You started it. Show me everything. I can handle myself.

Just an observation on something that's been bothering me on my own blog for some time now- not enough quotes from female characters in movies as post titles.

First a quick note on the quotes themselves. I really don't have any methodology to how I pick quotes to go along with whatever I'm blathering about that day. Sometimes I'll read about something in the news and a quote immediately springs to mind. On rare occasions I'll build the post around a quote from a movie I've recently watched.

As you probably suspected I grab the majority of my quotes off of the IMDB. Again, there's little methodology. If I've written something about FISA for instance then I might immediately go look for a quote from "The Manchurian Candidate." If I can't find a good quote from that film then I may follow the link to Frank Sinatra's book of work and pick another movie he's been in to find a quote. It's a bit of a zen thing.

I have some rules for myself that I try to follow when I pick a quote and picture to head my post. It has to be a movie or television I've actually seen. The quote has to have subtext. Finally the picture has to be on or near to the point when the line used in the quote was actually spoken. (That last one is the toughest to hit and I often have to "cheat" with the picture.)

Recently I realized that the vast majority of the quotes I've used these past years were from male characters. Part of this isn't that surprising in that, as liberal and non-sexist as I try to be, I'm still a guy. I like action movies. It follows that the characters I identify with on a conscious/ subconscious would be strong male leads.

With this in mind I recently set out to deliberately find and use more quotes from women characters. I decided to use a Sophia Loren quote last week. I had a devil of a time finding a good quote from a movie with Loren to use. It didn't help that 2/3rds of the movies on her resume were Italian.

But the exercise tickled my curiosity so I spent a couple of hours thinking up the names of famous actresses, checking their filmology and then the memorable quotes from their individual films. What I found from that little admittedly non-scientific exercise is that, with the exception of women like Elizabeth Taylor or Katherine Hepburn, actresses don't have as many great lines as actors in movies. Here's some of the stuff that I think contributes to that conclusion--

• Nerds -- Quotes on the IMDB are compiled by fans of the individual movies and not some group of movie scholars who dig through the movies looking for great lines. Point is this could be a group of guys who live in their parent's basement.


• Who has the conch? --Most writers, especially in the golden age of Hollywood, were men. As such they wrote FOR men.


• By men, for men -- There aren't that many strong characters who are women written for movies. Strong characters, regardless of gender, get the best lines.


• And your little dog too -- Along those same lines characters that are strong that happen to be women are usually villains.


• It blowed up real good -- Hollywood makes action movies and most action heroes, with the exception of films like Thelma and Louise and Aliens, traditionally are men.

While I readily admit my little study was nowhere near empirical, I don't doubt for a second that any actress who has spent any amount of time around Hollywood would back up what I found.

As for myself-- I'm going to continue to try and utilize more quotes from women here. I can't promise that it will ever be perfectly distributed just because of my Schwarzenegger fixation.

At least I'm admitting I have a problem. That's a start.

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Off topic but in the course of doing the above mentioned research I did come across this long, beautiful anti-war quote from Elizabeth Taylor Katherine Hepburn as Eleanor in The Lion in Winter. It's too long to use in it's entirety as a post title and too great to break up.

Prince John: A knife! He's got a knife!

Eleanor: Of course he has a knife, he always has a knife, we all have knives! It's 1183 and we're barbarians! How clear we make it. Oh, my piglets, we are the origins of war: not history's forces, nor the times, nor justice, nor the lack of it, nor causes, nor religions, nor ideas, nor kinds of government, nor any other thing. We are the killers. We breed wars. We carry it like syphilis inside. Dead bodies rot in field and stream because the living ones are rotten. For the love of God, can't we love one another just a little - that's how peace begins. We have so much to love each other for. We have such possibilities, my children. We could change the world.

I just met a wonderful new man. He's fictional but you can't have everything.

A few weeks back Swinebread posted a list of possible blockbusters in 2008. Some of the flicks he listed I'm greatly interested in seeing but there also a few that didn't make the blockbuster cut that I'm still pretty excited about as a movie fan. Here's Dean's personal blockbuster list...

MOVIES I'M GOING TO SEE OPENING WEEKEND

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - There's a lot of trepidation about George Lucas rubbing his stank all over this flick and I still think the Frank Darabont script mess is ridiculous BUT I'm going to trust that Spielberg will keep the ship afloat. Plus the stuff that's leaked out sounds fun. Trailer on Valentine's Day so woohoo!

Hellboy 2 - The first one was a pretty damn good time, Ron Perlman is cool. Del Toro is a great director and my boy loves this character so there you are.

CJ7 - If you don't know who Stephen Chow is then you can't seriously call yourself a movie buff. Chow's signature mix of kung-fu, special effects, musicals and cartoons make his films one of the best times to be had at the cinema. Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle are must sees.

CJ7 is basically a riff off of E.T. with all of the elements I mentioned above thrown in.



Son of Rambow - The darling of Sundance. Movies about the love of movies (Cinema Paradisio anyone?) usually find a soft spot with me. Throw in some British kids, a dysfunctional religious family and we have a winner.



Iron Man - Trailer looks good. Robert Downey Jr. usually isn't in boring films. Geeks are pretty jazzed. All signs point to "yes"

Star Trek - I could write a lot about this but let me just say that I absolutely adore the original series and am keeping my fingers cautiously crossed for this one. The most important thing that'll be the bottom line sink-or-swim is whether J.J. Abrams successfully captures the Kirk/ Spock/ McCoy relationship. In my book the "more retro the better" is the second most important thing. This film could move down my list.

MOVIES I'LL PROBABLY SEE AFTER OPENING WEEKEND

Wall-E - Pixar. 'Nuff said.

Adventureland - Greg Mottola who directed Superbad gives us a movie where a college grad gets a job at an amusement park and finds out it better prepares him for the real world.

The Incredible Hulk - Ang Lee's Hulk still leaves a bad taste in my mouth but the film has the advatage of Edward Norton being a huge fan of the comics and having a ton of creative control. You know what other actor was a huge fan of the comic he made into a movie? Nicolas Cage and Ghost Rider.

Be Kind Rewind - I like Jack Black and Mos Def and, from what I've read, this movie is getting good advance buzz.

City of Ember - Something to do with a city in the future losing it's lights but it has Bill Murray and Martin Landau so whatever the heck it's about I'm in.

The Dark Knight - The "Crow" factor of Heath Ledger may cause me to hesititate but the first Batman film was pretty damn entertaining.

The Forbidden Kingdom - Jet Li in an epic Kung Fu movie with magical elements.



The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - I enjoy these movies and this features a whole new mummy. Don't tell anyone but I'm a closet Brandon Frasier fan.

Valkyrie - Yes it has Tom Cruise but a movie about the true plot to assasinate Hitler has all sorts of win.

MOVIES I MIGHT CATCH IF THERE ARE RERUNS ON T.V.

The Day the Earth Stood Still - Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly. I won't promise HER involvement in the picture won't get me to the cinema anyway. Do NOT remake classics.

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - I'm a fan of the books and enjoy the movies but I can wait for video to see these.

Jumper - Good: Samuel L. Jackson, teleportation. Bad: it stars Anakin Skywalker.

Pineapple Express - Stoner comedy.

Semi-Pro - Will Ferrell plays basketball. It looks like he's playing the same character he always plays but that's probably enough.

X-Files 2 - I wasn't interested until I found out they're moving away from the mythology for this film. In my mind the best episodes of Chris Carter's show were the ones that had nothing to do with aliens.

MOVIES I WOULD TORRENT RATHER THAN SPEND A PENNY ON

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - The first film was okay but the death grasp the fundie set has put on these films is pretty off-putting. That might be a dumb reason to avoid a movie but it's MY reason.

Speed Racer - Loved the cartoon but the trailer creeps me out.

MOVIES THEY'D HAVE TO PAY ME TO WATCH

Fanboys - friends travel to Skywalker Ranch to steal a copy of The Phantom Menace for a dying friend. No doubt the friend keels over when he actually watches that crappy film. He gets Jarjar-ed to death if you will.

Get Smart - Loved the show and fondly remember that my dad was a fan of Maxwell smart but this movie just has stinker written all over it.

I'll be good I swear...I'll never go see another movie again

Quint over at AICN has a review of the movie "Vacancy" (which I have no interest in seeing- ever) that begins by ripping one of the biggest issues I have with going to the movies these days: obnoxious, loud, rude theater-goers that talk through the whole damn movie.

The Alamo Draft House with the strict no-talking policy that he mentions just happens to be the dream business I'd like to own someday. It's franchised throughout Texas and a couple of steps past Cinetopia or any of theater/ restaurants we have out this way. If anybody has a spare million in capital please let me know...

May I be frank?

All in all I'd say this is a pretty good list of movies that make guys cry. Speaking for myself, and as someone who you all already recognize as muy macho, here are some of the flicks that choke me up personally-

Saving Private Ryan - Sure the "earn this" part is emotional but when I saw it in the theater I was sniffling in the first five minutes. The old Ryan heading up to the monument at Normandy where his much younger family is smiling like they're heading to Disneyland and you can see the fear and reluctance and memories begin to weigh on him just gets me.

Stranger than Fiction - I just saw this film but the part where Will Ferrell finally picks up the guitar and starts singing and the near picture perfect ending were hard not to cry through.

Amelie - A movie like Stranger than Fiction where life is reaffirmed at the ending. Seeing Amelie finally find somebody and watching her ride through the streets of Paris on the back of his motorcycle are the parts that move me.

Field of Dreams - I don't even like baseball. It's the idea of tossing a ball around with dad that gets me. I think that all of us as adults would rather be doing that.

The Gold Rush - I can't watch Chaplin dreaming of entertaining his love and her friends and doing the Dance of the Dinner Muffins without crying.

The Shawshank Redemption - Another perfect ending where hope wins out and so do the hankies.

You will then spend the remainder of the voyage contemplating all possible meanings of the phrase "silent as the grave". Do I make myself clear?

It's not difficult to find all sorts of stuff written on how the experience of going to the movies has changed over the years. Much of this is attributable to the rise of the home theater and the rise of the big cineplex.

Almost all of the commentary on this points to the general increase in plain old rudeness among theater-goers. Talking, chatting on cell phones and behaving overall as if they are in their own living room rather than a movie theater.

All of these are valid complaints but they leave off one very important reason that attending movies these days just isn't all that fun: the demise of the sense communal experience. The inverse of people making too much noise during the movie is that people sit on their hands during a movie- especially a big, fun summer film.

I attended "Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Man's Chest" this weekend and was really surprised at how quiet the audience was for an opening weekend. Sure, not everything worked but there remained enough funny/ exciting stuff that should have provoked some sort of reaction out of the audience. Instead: nothing. Crickets.

I can put up with cell phones, crying babies and people talking. But the only reason I still go to the movie theater is to experience a movie with a crowd. If the crowd might as well not be there then I don't see what the point is...

You've got me? Who has you?

Superman Returns.

I loved this film but whatever you do DO NOT see it in the IMAX 70mm format.

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First a disclaimer: "Superman: The Movie" was one of my favorite films as a kid. The two biggest things that have stuck with me were Christopher Reeve's pitch perfect performance as Superman and John Williams' bombastic score.

I watched it again recently with the young'uns in order to get them in the mood for the new film. During the movie my daughter leaned over and asked me if I ever wished I could fly. I said "Sure, everybody does at one time or another. Usually in dreams."

But her question started wheels turning got me thinking and got me to take a little deeper look at a movie I'd taken at face value for twenty years. Pretty much everything superman accomplishes in "Superman" he does by flying. He woos Lois by taking her on a moonlight flight. He stops Lex Luthor's rocket scheme by flying after the rockets and he performs the ultimate Deus Ex by flying so fast the world actually spins backwards and time regresses. Superman is a man that can bend steel and leap tall buildings, but most important he's a man that can live out our dreams of flying.

I think that's why Christopher Reeve's spinal injury while horseback riding hit us so hard. Sure, he was just an actor but he had become inseparable from the man he played on screen and the man who could fly could know no longer even walk.

Yet Reeve did something amazing. His initial reaction to his injury was deep depression. At on point he discussed ending his life with his wife Dana. With her help and with great determination he began to find purpose in curing his injury and walking again. He started a foundation for the cure of spinal cord injuries. And he took us all along for the ride- stubbornly molding out dreams of seeing him fly into dreams of seeing him get out of his wheelchair and take his first steps in years.

I bring all of this up because Christopher Reeve permeates "Superman Returns" without showing up in a single frame of the film. From Brandon Routh's voice characterizations and appearance to the dialog which lifts generously from the first Superman movie, Reeve is always there- his ghost hovering and smiling over the whole enterprise.

But what really strikes me is the film's subtext as it parallels Reeve's own life and taps into our own lost hopes for the man, particularly in the last act. Superman is on the receiving end of a kryptonite shiv to the back. He winds up in the hospital... Dying from his back injury. The people of the world stand vigil, hoping to see him fly again.

Then, having tapped into our real world hopes for Superman, director Bryan Singer finally gives us the happy ending we lost with the death of Reeve.

Superman flies.