Ultimately, the David S. Pumpkins sketch worked because it had a punchline it was all leading up to - that he WAS the scariest part of the ride. And how often can you say on SNL that there was a punchline at all?

I agree - that scene where Ripley realizes that her daughter has died of old age is critical, but I really, really did not need to see the scene where the colony is attacked and devastated. It was so much more powerful to see Newt for the first time alone and terrified.

Thanks, everybody!

Can I ask a general question? (And this seems like the best place to do it.) My son says that I can't watch "Luke Cage" unless I've already watched "Jessica Jones." From what I've read, I don't believe that's true, even though he was a character in the other show. I suppose it MIGHT give me a different insight from…

Thanks - I was confused when it didn't show up on this (pretty darn comprehensive) list.

I can't keep these "upcoming" lists straight. Is "Hidden Figures" getting a qualifying run or not? Over at Vulture they're touting the Oscar possibilities for Henson and Monae.

I honestly wonder if something like this is worth being reviewed. Nobody who buys a ticket to see this cares if it's bad filmmaking, or if it's incoherent, poorly paced, or wants to hear someone criticize it at all. It's simply a validation of their own worldview, and they'll get exactly what they paid for,…

What's interesting is that Los Lobos covered the same song again, on their own Disney covers album, and somehow it isn't nearly as good.

And since producer Hal Willner combined Raitt with Was (Not Was) on the track, it's absolutely fair to say that Raitt's renaissance with "Nick of Time," produced by Don Was, is a direct result of this single cut on this tremendous album.

I also read that another of Waits' inspirations for this track was actually spending a day at Disneyland with his kids, and he found the industrialized "happiness" absolutely oppressive.

Of course I'd seen him before, but it wasn't until he mentioned "Amateur" that it hit me - he was the accountant who'd been electrocuted and left for dead but turned into a psychotic killer instead! How could I have forgotten his hair? (I miss Hal Hartley films.) Incidentally, when I was looking up the film to…

Right! That was on the original Criterion laserdisc.

There are LOTS of photos of the scene online, and it looks like it was brutal. I also read once that when Muffley got hit, Turgidson cries out "Gentlemen! Our beloved president has been shot down in his prime!" which I imagine would not have gone over well in 1964.

I don't know how common this knowledge is, but the experimental drug that Alex is injected with in "A Clockwork Orange" is called - in a closeup of the vial - "Serum 114." Which of course is the name of the mechanism that the recall code is to be sent to… the C R M 1 1 4.

Prediction: Chris Rock's opening line will be a direct steal from Bob Hope: "Welcome to the Academy Awards, or as it's known in my neighborhood, Passover."

"Room also takes place in Ohio, a fact that remains unstated in the script but is clearly revealed in a shot of a license plate toward the end of the film." Except for the "Akron Police Department" patches on the uniforms at the midpoint of the movie.

I recall an old interview with Altman where he said that the entire cast was locked, but the money wasn't there; Burt Lancaster was going to play Hoover, Lily Tomlin was going to play ALL the female characters, Alice Cooper agreed to play Bunny Hoover, and Kilgore Trout? Groucho Marx.

I had a trivia paperback in the late 60s that actually stated — no joke — that Paladin's first name was "Wire," because that's what it said on his business card.