100 Memorable and Great
'Chick' Flicks
pt. 2


After examining the 100 Greatest Guy Movies Ever Made and the 50 Best Guy Movies of All Time, it only seemed fair to put together a list of gal films or chick flicks (a demeaning and damning term, however, since this sub-genre of film was traditionally known as the "woman's film" in the 30s and 40s). Chick flicks have often been put down as trite, sappy, emotional, soap-opera-ish, cliched, melodramatic, weepy, and trivial. Familiar quotes or taglines from each film have been included.

See other lists in this site related to this subject area, such as:

Often considered an all-encompassing sub-genre, they mostly include dialogue-laden, formulated romantic comedies (with mis-matched lovers or female relationships), tearjerkers and gal-pal films, movies about family crises and emotional catharsis, some traditional 'weepies' and fantasy-action adventures, sometimes with foul-mouthed and empowered females, and female bonding situations involving families, mothers, daughters and children.

Actors and actresses typically associated with 'chick' flicks include Meg Ryan, Barbra Streisand, Hugh Grant, Mel Gibson, Emma Thompson, Gwyneth Paltrow, or Julia Roberts, among others. From the following list, it appears that 'chick' flicks have become a prominent staple of films beginning in the mid-1980s and after. Compared to the earlier "woman's film," film critic Molly Haskell has written that the:

"chick flick", chirrupy and upbeat, sings a different tune, more defiant and ironic, postmodern and post-feminist, like the growling braggadocio of "grrrl power". Where "grrrl power" says "I can be cute and assertive too", "chick flick" says: "I'm emancipated but it's OK to long for romance, to get hung up on a guy, to obsess about mothers or children."

Note: The films that are marked with a yellow star are the films that "The Greatest Films" site has selected as the "100 Greatest Films".



100 Memorable and Great 'Chick' Flicks
(part 2, chronological)

  1. Electric Dreams (1984)
    The most unusual triangle in the history of love: a boy, a girl, and a computer.

  2. Footloose (1984)
    The music is on his side.
    "I'll sing to you of silver swans, of kingdoms and carrilons, I'll sing of bodies intertwined, underneath an innocent sky."
  3. Romancing the Stone (1984)
    She's a girl from the big city. He's a reckless soldier of fortune. For a fabulous treasure, they share an adventure no one could imagine... or survive.
    "What did you do, wake up this morning and say, 'Today, I'm going to ruin a man's life'"?

  4. Splash (1984)
    She Was The Woman Of His Dreams - She Had Large Dark Eyes, A Beautiful Smile And A Great Pair Of Fins.
    "I don't understand. All my life I've been waiting for someone and when I find her, she's... she's a fish."
  5. Girls Just Want to Have Fun (1985)
    That's all they really want!
    "He's a boy and he's alive, what's there to hate?"
  6. Out of Africa (1985)
    "I'd mate for life, one day at a time."

  7. Pretty in Pink (1986)
    Blane's a pretty cool guy. Andie's pretty in pink. And Duckie's pretty crazy.
    "May I admire you again today?"
  8. A Room With a View (1986)
    "He's the sort who can't know anyone intimately, least of all a woman. He doesn't know what a woman is. He wants you as a possession, something to look at, like a painting or an ivory box. Something to own and to display. He doesn't want you to be real, and to think and to live. He doesn't love you."
  9. Dirty Dancing (1987)
    First dance. First love. The time of your life.
    "Me? I'm scared of everything. I'm scared of what I saw, I'm scared of what I did, of who I am, and most of all I'm scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life the way I feel when I'm with you."

  10. Moonstruck (1987)
    "Everything seems like nothing to me now, 'cause I want you in my bed. I don't care if I burn in hell. I don't care if you burn in hell. The past and the future is a joke to me now. I see that they're nothing. I see they ain't here. The only thing that's here is you - and me."

  11. The Princess Bride (1987)
    Scaling the Cliffs of Insanity, Battling Rodents of Unusual Size, Facing torture in the Pit of Despair. - True love has never been a snap.
    "You can't hurt me. Westley and I are joined by the bonds of love. And you cannot track that, not with a thousand bloodhounds, and you cannot break it, not with a thousand swords."
  12. Roxanne (1987)
    Roxanne dreamed of a handsome, intelligent, romantic man. C.D. Bales is two out of three... but looks aren't everything!
    "He made me feel romantic, intelligent, feminine. But it wasn't him doing that, was it? It was you. You and your nose. Charlie, you have a big nose! You have a beautiful, great big, flesh-and-bone nose! I love your nose! I love your nose, Charlie. I love you, Charlie."
  13. Beaches (1988)
    Friends come and go but there's always one you're stuck with for life.
    "I was jealous. I was so jealous of you I couldn't see straight! You did everything you said you were going to do, everything! And your talent, this incredible talent! I can't even yodel!"
  14. Tequila Sunrise (1988)
    A dangerous mix
    "What is it? You need some chap stick or lip gloss or something? Because your lips keep getting stuck on your teeth. Or is that your idea of a smile?"
  15. Working Girl (1988)
    For anyone who's ever won. For anyone who's ever lost. And for everyone who's still in there trying.
    "You're the first woman I've seen in one of these things that dresses like a woman, not like a woman thinks a man would dress if he was a woman."

  16. Always (1989)
    They couldn't hear him. They couldn't see him. But he was there when they needed him... Even after he was gone.
    "I know now, that the love we hold back is the only pain that follows us here."
  17. Say Anything... (1989)
    To know Lloyd Dobler is to love him. Diane Court is about to know Lloyd Dobler.
    "She's gone. She gave me a pen. I gave her my heart, she gave me a pen."
  18. Shirley Valentine (1989)
    No one thought she had the courage. The nerve. Or the lingerie.
    "I think sex is like supermarkets, you know, overrated. Just a lot of pushing and shoving and you still come out with very little at the end."
  19. Steel Magnolias (1989)
    The funniest movie ever to make you cry.
    "Time marches on and sooner or later you realize it is marchin' across your face."

  20. When Harry Met Sally... (1989)
    Can two friends sleep together and still love each other in the morning?
    "...And it's not because I'm lonely, and it's not because it's New Year's Eve. I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible."
  21. Ghost (1990)
    You will believe.
    Molly Jensen: "I love you."
    Sam Wheat: "Ditto."
    AND LATER
    Sam: "I love you, Molly. I always have."
    Molly: "Ditto."
  22. Mermaids (1990)
    This is our mother. Pray for us.
    "Oh, I'm going to hell for sure. Here he is, talking about his dead mother and I can't help wishing his hands were unbuttoning my dress!"
  23. Pretty Woman (1990)
    She walked off the street, into his life and stole his heart.
    "I appreciate this whole seduction thing you've got going on here, but let me give you a tip: I'm a sure thing."
  24. Father of the Bride (1991)
    Love is wonderful. Until it happens to your only daughter.
    "I used to think a wedding was a simple affair. Boy and girl meet, they fall in love, he buys a ring, she buys a dress, they say I do. I was wrong. That's getting married. A wedding is an entirely different proposition. I know. I've just been through one. Not my own, my daughter's."

  25. Frankie and Johnny (1991)
    You never choose love. Love chooses you.
    "I'm a BLT down sort of person, and I think you're looking for someone a little more pheasant under glass."

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