Minneapolis - Last week's Movie Quiz winners

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The Great Walls of Chinatown
With the exception of the electric rice cookers, this Bowery tenement could have come straight from the Nineteenth Century.
By Elizabeth Dwoskin
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Getting Off
DUI attorney Tyler Flood wins 80 percent of his trials--even if his clients were 100 percent drunk.
By Mike Giglio
Miami New Times
Park or Die Tryin'
From the homeless parking mafia to the meter fairy, finding a spot in Miami has taken a turn toward the surreal.
By Gus Garcia-Roberts

Last week's Movie Quiz winners

"I had a dream that this week's quiz movie was Jacob's Ladder, and then I woke up and discovered that this week's quiz movie was Jacob's Ladder, so I went to my chiropractor (who resembled a cherubic Danny Aiello) and he made it all sound pleasant and dreamy, and then I woke up again and I was climbing Jacob's Ladder and it was all a dream."

Anyone who's seen the film knows that the above, by a regular quiz winner, is a spot-on parody of Jacob's Ladder, a 1990 film directed by Adrian Lyne and starring Tim Robbins as a Viet Nam vet who may or may not be crazy. Another quiz winner described it well: "In a sea of cookie-cutter horror films, Jacob's Ladder stands out as an intelligent film dealing with true human terror." It's definitely true that the film is like no other horror movie ever made.

Even people who don't care for the film (more on that in a bit) agreed that Robbins was as good in this as he's ever been, and the rest of the cast is equally good. Supporting roles were played by some now well-known names like Ving Rhames, Jason Alexander, and Macaulay Culkin as (in flashbacks) Robbins' dead son, Gabe. (This film was right before Home Alone, and the kid isn't even in the credits!)

But perhaps the most surprising moment of the film in regards to its cast is this one brief close-up of the actor who plays Robbins' doctor-- ladies and gentlemen, Lewis Black!

The ending of Jacob's Ladder is, for many (including me), a huge mistake. It wastes and ruins all the fine, eerie storytelling of the rest of the movie, turning it into just a shaggy dog story (and also making the poster's copy a lie). But until then, it's a genuinely disturbing film, with a couple standout scenes. The first, at a disco (quiz pic #2), goes from incredible sexiness (thanks to the dancing of costar Elizabeth Pena) to nightmarish horror. ("I don't know how many instances of temporary chastity that scene might have inspired," a quiz winner mused.) The other scene is a hospital scene that turns into a descent into hell-- here it is (probably NSFW):

Lots of correct answers this week, so congratulations and a dance with Elizabeth to the following winners: Vince Tuss, Wayne Palmer, Jack Sparks, Dave Mallow, ron frigstad, Letra Minuscula, Tupac Sotut, Mojo Marshall, Michael Mattson, Kent Hofmeister, Jim Moomey, Kenneth Gramer, Bob Redwing, Fred Lorence, The Curmudgeon, Mick Arran, Bill Hearne, Nancy Louise Rutherford, Song-Un Lee, Thomas Miller, John Seffl, Christina O'Sullivan, fr smith, Shannon M. Quinlan, julia, and Kevin Musolino.

(Send Steve an email at couchpundit@yahoo.com.)