@Lone Audience: Really wanted to see Rango when it came out, but Mrs. The Information wasn't having it. Definitely plan to check it out on video.

I agree with Lone Audience. There was a time—just after The Ring and the first Pirates of the Caribbean—when I was convinced that Gore Verbinski was going to win an Oscar one day, as soon as he lucked onto a journeyman's dream project, like The King's Speech or A Beautiful Mind. These days, I'm not so sure. But it…

He also played nine holes of golf on Sunday morning.

It's a good read. I used to know Rodney's literary agent, who claimed that he ghostwrote most of the book. (He also said that Rodney was quite the pothead.)

Random Simpsons songs
I don't think a week goes by where I don't find myself humming "Baby on board / Something, something, Burt Ward…"

@littlealex: Kurtz, I believe. (In the original draft he was a super-fit Green Beret who led a massive battle against the Viet Cong in the finale. They had to change it a bit for Brando.)

McQueen was basically the biggest male star of the '70s, so every script in town probably went to him first (the way it does to Will Smith today). I wouldn't read anything more into it than that.

My favorite scene in Casablanca is the one about the waters.

I am shocked, SHOCKED.

Not a fan of the Glee version, but the Tom Jones/Art of Noise cover of "Kiss" is pretty great.

You say that ASIF it's a bad thing.

Clash of Kings
I can't wait for their adaptation…

Nice work, guys, but the best "Winona Ryder is hot" thread is still this one:

Billy Jack fascinates me, because it was a massive hit of its era that seems to have been entirely forgotten. It made $32 million at the box office in 1971, which is something like $175 million adjusted for inflation, but I don't think many people born after it came out even know what it is.

Theme song
I can still hum it after all these years, but I was recently startled to realize that one of the lines is "There's a Scout troop short a child / Khrushchev's due at Idlewild." (I don't know what I thought it was, but it wasn't that.)

And such small portions!

Somewhere at my parents' house there's a copy of the Ewoks "Caravan of Courage," complete with classic McDLT commercials. I challenge any of you to top that.

I still own two movies on VHS: the original cut of One From the Heart (Coppola recut it for the DVD release, but I prefer the theatrical version) and David Lynch's Industrial Symphony No. 1. I should probably get both of those converted at some point, although I think the latter is available on YouTube.

"Not the boss of Hormel!" is the funniest thing I've heard Rabin say in a long time.

Small correction: they're the first Morgan scripts in twelve years, not eighteen. But it's still been a very long time.