100 MOVIE MOMENTS

john cribbs

This is a list inspired by one written by the great Patton Oswalt a few years ago: 100 moments that come to my mind when I think about great movies:

Harry Dean Stanton in REPO MAN

Kyle MacLachlan doing the chicken walk in BLUE VELVET

Buster Keaton leaping through the window right into his disguise in SHERLOCK JR

The seven and a half minute hellacious, knockdown fight between Roddy Piper and Keith David in THEY LIVE

Michael Simon playing an LP with his finger in L'ATALANTE

Christy McNichol meeting the real monster in WHITE DOG

Instruments for Operating on Mutant Women from DEAD RINGERS

"Indiana... let it go." INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE

"Wolfman's got NARDS!" THE MONSTER SQUAD

"Choke on 'em!" DAY OF THE DEAD

"That Barney Rubble.what an actor!" NIGHT SHIFT

Breaking a record in the Louvre in BAND OF OUTSIDERS

The camera doing a double-take at the malfunctioning neon "Hotel Coral Essex" sign in REVENGE OF THE NERDS II: NERDS IN PARADISE

"Mom! Dad! Don't touch it! It's evil!" TIME BANDITS

The Devil on a Canvas rushes in BARTON FINK

Sidney J Mussburger's flashback to his tailor appointment in THE HUDSUCKER PROXY

Jessica Harper walking through the sliding doors at the airport at the beginning of SUSPIRIA

Brilliant phone booth scene #1: "Oh - oh really? Did-did he really say that? Oh, he didn't really say that. What-what else was it.that he-that he said? Oh that's-that's wonderful, that's won-that's mar-marvelous!" (ROSEMARY'S BABY)

Brilliant phone booth scene #2: "Anonymous." (BONE)

Brilliant phone booth scene #3: "I - can't - give - you - an - y - thing - but - lovvvvvvve.BA-BEEEEEEE!" (KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE)

Chairs stacked on a table in POLTERGEIST

"Kiri-kiri-kiri-kiri," like she's whispering in your ear - AUDITION

A human hand clashing a tambourine - SUPERSTAR: THE KAREN CARPENTER STORY

The band giving Malcolm McDowell a ride in O LUCKY MAN!

Most disturbing rape scene ever filmed, STRAW DOGS

Least disturbing rape scene ever filmed, THE KNACK.AND HOW TO GET IT

Speaking of rape: Jon Voight climbing the mountain in DELIVERANCE

The spectacular heist in RIFIFI

The less than spectacular heist in STROSZEK

Da (Stephen Rea) staying home with the flies in THE BUTCHER BOY

The Purtian father eerily frozen in a penitent death pose against the post in RIDE THE HIGH COUNTRY

Jack Burton finally doing something right in BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA

Richard Chance making his final mistake in TO LIVE AND DIE IN LA

Belmondo's torture scene in PIERROT LE FOU

Scene-stealing performance in a film no one saw: Christopher Plummer as Santa the jolly sociopath bank robber/woman hater in THE SILENT PARTNER

Richard E Grant in HOW TO GET AHEAD IN ADVERTISING

Timothy Olyphant in THE GIRL NEXT DOOR

Uncle Walt's trepidation over performing the hat trick in Joe Dante's segment of THE TWILIGHT ZONE: THE MOVIE

The Commode Story in RESERVOIR DOGS

Giving up Hamster Style in ORGAZMO

Oliver Reed's singing technique in TOMMY

The black chicken in LOVE AT FIRST BITE

"There's a doctor here that thinks I'm beautiful and interesting." Charlotte Rampling in STARDUST MEMORIES

Albert Brooks whispering to Holly Hunter in BROADCAST NEWS

James Caan's face when he visits Willie Nelson in jail, and Willie asks "Can you get me out of here?" THIEF

Thirty-two minutes of silence: THE ACT OF SEEING THRU ONE'S OWN EYES

The thing in the little red slicker turns around to face Donald Sutherland in DON'T LOOK NOW

Peek-a-boo eyes in the EVIL DEAD movies

Ducky Boy territory - THE WANDERERS

Isaiah Washington refusing to take the hundred dollar bill (and someone else gladly accepting it) in CLOCKERS

Henry Fonda's expression as Barbara Stanwyck caresses his head in THE LADY EVE

The winning ad campaign slogan in CHRISTMAS IN JULY

Michael Caine's stoic grimace as he watches the car sink in GET CARTER

"Pity" - Robert Shaw's death in THE TAKING OF PELHAM ONE TWO THREE

"Ooh!" - Lance Henriksen's death in HARD TARGET

Terrence Stamp changing his mind. And John Hurt not caring in THE HIT

"Bullshit, Mister Han-Man!" Jim Kelly in ENTER THE DRAGON

"Here. I. am" Tom Noonan in MANHUNTER

"Jane Austen by Emma." David Thewis in NAKED

"This is one hell of a Jesus H Christ kind of place to go find some tracker. Now what's THAT?" Crispin Glover in AT CLOSE RANGE

COBRA VERDE struggling to escape off the West Coast of Africa until he collapses, and the waves take him

Betty's audition in MULHOLLAND DRIVE

Mimi Rogers pulls away without paying for the fast food; the clerk wants to call the cops but his co-worker talks him out of it: "She had a kid with her..." (THE RAPTURE)

Richard Pryor tries to assemble enough neighborhood children to represent his alleged dependents when the IRS guy drops by unexpectedly in BLUE COLLAR

Pink smoke in HIGH AND LOW

Mark Wahlberg's brilliant, near-Shakespearean aside "You fuckin' liked it!" from FEAR

Tom Hanks' reading of the line "I've never seen that. I've never seen anyone drive their garbage out to the curb and bang the hell out of it with a stick." from THE 'BURBS

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS 1956 - the naked kiss

INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS 1978 - best cameo in cinema history

Trucking on through the muck in WAGES OF FEAR

They throw babies, don't they? - THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO SAINT MATTHEW

Miraculously healed, the first thing a peasant does with his new hands is slap his annoying child - SIMON OF THE DESERT

"This man is an idiot." LAND WITHOUT BREAD

"The good pass through it with minor burns. The evil stumble and fall and die in strange places." PRIVATE HELL 36

Alymer crooning Glenn Miller in BRAIN DAMAGE

Best use of a pop classic in a scene involving Peter Coyote, milk, and a toaster - George Michael's "Faith" in Polanski's BITTER MOON

Bruce Lee remodeling James Garner's office in MARLOWE

Sheriff Bart inventing the candy-gram in BLAZING SADDLES

Flabbergasted Cary Grant trying to explain where his clothes are in BRINGING UP BABY

Two moments from THE GREAT ESCAPE: "I'm a lifeguard" / "Thanks for getting me out."

Karen Silas's short story in WHAT HAPPENED WAS

Zombie versus shark (Lucio Fulci's ZOMBIE)

Spinal Tap versus backstage (THIS IS SPINAL TAP)

Lt. Frank Drebin versus pillow (THE NAKED GUN)

Cameron Diaz versus locker room (ANY GIVEN SUNDAY)

"I love you." "I know." EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

Most beautiful sick ending in the history of film: Karen Allen tries on the "outfit" while Al Pacino washes away his soul in the mirror in CRUISING

Most ambiguous sick ending in the history of film: a train continues on in TIME OF THE WOLVES

Francesco Dellamorte scolding Gnaghi after he burns his old phone books ("These are CLASSICS!") in CEMETERY MAN

Chico scamming Groucho over some "tootsie frootsie" ice cream in A DAY AT THE RACES

Bill Murray running away after inviting Olivia Williams to the groundbreaking ceremony in RUSHMORE

Dick Miller surveying his cat "sculpture" in A BUCKET OF BLOOD

Burgess Meredith throwing his cat a birthday party in THE SENTINEL

Tanaka Ken giving up his thumb in THE YAKUZA

CHAMELEON STREET pretending he knows French

A ship, impossibly suspended from a tree, and we the audience fall under the same hallucinatory spell as the would-be conquerors of AGUIRRE: THE WRATH OF GOD

The profundity of a brassiere and the mysticism of a stain glass window do not go well together in HOLD ME WHILE I'M NAKED

The second gangster arrives early at the rendezvous and finds the hidden gun. SECOND BREATH

The beginning of ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST

The end of THE WILD BUNCH.

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