And I read that scene entirely differently. Toad’s a member of a mutant supremacist faction. He’s being told in no uncertain terms that he’s nothing special. Compare to “There are always men like you” towards Loki in The Avengers. It’s a middle finger in spoken form.
I haven’t seen the film so I can’t speak in that context, but the way I’ve always heard that phrase in use is basically someone declaring that the person they’re trying to deal with is being too much of a thick-headed jackass to get it and do things the way the speaker wants them to.
It’s one of those obligatory movie quotes you hear in Basic Training.
In “When Harry Met Sally,” the Carrie Fisher character’s recurring line “You’re right, you’re right, I know you’re right.”
Unfunny and awkwardly unrealistic in a film where all the other dialogue stays just barely on this side of plausible-in-real-life.
I dunno, there was that time a friend of mine faked an orgasm in a deli.
They asked him to leave.
Another one: In “Back to the Future,” when 1955 Doc says to Marty, “You keep using that word ‘heavy.’ Is there some kind of gravity anomaly in 1985?”
While the film does have its implausibilities (duh), there is a more-or-less realistic scientific consistency to Doc’s dialogue, except for this silly line. No way he would think things could somehow be “heavier” in 1980, and no way he would think there might be some link between this and some informal, trivial linguistic innovation.
The “list” used to refer to all those who had enlisted into military service. While the list was an actual accounting of names of soldiers, “the list” also could refer to the total number of soldiers and therefore the size of the military itself; a strong army might be said to have a large list, or a weak army a small list. For example:
(Shakespeare, Antony & Cleopatra, Act III, Scene VI. Taken from mit.edu. My bold. Partly quoted in the OED, but I think the full context makes more sense of it.)
Referring to a “thin list” works in the sense of “list” as the collective group of allies, implying its relative weakness, which is the idea expressed. Admittedly, this interpretation is a bit of a stretch, as it fits in my head but I can’t offhand find better evidence to support it.
Perhaps more to the point, “thin” has a meaning of “not numerous” that fits even the modern sense of “list” in the questioned quote. The OED calls it obsolete, though this does not make it out of place in a Tolkien story. One of their examples is:
(T. Thomas in Portland Papers VI. (Hist. MSS. Comm.) 109, 1725, in the OED, “thin,” adj. II(b).)
Referring to a “thin list” when “thin” means sparse, it would mean a list that hasn’t many entries, which is also the idea expressed.
Anyhow. That justifies the line to my satisfaction. Yes, the editor in me wants archaic or obsolete words to be used in an obvious manner, and the phrase “our list of allies grows thin” does not suggest the audience should look for a non-modern interpretation of those words. But I don’t think the phrase is incorrect once you allow for obsolete usage. Even if it still bugs you, I hope my rambling here at least helps you enjoy the movie a little bit more the next time you watch it. 
Cheers,
Jon
I believe the point is that Benjamin and Russell do NOT have friendly intentions.
“An Affair to Remember”
Nickie Ferrante to Terry McKay
“If it had to be one of us; why did it have to be you?”
It might bother me due to his amazingly cheesy delivery.
From Dude, where’s my car. Yes, yes, it’s a stupid movie. I know. I still love it. It’s a retarded guilty pleasure :
- Dude, you got a tattoo on your back !
- Sweet ! Hey, you got one too ! What does mine say ?
- “Dude”. What does mine say ?"
- “Sweet”. What does mine say ?"
- “Duuuude”, what 's mine say ?"
- “Sweeet”. What’s mine say ?"
- 'DU. DE. WHAT DOES MINE SAY ? :mad:"
- “SA. WEET. WHAT DOES **MINE **SAY ? :mad:”
I feel weird criticizing the heft of a movie with Sylvester Stallone and Wesley Snipes, but then obviously I think the movie has its redeeming qualities (hence the screen name, after all)…
NOT among them, swinging a television during a fight and saying “You’re on TV!”
Right. But in that case, Davey should not have told them where to find Wayne and Garth, because it was privileged information.
Security guard Chris Farley probably shouldn’t have told Wayne and Garth how to find Mr. Big either, but sometimes security lapses are a necessity if you want the mega happy ending.
I’m ok with Andie McDowell but the moment I read the thread I thought of that line… it just a big ol’ cheezy THUMP. Decent movie otherwise.
The Thomas Crown Affair (1968).
A group of armed robbers is waiting in the elevator lobby of a bank building. When an elevator reaches the lobby and the doors open, they holler at the occupants and start roughly pulling them out, at which point one of the riders says in surprise and indignation,
“This is an ELEVATOR!”
That line is my favourite thing about that film.
You know, for a security guard, he had an awful lot of information, dontcha think?
The previous scene I mentioned doesn’t make much sense, isn’t very funny, and is totally redundant; all of which makes me think that it was left over from a different edit, or part of a larger joke that got cut out, or something.
In context, it’s a part of the central thread of the story, and a precursor to the end of the movie: when knocked down, Luke will just stand up and try again. The Captain recognises this and calls it out, long before we do, the audience.
So we hear the line first as just a cute line trivialising the mistreatment of Luke. Later, we understand that it is a statement of the central tragedy of the story.
Out of context, it’s normally just a straight reading.
Interesting, but I have to say the scene is seemingly way funnier without that context
“Hey, he made the universal sign of the donut”