Quotable Movies

[bird]

What are the top movies in terms of quotability -- not measured by a single strong line, but (a) sheer volume of quotable lines, (b) how much the movie is actually quoted?

Based on our household, I would say three top movies are:

- Wizard of Oz
- A League of Their Own
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Caddyshack and Animal House are up there, but not at the level of these three. Gone With the Wind boils down to two-three strong quotes, only one of which I hear used much.

Looking at this list, I think I might be showing my age. Although my 10-year-old son is a strong partisan of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and my daughter of A League of Their Own.

Any nominations?

[Windsor]

In my house it would be:

Holy Grail
Blues Brothers
Princess Bride
Blazing Saddles

My daughter would add:
Not another teen movie
Bring it on
Napolean Dynamite


Loni

[dball]

The Godfather (though there are 3 movies from which to choose)
Princess Bride
Office Space

[NashvilleDevil]

Anchorman
Caddyshack
Fletch
Dazed and Confused
Old School
Wedding Crashers
Big Lebowski

[billybreen]

In a few months I'll be able to add the Simpsons, and that is definitely the most quotable work of popular culture ever, for my money. Just based on volume of content it has a huge advantage.

Princess Bride is a good call, as is Office Space. Real Genius is a personal favorite that I probably quote more than any other movie. Your mom puts license plates in your underwear? How do you sit?

There I go again . . .

[Highlander]

My favorite movie of all time to quote is Top Gun

"Negative Ghostrider. The pattern is full."

A close second is the obscure The Last Starfighter -

Alex:One gunstar against the whole armada?! It'll be a slaughter!
Grig: That's the Spirit!
Alex: No. MY Slaughter!!!

Pulp Fiction: is always popular, although I can't repeat most of the quotes here.
I'd second the Office Space references. My personal favorite is

BOB: I hear you've been missing a lot of work lately.
Peter: Well, I wouldn't say I've been MISSING it, Bob.

[hurleyfor3]

Airplane 1 and 2

[DukeUsul]

In our house the Princess Bride, Holy Grail, and Napoleon Dynamite are the most frequent. I'll echo Highlander, and there's always a good The Last Starfighter quote ready:

Alex: We live in a mobile home. It's like a cave, with wheels. You can go places. Except we never went anywhere.
Grig: Fascinating.

Ditto Office Space:

Bob #1: We're gonna be getting rid of these people. How about Sameer Naga...Naga... Not gonna work here anymore!

Another one that gets frequent mention is Coming to America, especially while watching basketball:

Yes! Yes! In the face!

[riverside6]

Seasonal but...National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

[Highlander]

DukeUsul, there's always more to quote from TLS:

Grig: Don't worry. I'll have it all figured out by the time we reach the frontier.
<beeping sound>
Alex: What's that?
Grig: The Frontier

or another favorite...

Alex: Great. I'm about to get myself killed a million miles from nowhere, and a gung-ho iguana tells me to relax!

[Bostondevil]

What, no one's mentioned Old School? We quote Old School a lot. My 13 year old son also quotes Anchorman and Star Wars. Actually the rest my sons quote Star Wars too. Even the 2 year old. It's very cute to hear a 2 year-old say "Dark Side of the Force" as he blasts you with forced lightning.

Also

Princess Bride
The Terminator
Caddyshack


We also talk about "Bound, bound, bound and rebound" (it's become a cheer while watching Duke) and "Jack-Jack attacks" so, what to call that, shorts related to The Incredibles.

[DukeUsul]

Or:

Alex: Go to bed Louis, or I'm telling mom about your playboys!
Louis: What the...?!?!?
Beta Alex: I said go to bed Louis, or I'm telling mom about your playboys!

Hey Highlander, say Hi to your wife for me. Haven't chatted with her in a while :-) Hope you guys are well.

[DevilAlumna]

We love Austin Powers in this house -- Yeah, baby, yeah! (www.shhh.com)

And my brother and I can act out just about every scene in:

National Lampoon's Vacation - "Don't know why they call it hamburger helper, tastes just fine by itself!";

European Vacation - "He's not gonna pork her, Russ";

and of course, the whole family favorite, A Christmas Story - "Randy lay there like a slug. It was his only defense."

[rasputin]

Casablanca "Here's looking at you, kid" "Round up the usual suspects"
"We'll always have Paris" etc.

Gone With The Wind

Blazing Saddles

I think I'm showing my age too . . .

[05dukie]

ditto to Princess Bride, Office Space, Holy Grail, Napoleon Dynamite The Godfather.

I'll add Raising Arizona

'When there was to meat we ate fowl and when there was no fowl we ate crawdads. And when there were no crawdads to be found, we ate sand'

'Baby's gotta get his Dip-Tet, HI'

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

so many choices

and Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure

'Strange things are afoot at the Circle K'

'And I am the Duke of Ted'

'San Dimas High School football rules!'

[billybreen]

I quote that one all the time:

Q: Are these them balloons that blow up in funny shapes and all?
A: Well no, unless round is funny.

[The Gordog]

Raising Arizona:

"My name is Nathan Arizona. Do it my way or watch your butt!"

"I want me a bay-be Hi!"

"I figured they had more than they could handle."

[DukeUsul]

After attending the 2001 ACC Championship in Atlanta, I drove back to the Durham area with two buddies of mine. We made the best of the late trip back by quoting movies. The piece de la resistance being the line-by-line re-enactment of The Hunt for Red October. Complete with horrible renditions of Sean Connery's Scotish brogue. It took us a good hour and a half to do it. I think we even include bits of the orchestral score and sound effects for good measure.

Wow. Did I just admit that publicly?

[Deslok]

Of course, your avatar reminds me that when I do get together with my brothers(which isn't very often these days since we've separated around the world), we'll go for quoting the very bad, and very badly delivered lines from the original Dune.

We call that one... Muad'ib. You are Paul... ... Maud'ib.

The sleeper must awaken. Arrakis. Dune. Desert planet. Why are we all whispering?

[DukeUsul]

Yeah, Deslok, my little bro and I do the same thing. "And how can this be? For he is the Kwisatz Haderach!"

BTW, lest anyone think I have terrible taste in movies:
Dune the movie = terrible
Dune the sci-fi minseries = not terrible
Dune the books = totally awesome