What Are the Most Overrated Movie and TV Lines?

Let's stay on script people.

Rafi Schwartz

Mar 2, 2021

Let's talk about That Line.

Or actually, let's not. Instead, let's talk about everyone talking about That Line.

Where were you when the zombie ghost (?) of the cosmic-powered cyborg said the nice thing about grief to the science experiment psychic who maybe was magic all along? Did you watch it on your TV, or did you experience it secondhand when our pandemic-psychosis and Disney-fied monoculture combined to turn what was a nice little bit of dialogue into a raging(ly stupid) debate over the poetry of the mundane in modern cinema and whether or not screenwriters whisper reverent "FUCK"s under their breath. And, just like that ~ voila! ~ what had been a lovely moment in a goofy show about a magic town with not one but two witches became the fault-line across which Twitter was temporarily shattered.

I don't really care about That Line. It was fine. It worked in the scene, and — if not for the cascade of d i s c o u r s e about it afterwards — I probably would have forgotten it was ever spoken into existence. Which got me thinking: there are a whole lot of cinematic sacred cows out there that turn out to be less bovine than bullshit when you actually spend even a fraction of a second thinking about it. I'm talking about "here's lookin' at you, kid" and "why so serious?" and "do I make you horny, baby?" So let's hear it, folks: what are the most overrated TV and movie lines that you can't help but hate with a fiery passion each and every time you hear them? Or, if that's a bit too tricky for you (I realize not all of you have my dyspeptic outlook) feel free to flip it: what are the most underrated, low-key, unappreciated lines that deserve to be up there with your "Rosebuds" and your "forget it Jake, it's Chinatown"s and your "somebody's gotta go back and get a shitload of dimes"? Personally, I'd vote for "we got help chopperin’ in" from The Big Lebowski.

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