Narm (i.e. Cheese) In Live Action Films

As You Know, Narm pops up a lot in the movies. However, I, for one, think that it's not enough to just list quotes (since they just do not carry the same impact that they would have if you saw them in the scene they originated from).

So, let me show you a You Tube clip containing 100 cheesiest movie quotes of all time (Warning: Not Safe for Work)!

As you probably see from the comments, there is a little disagreement over some of the choices. I don't think the scenes with the younglings in Star Wars were Narmy, nor was the Big "NO!" scene, myself. However, I do think the scene with Anakin and sand was Narmy, due to Anakin sounding like a Casanova Wannabe!

As we say around here, Your Mileage May Vary.

Narm isn't always Cheese. Cheese isn't always Narm. They may coincide, but they aren't the same thing.

Narm is something that was apparently supposed to be dramatic, but comes off as silly, stupid or funny. Cheese is tacky; cheap; over-the-top silly; lame.

In some cases the cheesiness occurs because the things in question is still being treated as though it were to be taken seriously. These are the ones where one man's Cheese is another man's Narm. In other cases, it's quite clear that the performer or creator knew quite well that it was cheesy when they did it — there's no Narm there, because there's no expectation that it be taken seriously at all.

Well, thank you for clarifying the two concepts. It gets so hard to remember the meanings at times!

But you have to admit that several of the scenes on that clip have Narm mixed in with Cheese.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, for example. I think he does a good job for the most part, but I think his Austrian-accented English ruined the impact of some of his lines.

The Juggernaut in one of X Men movies sure uses the This Is for Emphasis, Bitch! trope quite memorably. I thought the line "I'm the Juggernaut, bitch!" was fine, except the actor's London, England thug accent made it sound weird.

That one dude who yells that he's FBI, he was doing a good job of it...until he got to the part of yelling F...B...I! He sounded a little off at that point!

Except the "Juggernaut, bitch" line isn't supposed to be serious or dramatic, so it's not Narm.

Funny, I would think yelling my name to someone should be taken seriously!

How about those examples listed in the Star Wars Narm section? Would at least some of those be considered cheesy? Sure, Harrison Ford said "You can write this $#!+, George, but you can't say it!" However, he could easily have been referring to Narm or Cheese there!

What about the Street Fighter movie? I know a lot of people would say cheesy, because it was a bad movie. Isn't it possible that some of it was Narm, because a number of actors may have realized that they were in a bad movie, but the director and/or writers probably didn't have that realization?

I guess that counts out M Night Shyamalan with The Happening which he himself said was intentionally made like a B movie

However,the Big "NO!" in Star Wars could count,it was clearly supposed to be one of the saddest moments,but with that Skyward Scream and kinda off voice it's not hard to see why most people think it fails

edited 18th Mar '12 7:41:25 PM by terlwyth

I'm not even sure why, but the 'Are you a Mexican or a Mexican't?' line made me laugh so hard I fell off my bed.

Oh, is that what was being said? It can be so hard to figure out what characters are saying at some points!

Still, you have to give whoever came up with that line points for the creativity. It can be so difficult to make can-can't jokes (in a similar vein, do-don't jokes and is-isn't jokes)!

It's too bad no one has ever said lines like "Sega does what Nintendon't!" or "SNES is what Genesisn't!" in a movie!