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Apr 15, 2011

My turn: 100 Things I Love About the Movies

You ought to know the drill - it's pretty self-explanatory. Thanks go out to all of the folks I've seen who've done this here exercise, most notably the muse, The Droid You're Looking For.

* Time travel movies
* Red Apple cigarettes

* Billy Zabka
* "Pain don't hurt."
* Anthony Kiedis in Point Break
* The music of David Holmes
* The Pangea of languages spoken in Code 46
* Michel Gondry
* Dr. Rosenpenis
* "Violence inherent in the system!"



* "You throw me the idol, I throw you the whip."
* The Rushmore soundtrack
* The eternal snubbing of Mike Judge (runaway success might drain his powers)
* William Fichtner getting upset at the mention of Amway
* The brilliance of editing/sound editing for Avi's arrival/departure from London
* "Clay. Bill Clay."
* Dashiell Parr
* Wiley Wiggins pinching his nose and pushing his hair behind his ears
* Lone Pine Mall
* Tim Burton's Batman
* Galaxy Quest
* That it's become okay to like Garden State (and its soundtrack) again
* "Anybody want a peanut?"
* Bolo Yeung
* Val Kilmer in Tombstone
* Freedom = $1.05
* Martin Scorcese's pop sountracks
* Hating Nicolas Cage
* The Wicker Man (2006)
* "Masheen!"
* Adaptations of Elmore Leonard novels
* The fantasy Tim Robbins' beatdown in High Fidelity
* People not sitting near me at the theater
* Netflix (duh)
* BOTH car chases in Ronin
* What might be the most quotable movie ever: Napoleon Dynamite
* The Mentos-zation of Bloodsport



* The idiotic, pseudo-brilliant mind of Richard Kelly
* Yes, the first 10 minutes of Up
* The Gypsy Cab Company
* Lola's lungs
* "Would you like to know more?"
* Shermer, Illinois
* The resilience of the Coen Brothers
* Trainspotting's introductory montage
* The stubbornness of one Roy McAvoy
* Roxanne's 20 Something Betters
* The Wrestler's video game


* Listening to movie podcasts
* "What is a quince?"
* My experience watching Grindhouse in the theater
* Dolly zooms
* The end of The Game
Watching the crappy version of The Time Machine for the 47th time
* Alfred Molina rocking out to "Sister Christian"
* Trying to narrow down my favorite parts of Black Dynamite
* Ferris Bueller talking to the camera

* Seeing a classic film for the first time that lives up to the advance billing
* Heist flicks
* Raisinets, popcorn and soda
* "Thass not a knife…now thass a knife!"
* Being known as a walking movie Wikipedia
* Spotting That Guys in movies ("Sweet - John Carroll Lynch is in this!")
* The Cult of The Room
* Retroactively seeing stars in films before they were famous (i.e. Sam Jackson in Coming to America)
* The original Out of Sight poster


* That little guys really can compete with the big boys
* The LAMB
* Chris Tucker's star-making performance in Friday
* The genuine camaraderie between Butch and Sundance
* 80s comedies
* 90s indies
* Chris Cooper's teeth in Adaptation
* The three seashells


* Amelie's powers of observation
* Jo-Go!
* Floyd and his Honey Bear
* Coming-of-age stories
* The gifts that keep on giving: The Karate Kid films(Macchio)
* Noticing something new with each viewing of Fight Club
* "Playing football at West Canaan may have been the opportunity of your lifetime, but I don't want…your life!!"


* Jon Voight in Anaconda
* Paul Newman dressing someone down
* Dystopian movies
* Wes Anderson's attention to detail
* "Remember remember the fifth of November; Gunpowder, treason and plot.; I know of no reason why gunpowder, treason; Should ever be forgot…"
* Min-sik Choi's hair in Oldboy
* The opening credits of Catch Me If You Can
* The closing credits of Dazed and Confused
* Insane, French trapeze artists
* Crossing movies off my "haven't seen" list
* Meeting my "blog" friends for real
* My awesome movie-going partner
* Javier Bardem's No Country haircut
* "7's the key number here. Think about it. 7-Elevens. 7 dwarves. 7, man, that's the number. 7 chipmunks twirlin' on a branch, eatin' lots of sunflowers on my uncle's ranch."
* Ordell Robbie
* Watching the audience watch THE scene in 127 Hours
* Harkins Theaters
* That you're reading this


11 people have chosen wisely: on "My turn: 100 Things I Love About the Movies"

JacksSmirkingRevenge said...

Have you seen Wiley Wiggons' twitter? His signature line states: "Ask me to touch my nose and I will punch you in the face."

Jack L said...

Lots of cool stuff in this list.

I like the Red Apple cigarettes, QT is just great...

And I love Dolly Zooms as well, Mathieu Kassowitz is particularly adept at them!


And your "relationship" with Nic Cage is weird, you love hating him, yet you seem to know so much about him and have seen so many of his films that you could easily be mistaken for a fan.
I've also noticed that someone using the pseudonym of "Nic Cage" regularly comments on your blog, I think that's hilarious...

Maybe I should do one of these lists, it seems pretty hard though and I am kind of lazy so I doubt I'll ever really get around to it...

Fletch said...

@ JSR - Christ, that's hilarious. Though I can't imagine that that was due to Linklater's direction - it had to be something that he just constantly did at that time...right?

@ Jack - I'm a sucker for any and all imaginary products that writers dream up (notice I included Wes Anderson's Gypsy Cab Company as well).

I actually never knew that they were called dolly zooms until today. Knew there had to be a name for them, though, so I looked it up. Yay not going to film school...

I guess you could say that I'm a spurned fan of Cage's. I enjoyed him quite a bit in the 80s and early 90s, but just got pissed at the guy for selling out so much. He has talent (I think - it might just be coincidence), but wastes it all of the time. Kinda like his money! Which I guess starts the cycle all over again...

I more or less feel the same way about Travolta. He was huge, then faded, then QT made him a star again. He started off with quality films (Get Shorty), but then turned into a paycheck machine. One of my first posts here years ago was about how prolific the two of them became in the 90s. Travolta's output was insane there for a few years - some hits, many misses - but I just can't fully support guys like that. The antithesis of them is Clooney, who took his one big paycheck with Batman & Robin and then dedicated himself to starring in and producing quality films, and I love him all the more for it. Every movie might not be great, but even his failures are noble.

Red said...

I want to choose one of these lists by random and make it my duty to understand every single entry within a year. What other way to better broaden your horizons, right?

Mad props for the Wrestler game. That thing was tight.

John Voight scared the shit out of me in Anaconda.

And you cannot stop the power of JoGo. You can only hope to contain it.

Fletch said...

@ Red - I purposefully explained some (that I thought were pretty obscure) and didn't explain others. Of course, if you want to know any, just ask!

That video game in The Wrestler might have been the highlight of the film for me...and it's an awesome movie.

Funny...Jon Voight cracks me up in Anaconda. Did a whole post about it once upon a time.

Big couple years coming up for our main man Jo-Go. Can't believe I haven't watched the Hesher trailer yet...

Castor said...

How did I forget Netflix on my list??? Such a life-saver!

And I'm not sure what a Jo Go is, are you talking about JGL? ;p

Stevee Taylor said...

"Hating Nicolas Cage"

You and I have that in common, my friend.

Jack L said...

@Fletch
I've always thought Clooney looked really smug, so it's always put me off his films even though I know he is talented.

I still think Cage is the best actor of his generation though, and none other than Roger Ebert agrees with me ;)

He's way better than Travolta as well, he always reminds me of a pig for some reason.
And in my opinion he's only done two really good films, Pulp Fiction and Face/Off.

blake said...

I'm going to be honest. I don't know what 70% of these are referring to.

Jess said...

Can't believe you outed yourself about liking Varsity Blues. Made my night.

Fletch said...

@ Castor - I had "DVRs" on here as well, but they got nixed at the last second. Can't wait to tell the kids of tomorrow how tough we had it with these things called VCRs and Blockbusters.

@ Stevee - But don't forget, I "love" hating Nic Cage...I could never outright hate him. ;)

@ Jack - You sound kind of like I used to. Years ago (uh, probably right around the time you were born), he was on a TV show called ER, and I couldn't stand the guy. Then he did From Dusk Till Dawn, and I was a bit blown away by him. He had presence and charisma and was more than just some smarmy asshole. Then I read more about his acting philosophy (which I outlined above) and saw the choices he made and I can't help but respect the hell out of him.

Whoa whoa whoa...Nic Cage...best actor of his generation!?!? I might think he's capable of being a very good actor, but that's heresy around these parts.

@ Blake - Seriously?!? Example?

@ Jess - No shame there - it's a great (bad) movie! I adore it and have seen it way too many times. Actually, I should admit that I don't even think it's all that bad. It's just has a few laughable (unintentionally) moments, but either way, it's a hell of a time.