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Friday, December 28, 2012

That One Part

Do you ever find yourself flipping through the channels, stumbling across a movie you own or know quite well, and then even if it’s late, you tell yourself you’ll just stay with it long enough to see that one part you like?  I do that all the time.  If I had any sense, I’d just pull out my DVD, but I rarely do.  Instead, I hang with the movie, commercials and all, until the part I’m waiting for comes on.

I tell myself I’ll go to bed right after, but that doesn’t always happen.  And sometimes, that one part is near the end, so I’m going to be up late either way.

Anyway, as I was watching the original Karate Kid for the millionth time last night, it occurred to me that I could fluff this idea into a post.  Sure it’s just a list of movies I like, but what the hey… I’m on vacation.  You can’t expect me to do any heavy thinking, can you?

I’m sure you’ll note that these movies aren’t the “freshest” ones around.  But if you think about the premise, they have to be old enough to have made the rounds on TV a number of times.  That rules out anything recent.  Plus, I’m not exactly the “freshest” either.

So, here’s what keeps me up at night…

Animal House: I tell myself I’ll just wait for the scene where Otis Day and the Knights perform “Shout” at the toga party; the perfect blending of music and anarchy.  And if I’ve already missed it, I’ll hang until the guys show up at the Dexter Lake Club, just to see that big dude ask, “You mind if we dance wif yo’ dates?

Aliens:Get away from her, you BITCH!”  Sigourney Weaver has never been so awesome.

Blazing Saddles: The Waco Kid shoots the guns out of the hands of 6 bad guys, in the blink of an eye.  OR, the “The Sheriff is Near” bit.  OR, Lili von Schtupp seducing the sheriff.  OR who am I kidding?  It’s a lock I’m staying up to watch the whole thing.  Unless, of course, it’s on the Family Channel, or some other network that cuts out offensive stuff, or in other words, all the funny parts.

American Werewolf in London: No contest… the “werewolf transformation” scene.  It’s a groundbreaking piece of practical effects work.

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure: When they let all the historical figures run loose in the mall.  Love how Beethoven jams on the music shop’s organs, while Socrates and Billy the Kid try to mack on the little chicklets. (While Freud is holding a corn dog.)

Die Hard: I’m in till the end on this one, because I have to wait for the scene where Bruce Willis takes down Hans freakin’ Gruber with a gun taped to his back.

Dave: Kevin Kline, impersonating the President, gathers the cabinet together to find money for a pet project but cutting a bunch of stupid expenditures from the federal budget, using nothing but a pencil and 3rd-grade math.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High: Spicoli’s line about “this Jefferson dude” needing to “find some cool rules, pronto.”  And you thought I was going to say the Phoebe Cates diving board scene…

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: The parade “Twist and Shout” scene.

First Blood: When Rambo, using his guerilla warfare and camouflage training, successfully hunts the sheriff’s posse who is supposedly trying to hunt him.

A Fish Called Wanda: John Cleese’s strip tease while he speaks in Russian and Jamie Lee Curtis humps a rope railing upstairs.  I’ll stay up to watch Jamie Lee hump anything, including Activia yogurt.

48 Hours: The scene when Eddie Murphy tears up the redneck bar, impersonating an officer.

Eddie: Where’d you get this money?
Redneck: Tax return.
Eddie: Nah, you’re too stupid to have a job.

The Godfather: Brando’s speech where he warns the heads of the Five Families that if his son Michael should “hang himself in his jail cell, or get shot by a cop, or get hit by a bolt of lightning,” he will blame the people in this room.  I think it was one of the most elegant cinematic threats ever.

Independence Day: The President’s speech, before hopping into a fighter jet to take on the big ugly aliens.

Jaws: Quint’s USS Indianapolis speech, which is as chilling as anything we actually see the shark do.

Jurassic Park: When the T-Rex breaks out of its paddock and attacks the jeeps.  I always imagine myself under the same circumstances and I don’t see how I get through it with my pants unsoiled.

The Karate Kid: The scene where Daniel-san (and we) realize that wax on/wax off, paint the fence, sand the floor and side to side, were more than just grunt work chores.

Monty Python’s Life of Brian: The Stoning Scene, which unfortunately comes so early in the movie, so I usually miss it.  So then I hang on for the scene where Michael Palin’s speech impedimented Pilate dares his guards to laugh when he mentions his friend’s name, “Biggus Dickus.”


Naked Gun Pt 2: The love scene montage, where they use clips with increasing explicit symbolism, from a flower opening, to a foot-long hot dog, to a monument being erected, to a train rushing out of a tunnel, an oil derrick pounding and finally striking a gusher.  I am always on the floor by the time it’s over.  Every time.

Naked Gun Pt 3: The sperm bank donation scene, where after each of the 3 donations, Inspector Drebin appears more and more disheveled, following increasing levels of commotion behind the closed door.

I’m not including the original Naked Gun here because I will always watch that one all the way through.

Pirates of the Caribbean 3: The scene when Keith Richards appears as Capt. Jack Sparrow’s father.  It’s just too perfect… Jack Sparrow source material in more ways than one.

Rocky: I will always wait for the original fight between Rocky and Apollo Creed.  It was the perfect marriage between action and music.  My buddies and I used to act parts of it out, with the Rocky soundtrack on the turntable.

Spiderman 2: When Mary Jane finally learns that Peter Parker is Spiderman.  If they had put that scene in the first movie, Spiderman 1 would have been perfect.

The Terminator: Reece’s speech to Sarah Connor, about how that terminator is out there and will never, ever stop until she is dead.  It was a chilling reality check for the young, fragile waitress, who later turns into quite the badass.

Terminator 2: Sarah Connor breaking out of the asylum, only to run into the very terminator that was responsible for the horror she’s lived over the last decade, not knowing that this Terminator was now working with her son.  It’s a nightmare within a nightmare and it gives me chills every time.  The scene also shows the asylum staff that Sarah wasn’t crazy after all.

The Thing (John Carpenter version): The crab-head bit, the freakiest, most over-the-top-weird bit of SFX that once seen, can never be un-seen.

The Usual Suspects: I’m always up late for this one because I have to see that ending scene were we all find out who Keyser Sose is.  It plays out brilliantly.

Forrest Gump: I put this one out of order and last because it is responsible for more late nights for me than any other.  Every scene I decide to wait for inevitably leads to another one I need to see.  Next thing you know, it’s 1:00 AM and I’m a weepy mess.  Thanks a lot, Hanks.

So what about you?  What movie scenes keep you up past your bedtime?

22 comments:

  1. Now you got me going....

    Jerry Maguire -- "Show me the money!" "Congratulations, you're still my agent."

    Casablanca -- "Of all the gin joints in all the world, she had to walk into mine."

    Apocalypse Now -- Flight of the Valkyries

    Planet of the Apes -- "Get your hands off of me you damned, dirty ape!"

    Godfather II -- the Fredo kiss. "I know it was you."

    Broadcast News -- Albert Brooks flop sweating during the news.

    Scarface -- "Say hello to my little friend!"

    Silence of the Lambs -- "I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti."

    Goodfellas - Funny how?

    A Few Good Men -- "You can't handle the truth!"

    Cool Hand Luke -- "What we have here is a failure to communicate."

    The Right Stuff -- Astronauts all walk toward the camera. Shivers.

    Princess Bride -- No more rhymes now; I mean it! Anybody want a peanut?

    Monty Python and the Holy Grail -- the knights who say "Nee"! Or the Trojan bunny. Who am I kidding? I'm in for the whole thing.

    Pulp Fiction -- Same here.

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    1. I would have had Silence on there, but there were too many scenes I'd need to see, especially the ones at the end. "Well, Clarice, have the lambs stopped screaming?" Chills...

      I hardly ever see Holy Grail on TV, so I omitted. But it would be the French Taunter scene... both of them. Also the Knights of Ni, and the Black Knight (although that comes very early in the movie.)

      And I also usually stick for Nicholson's testimonial meltdown in Few Good Men.

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  2. I don't do this. I watch my husband do it. He cannot pass up a Rocky film, a Godfather film, a LOTR film (WE OWN THEM ALL! THE DVDs ARE BETTER!), Shawshank Redemption (okay, I have a hard time passing this one up, too), The Green Mile, Forrest Gump, and -- these are the two I find most incongruent -- Pretty Woman and Dirty Dancing.

    Me? I'm too practical. I go to bed. I like sleep better than any movie scene.

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    1. I have a hard time passing up the part in Shawshank when Andy's plan is discovered. Love that. I bet your husband and I would get along well, but for the Dirty Dancing selection. But then, the only reason I didn't have 16 Candles on here was because I couldn't think of just one scene to select.

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  3. I don't tune into movies at night much anymore, instead saying to myself "just one more chapter" until it's 12:30 and I have to get up in six hours. It's ridiculous. However, I will always pause for Jurassic Park or any of the Harry Potter movies!

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    1. Stephen King used to do that to me.

      I pause for JP and Harry too. In fact, so much so that when I'm flipping because there's nothing on but reruns, Pinky will go, "Oh God, not that again!"

      I probably should have added an HP part, which would have to be the scene in Deathly Hallows Pt 2, where Neville kills the snake.

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  4. Princess Bride - Inigo killing the guards and the count running away.
    Outlaw Josey Wales - The Missouri boat ride or Dyin ain't much of a livin, boy.
    Kill Bill 1 - Leave your body parts
    Kill Bill 2 - Walking into the diner and ordering a glass of water
    Jeremiah Johnson - There's your bear, you skin it and I'll get another
    Star Wars - Droids don't tear peoples arms out of their sockets.
    Fellowship of the Ring - Merry and Pippin putting a smack-down on Boromir

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    1. I saw both Kill Bills, but I don't remember all that much of them... mostly The Bride trying to get out of that coffin.

      Love the look on Chewy's face during the scene you mention.

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  5. Oh. Forrest Gump! I love that movie. And when he said, "I miss you, Jen-nay," I cry. Every. damn. time.

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    1. Me too, my friend. Every. Damned. Time. And i know it's going to be sad but I still can't not watch it. It's just after all that story... All those lost opportunities, they finally get together and they STILL can't live happily ever after. Gets me every time.

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  6. My Cousin Vinny is one of my all time favorites. When Mona Lisa Vito says to Vinny, "Like you blend," it cracks me up everytime.

    Mona Lisa Vito: [Vinny looks at her funny] What?
    Vinny Gambini: Nothing. You stick out like a sore thumb around here.
    Mona Lisa Vito: Me? What about you?
    Vinny Gambini: I fit in better than you. At least I'm wearing cowboy boots.
    Mona Lisa Vito: Oh yeah, you blend.

    And this exchange:

    Vinny Gambini: Your Honor, may I have permission to treat Ms. Vito as a hostile witness?
    Mona Lisa Vito: You think I'm hostile now, wait 'til you see me tonight.
    Judge Chamberlain Haller: Do you two know each other?
    Vinny Gambini: Yeah, she's my fiancée.
    Judge Chamberlain Haller: Well, that would certainly explain the hostility.

    And his opening statement:

    Vinny Gambini: [opening statements] Uh... everything that guy just said is bullshit... Thank you.
    D.A. Jim Trotter: Objection. Counsel's entire opening statement is argumentative.
    Judge Chamberlain Haller: Sustained. Counselor's entire opening statement... with the exception of "thank you"... will be stricken from the record.

    Thank goodness for IMDB memorable quotes....easy to cut and paste.

    Happy New Year Bluz! Even though we have not met IRL, I feel like you're part of my world that makes me feel connected to others. I really enjoy reading your posts. Here's to a healthy and happy new year to you, your paramour and friends and family!

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    1. Ah, you're leaving out my favorite scene from Vinnie (and one I totally should have included here), the famous "deer lips" exchange...

      Lisa: Imagine you're a deer. You're prancing along, you get thirsty, you spot a little brook, you put your little deer lips down to the cool clear water... BAM! A fuckin bullet rips off part of your head! Your brains are laying on the ground in little bloody pieces! Now I ask ya. Would you give a fuck what kind of pants the son of a bitch who shot you was wearing?

      Happy new year to you too, and thanks for coming to visit me on all those early mornings.

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  7. I agree with most of yours!! Those are the best scenes. Especially the Independence Day one. :)

    Hugs!

    Valerie

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    1. I should probably admit that I have to keep staying up for the air battle too... "Come on boys, let's plow the road!"

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  8. I love your list of movies and now want to see them all again! I love all sci-fis. One of my favorite scenes is the ending of Chronicles of Riddick where our reluctant hero, Riddick, has just defeated the head Necromancer and flops down into a chair. It just so happens by killing the head guy Riddick has become the new leader of the Necromancers... and the chair he flopped down in happens to be the throne. He looks up, still unaware of the situation, to see all the Necromancers bowing before him.

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    1. I've never seen Riddick. Sounds interesting...

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  9. Best time of year for movies - I will always wait for that feather at the end of Forrest Gump. And of course for the Rocky fight. Those are two of my all-time favorites. This time of year I like Chevy Chase in Christmas Vacation, where he sums up the season with - "Merry Christmas, where's the Tylenol?" Recently watched the original Batman and Beetlejuice as part of a Tim Burton mini marathon; Michael Keaton saying "I'm Batman" and "Let's Get Nuts" is divine, as is Jack Nicholson's joker. Of course the crane kick at the end of Karate Kid is also well worth the wait!

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    1. Christmas Vacation is my favorite Christmas movie. I love the scene you mention, (because it really is a first class rant), but the scene where Clark is rambling around the attic and getting clonked in the head by loose boards.

      Love that first Batman movie... I think I like the part where Jack Nic says, "Where does he get those marvelous toys?" Also, when his henchman says Vickie Vale is seeing Bruce Wayne... "She's about to trade up." I use that line all the time...

      Beetlejuice... "I've come for your daughter, Chuck." That, and the Day-O scene. Also, every scene with Geena Davis. I love her.

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  10. I know you won't include it, but the original Naked Gun always gets me with the 'safe sex' scene. One of the best hilarious love scenes ever, hands down.

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    1. Yes, the Full Body Condom was about 20 years ahead of its time. And now, it would be lubed with hand sanitizer.

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  11. Last but not least, the Campfire scene in BLAZING SADDLES saved my sanity.

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    1. I left that out because I figure we re-enacted it enough times while sitting around the TV.

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