I came in here to stump for Spinal Tap like Gwen. Being a musician, Tap quotes are running patter, but even in civilian life, their uses are plentiful. Some more besides the ones she listed that I have used:

I continue to be surprised, each time this story gets recycled, that this is a thing. Like, there have been long movies before, tons of them, running 2.5 hours and beyond, that have been huge critical and commercial hits and Oscar winners. And yet this weird notion that it’s too long for people to pay attention or…

The long death scene is of a piece with the lawyer getting chomped on the toilet or Sam Jackson’s severed arm in the original. But the actress in the pterodactyl scene really sells the bloodcurdling fear of the situation. 

My biggest complaint about JP has always been that ending. It tracks thematically - the humans have no control over the situation when dinosaurs are involved, so it fits that they escape through no fault of their own - but it is kind of like “oh, look, they got away. Ok then.” And the “when dinosaurs ruled the earth”…

Also, Vincent D’Onofrio in military heavy mode is fun. Also, that one really incongruously lengthy death-by-pterodactyl.

For all it’s inessential, bald-faced cash-in nature, I actually enjoyed JW. Certainly it’s the most entertaining film in the franchise since the original. Less said about JW2 the better. I will see JW3 because of course I will, but I’m not expecting greatness. 

Ack. 

Or the one about the inflatable sex doll. Or the one about the teacher and the slutty underage student. Or all the servant & master business in Wrapped Around Your Finger. Or the one about the businessman whose “secretaries pout and preen like cheap tarts on a red light street”. Or the one about saving a woman from a…

Indeed. There’s a few such moments in their stuff. Can’t Stand Losing You, for instance, where the protagonist threatens suicide to guilt his woman into staying. Whee, emotional blackmail!

Ah yes. That goes on the pile right next to My Sharona and that 16 Going On 17 tune from Sound of Music. 

I mean, the gold standard for this is Every Breath You Take, is it not? Creepy as heck. Brilliant song. 

So what’s the word on Hawkeye? Officially delayed? Or never really officially confirmed?

If I could have one wish come true, it would be to have the word “welp” permanently banished from the public discourse, consigned to the bin of “Words and Phrases Thou Shalt Be Pilloried And Shunned By Respectable Society If You Use”, along with “bae” or “moist” or “on a go-forward basis”. 

Holy crap, that sounds amazing. I would’ve gladly gotten up to mangle New Rose with that stage lineup. 

My sole karaoke experience was with Young MCs “Bust A Move”. I acquitted myself as successfully as a white man from Newfoundland could’ve, I suppose.

Great band, great record. I haven’t kept up at all with them since the late 90s. Ana Ng is freaking brilliant - “And it sticks like a broken record / everything sticks like a broken record” is a hilarious bit of meta-composition. 

It’s not up to the first two obviously, but I’ve always been a defender of Alien3. 

Best use of “fuck” goes to David Fincher:

“It’s a big building with patients, but that’s not important right now.”

“I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit. It’s the only way to be sure.”