18 Feb 2008 04:33:25 | Travis Cloud
Movie moments are nice things to share with the people you care
about. Most of those shared moments consist of “Remember that
one part when the guy with the thing…” and before they can
finish you’re interjecting with your own vague, “Oh totally, I
love that part!” But occasionally this process extends beyond an
inner circle and goes global in its reach. This is where a
perfectly fine movie goes to the realm of annoying, because of
our need to repeat the catchy lines contained within them. Here
is a completely subjective list of movies that have been ruined
by our need to copycat.
1. Austin Powers – “Oh behave.” Remember that period after the
movie when fairly normal people couldn’t resist putting their
pinkies in their mouth and incorporating the word shag into a
sentence. Oh, that’s right, no one wants to remember that. Thank
god there were two more movies with the same jokes to remind us.
2. The Godfather – A fantastic epic that spawned a generation of
bad Marlon Brando impersonations. Sans cotton balls. The most
overused, dumb line: “It’s nothing personal, it’s strictly
business.” Yeah, and I’m the president of Uzbekistan. People
that buy into and repeat this line must have forgotten that the
same people who proscribed to this guff also chopped off a horse
head and put it into someone’s bed.
3. Jerry Maguire – What started with a nice moment between two
deaf people signing in an elevator, “You complete me,” has
somehow ended up with people saying to waiter’s at cheesy
Italian Restaurants, “You had me at our specials for tonight
are.” Lucky deaf people.
4. Napoleon Dynamite – The newest entry, and along with The
Godfather combines two elements of mimicry. You can’t just say
the line, you have to do it in the voice of the performer as
well. How could this possibly go wrong?
5. Scarface – Oh man, give me coke! Give me everything! And
after that I’m going to introduce you to my little friend and go
down in a blaze of glory! Isn’t drug dealing swell! All right, I
know that’s not the point, but ask any guy what their favorite
movie is, and I guarantee not one of them is saying, “You know
that Out of Africa was pretty fricking good. Remember when
Robert Redford said.....” Oh, who am I kidding, I’m a guy; this
movie was perfect. Repeat “Say hello to my little friend” as
much as you want.
6. Caddyshack – Not for the lines that are said, but for the
fact that nobody can remember what the lines are. If the lines
were so memorable, why the hell are we constantly butchering
them on the golf course?
7. Warriors – All right this isn’t a good movie, but saying
“Warriors, come out and plaayeeeaay” is the equivalent of
yelling “Freebird” at a concert.
8. Taxi Driver – No one’s looking at you. Stop pretending that
someone is.
9. Forrest Gump – Why did copying what a mentally retarded
person had to say seem like a good idea? No, life isn’t like a
box of chocolates, most of the time we know what we’re getting.
About Author :
Travis Cloud is a freelance writer from Seattle, Washington.