Monday, April 26, 2010

“Great movie quotes become part of our cultural vocabulary...

When you consider that any phrase from American cinema is eligible, you realize this is our most subjective topic to date. We expect nothing less than a war of words as we reignite interest in classic American movies.” --Jean Picker Firstenberg; CEO of the American Film Institute
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I keep a list of quotes in a word document on my computer. It is mostly things from movies and TV (obviously) but some of them are from books and some are from real people. It is single-spaced, size 10, times new roman and is currently 47 pages long.

I also have separate lists for Joss Whedon projects and Aaron Sorkin projects, and the TV shows Friends, Veronica Mars, Gilmore Girls, The Black Donnellys, Grey’s Anatomy and The Vampire Diaries.

The very first quote I ever saved was from Ferris Buellar's Day Off, said by Ferris to the snooty maitre d':
"It’s understanding that makes it possible for people like us to tolerate a person like yourself."

The most recent addition to my list was from last week's Private Practice, from Sam to Addison:
“You want to have your cake and eat it too, but you know what, you can’t because I’m the cake and from here on out, I’m taking the cake away. No more cake for you. I’m good cake too, double-chocolate, cream-filled with the little raspberries on top, so. No more cake for you, so just shut-up.”

And here are just some of my random favorites:

MOVIES:

Hook
Tinker Bell: You know that place between sleep and awake? That place where you still remember dreaming? That’s where I’ll always love you, Peter Pan. That’s where I’ll be waiting.

Empire Records
Gina: Attention Rex Manning fans, to your left you will notice a shoplifter being chased by night manager Lucas. This young man will be caught, deep-fried in a vat of hot oil and served to our first hundred customers. Just another tasty treat from the gang at Empire Records.

Liberty Heights
Ben: If I knew things would no longer be, I would have tried to remember them better.

Notting Hill
Anna: Happiness isn’t happiness without a violin-playing goat.

Ratatouille
Linguini: Ratatouille. It's like a stew, right? Why do they call it that? If you're gonna name a food, you should give it a name that sounds delicious. Ratatouille doesn't sound delicious. It sounds like "rat" and "patootie." Rat-patootie, which does not sound delicious.

Life As A House
George Voiceover: I’d always thought of myself as a house, that was always what I lived in. It didn’t need to be big, it didn’t even need to be beautiful, it just needed to be mine. It became what I was meant to be, I built myself a life, I built myself a house.

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Sam: It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The one’s that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were, and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end, because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But, in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines, it’ll shine out the clearer. Those are the stories that stayed with you, that meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But, I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now, folk in those stories had lots of chances of turnin’ back, only they didn’t. They kept goin’, because they were holdin’ on to somethin’.
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fightin’ for.

The Boondock Saints
Priest: We must always fear the wicked. But there is another kind of evil that we must fear the most, and that is the indifference of good men.

The Hours
Laura Brown: What does it mean to regret when you have no choice?

Velvet Goldmine
Brian Slade: Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask and he'll tell you the truth.

Boys on the Side
Elaine: That’s what you get in life, you know? You get whoever you end up with. Whoever is willing to stick by you, and fight for you, when everyone else is gone. And it ain’t always who you expect. But you just have to make do.

Pirates of the Caribbean : At World’s End
Captain Barbossa: You have to be lost to find the places that can’t be found.

Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
Penny: Sometimes people are layered like that. There’s something totally different underneath than what’s on the surface
Dr. Horrible: And sometimes there’s a third deeper level and that one is the same as the top surface level
Penny: Huh?
Dr. Horrible: Like with pie

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Buffy: All I want to do is graduate from high school, go to Europe, marry Christian Slater, and die. Now it may not sound too great to a sconehead like you, but I think it's swell. And you come along and tell me I'm a member of the hairy mole club so you can throw things at me?

Serenity
Wash: This landing is going to get pretty interesting
Mal: Define interesting
Wash: [dead-pan] Oh God, oh God, we’re all going to die?
Mal: (on loud-speaker) This is the Captain, we have a little problem with our entry sequence so we may experience some slight…turbulence and then…explode



TV:
Good Morning, Miami
Jake: There’s something about your eyes and your smile. It’s not just that they’re beautiful and it’s not just that they light up a room. They’re like a gateway into a world that I want to be a part of.

My So-Called Life
Angela: This life has been a test. If it had been an actual life, you would have received instructions on where to go and what to do.

Battlestar Gallactica
Number Six: Life has a melody, Gaius. A rhythm of notes which become your existence once played in harmony with God's plan.

NCIS
Ziva: It’s like shooting fish in a pond
John: Haha, I think you mean a barrel
Ziva: Why would fish be in a barrel?
John: Uhm, I-uh, that’s a good point, I never really thought about it before

Accidentally on Purpose
Davis: Dude, you were born to be a chef, okay?! When the stork brought you, you grabbed that bird and cooked it into something delicious!

Ugly Betty
Betty: I’ve had to say ‘good-bye’ more times than I would have liked, but everyone can say that. And no matter how many times we do it, even when it’s for the greater good, it still stings. And though we’ll never forget what we’ve given up, we owe it to ourselves to keep moving forward. What we can’t do is live our lives always afraid of the next ‘good-bye,’ because chances are they’re not going to stop. The trick is to recognize when a ‘good-bye’ can be a good thing, when it’s a chance to start again.

How I Met Your Mother
Barney: (After blowing his nose) I’m fine. My nose is just over-flowing with awesome and I had to get some of it out.

The West Wing
President Bartlett: I was watching a television program before, with a kind of roving moderator who spoke to a seated panel of young women who were having some sort of problem with their boyfriends - apparently, because the boyfriends had all slept with the girlfriends' mothers. And they brought the boyfriends out, and they fought, right there on television. Toby, tell me: these people don't vote, do they?

Sports Night
Isaac: If you’re stupid, surround yourself with smart people. If you’re smart, surround yourself with smart people who disagree with you.

Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip
Wes: Living where there’s free speech means sometimes you get offended

The Black Donnellys
Tommy: We’re gonna need some scotch, and a lot of it, but we’re not gonna be able to pay for it, you see
Store Owner: Get outta here
Tommy: I think you’re gonna wanna give it to us
Owner: Oh yeah, and why’s that?
Tommy: Because your daughter has a crush on Kevin, he’s gonna date her if you don’t

Friends
Rachel: C’mon, Daddy, listen to me. It’s like, it’s like all my life everyone has always told me, “You’re a shoe. You’re a shoe, you’re a shoe, you’re a shoe” and then today I just stopped and I said, “What if I don’t want to be a shoe? What if I want to be a-a purse, you know, or, or, or a hat”….No, I don’t want you to buy me a hat! I’m saying that I am a hat - It’s a metaphor, Daddy!

Gilmore Girls
Sookie: Jackson’s sleeping with the zucchini tonight
Lorelai: What’s that? Farm jargon?
Sookie: No, he’s sleeping with the zucchini
Lorelai: But what does that mean? “Sleeping with the zucchini”?
Sookie: It means he’s sleeping with the zucchini
Lorelai: Uh, Sookie, fill me in here. Where’s Jackson?
Sookie: Well, he checked the weather forecast today and there’s a potential cold front coming in from Canada and he knows how important the zucchini is for opening day menu, so..
Lorelai: Are you saying that “sleeping with zucchini” means…
Sookie: He’s sleeping with the zucchini
Michele: She said it four times, you are very slow tonight
Lorelai: Oh, my god!
Sookie: Well, you said to do whatever it takes to make sure we have fresh zucchini
Lorelai: Within the realm of reason!
Sookie: Oh, now you add that!

Grey’s Anatomy
Meredith: We're adults. When did that happen? And how do we make it stop?

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Giles: So we have a threat against the students on their big night. A hellhound trained to attack people in formal wear
Cordelia: Oh, are we all catching up now?
Giles: This Tucker is planning to attack the prom tonight
Oz: Once again the hell mouth puts the 'special' in 'special occasion'
Xander: Why do I even buy tickets for these things, I ask you!
Willow: I wonder if I can take my dress back
Buffy: Don't you dare!
Willow: But Tucker's gonna...
Buffy: No! You guys are gonna have a prom, the kind of prom that everyone should have. I'm gonna give you all a nice, fun, normal evening if I have to kill every single person on the face of the earth to do it!
Xander: Yay?

Angel
Angel: What’s going on?
Wesley: We’re being attacked
Angel: I thought you had double-protection sanctorium spells!
Lorne: I do and they work. It’s a thing with the door and the stairs and the world and a thing. Never mind!
Gunn: Apparently, you can be outside and chuck stuff in
Lorne: I just said that

Firefly
Mal: Zoe, why do I have a wife?
Jayne: You got a wife? All I got is that dumbass stick, sounds like its raining. How come you got a wife?

Dollhouse
Topher: I am obsolete. This must be what old people feel like…and Blockbuster

The Vampire Diaries
Tyler: Look, there’s Elena and her new boyfriend. Oh, what are they doing? Oh, they’re walking…walking…walking…yup, right into the sunset.

Veronica Mars
Veronica Voiceover: I think we all learned a valuable lesson about faith. You give it to the people you love. But the people who really deserve it are the ones who come through even when you don't love them enough.

REAL PEOPLE:
"During your life, everything you do and everyone you meet rubs off in some way. Some bit of everything you experience stays with everyone you’ve ever known, and nothing is lost. That’s what’s eternal, these little specks of experience in a great, enormous river that has no end." --Harriet Doerr

“Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen.” --Conan O’Brien

“The purpose of life is a life of purpose.” --Robert Byrne

“We should never separate the lives we live from the words we speak. To me, the most important goal is to live a life consistent with the values I hold dear and to act on what I believe in.” --Senator Paul Wellstone


I usually save things that make me laugh or make me think or mirror things I am feeling at the time. It is one of the many reasons that I love my DVR because as soon as I hear a line that I want to save I can rewind it as many times as I need to get the words right.

I am not really sure why I keep the lists, I guess it just gives me something to do :o)

xoxo
c

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Friday, April 23, 2010

"Okay, new plan: we’re gonna fashion a cow costume out of this gauze and then we’ll just mosey on outta here like a cow walkin’ out of a hospital."

TV schedules are not what they used to be. Shows used to premiere in the fall, usually took a break at Christmas and had their finales in the spring. Sometimes there would be a break for the Olympics or Sports Playoffs/Championships or Presidential speeches. Nowadays (I sound so old :o) shows take hiatuses at random times for no reason and each channel starts and ends their seasons at totally different times. The USA Network, especially, just seems to do whatever the hell they please ;o) For instance, the third season of In Plain Sight just started a few weeks ago and White Collar starts their second season this summer. Even though it is only April, shows on all networks are already airing their season finales. I guess it makes for more things to watch throughout the year, but it is mostly just annoying and confusing.

While I am not going to run-down the list of all the shows I am currently watching (it is a lot), I will tell you about a few I think you should be watching but probably are not.

Aside from Justified, Party Down is another awesome show that I have just discovered. I knew about it when the first season aired, but as I do not have Starz, I could not watch it until it came out on DVD. I am even thinking about paying for Starz if I cannot get the new season any other way. This show is awesome and completely under-rated. It is a show about a group of actors and one writer who live in L.A. but have not yet hit it big, so they are working as caterers. And if you also watch the show Greek then you will recognize the uniform from Evan Chambers' caterer days, an homage to Party Down. I mean, how could a show created by Paul Rudd, Rob Thomas, John Enbom and Dan Etheridge (the last three all from Veronica Mars) be bad?! Add to that the fact that it stars Ken Marino, Jane Lynch, Lizzy Caplan, Adam Scott, Ryan Hansen and Martin Starr and this show is nothing short of hilarious. (Jane Lynch, obviously, has left for Glee, but is being replaced this season with the equally funny Megan Mullally) AND THEN there are amazing guest stars in every single episode including Kristen Bell, Joey Lauren Adams, Ken Jeong, Jennifer Coolidge, Ed Begley Jr., Enrico Colantoni, Jason Dohring, Breckin Meyer, Rob Corddry, Steven Weber, and George Takei and Rick Fox as themselves. Seriously, watch this show if you want to laugh a lot :o)

Glee has just come back from its winter hiatus. As much as I love this show, I feel like whenever they come back from a hiatus, the episode always underwhelms me. Maybe my expectations are just too high and I get too excited about the show coming back that I think it is going to blow me away and it just does not. That is not to say that last weeks episode was not good I just thought it could have been better. This weeks Madonna episode, however, was AWESOME. The only thing that annoyed me was that stupid American Idol ran long which messed up my DVR and I missed the last five minutes of the show, and consequently, the best musical number of the episode. Luckily, Hulu had it up the next day and FOX is re-airing the episode tonight. This is actually one of my shows that most other people are watching, and rightly so.

I know most people think that Modern Family is the funniest new show of this past season. I have watched several episodes and, while I do think it is entertaining enough, I just cannot get into it. My favorite comedy has to be Accidentally on Purpose. Jenna Elfman plays a thirty-something movie critic who has a one night stand with a guy in his early twenties, played by Jon Foster, and ends up getting pregnant. I seriously love this show and it makes me laugh hysterically every single week. Unfortunately, it did just have its season one finale this week and may not get picked up for a second season, which would make me extremely sad.

Foster and Nicholas Wright, the actor who plays his best friend Davis, also have an online talk-show that is super funny. Here is the first episode:



I follow these guys on twitter (@LunchItUp) and requested that they dress like pirates for one of their episodes. Which they did last week just for me because they are awesome :o)

One of my favorite shows, Ugly Betty, has unfortunately been canceled and the season finale aired a few weeks ago. Over the past four seasons, there have been some down times, but overall Ugly Betty was an amazing show that I will very much miss. It was different than anything else on TV and was extremely entertaining. This season especially has been awesome and if it weren't for stupid ABC constantly changing its time slot, I really think it could have kept going at least another season.

I am still loving The Vampire Diaries, Castle, NCIS, NCIS:LA, The Good Wife and others. There is actually a lot of smart, quality television on that I think a lot of people are over-looking because of more "popular" choices. I just wish I had more power to keep these good shows from getting canceled for crappier ones.

xoxo
c

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Thursday, April 15, 2010

Art: Have you considered the possibility that he’s not in there?

Raylan: He’s in there
Art: You think he’s in there because you think he wants to see his kids, but maybe he doesn’t give a shit about his kids. He’s probably not a candidate for “Father-of-the-Year,” he has shot a cop, among other things
Rachel: If he’s not here then we don’t know where he is
Art: Well then you’re like some drunk who’s looking for his car keys under a street lamp cause that’s where the light is
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In light of my newest obsession with Timothy Olyphant in Justified on FX, I have been trying to see more of his movies and TV shows, as is my way. I had already seen The First Wives Club, A Life Less Ordinary, the Sex and the City episode, Go, Gone in Sixy Seconds, Head Over Heals, Rock Star, Catch and Release, Stop-Loss and part of The Girl Next Door. You would think that I was already obsessed, considering how much of his work I had already seen, but it really was all coincidence. Until now, I had never watched anything because he was in it, he just happened to be in a lot of movies that I had seen. I found both Hitman and Live Free or Die Hard OnDemand and watched both of those. Unfortunately, the issue that I'm encountering is that he has been in several scary movies (ie. The Crazies, A Perfect Getaway, Scream 2, Dreamcatcher), which we all know I am not a fan of, and several not-so-good movies in which his acting skills were not fully utilized. He was also in several episodes of Damages, which is a show that I do not watch. I also never knew that he was on Deadwood, but did not get HBO so I could not have watched it anyway, so it is now in my Netflix queue. And, I know I have said this before, but if you are not already watching Justified, you really should be.

Hitman was alright, it was not horrible but it was not fantastic either. Something about it just did not flow very well. I had wanted to see it when it was in theaters but never did and never got around to renting it either. The action sequences were pretty cool, I just kind of felt like the role did not really suit Olyphant. Not that he is not a good actor, maybe it is just my personal preference, but I like him to play characters with more personality. Even when he is the bad guy, he is more fun when his characters are more playful. Like I said, it is not that he acted poorly, the character was just not written to have any personality.

I had that same issue with his character in Live Free or Die Hard. Overall, the movie was exactly what you would expect from a Bruce Willis movie. I had seen the first Die Hard, but none of the ones in between and you really do not have to see all of them to understand each one individually. I thought the movie as a whole was alright. The concept was pretty interesting and the action sequences teetered on the edge of realism...right up until the point where Willis jumped from a collapsing highway over-pass onto a jet, when it totally jumped off the edge into totally not realistic or humanly possible. I really only watched it because of Olyphant and Justin Long.

I tried to get back into watching my Netflix movies, as I had been neglecting them for a while. I still have not been in the mood for Rachel Getting Married, but I promise I will watch it soon! I did, however, watch Eight Men Out (to commemorate the official start of baseball season) and Wall Street.

After seeing my Philadelphia Phillies win the World Series in 2008, and compete again for the title in 2009, I cannot even imagine what would make any athlete throw a championship. What I did not realize was, the reason most of them did it was because the owner of the White Sox at that time, Charles Comiskey, was a cheapskate and never paid them their bonuses for making it into the series in the first place. And while I am in no way making excuses for their behavior, 1919 was a different time and players were definitely not paid anywhere close to what they are now. It is also interesting to see how Shoeless Joe Jackson is portrayed in this movie, compared to how he is portrayed in Field of Dreams. Not that they made him out to be a genius in Field of Dreams, but until seeing Eight Men Out, I had no idea that he was illiterate. Overall, I thought the movie was very well done and if you are a fan of baseball, you should see it.



I watched Wall Street to prepare for the sequel this summer and it was very good. Michael Douglas is brilliant as Gordon Gekko and I look forward to his reprisal in the sequel. Daryl Hannah annoys me slightly, but even she did not bother me as much as usual. I do not really have much to say about this movie, except that it came out in the late 80's, so if you have not seen it, you really should. Especially in light of our current economic situation :o)

I have also been slacking on going to the theater, mostly because there has not really been anything that I have desperately wanted to see. Although, I do really want to see How To Train Your Dragon. Also, Kick-Ass has been getting really good reviews. After seeing the commercials, I did not really have any desire to see it, but now I might need to check it out.

On a personal note, my friend that was in the hospital is doing much better and has been moved to a rehab facility. His improvement makes me ecstatically happy and I pray that he continues improving. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for him and his family, it really means more to me than you can possibly imagine!

xoxo
c

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