Quotes about movie
page 6

Gene Kelly photo
Robert Crumb photo
Richard Matheson photo
Amitabh Bachchan photo
Ben Hecht photo
David Woodard photo
Errol Morris photo

“The title of this movie should be "Here's a Fish. You're Stupid."”

Richard Jeni (1957–2007) American comedian

On Jaws 4: The Revenge
Showtime Triple Crowns of Comedy

Will Rogers photo

“There is only one thing that can kill the Movies, and that is education.”

Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist and entertainer

Source: The Autobiography of Will Rogers (1949), Ch. 6

Pauline Kael photo
Vyjayanthimala photo

“If Bharatanatyam helped my movies, I cannot say the same about films helping my Bharatanatyam.”

Vyjayanthimala (1936) Indian actress, politician & dancer

In "There's no slowing down for Vyjayanthimala".

Angelique Rockas photo
Will Wright photo
Jim Henson photo
Donald E. Westlake photo
Roger Ebert photo
Roger Ebert photo
Halle Berry photo

“The fact is that I like thrillers and action movies. But what really fulfills me is getting out of my comfort zone, taking chances.”

Halle Berry (1966) American actress

Terry Lawson (April 8, 2007) "Reporter, Temp, Online Seductress - Berry Revels In Film's Layered Role", Detroit Free Press, p. 1F.

Lauren Southern photo

“No, movies and TV shows are not racist.”

Lauren Southern (1995) Canadian libertarian commentator

2:06-2:08
2017 New Year's Resolutions for Millennials

E. B. White photo

“It's mournful and troubling in a way that goes beyond ordinary movie manipulation. It burns clean.”

Stephanie Zacharek (1963) American film critic

Review http://salon.com/ent/movies/review/2000/12/22/cast_away/index.html of Cast Away (2000)

Maggie Q photo
Pauline Kael photo
Ali Larter photo
Pamela Anderson photo
Marlon Brando photo
Warren Farrell photo
Roger Ebert photo

“The best shot in this film is the first one. Not a good sign… After the screening was over and the lights went up, I observed a couple of my colleagues in deep and earnest conversation, trying to resolve twists in the plot. They were applying more thought to the movie than the makers did. A critic's mind is a terrible thing to waste.”

Roger Ebert (1942–2013) American film critic, author, journalist, and TV presenter

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/i-know-what-you-did-last-summer-1997 of I Know What You Did Last Summer (17 October 1997)
Reviews, One-star reviews

David Fincher photo
Linda Blair photo

“Every time I watch it, I still see something new, and I’ve seen it a lot as you can imagine. When fans only talk about the scares, they’re not really learning anything, which is a shame because Billy really put a lot of thematic elements in this movie that are supposed to make you think. It wasn’t just about scaring people; it was a family drama that had horrific elements.”

Linda Blair (1959) actress, producer, animal rights activist

Exclusive: Linda Blair Reflects on 40 Years with The Exorcist for FEARnet’s February 17th Five-Film Marathon http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/41504/exclusive-linda-blair-reflects-on-40-years-with-the-exorcist-for-fearnet-s-february-17th-five-film-marathon/ (February 16, 2013)

Henry Blodget photo
Daniel Handler photo
Brian Selznick photo

“I could never imagine a movie being made from the way I had structured the book, it still feels miraculous that we made it this way without compromising the story, but everything has felt miraculous since I got that first phone call saying Martin Scorsese wants to make a movie out of 'Hugo.”

Brian Selznick (1966) American children's illustrator and writer

I recognize how lucky I am.
Brian Selznick: The author who inspired Martin Scorsese and Todd Haynes to make family films http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesneaks/la-ca-mn-0903-sneaks-brian-selznick-wonderstruck-20170903-story.html (September 1, 2017)

Akira Ifukube photo
Betty Friedan photo
Quentin Crisp photo
Heath Ledger photo
Roger Ebert photo

“The movie stars six teenage characters who have been marketed on TV and in toy stores. They have names, but no discernible personalities. None of them ever says anything more interesting than "You guys!" As teenagers, they are skilled in-line skaters and karate fighters, but they don't get their real powers until they turn into faceless clones in Power Rangers uniforms with plastic masks and helmets. Is that the message? Faceless conformity is the way to success? Certainly the Rangers are not individuals in or out of uniform, but I wonder if they don't represent a triumph of merchandising over creativity. Children's heroes have traditionally been individualistic and eccentric. The Rangers are not, properly speaking, even characters. They are color-coded products… Paging through the movie's press kit, I came across this quote attributed to Amy Jo Johnson, who plays Kimberly, the Pink Power Ranger: " `Mighty Morphin Power Rangers™: The Movie' is a mix between Star Wars and The Wizard of Oz. " I wonder if Amy Jo actually said "TM" when she was delivering that wonderfully fresh and spontaneous quote, which is so much more involved than anything she says in the movie. More to the point, I wonder if she has ever seen "Star Wars" or "The Wizard of Oz."”

Roger Ebert (1942–2013) American film critic, author, journalist, and TV presenter

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/mighty-morphin-power-rangers-the-movie-1995 of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Movie (30 June 1995)
Reviews, Half-star reviews

Ani DiFranco photo
Pauline Kael photo
Owen Wilson photo
Roger Ebert photo

“There is a word for this movie, and that word is: Ick.”

Roger Ebert (1942–2013) American film critic, author, journalist, and TV presenter

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/good-luck-chuck-2007 of Good Luck Chuck (21 September 2007)
Reviews, One-star reviews

Roger Ebert photo
Frank McCourt photo

“I liked movies so much that they became an obsession. I am still trying to kick the habit.”

Christoffer Boe (1974) Danish filmmaker

Quoted in Christoffer Boe: "I liked movies so much that they became an obsession. I am still trying to kick the habit," http://www.indiewire.com/article/park_city_06_christoffer_boe_i_liked_movies_so_much_that_they_became_an_obs/ interview with indieWIRE (January 11, 2006)

Arnold Schwarzenegger photo

“This is like winning an Oscar!… As if I would know! Speaking of acting, one of my movies was called True Lies. And that’s what the Democrats should have called their convention.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger (1947) actor, businessman and politician of Austrian-American heritage

2000s, Speech at the Republican National Convention (31 August 2004)

Akira Ifukube photo
Conor Oberst photo

“It's not a movie,
no private screening
This method acting,
well, I call that living”

Conor Oberst (1980) American musician

Method Acting
Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground (2002)

Joseph Gordon-Levitt photo
Petula Clark photo
Miranda July photo

“I wanted to make the movie feel like life feels to me — and life feels both sad and dark and confusing and more than hopeful — it feels like something totally incredible could happen at any moment and with no explanation.”

Miranda July (1974) American performance artist, musician and writer

On her film Me and You and Everyone We Know (2005), in an interview at Apple.com http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/in-action/?movie=july

Ethan Hawke photo
David Cronenberg photo

“I think all my movies are commercial. That's my delusion. I thought 'Naked Lunch' was wildly entertaining, so what do I know?”

David Cronenberg (1943) Canadian film director, screenwriter and actor

David Cronenberg's Body Language http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/18/magazine/18cronenberg.html?pagewanted=all (September 18, 2005)

Roger Ebert photo
Ang Lee photo

“Gradually I got tuned into the world — that happens on every movie. I did a women's movie, and I'm not a woman. I did a gay movie, and I'm not gay. I learned as I went along.”

Ang Lee (1954) Taiwanese-born American film director, screenwriter and film producer

On developing a sensitivity for authentic details in the making of movies, Salon (17 October 1997).

Aron Ra photo
Roger Ebert photo

“Here's a movie that stretches out every moment for more than it's worth, until even the moments of inspiration seem forced. Since the basic idea of the movie is a good one and there are talented people in the cast, what we have here is a film shot down by its own forced and mannered style.”

Roger Ebert (1942–2013) American film critic, author, journalist, and TV presenter

Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/raising-arizona-1987 of Raising Arizona (20 March 1987)
Reviews, One-and-a-half star reviews

Roger Ebert photo

“This movie is not merely bad, but incompetent. I get tapes in the mail from 10th graders that are better made than this… I have often asked myself, "What would it look like if the characters in a movie were animatronic puppets created by aliens with an imperfect mastery of human behavior?"”

Roger Ebert (1942–2013) American film critic, author, journalist, and TV presenter

Now I know.
Review http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/friends-and-lovers-1999 of Friends & Lovers (30 April 1999)
Reviews, Half-star reviews

Pauline Kael photo

“At the movies, we are gradually being conditioned to accept violence as a sensual pleasure. The directors used to say they were showing us its real face and how ugly it was in order to sensitize us to its horrors. You don't have to be very keen to see that they are now in fact desensitizing us. They are saying that everyone is brutal, and the heroes must be as brutal as the villains or they turn into fools. There seems to be an assumption that if you're offended by movie brutality, you are somehow playing into the hands of the people who want censorship. But this would deny those of us who don't believe in censorship the use of the only counterbalance: the freedom of the press to say that there's anything conceivably damaging in these films — the freedom to analyze their implications. If we don't use this critical freedom, we are implicitly saying that no brutality is too much for us — that only squares and people who believe in censorship are concerned with brutality. Actually, those who believe in censorship are primarily concerned with sex, and they generally worry about violence only when it's eroticized. This means that practically no one raises the issue of the possible cumulative effects of movie brutality. Yet surely, when night after night atrocities are served up to us as entertainment, it's worth some anxiety. We become clockwork oranges if we accept all this pop culture without asking what's in it. How can people go on talking about the dazzling brilliance of movies and not notice that the directors are sucking up to the thugs in the audience?”

"Stanley Strangelove" (January 1972) http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0051.html, review of A Clockwork Orange
Deeper into Movies (1973)

Orson Welles photo

“My father once told me that the art of receiving a compliment is, of all things, the sign of a civilized man. He died soon afterwards, leaving my education in this important matter sadly incomplete; I'm only glad that, on this, the occasion of the rarest compliment he ever could have dreamed of, that he isn't here to see his son so publicly at a loss. In receiving a compliment, or in trying to, the words are all worn out by now. They're polluted by ham and corn. And, when you try to scratch around for some new ones, it's just an exercise in empty cleverness. What I feel this evening, is not very clever. it's the very opposite of emptiness. The corny old phrase is the only one I know to say it: my heart is full; with a full heart, with all of it, I thank you. This is Samuel Johnson, on the subject of what he calls contrarieties: "there are goods, so opposed that we cannot seize both, and, in trying, fail to seize either. Flatter not yourself, he says, with contrarieties. Of the blessings set before you, make your choice. No man can, at the same time, fill his cup from the source, and from the mouth of the nile." For this business of contrarieties has to do with us. With you, who are paying me this compliment, and for me, who has strayed so far from this hometown of ours. Not that I am alone in this, or unique, I am never that; but there are a few of us left in this conglomerated world of us who still trudge stubbornly along this lonely rocky road; and this is in fact our contrariety. We don't move nearly as fast as our cousins on the freeway; we don't even get as much accomplished just as the family sized farm can't possibly raise as many crops or get as much profit as the agricultural factory of today. What we do come up with has no special right to call itself better it's just.. different. No if there's any excuse for us it all, it's that we're simply following the old American tradition of the maverick, and we are a vanishing breed. This honor I can only accept in the name of all the mavericks. And also, as a tribute to the generosity of all the rest of you; to the givers, to the ones with fixed addresses. A maverick may go his own way but he doesn't think that it's the only way, or ever claim that it's the best one, except maybe for himself. And don't imagine that this raggle-taggle gypsy-o is claiming to be free. It's just that some of the necessities to which I am a slave are different from yours. As a director, for instance, I pay myself out of my acting jobs. I use my own work to subsidize my work (in other words I'm crazy). But not crazy enough to pretend to be free. But it's a fact that many of the films you've seen tonight could never have been made otherwise. Or, if otherwise, well, they might have been better, but certainly they wouldn't have been mine. The truth is I don't believe that this great evening would ever have brightened my life if it wasn't for this: my own, particular, contrariety. Let us raise our cups, then, standing as some of us do on opposite ends of the river, to what really matters to us all: to our crazy, beloved profession, to the movies — to good movies, to every possible kind.”

Orson Welles (1915–1985) American actor, director, writer and producer

Speech given upon his acceptance of the AFI Lifetime Achievement award. Viewable http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXJnxClGamA&list=HL1349840607&feature=mh_lolz

Erica Jong photo

“Never follow a dog act. You know you're on the skids when you play yourself in the movie version of your life.”

Erica Jong (1942) Novelist, poet, memoirist, critic

Erica Jong's father (a musician, songwriter and later business man), his two pieces of advice for her. Given in the Times Literary Supplement, 7 October 1994, page 44.
Other

Roger Ebert photo
Charlotte Salomon photo
David Fincher photo
Ingmar Bergman photo

“He's done two masterpieces, you don't have to bother with the rest. One is Blow-Up, which I've seen many times, and the other is La Notte, also a wonderful film, although that's mostly because of the young Jeanne Moreau. In my collection I have a copy of Il Grido, and damn what a boring movie it is. So devilishly sad, I mean. You know, Antonioni never really learned the trade… He concentrated on single images, never realising that film is a rhythmic flow of images, a movement. Sure, there are brilliant moments in his films. But I don't feel anything for L'Avventura, for example. Only indifference. I never understood why Antonioni was so incredibly applauded. And I thought his muse Monica Vitti was a terrible actress.”

Ingmar Bergman (1918–2007) Swedish filmmaker

On Michelangelo Antonioni
Variant translation: Antonioni has never properly learnt his craft. He's an aesthete. If, for example, he needs a certain kind of road for The Red Desert, then he gets the houses repainted on the damned street. That is the attitude of an aesthete. He took great care over a single shot, but didn't understand that a film is a rhythmic stream of images, a living, moving process; for him, on the contrary, it was such a shot, then another shot, then yet another. So, sure, there are some brilliant bits in his films... I can't understand why Antonioni is held in such high esteem.
Jan Aghed interview (2002)

James Cromwell photo

“Making the movie Babe opened my eyes to the intelligence and the inquisitive personalities of pigs. These highly social animals possess an amazing capacity for love, joy and sorrow that makes them remarkably similar to our beloved canine and feline friends.”

James Cromwell (1940) American actor and producer

Said in a press statement for SaveBabe campaign, as quoted in "James Cromwell: King Lear, Babe and the Black Panthers" http://www.nouse.co.uk/2007/10/26/james-cromwell-king-lear-babe-and-the-black-panthers/ in Nouse (26 October 2007)

“I always felt that the telefilm directors made wonderful films, which are even better than the big screen movies, but never got enough opportunities to showcase their talents on the big screens.”

Arin Paul (1980) Indian film director

Interview on Calcuttatube http://calcuttatube.com/arin-paul-exclusive-interview/1608/ (2009)

Ellen Willis photo
Ethan Hawke photo
Roger Ebert photo
Roger Ebert photo
Jane Espenson photo

“Movies are always made by committees, and the writer is not at the head of the committee. Thus, mush.”

Jane Espenson (1964) American television writer and producer

Ain't It Cool News interview (17 July 2003)

Ken Ham photo

“Friends, last night I watched the Hollywood (Paramount) movie Noah. It is much, much worse than I thought it would be—much worse. The director of the movie, Darren Aronofsky, has been quoted in the media as saying that Noah is “the least biblical biblical film ever made,” and I agree wholeheartedly with him. I am disgusted. I am going to come right out and say it: this movie is disgusting and evil—paganism! Do you really want your family to see a pagan movie that portrays Noah as a psychopath who says that if his daughter-in-law’s baby is a girl then he will kill her as soon as she’s born? And when two girls are born, bloodstained Noah (the man the Bible calls “righteous” in Genesis 7:1) brings a knife down to the head of one of the babies to kill her—and at the last minute doesn’t do it. And then a bit later, Noah says he failed because he didn’t kill the babies. How can we recommend this movie and then speak against abortion? Psychopathic Noah sees humans as a blight on the planet and wants to rid the world of people. I feel dirty—as if I have to somehow wash the evil off myself. I cannot believe there are Christian leaders who have recommended that people see this movie.”

Ken Ham (1951) Australian young Earth creationist

"The Noah Movie is Disgusting and Evil: Paganism!" http://blogs.answersingenesis.org/blogs/ken-ham/2014/03/28/the-noah-movie-is-disgusting-and-evil-paganism/, Around the World with Ken Ham (March 28, 2014)
Around the World with Ken Ham (May 2005 - Ongoing)

Nadine Gordimer photo
Thom Yorke photo

“Far up above, aliens hover
Making home movies for the folks back home
Of all these weird creatures that lock up their spirits
Drill holes in themselves and live for their secrets”

Thom Yorke (1968) English musician, philanthropist and singer-songwriter

"Subterranean Homesick Alien"
Lyrics, OK Computer (1997)

Joseph Gordon-Levitt photo
Uwe Boll photo

“Postal will be so politically incorrect and harsh, it's like a mirror to American society, and I don't think the movie will be well received by anybody. For example, Osama Bin Laden will be one of the lead characters—I think that shows the mood of the movie.”

Uwe Boll (1965) German restaurateur and former filmmaker

Uwe Boll Bites Back, 2006-06-13, Ellie Gibson, Eurogamer, 2006-02-15 http://www.eurogamer.net/article.php?article_id=62899,
2000s

Gwyneth Paltrow photo

“I can do short jobs. If I was still starring in three movies every year, there’s no way that I’d be the person my kids want when they fall down.”

Gwyneth Paltrow (1972) American actress, singer, and food writer

Interview with Gwyneth Paltrow, Elle http://www.elle.com/Pop-Culture/Cover-Shoots/The-Spellbinder-Gwyneth-Paltrow#mode=base;slide=0; (August 3 2011)

Orson Welles photo
Aron Ra photo

“Lizards don't look anything like dinosaurs. Why doesn't anyone understand this?… Ignore what you've seen in the cheesy old movies made by those who don't know anything; there's not even one dinosaur that looks anything like a lizard. It's so obvious it bothers me that no one can see this.”

Aron Ra (1962) Aron Ra is an atheist activist and the host of the Ra-Men Podcast

Youtube, Other, Geerup's Terrible Lizard Classification https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhZeowON8l8 (July 28, 2009)

Stanley Kubrick photo

“The reason movies are often so bad out here isn't because the people who make them are cynical money hacks. Most of them are doing the very best they can; they really want to make good movies. The trouble is with their heads, not their hearts.”

Stanley Kubrick (1928–1999) American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer and editor

Quoted in Against the American Grain (1962) by Dwight Macdonald, p. 30

Laura Dern photo
Irving Kristol photo
Salman Rushdie photo

“The fundamentalist seeks to bring down a great deal more than buildings. Such people are against, to offer just a brief list, freedom of speech, a multi-party political system, universal adult suffrage, accountable government, Jews, homosexuals, women's rights, pluralism, secularism, short skits, dancing, beardlessness, evolution theory, sex. There are tyrants, not Muslims. United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said that we should now define ourselves not only by what we are for but by what we are against. I would reverse that proposition, because in the present instance what we are against is a no brainer. Suicidist assassins ram wide-bodied aircraft into the World Trade Center and Pentagon and kill thousands of people: um, I'm against that. But what are we for? What will we risk our lives to defend? Can we unanimously concur that all the items in the preceding list — yes, even the short skirts and the dancing — are worth dying for? The fundamentalist believes that we believe in nothing. In his world-view, he has his absolute certainties, while we are sunk in sybaritic indulgences. To prove him wrong, we must first know that he is wrong. We must agree on what matters: kissing in public places, bacon sandwiches, disagreement, cutting-edge fashion, literature, generosity, water, a more equitable distribution of the world's resources, movies, music, freedom of thought, beauty, love. These will be our weapons. Not by making war but by the unafraid way we choose to live shall we defeat them. How to defeat terrorism? Don't be terrorized. Don't let fear rule your life. Even if you are scared.”

Salman Rushdie (1947) British Indian novelist and essayist

Step Across This Line: Collected Nonfiction 1992–2002

Clay Shirky photo
Roger Ebert photo
Roger Ebert photo