If all you remember of Patrick Swayze, who died yesterday of cancer at age 57, is his dance moves, you may be forgetting what an iconic tough guy he was. Sure, he started out specializing in arguably unmanly ventures like ballet and gymnastics, and many of his most memorable scenes show him as a limber romantic with thick, luxurious hair. But he was really best when he portrayed macho, domineering and otherwise badass dudes.

We grew up thinking of him first as a big brother type, thanks to movies like Red Dawn and The Outsiders. And even when he went on to sappier fare like Dirty Dancing and Ghost we accepted him as a man in control of every situation he was in. Later in his career, he would play more desperate and vulnerable characters, such as in Donnie Darko and the underrated 11:14. Still, we never got over believing that Swayze was the boss.

Below we spotlight ten favorite movie quotes that display the power commanded by his characters.
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I didn’t bother reading any of the premature Lovely Bones posts yesterday because I find the idea of a teaser for a trailer to be quite silly. But now that we’ve been able to see the whole spot (via Apple), let’s talk about it. Personally, I was really excited for Peter Jackson to return to something more Heavenly Creatures than LOTR with this adaptation of Alice Sebold’s best -seller, but I’m pretty disappointed with the afterlife stuff here.

Maybe it’s because of the Alice in Wonderland trailer. Maybe it’s because of the derivative premise of Zack Snyder’s Sucker Punch. Maybe it’s because it looks a lot like What Dreams May Come. But I enjoyed that movie, at least for the visuals, so perhaps I should just accept that Jackson was unfortunately not going to do more clay people, a la the fantasy sequences from Creatures, and focus more on the real-world stuff.

Well, aside from thinking these scenes also don’t look that original or interesting (is it a spoiler that we’re shown the murderer?), I’ll probably see the movie for Stanley Tucci alone. Others may be concentrating on Mark Wahlberg’s wig, but I’m all about Tucci’s appearance here. Sure, I’m all about any actor who does the comb-over/mustache combo, but we all have our things that draw us into a movie.

See what the other film blogs are saying about the trailer after the jump:

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If you took one look at the existence of the new movie Ghost Town and dismissed it on account of its familiarity, you’re ignoring the potential of one of the most valuable plot devices available to fiction. Sure, the employment of ghosts in a narrative may also be evidence of laziness, as the device is just as much a convenience as it is a useful tool for storytellers. Not everyone can be Shakespeare, and of course there is a lot of redundancy and (excuse the pun) lifelessness in the majority of movies involving ghosts.

However, ghosts can also be highly representative and/or serve a film on a deeper level than the surface story. To use another pun, ghost movies are not always so transparent. Like zombies, their plot-device sibling, ghosts have a way of signifying greater ideas, subjects and themes, and aren’t always merely about scares and talking-to-thin-air gags. In a conversation with Cinematical’s Erik Davis, Ghost Town director/co-writer David Koepp had this to say about the significance of ghost stories:

Part of the reason they’re so enduring is because, well, first off all they give hope — because if they are ghosts, then it means we don’t die when we die. But also because they work really well in a number of genres. Ya know, in a drama like Ghost, or a horror movie, suspense or comedy in our case — I just think they offer so many dramatic possibilities; to have someone that’s dead, but still around to talk about it really suggests a lot of great situations.

Okay, so that bit of promotional fluff is actually more about the literal dramatic qualities of the ghost device than the figurative and subtextual, but the quote at least jumpstarted my thinking. Initially I had thought about simply outlining how ghosts have been applied to different film genres, but then I fortunately switched my goal to seek out ten specific ghost films (from the seemingly thousands out there) that utilize the device for more meaningful purpose.

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I can just imagine how the pitch went for this one. Writer Jeff Lowell (John Tucker Must Die) says, “I’ve got this idea for a movie that’s like Ghost except that in the end Demi Moore falls in love with Whoopi Goldberg. Nah, just kidding, I’ve got this really serious project in mind, very artsy, something that will lift me out of my sitcom-based pattern.” And then the New Line execs say, “Umm. Yeah, so we want to do your Ghost movie, but it has to be more heterosexual.” And Lowell says, “Oh, that was just a fake idea that I was going to propose as a parody to be used on Family Guy or The Simpsons.” Then New Line flashes a suitcase full of money at Lowell, says they’ll even let him direct the movie, and the deal is done. The result: Over Her Dead Body, a movie that seems so ridiculous that it just might work as a parody of itself.

And I hope that Paul Rudd sees how silly the movie is and decided to star in it ironically (just as he appreciates the irony of how his bride died). Because, really, the guy is better than this Ghost meets The Heartbreak Kid kind of paranormal situation comedy. Aren’t there about a hundred Judd Apatow movies in the works that he can at least do a supporting role in rather than play the lead in a movie that features the old chestnut of a scenario in which somebody walks in on another character who seems to be talking to themselves but who is actually conversing with a ghost/angel/etc.? OK, I’ll admit that the “here, catch” scene is pretty funny, despite also being an old joke, and I always enjoy a good mustard and ketchup on the nice dress gag, and I’m glad to see nobody fell in a ditch or walked into a pole in this trailer. But despite the continued appeal of slapstick and discomfort humor, will the public really be interested in yet another ghostly romantic comedy — they didn’t seem too interested in Just Like Heaven, and that starred American sweetheart Reese Witherspoon — especially one that treats the recently deceased so disrespectfully?

Ah. Fear.

The sudden sensation of having my gut gripped in a vice and lurched up into my throat as I sit in a dark theater. Slowly unclenching my muscles as the credits roll after spending 90 minutes suppressing the most primal of my instincts: fight or flight. Waiting weeks for the tingly tremors going up my spine every time I go into the basement to subside. Waking up in the middle of the night to two teenagers talking outside on the sidewalk and thinking they’re a duo of escaped convicts in my living room. These are just a few of the side effects I get from watching a 90-minute horror flick.

As a boy, I once overheard some kids at the back of the bus talking about A Nightmare on Elm Street. For months afterward I sang “Jesus Loves Me” every time I made the walk from my bed to the bathroom. Herein lies the real lasting effect of horror. It’s simply not a 90-minute “roller coaster ride,” as so many people might say. Your imagination never conjures up a roller coaster jumping out of the closet with a knife while you’re babysitting. Horror sticks with you like an ice pick in your consciousness. Forever.

Ever notice most horror movies only need 90 minutes to mess you up, while most dramas need over two hours to engage you? There’s something unhealthy about that. To people who say horror fulfills a natural desire to get spooked, I say, “Sure, and Red Bull is a natural source of vitamins.” And how old the movie–or the viewer–is has no bearing on whether or not it’s scary. In The Innocents (1961), when the ghost of the butler suddenly glides into the window behind a little boy standing in a dark greenhouse, I popped. I’m thirty freaking years old and later that night, as I tried to go to sleep, I couldn’t convince my adult brain the butler was not gliding up next to my bed.

For all the squeamish whose horror-loving buddies always talk you into midnight shows, quit cold turkey. It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown is plenty enough for your spook supplement. Want more? Agree to a TBS showing of the original Halloween with all the freaky parts cut out. Dying in a car accident, catching the West Nile virus from a mosquito, finding Mercury behind the furnace, these are all legitimate fears we endure every day without having to lose sleep over whether or not a butler will be floating over me when I open my eyes.

Boycott horror. For the children.