James's Top 30 Favorite Films (Detailed Version)

"This is a story of what happens when you fuck with nature. Scientists come up with way to bring back the dinosaurs and build an entire theme park around it but then, all hell breaks loose. It's like a prehistoric Frankenstein. Afterwards, I had to read every Michael Crichton novel I could get my hands on. It's a great story with great characters. Sam Neill's stubborn attitude mixed with Jeff Goldblum's playful and joking personality is a good combo. However, it was the dinosaurs that stole the show. The special effects were jaw-dropping. These were dinosaurs like we've never seen before. They were quick, they were mean, and they ripped people apart. Parents brought their kids to see this and didn't even know what was coming. When I watch this movie today, it brings me back to my youth and reminds me of a time where dinosaurs were awesome."

Dr. Lao: Low! Dr. Low!

"Well, excuse me, I'm gonna have a hard time explaining this movie. It's about a quiet western town that's visited by a strange man named Dr. Lao who brings with him a circus. This is no ordinary circus. It's full of magical fantasy characters such as a serpent, the Abominable Snowman, the Medusa, Merlin the Magician, the Fortuneteller, and the goofiest of all, Pan. Tony Randall does a fantastic job playing all these different characters. It brings to mind actors like Mike Myers and Eddie Murphy who are known for playing multiple roles. But I think 7 Faces of Dr. Lao might be the greatest and most diverse collection of characters I've seen portrayed by one actor. This movie can be enjoyed for its individual scenes. There's a scene where the Fortuneteller's telling a woman her future but he's honest and brutal."

Apollonius: When you die, you will be buried and forgotten, and that is all.

"He brings her to tears and at the same time, it pains him because he's cursed to tell the truth. It's hilariously morbid. The whole film is a mixture of different emotions but the feeling it leaves you with is the positive outlook that the world is full of magic and wonder."

Dr. Lao: Every time you watch a rainbow and feel wonder in your heart... you're part of the Circus of Dr. Lao.
Mike: I don't understand.
Dr. Lao: Neither do I.

Tony Montana: Say hello to my little friend!

"This is one instance where I choose the remake over the classic 1932 version. To me, Al Pacino is Tony Montana. Nobody swears as good as him."

Tony Montana: This town is like a great big pussy just waitin' to get fucked.

"Under its facade of funny quotes and insane violence, it has a great story. Tony's an immigrant who tries to start a new life in America but he turns to a life of crime. He climbs his way to the top of the gangster totem pole and once he has the whole world in his hands, it all comes falling down on him. What's so great about it is how attached you become to this character? Even though he kills people and does bad things, he has his limits. There's a pivotal scene where he refuses to blow up a car because there's children inside."

Tony Montana: You think I'll kill two kids and a woman? Fuck that! I don't need that shit in my life!

"There's enough movies out there about the good guy. This is one for the bad guy."

Tony Montana: So say goodnight to the bad guy!

Johnny: They're coming to get you, Barbara.

"I consider it to be the last of the classic black-and-white horror films. It was just a little independent film that went a long way and ushered in a whole new genre of modern horror flicks. Every horror film today owes something to it, especially the zombie genre. But its historic significance does not overshadow how suspenseful and exciting it is as a movie. Even though its cheap-looking and some of the acting is really bad, it has a haunting nightmarish quality that just builds up until the climax. Right from the opening scene, the zombies attack. No explanation needed, it just happens. A bunch of strangers lock themselves up in a farmhouse while the dead try and break in. They treat it like a natural disaster with everyone fighting to stay alive. The only problem is that they can't learn to work together."

Ben: I ought to drag you out there and feed you to those things!

"It's the classic adventure flick. It captures your imagination and puts you into a fantasy world where the gods and goddesses treat the mortals like pawns in a chess game. The reason showstopper is the stop-motion animation by Ray Harryhausen. I had a hard time choosing between this, Clash of the Titans, and the Sinbad trilogy but I think this is his best work. It's all about the man-on-monster deathmatches like the battle with the Hydra; look at all these heads he had to animate. Then of course, there's Talos the Statue. When that thing starts moving, goddamn is it scary. And the best scene of all is the battle with the skeletons. It is so fricking cool. I never get tired of watching this."

Tom Hanks: Some people say Casablanca or Citizen Kane... I say Jason and the Argonauts is the greatest film ever made.

"I haven't read the novel, not yet at least but the film very much impressed me. Jack Nicholson plays a criminal whose serving a sentence in prison. He pretends to be mentally ill so that he can be transferred to the mental institution because he thinks that'll be better than prison."

McMurphy: What do you want me to do? (Does Retarded Things) You know what I mean is that it. Is that crazy enough for ya? Want me to take a shit on the floor?

"That is until he finds out he's going to be stuck there indefinitely and then, he wants out. He develops a friendship with the others and inspires a rebellion against the coldhearted Nurse Ratchet. I think this is Jack Nicholson's best role and one of the greatest screen performances of all time. Not just him but the whole cast is excellent. I feel like I really sympathize with these people. A mandatory film, check it out."

Professor Henry Jones: Junior.

"The real ingenuity of the Indiana Jones films is that they're all built around cliches of old adventure films but they come off as being so fresh. It's definitely a toss-up between Raiders and Crusade but my favorite's Crusade. The quest for the Holy Grail has been written about for ages and is probably been the most sought-after object in human history. There's something satisfying about seeing Indiana Jones find it, even though it is just a movie. What I like best is the father/son relationship?"

(The two are tied together in a chair as the room starts burning up)
Indiana Jones: Dad!
Professor Henry Jones: What?
Indiana Jones: Dad!!
Professor Henry Jones: What!?
Indiana Jones: DAD!!!
Professor Henry Jones: WHAT?!?

"Sean Connery is great as Indy's dad and it's so appropriate because James Bond was one of the main heroes that inspired Indiana Jones."

Professor Henry Jones: Son, I'm sorry. They got us.

"There's a perfect blend of humor and outstanding action scenes. One of the best of its kind."

"Gotta include this. Seeing it as a kid, I didn't fully appreciate it. It's a movie that I feel has gotten better with age and has truly surpassed the test of time. It was the first movie to show us the darker side of Batman. Going from the 1940's film serials to the 1960's TV series and then, to this was the biggest change that Batman's gone through in the movies. It set the dark tone: the standard for which newer Batman movies would follow. Michael Keaton's great!"

Bruce Wayne: You wanna get nuts? Come on! Let's get nuts!

"As Bruce Wayne, he's sly and unassuming. When he's Batman, he's badass."

Thug: What are you?
Batman: I'm Batman.

"Jack Nicholson as the Joker: one of the greatest screen villains. He's maniacal, funny, and totally unpredictable. It's definitely more heavy on atmosphere and visuals than on story but that's Tim Burton for ya. The music by Danny Elfman is what holds it all together. It sets the mood: the dark ass-kicking vibe and gives me chills every-time I hear it."

"Inspired by real-life events, it tells the story of prisoners in World War II trying to escape from a Nazi prison camp. Their plan is to dig tunnels from inside their prisons and dispose of the dirt outside the camp."

Bartlett: How do you breathe?
Hilts: Oh, we got a steel rod with hinges on it and we shove it up and make air holes as we go along. Goodnight, sir.

"The movie works so well because you really want to see these guys get out and it's not easy for them at all."

Sedgwick: Danny, do you speak Russian?
Danny: A little, but only one sentence.
Sedgwick: Well, let me have it, mate.
Danny: Ya vas lyublyu.
Sedgwick: Ya ya vas...
Danny: Lyublyu.
Sedgwick: Lyubliu? Ya vas lyubliu. Ya vas lyublyu. What's it mean?
Danny: I love you.
Sedgwick: Love you. What bloody good is that?
Danny: I don't know, I wasn't going to use it myself.

"The cast is excellent: Donald Pleasence, Charles Bronson, among many others but the guy who steals the show is Steve McQueen. It's no wonder why everyone loves him so much. He's funny and you root for him the whole time. The motorcycle chase is often considered to be one of the all-time greatest action scenes. It's not just because of the stunt-work and the whole spectacle of it but because you're so emotionally invested in seeing him escape. It's a very long movie but when you get some extra-time on your hands, give it a watch."

"It's the ultimate reluctant hero story about an innocent man whose being chased all across the US by both the police who think he's a terrorist and actual terrorists who think he's a government agent. Hellbent on finding the real agent, he goes on a quest as the plot unravels and gets even more complicated. He finds out the agent never existed--a decoy planned by the FBI--but now that he's assumed the role he enlisted to actually become the fake agent he was originally trying to prove he was not. It'll make your head explode."

Phillip Vandamm: Seems to me you fellows could stand a little less training from the FBI and a little more from the actor's studio.
Roger Thornhill: Apparently the only performance that will satisfy you is when I play dead.
Phillip Vandamm: Your very next role and you'll be quite convincing, I assure you.

"Cary Grant is phenomenal in the role: speaking rapidly, making smart comebacks to everything. You believe a guy with his personality could get himself into such a mess."

Ticket Seller: Something wrong with your eyes?
Roger Thornhill: Yes, they're sensitive to questions. Would you call them?

"Both a hilarious comedy and suspenseful thriller, one of Alfred Hitchcock's best but remember I said ONE OF."

"Stanley Kubrick was definitely one of those directors whose films were stranger in artistic quality than on actual story. Some people may not like 2001 or The Shining but no matter who you are you gotta love Full Metal Jacket."

Sergeant Hartman: I don't know but I been told!
Marines: I don't know but I been told!
Sergeant Hartman: Eskimo pussy is mighty cold.
Marines: Eskimo pussy is mighty cold.

"It's both a funny and horrifying film that shows the dehumanizing effects of war. The first half is boot camp, the second half is the war in Vietnam. R. Lee Ermey is frigging awesome as the Drill Sergeant..."

Sergeant Hartman: How tall are you, private?
Private Cowboy: Sir, five-foot-nine, sir.
Sergeant Hartman: Five-foot-nine, I didn't know they stacked shit that high!

"And Vincent D'Onofrio is great as Private Pyle who loses his mind."

Private Pyle: I am... in a world... of shit.

"Many people feel that after the boot camp scenes, the movie goes downhill. But I think the second half is still good, if you give it a chance."

Private Eightball: Me want sucky!
Korean: Sucky, fucky, smoke cig right in the pussy.

"The last and best of the Dollars Trilogy by Sergio Leone. Right off the bat, we have three great characters. Lee Van Cleef as the ruthless bounty hunter Angel-Eyes, Clint Eastwood as the calm and cool Blondie, also known as the Man with No Name, and best of all Eli Wallach as the dirty, rotten, shit-talking scoundrel Tuco."

Tuco: Whoever double-crosses me and leaves me alive, he understands nothing about Tuco. Nothing!

"I love this fucking bastard. Blondie and Tuco hate each other's guts but they need to work together to find a stash of gold that's buried in a cemetery grave. Tuco knows the name of the cemetery, Blondie knows the name of the grave, but neither one of them's telling. Along the way, they have Angel-Eyes watching over them who also wants the gold. It all leads to a suspenseful finale with the three of them facing off. The music by Ennio Morricone is so amazing that Metallica uses it to open all their concerts. It's a masterpiece of epic proportions that depicts a savage world where everybody's a swindler and only the quickest survive."

"My favorite of the Disney animated features. It happens to be the last one released while Walt Disney was still alive. I don't know what it is this movie just brings a smile to my face. It's an underdog story about a young boy named Arthur who gets bossed around by his foster father and brother, not realizing that he would become the future King Arthur. He befriends a wizard named Merlin and a talking owl named Archimedes. Merlin becomes Arthur's mentor and helps him rise up and become what he needs to be."

Merlin:Of course, King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table.
Arthur: Round table?
Merlin: Oh, would you rather have a square one?

"The musical scenes are great and I love the characters. Arthur is so innocent and pure and Merlin and Archimedes are hysterical. The only thing it lacks is a main villain. Although there is a last-minute addition, Madame Mim, a crazy witch whose an old rival of Merlin's. In the end, they have a spectacular wizards duel which is one of the highlights of the film. All around, it's a fun time."

"Some more Hitchcock for you. Jimmy Stewart plays a photographer whose recovering from a broken leg. He's so bored he spends a lot of time staring out his window and begins to suspect that one of his neighbors committed murder. He has an amazingly beautiful girlfriend played by Grace Kelly who he thinks is too perfect for him. He's into adventure while she's into fashion."

Jeff: You ever try to keep warm in a C-54, fifteen thousand feet, twenty below zero?
Lisa: Oh, I do it all the time. Whenever I have a few minutes after lunch.

"But they work together on solving the mystery and settle their differences. Nothing like a murder to help a relationship, it's Hitchcock's subtle dark humor. Jimmy Stewart, whose in a lot of Hitchcock movies, gives his usual performance that's natural and full of nervous energy."

Jeff: I've seen bickering and family quarrels and mysterious trips at night, and knives and saws and ropes, and now since last evening, not a sign of the wife. Alright, now you tell me where she is?

"You see through his eyes and feel like you're in his spot spying on the neighbor. It's brilliantly photographed and edited, nothing less than the work of a master."

"First Blood is not about how many things you can blow up in an hour and a half, it's about the character. John Rambo is an army soldier who returns from the war to find he has no friends left. He wanders into a town where he meets a cop that gives him a hard time."

Teasle: We don't want guys like you in this town.

"It starts out as just a small feud but evolves into a full-out war with the entire police force against one man. It's not your usual good guy versus bad guy scenario."

Teasle: Are you telling me that 200 of our men against your boy is a no-win situation for us?
Trautman: You send that many, don't forget one thing.
Teasle: What?
Trautman: A good supply of body bags.

"Rather than brute force, Rambo goes into stealth mode, sets traps and uses different survival tactics. It's awesome."

Rambo: Don't push it or I'll give you a war you won't believe.

"Sylvester Stallone does a great job and at the end, gives the most dramatic monologue of his career."

Rambo: Then I come back to the world and I see all those maggots at the airport, protesting me, spitting. Calling me baby killer and all kinds of vile crap!

"It's not often that you see an action star breakdown and cry. First Blood is as emotional as it is action-packed."

"I think everyone knows what it's about. A killer shark is terrorizing the beaches, so three men hit the waters to hunt it down. In essence, it's a B-horror-movie. A simple story about a monster on the loose but it's done so well. Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, and Robert Shaw are all excellent. You spend so much time with these three characters. You feel like you're on the boat with them. My favorite scene is when they're showing each other their wounds..."

Quint: You wanna drink? Drink to your leg.
Hooper: I'll drink to your leg.
Quint: Okay, so we drink to our legs!

"Then, the mood changes: Quint tells a bone-chilling story about an experience he had with the killer shark..."

Quint: When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be living until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white.

"Next thing, they're singing..."

Hooper, Quint, and Brody: Show me the way to go home.

"And then all of a sudden, they're being attacked by the shark. It all happens in one scene. Jaws is one hell of a ride. It's Spielberg at his finest."

Marty DiBergi: What do you call this?
Nigel Tufnel: Well, this piece is called "Lick My Love Pump".

"It's the story of a musically-pretentious and unoriginal rock band, Spinal Tap. It's shot in the style of a documentary with a fictional director and a fictional band..."

Marty DiBergi: The review you had on "Shark Sandwich" which was merely a two word review. Just said, "Shit Sandwich".

"And follows the rise and fall of their career. Their drummers keep dying, they're cursed with a dismal black album cover..."

Nigel Tufnel: It's like, how much more black could this be? And the answer is none.

"They get lost on the way to stage, their stage props go wrong and eventually they're reduced to an opening act for a puppet show."

David St. Hubbins: I do not, for one, think that the problem was that the band was down. I think that the problem may have been, that there was a Stonehenge monument on the stage that was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf.

"I have to admit it took me a few times to really get this movie but now I think it's one of the funniest things I ever saw in my life. Even though Spinal Tap are all actors, they've actually recorded albums, played live concerts, appear on talk shows and recorded the DVD commentary track in character."

Spinal Tap Commentary Track: Hello! Oh, that's great-I recognize it-Stop! No, it's getting too small.

"It's opened up a whole world for Spinal Tap outside the movie which is always just as funny as ever. Of all the rock documentaries, this one says it all. Even though it's not real, it shows all the things that could go wrong with a band and parodies the whole genre perfectly."

"I definitely talked about this movie enough already. It's the story of the B-Movie King, Ed Wood, whose famous for making some of the worst films of all time. Even though, his films were not commercially successful. His heart was in the right place and he never gave up. Johnny Depp gives a great performance as Ed Wood, this was one of the first movies I saw him in before he got super famous. Martin Landau plays Bela Lugosi, he's so good it's like Lugosi has come back from the grave."

Bela Lugosi: If you want to make out with a young lady, take her to see "Dracula".

"Tim Burton directs and gives it his unique style. It comes off as being deeply personal. It's a portrait of a rebel; an eccentric director whose obsessed with his own art. It makes fun of Ed Wood just as much as it celebrates him and in general, all artists who fight for their visions."

"It was a clever little idea. It takes a regular everyday B-movie plot: you know like a normal town gets invaded by monsters. There's only one person who knows about it, he tries to warn the authorities but they don't believe him. And then, a massive attack takes place involving a huge rampage through the town. It has all the shock cliches like something jumping out from the background or from the foreground but it's a comedy. Even though the Gremlins are terrible little bastards, they have a fun-loving personality. They just want to have a party and go nuts at the cost of humanity. This is a movie where you cheer for the monsters. That's not to say you don't care for the human characters, too. Billy and his pet, Gizmo, make great protagonists. If it hadn't been for them, you wouldn't mind seeing all the humans die. What's so ingenious is how it starts like a family film with Gizmo as the gremlin but then, we meet the bad Gremlins and shit goes off the wall. It mixes horror with comedy and entertains the living fuck out of you."

"Hands down, best Alfred Hitchcock film. Jimmy Stewart plays Scotty, a detective who suffers from acrophobia, a fear of heights. One of his fellow police officers dies because of him, so he retires from the force. As a favor for an old friend, he accepts one last job to watch over a suicidal woman. He desperately falls in love with her and tries to save her from the top of a steeple where he is once again conflicted by his acrophobia. I won't reveal the rest of the plot because it'll take forever and I'll spoil it. Besides, the story cannot be explained because it's not about what's literally happening on the surface. It's about what's going on in Scotty's mind. How he's obsessing over this woman and going completely insane? It has a magnetic power. It starts out slow and gradually pulls you in."

"The most quotable movie of all time."

Mark Borchardt: I'm 30 years old, and in about 10 seconds I gotta start cleaning up somebody's shit, man.

"This documentary follows indie filmmaker, Mark Borchardt, whose trying to make a movie about an alcoholic writer that has to battle his own personal demons. Mark's an easy guy to latch on. You can relate to him dreaming the big dream. This is the common everyday man. Everybody at some point has filmed something in their backyard or got their mom to act. At his side is his best buddy, right-hand man Mike Schank. He's cool as shit. Then, there's Uncle Bill, one of the funniest motherfuckers around."

Uncle Bill: It's all right, it's ok... uh...
Mark Borchardt: OK, cut. You got to bring passion to it. A message, it's a message.
Uncle Bill: This is for the shits. This is for the birds.

"It's humble and it's sincere. It's my filmmaking bible."

"It's a timeless gem. Even though it was made in the 30s, it's just as appealing to any generation. It's such a classic story. Farm girl Dorothy wants to get away from her mundane sepia-tone life. She's transported to the technicolor world of Oz and then, longs to be back home."

Dorothy: And I'm trying to get home to you, Auntie Em!
Wicked Witch of the West: Auntie Em! Come back! I'll give you Auntie Em, my pretty! Hahahahahaha!

"There's so much going on: singing munchkins, flying monkeys. You put on the movie and it's a blast of colors and crazy shit going on. Each of the characters Dorothy meets represents such kind of virtue: knowledge, compassion, and courage. And the Wicked Witch is a symbol of all our childhood fears. It's such a rich story but aside from that, I just like looking at it. The painted backgrounds are such a spectacle and that Emerald City sitting at the end of the yellow brick road is an image I'll never forget. You subject your imagination to it. You'll fell magic and wonder and fear and then, you come back to the real world satisfied."

Dorothy: There's no place like home.

"With the Terminator movies, I think it's understandable for anyone to choice either the first movie or the second, for their own reasons. But for me, Terminator 2 is a masterpiece of action and science-fiction. It's all a battle for the fate of the future. The Terminator goes back in time to try and kill John Connor: the future savior of humanity. While the good Terminator comes to protect him and along with his mother, go on a mission to prevent the future war from happening. The CG-effects were groundbreaking for the time and the action scenes are still just as amazing as ever. However, it's the story arc that makes it so great. The characters all go through a change. The Terminator takes the place of a father John never had and learns the value of human life. Sarah goes from being a paranoid wreck doomed by the horrible future to having a new-found optimistic outlook that we as a human race can learn to make the future better."

"Yeah, I couldn't pick one. I consider the first three films one whole movie and what I mean is the first three that were made. It completes a story arc over those three movies and to me is a whole. I feel very attached to these films because I saw them at a young age. As a kid, I was into the monsters and the special effects. As an adult, I followed the story and fully experienced everything else that went into these movies. And with repeated viewings, they are always just as great."

Han Solo: I know.

"From a technical standpoint, I think it's real impressive the imagination and creativity that went into making all these creatures using puppets and animatronics: it's really a dying art. What I think makes the story so timeless is that it's a combination of everything we're familiar with, whether we can identify it or not. It borrows from classic science-fiction, fantasy, western, samurai films, it's every epic story rolled into one."

"Gene Wilder gives an incredible performance as the Candyman, Willy Wonka, who makes the world taste good. By finding golden tickets hidden in his chocolate bars, five lucky kids get a tour of his chocolate factory. Most of the children are spoiled, rotten brats..."

Veruca Salt: Snozzberries? Who ever heard of a snozzberry?

"Only Charlie is noble and decent. In the end, he's rewarded for being a good kid. Even though the moral of the story is to be a good kid and not be greedy, it doesn't come out and preach it. You're too busy having a good time. All the crazy setpieces, catchy songs. It makes you feel like a kid."

Oompa Loompas: Oompa Loompa doo-pa-dee doo!

"For a movie about candy and chocolate, it sure can be horrifying too. It's like a terrible acid trip. There's the boy getting stuck in the pipe, there's the girl whose about to burst like a balloon, and Wonka's always flipping out like a lunatic."

Willy Wonka: And they're certainly not showing any sign that they are slowing!
(lets out a high-pitched, almost unearthly scream)

"It scared the shit outta me when I was a kid."

Willy Wonka: The suspense is terrible... I hope it'll last.

"The movie was filmed in Munick, Germany. Although apparently it was never released in Germany until after the Tim Burton version, I've gotten a lot of emails telling me that and I found it very depressing. No country should ever be without Willy Wonka."

Willy Wonka: If you want to view paradise, simply look around and view it.

"Every time I finish watching it, it leaves me with a warm optimistic feeling that if you look in the right places, the world is full of pure imagination."

"Sylvester Stallone writes and stars as a humble small-time boxer who gets a chance to fight the heavyweight champion, the cocky and arrogant Apollo Creed played by Carl Weathers. Rocky's an unsophisticated brute but he has a good heart. He refuses to break a guy's thumb, he tries to help a little girl on the street, and he sees the beauty in a shy storeclerk, Adrian played by Thalia Shire. As she warms up to Rocky, so do we as an audience."

Adrian: Can I ask you a question?
Rocky: Absolutely
Adrian: Why do you wanna fight?
Rocky: Cause I can't sing or dance, A-yo!

"Burgess Meredith plays his trainer, Mickey, the classic archetype of an old broken-down mentor."

Mickey: Like the guy says, you're gonna eat lightning and you're gonna crap thunder!

"Then, there's Adrian's brother, Paulie played by Burt Young, a real bitter character with violent mood-swings and pissy attitude..."

Paulie: You want the bird?
(He throws it out the door)
Paulie: Go in the alley and eat the bird.
Adrian: [disgusted] Oh Paulie!

"But underneath it all, a heart of gold. Through good times and bad times, the final outcome is a positive feeling, one of the all-time feel-good movies. A classic story of the underdog who rises up and overcomes."

"I don't even need to vouch for it. Ghostbusters is one of the most popular films in existence."

Peter Venkman: He slimed me.

"It's brilliant. Three guys start a business catching ghosts at the expense of being ridiculed. They go from being a total joke to being New York City heroes. The ghost effects are charming and sometimes terrifying. The dog used to scare my balls off. It's a perfect blend of horror and comedy."

Louis: Okay, who brought the dog?
(The demonic mutt crashes the party)

"What makes it all work are the characters and their personalities. They balance scientific intellect with childish bickering. They interact with one another in a way that feels natural and improvised. Churning out some of the greatest movie quotes of all time."

Peter Venkman: Yes, it's true. This man has no dick.

"Over the past 25 years, it's only gotten funnier. As a kid, I didn't always understand Bill Murray's dry sense of humor but now I get it. He's the master of sarcasm, I just look at his face and wanna laugh."

Peter Venkman: Tell you what I'll take Miss Barret back to her apartment and check her out.
(Dana Barret looks up confused)
Dr. Peter Venkman: I'll go check out Miss Barret's apartment. OK?
Dana Barret: OK.

"The great thing about this movie is that the special effects never overshadow the delicate humor. It all fits in place."

Maid: What the hell are you doing?

"And that says a lot for a movie that's about an architect named Shandor who creates a building for attracting spiritual energy calling forth an ancient Sumerian god named Gozer the Gozerian who can only appear when two dogs named Zuul and Vinz Clortho take possession of a guy and a girl turning them into the Keymaster and the Gatekeeper. They get it on on top of the building making Gozer appear who then takes the form of the Destructor by reading someone's mind whose thinking of marshmallows and becomes Stay Puft, a giant marshmallow man, and destroy New York City! Wow, it's ingenious."

"Anyone who lives on planet Earth has got to love this movie. It's a comedy, a science-fiction, an action movie, and a high-school movie. It has everything in it. Furthermore, it's a solid trilogy with a story that completes itself over the course of three movies. But for me, it's a no-brainer: the first one is the best."

Doc Brown: ONE POINT TWENTY ONE GIGAWATTS!

"Also like Ghostbusters, the plot will make your head spin if you think about it too much. Marty McFly goes back in time and accidentally separates his parents from falling in love, thus preventing his own birth. On top of getting them back together, he must also outrun a bully named Biff, get back to the present time, and save his friend, Doc Brown, from being shot. The script does a clever job fleshing out all the characters, playing with the ironies in paradoxes, throwing surprises, and crafting hilarious dialogue that isn't there just for the sake of comedy but also for revealing important plot-points and always moving the story forward."

Marty McFly: Whoa. Wait a minute, Doc. Are you trying to tell me that my mother has got the hots for me?
Doc Brown: Precisely.
Marty McFly: Whoa, this is heavy.
Doc Brown: There's that word again: "heavy". Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the Earth's gravitational pull?
Marty McFly: What?

"It's one of the tightest screenplays ever written. In no way should this film be limited to 80s pop culture, it really is one of the greats."

"This is the movie that made me wanna become a filmmaker. It's a true testament to the power of creative vision. To make all the creatures come alive, Willis O'Brien had to invent new techniques by using a combination of stop-motion animation and a life size head of Kong. It broke new grounds in movie-making. Sometimes, the actors were performing in front of a rear projection. Other-times, two pieces of footage were composited together. And other-times, scenes with the real actors were projected into the background frame-by-frame while the stop-motion creatures were being animated around them. For 1933, it's beyond impressive and truly a wonder of cinematic history. The soundtrack itself is a masterpiece. For an early talkie film with sound, it really went balls to the wall. Never is their a quiet moment; you can hear birds in the background, dinosaur roars, and a fully orchestrated musical score that heightens the excitement. On top of all of that, it's a timeless story of beauty and beast. A great adventure with great pacing: it starts out slow but accelerates to an exciting finale. A milestone in motion picture achievement."

"It's a comedy, action film, and a treasure hunt all in one. A man whose on the run from the cops crashes his car over the side of a cliff: that's how you start a good movie. Random people get out of their cars and go down the cliff to try and help but the man's dying. And in his final words tells them he hid 350 thousand dollars in a park."

Grogan: It's in this box buried under a big W.

"So all these strangers decide they're going after the money, so it become a race. The rest of the film follows real time as they travel southern California from Palm Springs to the Portuguese Bend. They travel by air, by water, by ground, and everything that could possibly go wrong does. The different groups gross paths here and there. They meet other people along the way and it all ties together so nicely. It's biggest claim to fame is that it stars everything famous comedian of the time like Milton Berle, Sid Caeser, and it's loaded with cameos: Jerry Lewis, Don Knotts, Jack Benny, the Three Stooges, and even Buster Keaton. Most of these cameos are completely pointless..."

Man in Car in Desert: Well.

"But as far as the main cast goes, they all do such a great job. It's not important you know who they are. Mickey Rooney and Buddy Hackett make a real funny pair. There's a scene where they're stuck on a plane with a alcoholic pilot."

Ding Bell: Do you think you oughta drink while you're flying?
Tyler Fitzgerald: Well stop kidding, will ya, and make us some drinks! You just press the button back there marked "booze". It's the only way to fly! (Laughs)

"The pilot passes out and they are stuck trying to land the thing. It takes a serious situation like that and makes it funny. Ethel Merman plays a cranky annoying bitch."

Mrs. Marcus: Oh Emmeline, shut up!

"That's the whole point she's the character you love to hate. Whenever something bad happens to her, you cheer. Phil Silvers plays a swindler, a real dirty rotten bastard always tricking the other characters."

Otto Meyer: Oh kid, you better get that bike outta there. Someone's liable to trip over this in the dock.(Otto steals Lennie's car)

"Jonathan Winters is the lovable guy you root for. He's always the blunt end of the joke. But when he gets mad, he fights back. In one of the best scenes from any movie, he battles two gas station attendants for almost no reason at all. The gas station is more fragile than anything Ed Wood ever created. He doesn't just do some damage, he fucking annihilates that place. By the time it's over, there's nothing left. He levels the gas station to the ground. You're still laughing when the next scene comes on and we introduce Dick Shawn as the crazy nut, Sylvester. He's the moodiest and most unpredictable character in the film and the first time we see him he's dancing. Then, he's trying to run somebody off the road. He's like a tornado. When Sylvester's not happy, you're in big trouble. Spencer Tracy plays a police inspector whose watching over the other characters and planning to take the money for himself. While he doesn't participate in the chase, not from the beginning, you can see the hell he goes through at the police department and understand his reasons for wanting the money, looking for that grand escape. It was originally shown on a 70-millimeter format: the equivalent of today's IMAX. Supposedly the original rough cut was 5 hours long and shortened to just over 3 hours for its premiere. For its general release, it was cut to 2 hours, 40 minutes and that's the standard version we see today on DVD. Even though some of the missing parts have been restored on the Laserdisc and some of the VHS editions, they are some scenes from the premiere which are now lost. My opinion is if you're a casual viewer, stick to the 2 hour, 40 minute version. It's a big spectacle: lots of car crashes, lots of stunt-work but it all flows like a ballet. It's a movie that celebrates the comedy of life. It's about common ordinary working people who aren't happy with their lives who see a goal in sight that unreachable fantasy: the big W, the symbol of all our dreams but they are overcome by humanity's greatest flaw which is greed. And the real funny thing is that every single one of these characters gets what they deserve. The world is a mad place."