LINES FROM MOVIES - CHEFS DO THAT

From "Rosebud" to "You're gonna need a bigger boat," movies have given us some memorable lines. 

Welcome to LINES FROM MOVIES, my way to share those oh, so quotable words with other movie fans.

Today's quotation is: "Chefs do that."

Who said it and in which movie were those words uttered?

Let's jump in the Time Machine and zoom back to 1996 when a woman tried to be accepted as an action star.  

About 20 years before, in 1997 to be precise, Pam Grier portrayed strong, indomitable women squaring off against crminals, but her films were labeled blaxploitation.

Jackie Brown, Amazon, 4K/BluRay

Pam Grier is absolutely fabulous. If you haven't seen any of her moviews, I recommend  Foxy Brown, 1974, and Jackie Brown, 1997.

In 1975, Wonder Woman starring Linda Carter hit the TV screens, and that made a lot of girls want to be the Amazonian warrior, but her audience drew as many men as little girls for obvious reasons.

Skip ahead to 1979, when Sigourney Weaver breathed life into Ellen Ripley in Ridley Scott's  first Alien movie. The role made Weaver a superstar in her depiction of a stalwart, formidable, and smart woman who beat the monster. 

Another few years saw Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor in The Terminator (1984). In 1991, she reprised her role, remaking her body in the process to prove she's a warrior and a certified action hero.

FEMALE WARRIOR ACCEPTED

Did Hamilton in Terminator 2: Judgment Day pave the way for Geena Davis to sell herself as an action hero to the powers that be? Possibly. I'm not privy to the financial deals that go into getting a movie made with specific people in the starring roles.

Having said that, I do believe that's how she captured the role of an amnesiac government assassin in THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT, a 1996 film based on the novel of the same name by Randall Boyll.

Even with a remarkable cast, the movie was a financial disappointment. I can only speculate that the reason for this was because action movies were  pitched to a male audience. 

At that point in time, those movies, as they were conceived, did not appeal to a male audience.

In later years, movie makers cracked the formula for making a female action movie appeal to men. The formula? Not just a formidable woman like Ripley or Linda Hamilton, but a gorgeous woman oozing sex appeal. That's what gets men in the movie seats.

The Long Kiss Goodnight didn't have that.

What did it have? Direction by Renny Harlin, screenplay by Shane Black, and a cast including Geena Davis, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Amandes, Yvonne Zima, Brian Cox, Patrick Malahide, Craig Bierko, and David Morse.

It also had twists and turns, surprises you didn't see coming, and some very quotable lines.

The story is about an amnesiac schoolteacher (Geena Davis) who sets out to recover her identity with the help of a private detective (Jackson) when they discover a sinister conspiracy and assassins eager to kill the schoolteacher for reasons she can't fathom.

"Chefs do that."

In a scene in the kitchen, Davis is chopping vegetables. 

Suddenly, it's as if she's discovered a skill she didn't know she had. 

Her boyfriend tosses her a variety of veggies, and she chops all with a flourish. 

Exhilirated, she proclaims that she must be a chef. 

Then balancing the point of the knife on her finger, she throws a bell pepper at the door, flings the knife after it, and stabs the pepper against the door.

Stunned silence follows. She shrugs and says, "Chefs do that."

That one scene made me a lifelong fan of that movie. I don't know how many times I've said that when chopping vegetables. LOL.

That scene, the great dialogue, and the high-octane action sequences are why this film a cult classic.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find any streaming service that offered the movie free. 

You can rent it from  most streaming services or buy the The Long Kiss Goodnight on BluRay at Amazon.

TAKEAWAY TRUTH

Sometimes, movies must wait for a receptive audience which is why cult classics are a thing.

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