I noticed this semi-meme list thingie over at Michael May’s Adventure Blog the other day and thought it looked like something I ought to do. There are no rules, really; it’s just an exercise in free association that asks you to name 100 things you love about movies. I interpreted that as things that made me fall in love with movies, or that rekindle my love for them when I see them again. Anyhow, it’s a list of movie-related stuff I like… how could I resist that?

1. Nick and Nora Charles (The Thin Man series)
2. Buster Keaton’s face
3. The double sunset in Star Wars
4. “My hands are dirty, too, what’re you afraid of?” (The
   Empire Strikes Back)
5. Vader’s death scene in Return of the Jedi
6. Ray Park as Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace
7. The sound of the Naboo royal cruiser and the Republic
   gunships in Attack of the Clones
8. Obi Wan and Yoda’s anguish at various points in Revenge of
   the Sith
9. Transitioning from 1912 to 1938 in the drop of a hat  (Indiana
   Jones and the Last Crusade)
10. “Why me?” “Because I am too old and fat.” (True Grit, 2010 version)
11. Humphrey Bogart and Claude Rains discussing the waters in Casablanca
12. John Milner doing his best to tolerate his unwanted jailbait passenger in American
    Graffiti
13. The helicopter rescue sequence in Superman: The Movie
14. The helicopter fleet racing along to “Ride of the Valkyries”
    in Apocalypse Now
15. James Dean’s red jacket
16. Sean Connery’s first scene as James Bond in Dr. No
17. Ray Harryhausen monsters
18. Kermit the Frog riding a bike, The Muppet Movie
19. Belle’s hair, Beauty and the Beast (animated 1990 version)
20. Pixar
21. Passing the Argonath, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
22. Errol Flynn’s panache in sword-fighting scenes
23. Douglas Fairbanks’ joi di vivre in every scene
24. The “turning the page” transitions in The Sting
25. Jackie Gleason playing pool in The Hustler
26. Marlon Brando ice-skating in The Freshman
27. Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire
28. Marlon Brando playing with a kitten in The Godfather
29. Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in the X-Men films
30. The Dude
31. The lightcycles in Tron (original and Legacy both)
32. The Enterprise inspection/flyover scene, Star Trek: The
    Motion Picture
33. “Khhhhhaaaaaaaaann!!” (Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan)
34. Kirk and McCoy’s banter about the promised land in Star Trek
    III: The Search for Spock
35. “Nuclear wessels.” (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)
36. Cary Grant running from a biplane in North by Northwest
37. Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau
38. Brad Pitt and George Clooney’s chemistry in Ocean’s 11
39. Catherine Zeta Jones in The Mask of Zorro (I especially love
    that smirk-and-eyebrow-lift thing she does a couple of times in this scene)
40. Yul Brynner’s posturing as Ramses in The Ten Commandments
41. The chariot race in Ben Hur
42. Charlton Heston chewing the scenery of the Planet of the
    Apes
43. “That’s what I love about these high-school girls, man. I
    get older, they stay the same age.” (Dazed and Confused)
44. The journey to Fort Sedgwick sequence in Dance with Wolves.
    Also, the buffalo hunt, Dunbar falling in love with Stands with a Fist, and
    Wind in His Hair shouting that he will always be Dances with Wolves’ friend.
45. “Think you used enough dynamite there, Butch?” (Butch
    Cassidy and the Sundance Kid)
46. The “king of the world” scene in Titanic (1997 version).
    Yeah, I know, everyone hates this movie, this phrase, Leo DiCaprio… whatever. The
    music, the recreation of the ship, and the feeling of being young and exhilarated by the dazzling world around you…
    I think this scene is magnificent and if you don’t feel a tingle during it, you
    must be made of stone. 
47. Seeing the Spruce Goose fly in The Aviator
48. Snowman running over the motorcycles of the men who just
    beat him up in Smokey and the Bandit
49. Alan Grant’s legs turning to rubber when he sees that
    dinosaurs are “moving in herds… they do move in herds,” Jurassic Park
50. Clancy Brown as The Kurgan in Highlander
51. Lauren Bacall’s little wiggle at the end of To Have and Have
    Not
52. Rita Hayworth’s hair flip in Gilda  
53. Gene Kelly dancing in the rain (Singin’ in the Rain)
54. Alastair Sim’s Scrooge laughing so joyfully the next morning
    that he struggles to catch his breath in A Christmas Carol (1951 version)
55. The near-sex scene (which gets interrupted) between Ellen Barkin
    and Dennis Quaid in The Big Easy
56. The sex scene (which does not get interrupted) in An
    American Werewolf in London
57. The first transformation scene in An American Werewolf in
    London
58. The car chase in Bullitt 
59. The truck chase in Raiders of the Lost Ark
60. The last of the late, great V8 Interceptors in Mad Max and The
    Road Warrior
61. Clint Eastwood’s signature “do you feel lucky, punk?” speech
    in Dirty Harry
62. Captain Jack Sparrow
63. John Travolta dancing in Saturday Night Fever
64. Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey dancing in Dirty Dancing
65. Seeing the Wasatch Front the way it used to be in Footloose
66. Jenny Agutter in Logan’s Run
67. Blake and his crew standing in the church at the end of The
    Fog (1980 version, of course)
68. Kathleen Turner’s voice
69. Bruce Willis’ cool
70. The sheer ridiculousness/awesomeness of The Fifth Element
71. Mom not mentioning Ralphie’s fight to the Old Man in A
    Christmas Story
72. Lon Chaney as The Phantom of the Opera
73. Four kids sitting around a campfire in Stand by Me
74. Martian war machines in The War of the Worlds (1953 version)
75. Marking the passage of the years with a mannequin’s changing
    clothing in The Time Machine (1960 version)
76. Malcolm McDowell as HG Wells and David Warner as Jack the
    Ripper in Time After Time
77. Marty McFly and Doc Brown
78. Indiana Jones
79. Karen Allen’s smile
80. The Jaws theme
81. Watching the Harry Potter kids grow up
82. Kevin Costner’s “I believe” speech (NSFW, in case you don’t know it) in Bull Durham  
83. Susan Sarandon in Bull Durham
84. Susan Sarandon in Thelma and Louise
85. Lolita Davidovich playing Blaze Starr in Blaze
86. Michelle Pfeiffer’s singing in The Fabulous Baker Boys
87. Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman (me-ow!)
88. Jeff Bridges finally getting an Oscar
89. Robert Downey Jr. finally finding a signature role in Iron
    Man
90. Rutger Hauer’s death speech in Blade Runner
91. Sean Connery playing a Russian Lithuanian with a Scottish
    accent in The Hunt for Red October
92. Sean Connery telling Eliot Ness how to beat Al Capone in The
    Untouchables
93. Jack Nicholson playing himself in pretty much everything
94. “It’s Chinatown, Jake.” (Chinatown, obviously)
95. John Belushi doing his impression of a zit in Animal House
96. Clark Griswold telling his family they’re going to have so
    much fun, they’ll be whistling “Zip-a-dee-doo-dah” out their a**holes in
    Vacation. (True story: my uncle Louie once delivered almost this exact speech
    to his kids, in front of my parents and me while on a family outing, well
    before the movie ever came out, so I relate to this.)
97. “There’s no crying in baseball.” (A League of Their Own)
98. The smell of fresh popcorn popping on a hot summer day (Hey, nobody said things I love about the movies couldn’t include things I love about going to the movies!)
99. Ferris Bueller trying to beat his parents home in Ferris Bueller’s
    Day Off
100. And coming in at 100… bad action-hero one-liners!

Well, that was fun. You know, I think I could probably go on… maybe I’ll do a sequel to this entry at some point…