MOVIE DOUBLES

This puzzle began life as a joke. I asked a friend, have you heard about the movie sequel about the greatest mohel in Brooklyn? Anyone who knew what a mohel is has gotten a LOL moment at the answer: AMERICAN SNIPPER. (For those of you who don't know, a mohel is the person who performs the Jewish rite of circumcision.) It's such a simple, concise little gem that, when I realized it was a great puzzle idea as well, it seemed like it would be a snap to sit down for a few minutes and come up with some more theme movies.

Ha! chalk that one up to rosy-cheeked optimism. It seems that the universe of words that form new words with a doubled letter is not nearly so big as I would have thought. And that list shrinks considerably when you try to fit them into a set of movie titles that are both familiar enough to everyone and yet still make any kind of sense as a phrase. So Will rejected my first draft, but encouraged me to find some new theme entries to replace the ones he didn't care for. And that too required a pretty fair amount of research work, plus some serious back-and-forthing with Will before arriving at the final set. So a big vote of thanks here to IMDB.com for a wealth of keyword titles to sift through, and to Will and his assistant Joel, both for their input and even more so for their patience.

BTW, this is a good thing to know for any of you puzzle writers who are struggling with rejection slips: getting a Times quality crossword can take a large amount of work and perseverance. So don't give up!

Finally, I am personally quite pleased with working both a GIANT SQUID and a JOLTIN JOE into the grid. It seems to me that the giant squid is an eminently worthy animal for the puzzle pantheon. And as for JOLTIN JOE, hey, come on, he's the Yankee Clipper, and I love the Yankees, even though we came up a little short this year!

This puzzle gave me quite a few entertaining moments. First, the title is perfect — MOVIE DOUBLES hinting at the doubling of one letter in a movie title for kooky effect — and more importantly, Michael created some really funny themers. I particularly liked how AMERICAN SNIPER to AMERICAN SNIPPER flipped a serious image into a comedic one. A SHO(O)T IN THE DARK made me picture a poor photographer who keeps on getting told to just get the shot … even though there's no light. And HOMME ALONE turned a cutesy kid-flick into one with French subtitles. Very nice.

The only one that didn't do much for me was A STARR IS BORN, since I've seen lots of plays on STAR -> STARR. And it would have been nice for every movie be a blockbuster — HOT PURSUIT didn't get a very good critical reception or make much at the box office. Still, the visual of a crack squad staking out owls was pretty funny.

Michael did a nice job of adding in bonus fill, JOLTIN' JOE right above IRON AGE a standout for me. CRISIS MODE, GIANT SQUID, GALAHAD, and SOPHISM were great, too.

I wasn't as much a fan of ICE TRAY — isn't it usually ICE CUBE TRAY? — and SOB SISTER ... don't guys write sentimental features as well? There seems to be an outdated implication baked into the term that I don't care for.

I also noticed a good amount of crossword glue as I went, things like OJO (Spanish for "eye"), TIAS, AERO, AGS (attorney generals), PARAS, SSGTS, SSA, OSS. And the PEETA / EDOM might be a killer for some. Even though I loved the "Hunger Games" books, PEETA (one of Katniss's love interests) is a tough one for me to remember. It felt like quite a lot.

Overall though, I thought Michael did a remarkable job with really funny theme answers. That's no mean feat — most of the time I find kooky-themer Sunday puzzles not amusing enough. Because of that accomplishment, I might have tried for less sizzle in the fill in order to smooth out some of the rough spots. But I can respect the desire to work in great JOLTIN JOE-esque material.