Tuesday, May 3, 2011

100 Things I Love About The Movies

Inspired by a blog post over at Siskoid's Blog of Geekery -- which was in turn inspired by similar posts elsewhere --  I've decided to come up with my own list. The following is a hodge-podge of all sorts of different things I love about the movies, mostly unironically.  This is not an exhaustive list by any means, but just the first hundred things that popped into my mind over the last several days; please feel free to add your own thoughts or "You forgot"s in the comments.
  1. The "Day O" sequence in Beetlejuice
  2. "I am a leaf on the wind."
  3. Cary Grant in Arsenic and Old Lace
  4. Nicole Kidman's monologues in To Die For
  5. Naomi Watt's audition in Mullholand Drive
  6. The never-ending fist fight in They Live
  7. Nightcrawler storming the White House in X2
  8. Spike Jonze/Charlie Kaufman collaborations
  9. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon mocking themselves in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
  10. Fred Astaire's effortless dancing
  11. Steve Martin's physical comedy in All of Me
  12. Robert Downey Jr.'s narration in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang
  13. Amy Adams.
  14. Peter Dinklage's "dwarf" speech in Living in Oblivion
  15. Joan Cusack's "Barbie" speech in Addams Family Values
  16. Terry Gilliam's dark and twisty worlds
  17. Ennio Morricone's scores
  18. Madeline Khan
  19. Katherine Hepburn's "The calla lillies are in bloom again" performance in Stage Door
  20. Kirsten Dunst in Interview With the Vampire
  21. The power of the Coke bottle in The Gods Must Be Crazy
  22. "Wheel of Fish" in UHF
  23. "I drink your milkshake!"
  24. Jim Carrey channeling "Amok Time" in The Cable Guy
  25. Ed Norton in Primal Fear
  26. The battle on Hoth in Empire Strikes Back
  27. Edna Mode and the perils of capes in The Incredibles
  28. The toy commercial in The Specials
  29. Simon Pegg/Edgar Wright collaborations
  30. The fight scenes in Bloodsport
  31. Marty Feldman in Young Frankenstein
  32. Christoph Waltz in Inglorious Basterds
  33. "I want my two dollars!"
  34. Val Kilmer in Tombstone
  35. The soundtracks to Quentin Tarantino movies
  36. Hammy in Over the Hedge
  37. The zero-g fight in Inception
  38. The fight scenes in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
  39. The structure of Memento
  40. Christopher Guest's mockumentaries
  41. Paul Rudd in Wet Hot American Summer
  42.  Nic Cage in Vampire's Kiss
  43. Jean Claude Van Damme's monologue in JCVD
  44. Anna Kendrick
  45. The Coen Brothers
  46. The ensemble of future stars in Dazed in Confused
  47. The ensemble of comedy geniuses in Clue
  48. The alien in John Carpenter's The Thing
  49. Kevin Kline in A Fish Called Wanda
  50. "Hey Boy" sequence in American Astronaut
  51. The stylized worlds of Jean-Pierre Jeunet 
  52. Ellen Burstyn in Requiem for a Dream
  53. The interconnectedness of Magnolia
  54. The alien in Slither
  55. All the shenanigans in Super Troopers
  56. The hallway fight in Oldboy
  57. The merging of noir and high school in Brick
  58. "We Both Reached for the Gun" number in Chicago 
  59. The affectionate parody of 50s b-movies in Lost Skeleton of Cadavra
  60. Random musical numbers in non-musicals
  61. The Toon bullets in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?
  62. The affable spirits of the dead in An American Werewolf in London
  63. Fast-paced banter in screwball comedies
  64. Pigs as projectiles in District 9
  65. The dialogue-free beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey
  66. "Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion."
  67. Gollum arguing with Smeagol in Lord of the Rings
  68. Michael Keaton's Coca-Cola addiction in The Paper
  69. The affectionate parody of Blaxploitation films in Black Dynamite
  70. The video-game aesthetic of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
  71. Colin Farrell in In Bruges
  72. The hologram campers in Jason X
  73.  The anachronistic music of Moulin Rouge
  74. Having a largely worthless film partially redeemed by an innovative/entertaining moment or scene
  75. Will Ferrell in Elf
  76.  Glenn Close in Dangerous Liaisons
  77. "A Town Called Malice" scene in Billy Elliot
  78. Lambda Lambda Lambda Rap in Revenge of the Nerds
  79. Puppet Dracula musical in Forgetting Sarah Marshall
  80. Johnny, king of the nonsense response in Airplane 
  81. Will Ferrell and Adam Scott having the world's most uncomfortable sibling hug in Step-Brothers
  82. Creepy little kids in horror movies -- bonus points if twins, super bonus points if gingers
  83. Hobie's unreliable journal narration in The Sasquatch Gang
  84. The Brawndo (It's got electrolytes! [gesture]) vs. water (Like out da toilet?) debate in Idiocracy.
  85. The non sequitur internal monologues in The Informant
  86.  Paul Verhoeven's Sci-Fi oeuvre 
  87. "Ned?  Ned Ryerson?"
  88. Game of Questions in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
  89. Audrey Hepburn and Alan Arkin's cat-and-mouse game in Wait Until Dark
  90. Max's nostalgia speech in Kicking and Screaming
  91. The robot fist fight in Eurotrip
  92. Bill Murray in The Man Who Knew Too Little
  93. The litany of insults in Roxanne
  94. Aaron Eckheart in Thank You For Smoking
  95. The rave in Groove
  96. Brad Pitt's accent in Snatch
  97. Intricate but internally consistent time travel stories
  98. The jerkin' subliminal messages in Josie and the Pussycats
  99. "I am Jack's complete lack of surprise."
  100. B-grade movies and below that allow me to practice my own MST3K skills

3 comments:

  1. Some truly AWESOME ones in there that I wish I'd thought of. Then again, that would have made the list twice as long!

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  2. Many thanks. I tried not to do any direct repeats of the other lists I read, which is why although Magnolia and Moulin Rouge get mentioned, my first instincts for both (Aimee Mann and Tango de Roxanne) don't. I think the only direct repeat was The Cohen Brothers because, well, it's the Cohen Brothers -- I could probably do 100 Things post about them alone.

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  3. I also gave myself that limit, which makes all our lists together a huge master list with no redundancies!

    ReplyDelete