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Panting from climactic movie lines

| December 9, 2017 12:00 AM

You’ve waited for it. You’ve clamored for it. You’ve screamed for it.

And now it’s here...

“Great Movie Lines! Part Deux”

(Of course, that’s a take-off on the 1993 slapstick comedy “Hot Shots! Part Deux” — a Charlie Sheen hoot that contained plenty of memorable lines. Well, ridiculous lines, anyway.)

Meanwhile, back to our North Idaho poll, and yes, this is Part Deux.

We established on Friday that most of you loved “Tombstone” (fair enough, as it’s the best Western ever made).

In particular, you adored Val Kilmer as Doc Holliday, telling the doomed Johnny Ringo: “I’m your huckleberry!”

If you haven’t heard that line in a while, check out YouTube, because Kilmer’s perfect Southern accent (Holliday was from Georgia) is what really made Doc’s response so memorable.

Rick Alsager, though, wrote to remind us that “Tombstone” contained a host of great lines.

He was particularly fond of Doc’s answer when one of The Cowboys sneered that he was so drunk, he was seeing double.

“I’ve got two guns,” Doc said, “one for each of ya.”

SINCE WE can’t possibly mention everyone who submitted great lines, we’ll try to wedge in several of them — along with the first person who wrote in with that quote.

Sorry, it’s the best we can do, unless we revisit this subject again.

Maybe...

Gail Thompson (Top Gun) loved Meg Ryan’s line: “Take me to bed or lose me forever.”

Ryan, in perhaps her first role of note, was playing Carole – wife of Tom Cruise’s back-seater Goose.

Gail added that Meg was “so stinkin’ cute in that movie.”

Oh, yeah.

But was she as cute as Katherine Ross in “The Graduate” or “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”?

Tough call.

Ray Ashmun (Cool Hand Luke) was the first to chip in with Strother Martin’s famous line aimed at Paul Newman: “What we’ve got here...is failure to communicate.”

Roger Hawke (The Magnificent Seven) liked Yul Brynner’s answer to the Mexican villagers who want him to help defend their village: “I’ve been offered a lot for my services, but I’ve never been offered everything.”

Roger also noted that Brynner and co-star Steve McQueen seriously disliked each other, and McQueen ad-libbed a couple of times to steal the spotlight.

Bruce Wallies (Apollo 13) was impressed by one of the most spectacular understatements ever delivered, in real life or the movies. It came from Tom Hanks in the role of astronaut Jim Lovell: “Houston, we have a problem.”

FINALLY, we have to credit Al Underwood, who reminded us all of an unforgettable scene that finishes with a fantastic line.

In one of writer Nora Ephron’s classic movies, “When Harry Met Sally,” Meg Ryan (yes, she’s starring in today’s column) pulls off one of the most spectacular movie moments ever, producing a VERY realistic fake orgasm while sitting in Katz’s New York Deli with Billy Crystal.

When Meg sighed contentedly to wrap up her “performance,” the camera zoomed in on a middle-aged lady at the counter, who said: “I’ll have what she’s having.”

That super line-out-of-nowhere becomes all the better when you realize that the mysterious lady at the counter was director Rob Reiner’s mother, Estelle.

Perfect!

What’s that, you say?

You want one more classic to wrap things up?

OK, then...

John Austin tossed out several awesome possibilities, but we can’t ignore Robert Duvall in “Apocalypse Now,” and his iconic announcement: “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”

I know, I know.

We missed hundreds of great lines.

But hey, just like Arnold Schwarzenegger said: “We’ll be back...”

•••

Steve Cameron is a columnist for The Press. Follow A Brand New Day at facebook.com/BrandNewDayCDAPress. Email: scameron@cdapress.com