Friday, October 3, 2008

Everyday Movie Quotes

I think I made it perfectly clear a while back that I am a huge movie lover. I don't go to the actual theater anymore, but with the advent of Netflix, Blockbuster's Total Access and Redbox, not to mention how cheaply you can buy dvd's now (if you take the time to look), there really is no need to go to the theater. I prefer to just watch the Box Office Stats on the Monday morning network news programs.

We have over 200 dvd's of our own. When I first arrived in Texas, my hubby had something like 10. I am a movie hound. So, it stands to reason, that I am also a big-time movie quoter as well. Movie quotes make it into my daily conversations to such a degree that some of the lines have (almost) stopped being quotes, and have become 'mine'.

"...you are too twisted for color TV.", and "...I love you more than my luggage." are no longer parts of a conversation between Olympia Dukakis' Clarice and Shirley McClaine's Wheezer in Steel Magnolias... I use them so often that men (women have usually seen Steel Magnolias) think they are my witty repertoire. And I think all of us do this. How can we not, when the writers have come up with the perfect witty or apropos rejoinder for nearly every situation in life?

Who hasn't looked at a roommate that emerges from their bedroom after a night of hardcore partying, with bed-head so severe that the only options are a VERY wide toothed comb or a military buzz cut, only to exclaim, "It's ALIVE!!!" from Dr. Frankenstein or Young Frankenstein, take your pick... Or looked at a plate of food when you were very, very hungry only to bust out your best Scottish brogue and say, "Get in my Bell-ay!" from Austin Powers The Spy Who Shagged Me.

Could it just be me? I mean the other night someone on TV said something about "going to the mattresses" and hubby didn't know what it meant... Of course I looked at him as if his head had flipped back like a pez dispenser and little green men were popping out of his neck and offering me cheesecake...The fact that he didn't know that oft quoted iconic line from one of the most popular movies of all time made me doubt my own sanity for being married to the man. I could "make him an offer he couldn't refuse" and once he was "sleeping with the fishes" I would "leave the gun and take the cannoli". But come on, how does any red-blooded American over the age of ten NOT know those lines?

Doesn't anyone else snicker to themselves when they have to give driving directions to someone and they flash on Brad Pitt's character Floyd in True Romance? Or look at a street full of traffic in front of them and think about Jim Carey in Bruce Almighty? Or talk to their family in New Jersey while they're in Texas and say, "...people need a passport to come down here." (Reese Witherspoon in Sweet Home Alabama)... OK, maybe that one is just me...

"Sweet" and "Not" became iconic to the point of making their updated definitions into the dictionary after they were put out there stoner-style in Wayne's World.

Maybe I'm just grasping at civilization with this since cows don't get movie quotes any more than hubby. Maybe it's just because I haven't seen anything that generated a great quote in a while. Where did the quotable-by-the-public wonderful one-liners go? Are we, as a nation, going to have to write our own material now?!?

"Seriously?"

4 comments:

A said...

i am a movieholic as well! :) nice to find someone with the same passion as mine... :) looking forward to reading more of your blogs! :)

Gary Eby,MSW said...

Nice writing skills. So are you working on a novel or something? Thanks for your comments on Website Owener Zone. Feel free to see how I try to help others in new ways. Sincerely: Gary Eby, author and therapist.

Unknown said...

Hi, Aria,
Enjoyed this post but have to say that I would be an outsider in your movie quote club.
Would you believe that until I was 12 I only saw one movie, one time and that was Gone With The Wind?!
Obviously, I've got some catching up to do with you and the rest of your generation who have been watching movies since the high chair.
Love,
Jlo

A said...

hey Jlo! i love Gone with the wind! i watched it like a million times and i practically know the whole dialogue by heart! just thought you'd know! :)