Sunday, February 5, 2023, Jeremy Newton

HOLLYWOOD REMAKES

Wow. Just wow. 

Can that be my entire review of this puzzle? No? OK, I'll show my work...

"You there, hoarding the Quattro razor! Scram! [2002]" clues SCHICKHOGGO, which sounds like "Chicago," a movie that came out in 2002.

And here's another one: "Why the Devil was forced to pay 'The Greatest' [1969]" clues HELLOWEDALI. Or, "Hell owed Ali," which sounds like, well, you get it.

My favorite is AHMIDDAYYES (Cry after remembering to meet at noon [1984]) (Amadeus).

I mean. You kind of have to just sit back and appreciate the effort with these. And the revealer is spot on - OSCARWINNER SOUNDMIXING. That's really quite good.

In other news, I enjoyed the triple-S of CHESSSET, and under that DARKHUMOR (It may produce both a cringe and a laugh) was good. "Therein lies the rubbed" was a fun clue for SPA. I loved both sides of "Skedaddle, with 'it'" (HIGHTAIL), but I'm not familiar with the term NODSOUT (Dozes after a dose, say), and WALLHUNG (On display, as a painting) was surprising. And "Travel through time?," although a clever clue for AGE, is still too soon. :) And speaking of clever - "End of a flight, in two senses" (LANDING) was quite good.

There's a lot of theme, and so we end up with a little HONG (Part of H.K.), CDT, and XOO (Losing line in tic-tac-toe), but, well, that theme. It's worth the price of admission. I mean how can you read THUMBMADETRICKS (Some optical illusions created with one's fingers [1999]) and not say "Wow"?

- Horace