saying, “I don’t wanna do this no more. And my buns? They don’t feel nothin’ like steel.”
I am clueless about Clueless, likely because I haven’t seen it. But I’m also clueless about movies I have seen, so that cause and effect is likely faulty.
“Good Lord! You’ve gone all the way to PLAID!”, Leanne.
And that one zooms over my head… (See how pathetic I am?)
I used to base my whole life philosophy on Caddyshack – “So I got that goin’ for me, which is nice.” 🙂
Well, you could do worse with other lines…
During a horrible day or event, I may be heard yelling, “Game over, man, Game over.” Bill Paxton, Alien. And you need to say it with the correct accent. I wrote it in the correct accent by the way.
Accents? I’m great at those. For 2 words and then I switch to a different hemisphere…
When Harry Met Sally & two versions of A Christmas Carol… when I realized I had these entirely memorized, I told myself I was banned from memorizing movie quotes from henceforth. Oh, wait, there’s Casablanca, but everyone knows that.
I love how you were “banned.” I’m trying to think what I”m banned from in my own house. I’m a bit scared to think that all the way through, though.
One of my most oft-quoted movie quotes (though it’s hard to choose because I have so many) is:
“Dude, you threw off my groove!” from Emperor’s New Groove.
And another 747 zips over my head… 🙂
Love this post! I quote a lot from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, When Harry Met Sally, Office Space and, randomly, Gone With the Wind. I also have been known to say, “No one puts Baby in the corner” because it is just funny and fits in some situations. Sadly, I bought my husband the red Swingline stapler like in Office Space and he didn’t get it. Bummer but good for me because it is now on my desk!
I know all those movies! And I think I just found the perfect Father’s Day gift for my husband!
Movie quotes rock – when used sparingly and expertly!
I’m great at movie quoting. I actually correct other people when they quote. Yes, I’m irritating. There are a few movies I can quote from top to end both in Italian and English, such as Last Boyscout and Braveheart.
Yesterday I quoted Hudson Hawk, saying to a colleague who tripped on the steps: “Hey mister, are you going to die?” (but in the italian version, that goes like: “hey buddy, would you show us how you’re gonna die?”).
But I guess Dumb and Dumber (ITA) is the one I quote the most, from “I took care of it” to “that’s ok, i’m a limo driver!”
You can’t handle the truth…..