100 Things I Love About The Movies

Inspired by Michael May, who was in turn inspired by Cinema Fanatic and Jason.

1. Godzilla's wrestling moves
2. Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy meeting again 9 years later
3. Jason Bourne
4. "But you aaaare, Blanche, you aaaaare!"
5. Bruno Kirby's story about his father in City Slickers
6. The gorier sound effects on Akira's original English dub
7. The fact Harrison Ford hated making his best film, i.e. Blade Runner
8. David Mamet scripts
9. Janeane Garofalo (in any role)10. Magnolia's use of Aimee Mann's music
11. Shakespeare adaptations
12. Khan's speech leading up to Kirk's famous "KHANNNN!"
13. Charlie Kaufman scripts
14. Any appearance by Ricky Jay
15. The Princess Bride's final "As you wish"
16. Doc Holiday in Tombstone
17. Forest Whitaker getting called out as a hustler in The Color of Money
18. Paul Giamatti freaking out about the Merlot
19. Bud Brigman letting his wife drown in order to save her life in The Abyss
20. The Golden Harvest logo
21. Evanescence in Daredevil
22. Twist endings to 1970s SF films (double points if Charlton Heston stars)
23. Ian Holm
24. Roman Polanski's kid on his bike chanting "Creepy Carrie! Creepy Carrie!"
25. Athletes vs. terrorists in Born to Fight
26. Toby discussing Revenge of the Nerds in American Splendor
27. Everything about Apocalypse Now! both in front and behind the camera
28. The heart-wrenching final scene of The Plague Dogs
29. Cameron finally snaps in Ferris Bueller's Day Off
30. HAL 9000
31. Watching Groundhog Day every year on Groundhog Day
32. The premise of Bubba Ho-Tep: Senior citizen Elvis and black JFK fight a soul-sucking mummy
33. Donnie Yen
34. Seeing Canadian money in a film
35. Edward D. Wood Jr.
36. Any time James Bond orders something other than his usual martini
37. Harvey Keitel as The Wolf
38. Use of the theremin
39. Garak in Dirty Harry
40. Sweding
41. Puss'n'Boots eyes
42. The cats in Logan's Run
43. Fahrenheit 451's spoken credits
44. The Cohen Brothers
45. The kitten refereeing the Bruce Lee-Chuck Norris fight
46. The character of Sanjuro
47. The music in Blood Simple
48. Body Snatcher screams
49. Every word of Shakespeare in Love
50. Neurotic female characters you can't help but fall in love with
51. The history-bending finale of Inglourious Basterds
52. When Lau Kar-Leung's fight choreography extends to 12 or more moves in one unbroken shot
53. Robert Downey Jr.'s banter
54. All the sex in Dr. Strangelove
55. The Rheostatics' soundtrack for Whale Music
56. "There's that word again; 'heavy'. Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the earth's gravitational pull?"
57. The Shoveler
58. Captain Picard quoting from Moby Dick in First Contact
59. All the ridiculous justifications for both Schwarzenegger's and Van Damme's accents
60. Yul Brynner in a cowboy hat (various sources)
61. Thelma and Louise driving into the Grand Canyon
62. The more miserable Michael Douglas gets in a film, the happier I get
63. Taylor Mead in Coffee & Cigarettes
64. Once Upon a Time in China's theme song
65. Antonio Banderas playing a new-made guitar in Desperado, not long before he pulls a gun out of it
66. Wong Kar-Wai's improvisation
67. The snapdragon scene in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
68. Kurt Russell
69. Sam Peckinpah
70. The animation in Waking Life
71. Peter Sarsgaard's freak-out in Jarhead
72. Emma Thompson in Much Ado About Nothing
73. Dustin Hoffman's literature professor in Stranger Than Fiction
74. The "Michael Jackson" interrogation scene in Three Kings
75. El Tango De Roxanne
76. Dead Poets Society's classroom scenes
77. The message Jon Favreau leaves on a girl's answering machine in Swingers
78. Chris Doyle's cinematography
79. Those little bits they sometimes put after the end credits
80. J.K. Simmons' J. Jonah Jameson
81. The long tracking shot that starts Altman's The Player
82. Movies that lovingly allude to other movies (Hot Fuzz, Kill Bill, etc.)
83. Silk Stockings' singing communist robot girl ("Do you find me aesthetically pleasing?")
84. Anything with Tony Leung in it
85. Navigator: "She'll fly apart" Captain Sulu: "Fly her apart then!"
86. "You need and you need and you need and you NEED!"
87. Slim Pickens' death in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid
88. The discovery of face-to-face sex in Quest for Fire
89. Editing (in general)
90. The human arm candle sticks in Cocteau's La Belle et la BĂȘte
91. "Passionate eye" documentaries
92. Puzzle movies
93. Amy Adams in Junebug
94. Badass Sarah Connor
95. The idea that Serenity was even allowed to be made
96. Kruge: "GET OUT! GET OUT OF THERRRRRRRE!!!"
97. Divine on a trampoline in Female Trouble
98. Tony Stark's rubbish robot arm with the fire extinguisher
99. Mothra
100. There are so many awesome films I haven't even seen yet

Comments

I confess I'm not familiar with "Silk Stockings", but if a robot girl is involved, it sounds like fun.
Siskoid said…
Acts like a robot, but actually a Soviet girl looking for love.

It's a 1950s musical with Fred Astaire, and Cyd Charisse as the "Moscow beauty".
Delta said…
#16 is truly awesome.
Michael May said…
Lots of good ones for me to cosign:

I want to quote a favorite Doc Holliday line, but I can't pick just one.

Manic Pixie Dream Girl is indeed wonderful. I wish people wouldn't pick on her so much.

The Shoveler! "We've got a blind date with destiny... and it looks like she's ordered the lobster."

And since you mentioned First Contact, I should've included Picard's "the line must be drawn here" speech.
Siskoid said…
Yeah I'm a total sucker for MPDGs, including those that are tagged anti-MPDG (like Kate Winslet in Eternal Sunshine). The ironic meta-text goes right above my head and into my heart.
Toby'c said…
Re #11: Have you seen a version of Macbeth set during the Melbourne Gangland Killings, starring Sam Worthington?

(Yeah, I never pass up opportunities to recommend Aussie movies).
Siskoid said…
Answer: See #100
Cap'n Neurotic said…
Great list, makes me want to make my own . . .

Also, I want to cosign all of Michael May's cosign, as I love Doc Holiday and MPDGs, that Shoveler quote is my favorite line in all of Mystery Men, and I quote "The line must be drawn here" more than any grown man should.
Austin Gorton said…
Alright, as usually happens when you and Michael May do these things, I'm gonna have to do my own list too...

Bud Brigman letting his wife drown in order to save her life in The Abyss

Gets me Every.Damn.Time.

Mothra

Indeed.

There are so many awesome films I haven't even seen yet

Well said.
Siskoid said…
We're pretty contagious. Better step back.
Cap'n Neurotic said…
Contagious indeed -- not only did I catch the movie meme, but it mutated into a need to do a similar TV post as well. Y'all are a danger to my getting a full 8 hours of sleep.
Siskoid said…
Yes I've been mulling over whether to do one for tv, comics, rpgs, and so on...
Michael May said…
You guys are going to make me do one for TV, I can tell.
Cap'n Neurotic said…
I was thinking about a comics one too, but that's probably as far as I can take it -- don't know that I could come up with enough about video games or music, and having never played an RPG, that's pretty much out.
Austin Gorton said…
I've done a 50 Things I Love about comics once upon a time, and could probably stretch that out.