Waking Up In Reno offers big, fat, dumb laughs that may make you hate yourself for giving in. Ah, what the hell. The whole cast, directed by Jordan Brady with no restraint, is slumming. That's Billy Bob Thornton as Lonnie Earl, a good ol' Arkansas boy married to Darlene (Natasha Richardson) but cheating on her with Candy (Charlize Theron), the wife of his best bud, Roy (Patrick Swayze). When the two couples cram into an SUV to catch the monster-truck show in Reno, Nevada, the jokes come down and dirty. Thornton plays this low-ball farce with deceptive, masterful ease. Appreciate it.

“1999”

“I don’t consider myself a great poet,” Prince told Rolling Stone. “I just know I’m here to say what’s on my mind.” In the case of the apocalyptic party anthem “1999,” he was worried about then-president Ronald Reagan’s foreign policies. The song’s melody is based on a riff borrowed from the Mamas and Papas’ “Monday, Monday,” and Prince originally envisioned the first verse with three-part harmony but later split the vocals between himself and members of the Revolution. Because Warner Bros., with whom Prince was locked in a contractual battle, owned the original’s masters, Prince rerecorded the song and appropriately released that version in 1999.