THE INSIDE STORY

Grant Thackray (rhymes with "daiquiri") is 25 and lives in Portland, Ore. He lists his day jobs as writing pub trivia, designing T-shirts and house-managing live theater. To create this puzzle's theme, he spent countless hours poring over lists of (well, you'll see) to find combinations that worked.

This is Grant's fourth crossword for The Times.

In making this puzzle, I was astounded to find that there are no popular, universally-known movies with "SPORT" in the title — despite how many there are about that particular subject! I thought it would be a cinch to turn "SPORT" into "sUPport," but in the end I had to give up on that dream. I considered the Jean-Claude Van Damme cult classic "Bloodsport" for a little bit, but I figured that was too niche. I also dearly wanted to fit "ALIEN" into "cALIENte" somehow, but that "CTE" string proved too uncommon, and the universe did not see fit to grant me that gift. That's what comes with making a puzzle with such a specific gimmick--your options are surprisingly limited. In the end, though, thanks to hours sifting through "Top 100 Movies" lists, I'm pretty happy with what I was able to find.

Will had me remake the lower-left corner, which resulted in me including my favorite longer answer at 94-Down. Hasn't everyone shared a hotel room with someone that sounded like a lumberjack going to work at 2:00 am? And while I didn't clue it as such, every time I look at 57-Down, my mind immediately follows it with "Rock you like a hurricane!"

MINICARSONS is genius. Not only is it funny to think of Johnny's progeny as mini-me's, but what a discovery, that CARS inserted into MINIONS forms an amusing result. Perfect example of how PICTURE IN PICTURE can work beautifully.

I enjoyed C(RAY)ON TACT, too. It's a big issue at my house, where crayons are often bartered between my two kids. They seem to use them in the same way prisoners use cigarettes. And again, a delightful wordplay find.

PETITER PAN was good too — I liked the artsy sound of PETITER. Although, it's too easy to insert IT into another word to form a new word.

The rest didn't do much for me. DOCTORS WALLET RANGE is an interesting wordplay find. But what a bizarre phrase.

GET SCREAM OUT, too easy to insert SCREAM into a two-word movie title. Similarly, putting TED into another picture must have dozens of possibilities.

Grant's grid was decent — not too much crossword glue. Just some IF AT / I EVER / ACU / API / ESE etc. isn't bad.

I would have liked more color, though. It confused me — there should have been more long slots that could be mined for pizzazz. FRONT LINES, CITY PLAN, that kind of thing.

A-ha! At 145, this one clocks in with many more words than average for a Sunday NYT (140 words is the usual maximum). I don't mind at all if a constructor bends the rules to 142, as long as he/she produces a colorful, clean grid. But the difference between 142 and 145 is noticeable when it comes to color.

I'd have much preferred for Grant to pare down his themers to a smaller set that had more bang for the buck. I'm sure he didn't have a lot of choices, but IT, TED, ET all should have allowed for some flexibility.

All too often, I think Sunday puzzles should have been shrunk down into a 15x15 weekday grid because the theme isn't strong enough to hold solvers' attention. Today, I liked how PICTURE IN PICTURE and some of the long titles demanded a Sunday grid. Could have been a standout puzzle if more of the themers had been as strong as MINICARSONS.