Well, it looks like my quiz was a little bit harder than I expected, but there were still a lot of correct answers – not to mention great Funnies.

These films have all been favorites of mine. Silver Streak was my #1 for many years, and it’s the first pairing of Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor. They met again for Stir Crazy, with great success, but the next two films were not so good. They were way too high-concept and tried to force the humor through the differences between the two actors, rather than just letting the comedy come naturally. This shot from Silver Streak could be called “McGoohan meets MacGuffin”. It is where the suavely evil Roger Devereau (Patrick McGoohan) gets his hands on The Rembrandt Letters, the movie’s MacGuffin that everyone wants. Gopan and I were both worried that it might be too difficult, but it looks like at least 1 person figured it out.

Diner is a classic and the first of Barry Levinson’s Baltimore films. The guys who sit at the other end of the diner are the Tin Men of his later film. Michael Tucker plays the same character in both movies. This shot is rather notorious, and shows Boogie (Mickey Rourke) at the movies with Carol Heathrow, strategically holding a box of popcorn on his lap in order to win a bet. If you don't remember the bet or who wins it, see the movie again.

Joe Vs. The Volcano proved to be a hard one (no pun intended from the previous paragraph). What is shown is a painting by Angelica, one of Meg Ryan’s three characters in the film, hanging on a wall in a restaurant where she is dining with Joe (Tom Hanks). The next scene shows the two of them in a convertible looking down over the lights of L.A., so when the caption reads “This is a real scene” it means it. There is a web review that mentions this shot very specifically, so I thought that a few folks might be able to find it with some persistent Googling. >i>Joe Vs. The Volcano is one of my favorites flicks, but it fizzled at the box office and most people end up not liking it. I think the reason for this is that everyone expected it to be a romantic comedy. It is not. It is a fairy tale. It starts with "Once upon a time" and ends with "Happily ever after". Everything in it is symbolic rather than realistic. If you watch it multiple times you will begin to see all of the recurring symbols. (A jagged lightning bolt shows up again and again. The facade of the factory where Joe works appears later as a ceremonial mask worn by a Waponi tribesman. When the guy and girl first kiss, all of the block and tackle fittings on the boat behind them turn into hearts.) Also, many people have seen this on TV and some really great shots usually get cut out. If you haven't seen this, or if you saw it once and didn't like it, see it now with the expectation of a completely unrealistic fairy tale with carefully crafted symbolism in nearly every shot. This was John Patrick Shanley’s directorial debut after winning the Oscar for writing Moonstruck. He hasn't been given (or perhaps taken) another chance to direct until this coming December’s Doubt. JVTV should be recognized as his masterwork.

Altered States is a bizarre film written by the great Paddy Chayefsky and directed by the lunatic Ken Russell. (It also features the big-screen debut of Drew Barrymore.) This shot is from a hallucination that William Hurt’s character has after ingesting some native drugs. It also yielded the some of the best Funnies.

I found choosing Funnies very difficult. I tried to only select Funnies that fit the shot as shown, whether or not you knew other information from the movie. For instance, there were some killer lines for the Diner scene, but many of them referred only to what is UNSEEN in the shot. The seven-eyed, seven-horned goat from Altered States produced too many great lines to use. Here are some of the best that had to be skipped: Das Goat, As Goat As It Gets, The Three-and-a-half Faces of Ewe, The Bleat Hereafter, Good Friday the 13th, The Last Transformation of Christ, and my choice for 4th place, Jesus Christ So-Bizarre.

Thanks again for the chance to guest-host, and congrats to this week’s winners!

This week there were 10 participants, with 8 getting at least one answer right. We have one PhD this week, Captain Video - congratulations to him!

Look down about 100 pixels from here to check the weekly scoreboard. Thanks to all for playing, and congratulations to all who guessed correctly!