AFI Top 100 Quotes from US movies - what should be in/out?

I went back and looked again at the AFI list, and realized I repeated a few here. Sorry.

But while I’m at it:

“I’ll miss you, especially. You’re like the drunken, abusive grandfather I never had.” - Chris Elliot, “Cabin Boy”

"I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure. " - Aliens

“What are you, people? On dope?” - Fast Times at Ridgemont High

Lots of others, but those 2 seem to fit in here :slight_smile:

From debatably the greatest American screenwriter ever:

"You’re certainly a funny girl for anybody to meet who’s just been up the Amazon for a year. "

“There’s a lot to be said for making people laugh. Did you know that that’s all some people have?”

“If you can’t sleep, it isn’t the coffee. It’s the bunk.”

“You ought to put handles on that skull. Maybe you could grow geraniums in it.”

“Chivalry is not only dead, it’s decomposed.”

“Listen, zipper-puss, some day they’re just gonna find your hair ribbon and an axe someplace. Nothing else. The mystery of Morgan’s Creek.”

“Let us be crooked, but never common.”

“That’s one of the tragedies of this life - that the men who are most in need of a beating up are always enormous.”

“In a few years, if the war goes on - heaven forbid - you won’t be able to swing a cat without knocking down a couple of heroes.”

“I need him like the ax needs the turkey.”

Plus my sig. All MIA.

Naturally, these aren’t the Greatest or Best Written, just the Best Known, and some (Gump, T2, Rocky, Titanic) are only distinctive for being irritatingly distinctive, which doesn’t make them any less stupid. 1 Marx Bros but 2 Jerry Maguires? Like all the AFI lists…Lame.

A few recent ones that I think are hilarious, but no doubt are too new to garner any respect from AFI:

“I’m going to find it, then, kill it”…“What would be the purpose of that?”…“Revenge”

“I’m going to fight it, but I’ll let it live. Now, where’s my dynamite?”

“Those hijackers have boarded the boat!”…“Out here, we call them pirates.”

-all from The Life Aquatic

Another Bill Murray movie, Lost in Translation - “Lip my stockings!”

Pirates of the Caribbean - “Clearly, you’ve never been to Singapore” and “But, where’s the rum?!”

I typed these up without double-checking them, so it’s possible I’ve slightly misquoted some of them.

Oh, you have GOT to be kidding. **Princess Bride ** doesn’t make it, but this does?

Well, as long as they’re allowing lines that are only memorable for their unintentional badness, why not throw in one of my favorites:

“He’s dead . . . murdered! And *someone’s * responsible!” – **Plan 9 From Outer Space **

  1. “Hello, gorgeous” would have worked much better if someone more attractive than Barbara Streisand had said it. Maybe Edward G. Robinson.

  2. “Is it safe?” I would have ranked that WAY higher on the list. Top ten at least.

It’s kind of funny that the article gets number 66 wrong, especially after they mentioned how everybody got it wrong on the show. FTR, it’s “TAKE your stinking paws…”

My picks:

“There can be only one.” - Highlander
“Game over, man!” - Aliens
“Thirty seven!?” - Clerks
“This town needs an enema!” - Batman

There’s a few on there that are crap

Alot of cases they just took the better lines from very good movies, not lines that were esepcially memorable in and of themselves. Quality of a line is not in relation to quality or significance of a movie. A sample:

I thought this line should have been alot higher.

This one is way too high.

Also, I agree that “Houston, we have a problem.” and “Today, I consider myself luckiest man…” are famous lines outside the movies and are suspect here. The latter wasn’t even delivered especially well, especially in comparison to how incredible the real thing was. One of my top 10 quotes of all time, but it’s barely on the radar of “movie” lines. The Apollo 13 line isn’t so bad since some people probably don’t know that it happened outside the movie IRL.

One line that I am disappointed not to see is…

Also, I think they really made a mistake to marginalize so many great comedies. Admitting how excellent many of these lines are, when you compare how ingrained into our culture and lingo comedy lines have become, these dramaic ones seem like lightweights.

How many people would you think would quote this…

…compared to …

…or…

Notice, those aren’t even especially visionary movies…great lines though

“Pirate” - Pirates of the Carribean.

“Put. The. Candle. Back!” - Young Frankenstein

“Sure, it’s like driving a really big Pinto” - Speed

“Our blessed mother of acceleration, don’t fail us now!” - Blues Brothers

“Get out! And don’t come back until you’ve reDEEMed yourselves” - Blues Brothers

I’d like to see versions with the ‘Top 100 funniest lines’ and ‘Top 50 lines since 1970.’ A lot of those older films are lost on me and my MTV generation. Really, 6(!) from Casablanca?

Or about 100 from Airplane! alone…

“I am serious… and don’t call me Shirley.” comes to mind

“Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit drinking/smoking/sniffing glue/amphetimines” another…

I missed the first half hour but I immediately noticed the distinct lack of The Princess Bride quotes.

Here’s some that really don’t deserve to be there:

  1. “Plastics,” “The Graduate,” 1967
    What the hell? I’ve seen the movie and I don’t remember this nor do I ever remember hearing anyone quote this at any time whatsoever until they showed it last night. And this even rates higher than the “Are you trying to seduce me?” line?

  2. “La-dee-da, la-dee-da,” “Annie Hall,” 1977.
    Heh? It’s just dumb.

  3. “Is it safe?”, “Marathon Man,” 1976.
    I’ve never heard this one either.

  4. “Listen to me, mister. You’re my knight in shining armor. Don’t you forget it. You’re going to get back on that horse, and I’m going to be right behind you, holding on tight, and away we’re gonna go, go, go!”, “On Golden Pond,” 1981.
    This isn’t really all that special.

None of those should rate anywhere near “Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father. Prepare to die.”

A few I thought would be there:

“I’m Spartacus”

“The first rule of fight club is, you do not talk about fight club”

“I am your father!”

Sorry, but the movie was one great line after another. Maybe if they had bunched them all together, or just submitted the script.

Take your stinking lines off the list, you damn dirty… apes who make lists! As the list goes one, the lines go down:

  1. “Yo, Adrian!”, “Rocky,” 1976.

  2. “Hello, gorgeous,” “Funny Girl,” 1968.

  3. “Listen to me, mister. You’re my knight in shining armor. Don’t you forget it. You’re going to get back on that horse, and I’m going to be right behind you, holding on tight, and away we’re gonna go, go, go!”, “On Golden Pond,” 1981.

  4. “I feel the need — the need for speed!”, “Top Gun,” 1986.

  5. “Nobody puts Baby in a corner,” “Dirty Dancing,” 1987.

Hey, that’s feaking classic!

I thought the most glaring omission was “But you AWRR, Blanche! But you AWRR in that chair!” from What Ever Happened to Baby Jane.

I came looking for this thread after reading through the 400 nominated quotes. It’s a .pdf file, so I won’t link it directly, but you can just scroll down to the very bottom of this page and take a look. Many of the suggestions in this thread, including ones from Airplane and The Princess Bride, were included on the ballot.

I watched the show and loved it. I thought it was very cleverly edited to show the quotes in context, and I particularly liked the way they transitioned from one film clip to the next. They even included quotes that were nominated but didn’t win when showcasing the films in which they appeared (for example using non-winning Godfather and Casablanca quotes when showing other quotes from those movies).

The quotes I was most expecting which were not included were all on the ballot:

“I picked the wrong day to stop sniffing glue” (Airplane)

“…the problems of three people don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world” (Casablanca)

“Follow the money.” (All the President’s Men)

I recognized almost every quote in the 100. Some I knew although I’d never seen the movie. There were a few that I didn’t recognize at all:

  1. “… It’s in the hole!” (Caddyshack)
  2. “Is it safe?” (Marathon Man)
  3. “Say ‘hello’ to my little friend!” (Scarface)

On preview, I saw Gilligan’s post and remembered that during the show I was also looking for “I am Spartacus.” (It was on the ballot.)

I meant to add that “I am serious… and don’t call me Shirley.” is on the list – #79. “Looks like I picked the wrong week…” was on the ballot, along with “Have you ever seen a grown man naked?” All three quotes were included in the show, although only one made the final list.

Well, that one-word line became a major catch-phrase at the time the movie came out and for a few years afterwards. But it has died out since, and if you’re younger than 45 I’m not surprised you wouldn’t remember it.

Granted I was a little too young to see it when it first came out but I have seen since it on television a couple times. I would think that a requirement of a famous movie quote would be staying power and it seems that quote does not fit.

My name is H. I. McDunnah, you can call me Hi.
Maybe it was Utah.
And every lind between those two in Rasing Arizona.
There is also nothing from YODA?!?! Nothing from Darth Vader?!

I find your lack of faith disturbing.

Do! Or do not. There is no try.