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zwolanerd

I guess I just like liking things

If there’s an easier way to profess one’s love for a particular movie than by sharing movie quotes with someone, I don’t know what it is. A person can say “all righty, then” in normal conversation and no one thinks twice about it, but as soon as you stretch out the Ls and contort your face while doing it, the light goes off and you can immediately distinguish the Ace Ventura fans from the unwashed heathens.

When you start taking a look at lists of The Best Movie Quotes Ever, it becomes clear that many of them pretty much serve one purpose: to identify that this particular quote came from a movie. While some folks will slip in a “May the Force be with you” now and then, there isn’t much call for a “Rosebud!” or “I am big! It’s the pictures that got small” in everyday conversation.

My two most-quoted movie lines aren’t anywhere on that list, nor would I expect them to be. I wouldn’t hesitate to bet that I’ve used one or both of these lines at least once a week for years, but nobody who knows me in real life would even register that fact, they’re so innocuous.

batmandoctorThe first one is “Let’s see how we did” from Batman (1989). Here’s a clip of the Joker’s plastic surgeon saying it, and it’s important to note that when I use it, I do my best approximation of the doctor’s (German?) accent. It’s useful for all sorts of things, certainly, but I use it mostly after I’ve made some change in a computer’s setup (I work in IT). Most any situation where I’ve made a change and need to test it leads to me saying this phrase, though. No one ever reacts, which I feel is a sign of success.

The second one is from A Fish Called Wanda (1988). John Cleese’s character is being… encouraged to apologize to Kevin Kline’s character, and midway through he says, “I apologize unreservedly.” It’s around the 16-second mark in this clip, but I’m linking to the whole clip because you should watch it. I use this one both when I’m actually sorry and when I’m sorry, but it’s not a situation where an apology is really necessary. In those second cases it’s funny to me to use it because it’s under-statedly over-the-top in a situation that didn’t really need anything, and that amuses me. Again, no one ever would think that’s funny except me, and it never gets any kind of reaction, and neither of those will keep me from doing it. In fact, just now I’ve considered that “I apologize unreservedly” might be a good thing to put on my tombstone.

What movie quotes do you use often?

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