# Stupid Lines in Movies You Love **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 26, 2013, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-lines-in-movies-you-love/677186 "2013-12-26T02:40:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2013, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-lines-in-movies-you-love/677186/21 "2013-12-26T19:16:07Z")
Fellowship of the Ring, Elrond is whining to Gandalf about current events: “Our list of allies grows _thin_.” No, your list grows _short_. Lists don’t get thin, unless you write each name on a piece of paper and then stack them. But then that’s not a list. The line just clangs off my ear every time. ---
**Author:** ![Human\_Action](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@Human\_Action](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Human_Action)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2013, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-lines-in-movies-you-love/677186/22 "2013-12-26T20:20:21Z")
_Batman: Mask of the Phantasm_: Andrea Beaumont: Look what they did to us! Look what we could have had! They had to pay! Batman: But, Andi, what will vengeance solve? Ugh. Everything about Batman’s line bothers me. It’s a terrible line reading from the great Kevin Conroy, very earnest and bubbly. It’s way too on-the-nose. It’s not something Batman would ever say. Ugh. I love the movie, but that one line nearly spoils the climax for me, every time. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2013, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-lines-in-movies-you-love/677186/23 "2013-12-26T20:24:11Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Fellowship of the Ring, Elrond is whining to Gandalf about current events: “Our list of allies grows _thin_.” > > No, your list grows _short_. Lists don’t get thin, unless you write each name on a piece of paper and then stack them. But then that’s not a list. > > The line just clangs off my ear every time. “The ‘Hi, Opal!’ approacheth!” ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2013, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-lines-in-movies-you-love/677186/24 "2013-12-26T22:16:29Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Fellowship of the Ring, Elrond is whining to Gandalf about current events: “Our list of allies grows _thin_.” > > No, your list grows _short_. Lists don’t get thin, unless you write each name on a piece of paper and then stack them. But then that’s not a list. > > The line just clangs off my ear every time. I always took that as a football analogy: “Our bench of replacements for current players grows _thin_.” That was the only way I could make “thin” work in my head. Roddy ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2013, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-lines-in-movies-you-love/677186/25 "2013-12-26T22:40:54Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > I always took that as a football analogy: “Our bench of replacements for current players grows _thin_.” > > That was the only way I could make “thin” work in my head. > Roddy And since the way to describe the quality of your bench is “depth”, then a bench can definitely be thin. But since lists are linear, they just have length. Not to mention (and I just noticed this) “grows thin” is kind of an oxymoron. You don’t \*\*grow \*\*thin. You may grow fat, but, you get thinner. ---
**Author:** ![Bellhorn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@Bellhorn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bellhorn)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2013, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-lines-in-movies-you-love/677186/26 "2013-12-26T22:47:58Z")
Being a middle aged male, of course I love\*\* The Godfather \*\*and **The Godfather, Part I** I. And I also adore Diane Keaton and will always see her as Annie Hall. But I couldn’t stand her or her character in the Godfather movies. Keaton plays a dumb, blind bunny, and given a dumb part with dumb lines that she delivers in a dumb fashion. In Godfather, Part II, Kay(her character) FINALLY gets that her husband is an evil man (gee, it only took her 10 years to figure that one out),and expresses it to Pacino in her biggest scene in either of the first two movies. “_Oh, oh, Michael; Michael, you are blind. It wasn’t a miscarriage, it was an abortion. An abortion, Michael. Just like our marriage is an abortion – something that’s unholy and evil. I didn’t want your son, Michael. I wouldn’t bring another one of your sons in this world. It was an abortion, Michael. It was a son; a son, and I had it killed cuz this must all end. I know now that it’s over; I knew it then. There would be no way, Michael. No way you could forgive me. Not with this Sicilian thing that’s been going on for 2000 years_.” If I were Michael Corleone, I would have sent her to the bottom of Lake Tahoe to be with her brother-in-law Fredo. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [December 26, 2013, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-lines-in-movies-you-love/677186/27 "2013-12-26T23:00:22Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > . . . Not to mention (and I just noticed this) “grows thin” is kind of an oxymoron. You don’t \*\*grow \*\*thin. You may grow fat, but, you get thinner. Well, yeah, but it’s a commonplace one. “Our time grows short.” Technically, it can’t “grow” short; it’s diminishing, not growing. But it’s a figure of speech; you could say it’s poetic irony, rather than a formal oxymoron. (Much like saying “Not to mention” and then mentioning it!) 😉 ---
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2013, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-lines-in-movies-you-love/677186/28 "2013-12-27T04:10:58Z")
> [@MadTheSwine](#): > > I hate the “What was his name” line in Shawshank and the “Grizzly Adams had a beard” line in Happy Gilmore. I know and love “Shawshank Redemption” but I don’t remember the line (or why it would be considered stupid). Please remind me when it is spoken. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2013, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-lines-in-movies-you-love/677186/29 "2013-12-27T09:12:42Z")
> [@Bellhorn](#): > > Being a middle aged male, of course I love\*\* The Godfather \*\*and **The Godfather, Part I** I. And I also adore Diane Keaton and will always see her as Annie Hall. But I couldn’t stand her or her character in the Godfather movies. Keaton plays a dumb, blind bunny, and given a dumb part with dumb lines that she delivers in a dumb fashion. > > In Godfather, Part II, Kay(her character) FINALLY gets that her husband is an evil man (gee, it only took her 10 years to figure that one out),and expresses it to Pacino in her biggest scene in either of the first two movies. > > “_Oh, oh, Michael; Michael, you are blind. It wasn’t a miscarriage, it was an abortion. An abortion, Michael. Just like our marriage is an abortion – something that’s unholy and evil. I didn’t want your son, Michael. I wouldn’t bring another one of your sons in this world. It was an abortion, Michael. It was a son; a son, and I had it killed cuz this must all end. I know now that it’s over; I knew it then. There would be no way, Michael. No way you could forgive me. Not with this Sicilian thing that’s been going on for 2000 years_.” > > If I were Michael Corleone, I would have sent her to the bottom of Lake Tahoe to be with her brother-in-law Fredo. Yes…I never tire of condemning this stupid scene (the apex of stupid in a stupid movie! I hate, hate, hate GF2). Uh…let me see, Kay…you murder a baby to bring a halt to the Mafia??? Kill a Mafia Don’s son, and then yell at him about it, as if it were his fault??? ---
**Author:** ![Wolf333](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolf333/32/3460_2.png) [@Wolf333](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolf333)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2013, 9:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-lines-in-movies-you-love/677186/30 "2013-12-27T09:33:21Z")
> [@stuyguy](#): > > I know and love “Shawshank Redemption” but I don’t remember the line (or why it would be considered stupid). Please remind me when it is spoken. Thanks. It was after finding out the the new guy beaten by Hadley died in the infirmary. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2013, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-lines-in-movies-you-love/677186/31 "2013-12-27T11:29:04Z")
One of my favourite movies is the fairy-tale _Ever After_, starring Drew Barrymore and Dougray Scott. It’s utterly delightful, and I adore it. But the last lines they say to each other are: **Danielle:** You, sir, are supposed to be charming. **Henry:** And we, princess, are supposed to live happily ever after. **Danielle:** Says who? **Henry:** You know, I don’t know. Which sound like something made up in the first draft of the script as filler that they had always meant to change, but they just never got around to it. So disappointing. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2013, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-lines-in-movies-you-love/677186/32 "2013-12-27T12:30:33Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > You know what happens to a toad that gets struck by lightning? What was it exactly about that line that everyone except me hates? Is it the delivery? in _Star Trek Into Darkness_, I think the worst bit was: “I’m scared, Spock… help me not to be… how do you choose not to feel?” “I do not know. Right now, I am failing.” Probably because the first time I saw the movie, I misheard Spock’s line as “Right now, I am feeling.” Which my brain immediately re-parsed as “Right now, I has _ **feels!** _”😃 ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2013, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-lines-in-movies-you-love/677186/33 "2013-12-27T13:03:01Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > What was it exactly about that line that everyone except me hates? Is it the delivery? It’s the answer. Which was “The same thing that happens to everything else.” It should’ve been “It croaks.” ---
**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2013, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-lines-in-movies-you-love/677186/34 "2013-12-27T16:19:54Z")
From the movie _Twins_: “If you’re lying to me, I’ll be back.” You can almost see Arnold Schwarzenegger cringe as he works in his signature phrase in such a horrible, clumsy manner. ---
**Author:** ![JKilez](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e5b9ba/32.png) [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2013, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-lines-in-movies-you-love/677186/35 "2013-12-27T16:24:54Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > It’s the answer. Which was “The same thing that happens to everything else.” > > It should’ve been “It croaks.” At the risk of being whooshed… No, the line was supposed to be funny because people would expect the trite “it croaks” joke, but instead they got a straight line. It was the counter-expectations humor often used in the Simpsons and Joss Whedon shows. The problem was that Berry did not understand that, and gave a very stilted, and all too serious delivery of the straight line, which made it very awkward because it did not match the set-up. It should have been very much tongue-in-cheek. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2013, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-lines-in-movies-you-love/677186/36 "2013-12-27T17:38:45Z")
**City Slickers** , which I loved. The 3 men have a conversation out on the trail about their best and worst days, which was a really good scene. But later, when they get back to the city, Billy Crystal tells the wife ‘It’s my best day’. Let alone that the line is delivered very badly, it calls back to a conversation _she wasn’t a part of or knew about_. Her response was a sweet smile. It should have been ‘What?’ ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2013, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-lines-in-movies-you-love/677186/37 "2013-12-27T17:55:08Z")
From “Cool Hand Luke”: …“what we have here is a failure to communicate”? Really? how stupid is this? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2013, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-lines-in-movies-you-love/677186/38 "2013-12-27T18:04:13Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > From “Cool Hand Luke”: …“what we have here is a failure to communicate”? > Really? how stupid is this? What’s stupid about that one? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2013, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-lines-in-movies-you-love/677186/39 "2013-12-27T18:13:28Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > From “Cool Hand Luke”: …“what we have here is a failure to communicate”? > Really? how stupid is this? This is another of those commonly misquoted lines. The real quote is “What we’ve got here is failure to communicate”, the most notable difference being the lack of the “a”, at least the first time the line is used > [@](#): > > The context of the delivery of the line is: > > Captain: You gonna get used to wearing them chains after a while, Luke. Don’t you never stop listening to them clinking, 'cause they gonna remind you what I been saying for your own good. > Luke: I wish you’d stop being so good to me, Cap’n. > Captain: Don’t you ever talk that way to me. (pause, then hitting him) NEVER! NEVER! (Luke rolls down hill; to other prisoners) What we’ve got here is failure to communicate. Some men you just can’t reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it. Well, he gets it. I don’t like it any more than you men. > **[Cool Hand Luke](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_we've_got_here_is_(a)_failure_to_communicate)** > > Cool Hand Luke is a 1967 American prison drama film directed by Stuart Rosenberg, starring Paul Newman and featuring George Kennedy in an Oscar-winning performance. Newman stars in the title role as Luke, a prisoner in a Florida prison camp who refuses to submit to the system. Set in the early 1950s, it is based on Donn Pearce's 1965 novel Cool Hand Luke. > Roger Ebert called Cool Hand Luke an anti-establishment film shot during emerging popular opposition to the Vietnam War. Filming took plac... ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2013, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-lines-in-movies-you-love/677186/40 "2013-12-28T04:04:38Z")
Saving Private Ryan: Tell me I’m a good man. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-lines-in-movies-you-love/677186.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-lines-in-movies-you-love/677186.md?page=3)