The New York Times’ Michael Cieply gets his curmudgeon on in today’s paper, crankily arguing that movies these days are just not holding up their end of the classic-movie-dialogue quote bargain. (Timeless examples Cieply wistfully cites: “Go ahead, make my day”; “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn”; “Show me the money!”). Wisely, the dude does address the movie of the moment — but, in an affront to all fans of Aaron Sorkin’s sparkly, “rat-a-tat” dialogue, strongly insinuates The Social Network has no transcendent quotables. (He even calls up Eric Roth, prolific screenwriter, to talk about Network. Roth was reportedly “found … scratching to find an unstoppable one-liner.”)
Well, Vulture is not taking this one sitting down! Here are ten thoroughly crackerjack lines from The Social Network that obviously stand an excellent chance of becoming painfully overused very soon. You’re welcome, Cieply.
1. “If you guys were the inventors of Facebook, you would have invented Facebook.”
2. “I’m six-foot-five, 220 pounds, and there’s two of me.” Great for bar fights!
3. “A million dollars isn’t cool. You know what’s cool? A billion dollars.”
4. “You better lawyer up, asshole.”
5. “Like my brother and I are dressed in skeleton costumes chasing the karate kid around a high-school gym.”
6. “Because we’re gentlemen of Harvard.”
7. “I like standing next to you, [insert name]. It makes me look tough in comparison.”
8. Using “The Winklevi” in a sentence. When being dismissive, generally.
9. “If your clients want to sit on my shoulders and call themselves tall, they have the right to give it a try.”
10. “I believe I deserve some sort of recognition from this Ad Board.”
What else?
