Top 5: Most Quotable Movies

          The Evil Dead remake is coming out this weekend which had me thinking about Army Of Darkness, one of my all time favorite movies, and how amazingly quotable it is which had me thinking how good a Top 5 that would make.  So, today is Top 5 Most Quotable movies.  I’m going to discount the classics.  Movies like The Godfather or Casablanca have become so ingrained in our culture that it’s really not fair to include them in this list.  When I saw Casablanca for the first time I felt like I had already seen it because the quotes are so prevalent in pop culture.  Nothing on my list is a classic, which I guess makes the topic a more personal one.  Everyone’s idea of a quotable movie will be different according to when they grew up and what type of movies they enjoy watching.  For me, with one glaring exception, comedies are more quotable then drama even though a few movies I list straddle the line.  Here they are…

5) Army of Darkness

            Favorite Quote: “Give me some sugar, Baby”

            I mentioned it my preamble, so it had to be in the list.  The genius of this movie is totally in Bruce Campbell’s hands.  All the great quotable one liners would have been nothing out of anyone else’s mouth, but with Campbell it becomes one of the funniest movies to quote of all time.  Nothing in this movie ever became culturally significant, it has never moved from cult status, but certain line have certainly become shorthand for people in the know.  The movie’s ridiculousness paired with Campbell’s spot on delivery makes these silly quips some of my favorites to quote.

4) Reservoir Dogs

            Favorite Quote:  “Do you know what this is?  It’s the world’s smallest violin playing just for the waitresses.”

            Quentin Tarantino’s first feature is the only full fledged drama on my list.  A highly quotable movie needs amazing dialogue and there is no better writer of dialogue out there today then Tarantino.  His character’s mixed gangster aloofness with pop culture addiction, popping off the screen and lodging themselves in the audience’s brain.  Many people remember this movie for the graphic torture scene, but for me it’s all about the coolness that oozed out of every scene and the amazing amount of quotes I could pull from it.  It starts in the first few minutes with the “Like A Virgin speech” quickly followed by Mr. Pink’s rant on tipping and it takes off from there.  Most people site Pulp Fiction as the go to Tarantino flick, but I’ve always been a Reservoir Dogs guy.

3) Clerks

            Favorite Quote: “I’m not the type of person who will disrupt things just so I can shit comfortably”

            This could really be any of Kevin Smith’s movies, like I said about Tarantino, great dialogue writers write highly quotable movies.  There’s just something about Smith’s style of writing that lends itself to great quotes.  Clerks was the movie that introduced me to his work and will always be the fondest of his films in my heart, so it’s the one I’m putting on this list.  I’m not sure it’s fair for me to call this a highly quotable movie, though, because I pretty much know the while thing verbatim.  It’s impossible to sneak a Clerks quote by me.  It’s weird now, in the era of South Park and Tosh.0, to think how shocking the language in this movie was at the time it came out, but that was part of what made it so quotable.  You couldn’t believe the frank discussion of sexual acts, but once you heard it was hard to forget.  It also helped that I related to Dante’s anguish and was jealous of Randle’s boldness.  You can’t help but quote characters that you either identify with or wish to be.

2) Swingers

            Favorite Quote: “It’s like you almost miss the pain… for the same reason that you missed her, because you lived with it for so long.”

            In ‘96/’97 it was almost impossible to pass a group of college students without hearing ‘You’re so money and you don’t even know it,” or “Vegas, Baby, Vegas,” or “You’re a bear with claws.”  For whatever reason the lingo in this movie hit in a big way.  Part of it had to do with how cool it all felt.  John Favreau and Vince Vaughn created an atmosphere and characters that were so cool you wanted to be part of their world.  It was an obvious spoof of LA culture, but it still came off as amazingly appealing.  Whether it’s Vince Vaughn taunting his NHL ’96 opponent, harassing the Pink Dot guy, demeaning a cute girl, trying to build up his friend’s confidence, or John Favreau lamenting the loss of his girlfriend, trying to leave a late night phone message, picking up girls at the bar, there is a ridiculous amount of quotable material.

1) Monty Python and The Holy Grail 

          Favorite Quote: "She turned me into a newt... I got better."

    I seriously just spent 10 minutes trying to come up with a favorite quote from this movie.  I could list about 20 more easily that would serve just as well as my favorite.  I mean, I left out the Knights Who Say Ni, flesh wounds, outrageous accents, killer bunnies with huge fangs, grail beacons, and swallows that carry coconuts.  Tis a silly movie, but good lord it is filled with awesome quotes!  Most people will site Life Of Brian as the Pythons best work, but for my money, The Holy Grail is a masterpiece.  My life would be 100% duller and quote free if I had never seen this movie.  

Honorable Mentions: The Big Lebowski, Old School, Caddyshack, Ghostbusters, Billy Madison