That, but Little Mermaid even more so. Mermaid not only made a shocking amount of money, but it was much better quality-wise than the Disney execs (secretly) thought the animation unit was capable of. Btw there's an awesome account of all of this in the book Disney War. Great read.

I liked Hoskins. But the primary reason Disney cast him was because he was inexpensive. Established stars they considered, like Harrison Ford, cost way too much. And early Eisner-era Disney was incredibly cheap.

So funny to see early Disney Channel stuff before Disney switched to the Nickelodeon model — minimize on camera adults and aim everything at kids. Do they even show adults talking to the camera on the Disney channel anymore?

To Blizzard's credit, it's not a raw attention grab. After Williams died, WoW players started an online petition to add an in-game tribute to him since Williams was known to be a fan of WoW. Blizzard put this in in response to that petition.

Intellivision's Zaxxon was Dark Souls compared to the Atari 2600's Zaxxon. So bad. I also had the board game, but I got bored with the game itself and just made 'zoom zoom' noises with the little jet pieces.

There is really a murderer's row of great guilty pleasure movies shot in San Diego: Anchorman, Top Gun, Bring it On, Some Like it Hot. Every one a masterpiece in its own way.

Another decent one of recent vintage that gets little love is the the director's cut of Kingdom of Heaven. Its best moments are not as strong as Gladiator's best moments, and Bloom is no Crowe, but I think — and granted I may be the only one who thinks this — the director's cut is actually a better movie overall than…

I get the love for Gladiator's fighting scenes. The opening battle and arena stuff was a blast. But everything else in the movie — I don't get it. Phoenix and the senators were just so painfully dull, their dialogue was clunky and cliche, and there was way too much of it. You just sit there twiddling your thumbs,…

William Goldman wrote an essay that discussed the problems with Saving Private Ryan that I thought was right on the nose. He described the opening cemetery scene as "the big boobed girl" scene. If you can find the essay, it's worth a read. EDIT: I'm slow on the draw; someone already linked to it below!

Keep in mind too that the votes are cast by a relatively small, insular community, and that the results often have little to do with what they honestly feel is "best" and more to do with politics, image, and whether they like the people responsible for the films.

I also love the "Mythic grandeur/epic sweep" genre — and, frankly, it's a style that suits movies better than just about any other art form. I like Dances though I wouldn't put it in the top tier of stuff like Lawrence of Arabia or, more recently, Master and Commander. I'm also with you on Zwick (Glory!), except for…

Dances also has a great, sweeping score.

I miss Bunheads.

Point 2 exactly. Stannis saving the day at the very end would have been the EXACT SAME story beat as the Blackwater episode. Two big budget, high profile episodes that end identically? They did not want to repeat themselves, and understandably so.

The second I saw the name "Flint Dille" my mind jumped to the opening credits of Transformers the Movie. I have no idea who he is but I remember the name. I watched that way too often as a kid. It introduced me to the concept of killing off beloved characters long before George RR Martin entered the picture.

Fwiw, Chicago style pizza is not limited to deep dish. There are lots of varieties of delicious thin crust that are markedly different than NYC's flopfest style. 90% of Chicago deep dish is consumed by tourists.

Sad Jorah?

Btw, she basically bought herself some measure of protection from Littlefinger by disclosing herself to the Vale lords, didn't she? As her niece, they don't care if LF mistreats her. As a Stark, he has to watch his step around her.

It only dawned on me mid-fight that Bronn basically gave a play-by-play preview of the trial in Tyrion's cell an episode or two back. No one can accuse the show of being shy about foreshadowing, especially with Littlefinger's commode comment to Robin.

Btw if you free Lautrec from his cell in the church and return and talk to him at Firelink, you can also summon him with Solaire for the gargoyles.