Third time was the charm for A Star Is Born (1954 version), which defeated first-timers Blue Thunder and The Wailing (which I assumed would win handily). To date I've allotted my highest rating to only seven films; this is one of 'em. Been over 15 years since I last wept my way through it. Own the Blu-ray myself but it's rentable all over the place if you've not had the pleasure.
Random.org decided this should be a week of long films, selecting Pyaasa (153 minutes) and Saving Private Ryan (170 minutes) to accompany Star Is Born (178 minutes in its quasi-restored version, which is the only one I've ever seen and ever would see; will address that in my review). The former was still active as a request but had about three months left to go before auto-qualifying; I've seen essentially no Indian films from that era not directed by Satyajit Ray, am happy for an opportunity to correct that. Will have to investigate a suspiciously cheap ($1.99) rental option. Saving Private Ryan I of course saw during its theatrical run, writing a "classic" smart-ass review on my site. Watched it again in 2010, had the same basic reaction: "Stunning battle scenes, rest wildly variant, often even within a given scene," says my tweet at the time. Since that tweet ran a dozen words and my '98 "review" consisted of exactly two, however, this will be my first time actually saying much of anything. It's streaming on MGM+.
Still combing through my ancient Usenet posts and was amused by one in which I point someone to the fledgling IMDb, which was apparently located at...Mississippi State University? That must've been a U.S. mirror, as the site originated in Cardiff, Wales (and in fact I kept calling it the Cardiff database for a while even after it rebranded as IMDb). Also looks like I was wrong in thinking posterity would forget Billy Madison.
As ever, thanks to each of you for supporting my blathering-about-movies habit. Been over 30 years and I still can't kick it.