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August 18, 2004
50 BEST MOVIE LINES EVER: #35-31
Two disclaimers today. First of all, at some point here Tim is going to do a post on all the good lines I missed in this little countdown. So you should either keep commenting here, or better yet head over to his site, and don't let him forget about great ones you'd like to see but don't get from me.
Second... I should tell you that I have a limit on myself here - no more than two lines per movie, no matter how many great lines came from a single film. If I hadn't put that rule in, this whole list would be made up of lines from only about 7 or 8 movies. So if you're reading these posts and thinking that there are more great lines from a movie than I have listed for it... you're probably right. Moving on...
35. "Say hello to my little friend!" -- Tony Montana (Al Pacino), SCARFACE (1983)
Any movie line that ends up making it to SportsCenter 20 years later as a home run call automatically makes this list. Pacino's a great actor, but his accent in this movie's as bad as the pro wrestler who emulated it for his character in the 90s (Razor Ramon). But still... great scene, great line, and the added tie-in to baseball years on down the road - and it makes #35 on the list.
34. "Hey, how come Andrew gets to get up? If he gets up, we'll all get up... it'll be anarchy!" -- John Bender (Judd Nelson), THE BREAKFAST CLUB (1985)
This was the movie my junior year of high school... the silly "which one are you" debates were endless. I was something of a cross between Estevez and Hall... so naturally I loved Nelson's burnout charcater the most. At 16, I thought that this was the most realistic depiction of what it's like to be a teen ever put on celluloid. Today, I still think it's pretty on-target.
There were a boatload of great lines in this movie: Barry Manilow's wardrobe, Claire being a fat girl's name... and whatever the hell a neo-maxi zoom dweebie is. But in the end I had to go with the one that always made me laugh... the line that, for me, captures Bender's smart-ass attitude and apropos-of-nothing, stream of consciousness desire to get under Principal Vernon's skin, even if he has to say something that makes absolutely no sense.
33. "Why am I Mr. Pink?" -- Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi), RESEVOIR DOGS (1992)
The idea of a criminal for hire caring about the color assigned to him is funny enough. Have the line coming out of Steve Buscemi's mouth, and it becomes a classic.
32. "You so much as scowl at my niece, or any other kid in this school, and I hear about it... and I'm coming looking for you! Take this quarter, go downtown, and have a rat gnaw that thing off your face!" -- Buck Russell (John Candy), UNCLE BUCK (1989)
Another movie I could have pulled any number of lines from. But the one that always cracks me up the most is when good old Uncle Buck tells off the prudish, overbearing, take-herself-too-seriously assistant principal. Tell me -- go on and try -- that any time you see someone with a mole, you don't think of this line right away?
31. "HEY! I'm walking here! I'm walking here!" -- Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969)
The apocrypha on this one is that it was a completely unscripted and improvised line, made up on the spot by Hoffman when a New York City taxi inadvertantly drove into the shot. If it's true, then not only did Hoffman save the scene with a great line that was totally within Rizzo's character... but he pretty much came up with the quintessential New York attitude. His response, while slamming his hand on the hood of the cab, is all New York; how dare that cab get in the middle of my crosswalk when I'm walking? (It's a great clip... see it in the trailer here.)
Midnight Cowboy - with its cynical, depressing look not only at New York but at people and at life itself - is one of my all time favorite movies. Ratso Rizzo, the would-be hustler who's scared beneath the veneer and is crumbling away before our eyes, is one of my all time favorite characters. And this line and the way Hoffman snarls it will always be one of my favorites as well.
