I'm pretty certain it was AMC.  I remember this sort of.  I also remember they ran the unedited film, then showed Godfather + Godfather II seperately.  Because I remember taping I and II on a VHS tapes.  Oh fuck, I probably should have tape the unedit film as well.

Oh definitely,  the entire sequence sets the 2nd half of the film in motion.   And yeah even though you know it's coming (Sonny's death) it still hits you.  It's totally consistent with Sonny's character and flaws.

I totally forgot how the Winona character went totally downhill after she lost her job.  IIRC she was rather immature about how she got fired.  It was just really stupid and like self sabotage as you say.  Basically after that she becomes a slacker and a double of the Ethan Hawke character.

You're actually correct about the major flaw with the film.  It should be a debate about how 90s post college ideals, dreams, and life philosphies (or whatever) comes smack dab into the realities of life.  It's a great film title, I might point out, nice play on words.  Anyway, you might have these ideals but those don't usually pay the bills.  And sometimes you have to delay your goals (like Lainey becoming a director for documentaries) for a bit otherwise you end up stuck like the Hawke character.  The ending of this is like something out of a romantic comedy except that I have no idea how it got "to that point" and it's not really consistent with the reality of what we have shown in the film.  I don't want to sound like I'm trashing this too much since I do love that it captures the vibe/feel of the 90s perfectly.

Straight Time (1979)  Someone criticized Hoffman's films a few pages back.  He's fine here as a career criminal trying to go straight and failing at it.  He does attempt to re-enter society but it just doesn't work for him for a variety of reasons.  So he predicatably goes back to the life he knows.  I don't think I would have liked this as much if Theresa Russell (aka the MILF in Wild Things) wasn't as good in her role as the girlfriend.   I'd say more but I don't want to spoil it.

Basic Instinct (1991) .  This one is a fav and maybe a guilty pleasure.  For a good while there Michael Douglas could do no wrong. I gotta admit though I love late 80s-early 90s Sharon Stone.  From stuff like Action Jackson, Total Recall, The Quick and the Dead to Casino and this film, she did a lot of stuff that I loved.  And she basically owns this film from the way she basically manipulates Nick(Douglas character) from start to finish.  He thinks he is in control but he's really not.  The character becomes somewhat obsessive and psychotic in the second half of the film.  I totally forgot how funny this film is too.  The cops are like cracking jokes at the first crime scene.  I still think the film is a bit long and wouldn't cut out some parts of the middle.

He was fucking ace on the mike.   He also had this "cool aura" that's totally different from what Nash had.  There was an element of danger with his character, some street toughness that differentiated him from Nash.  Nash had that too cool for school, sarcastic kind of personalilty.
I'm still kinda irked that he never got one of those "transition" runs with a World Championship in either WWE or WCW (yeah, he had problems but whatever).   I forgot whom he was wrestling in WCW but that guy was trying to wiggle out of the Outsiders Edge and it was one of the funnier things I saw (or thought at  the time).  Oh he also sold the stone cold stunner like a champ in 2002.

For Lofton:  there's a razor ramon match from 92 or 1993 against Rick Martel (it was on Raw I think) for the IC title that is really good.  The two ladder matches with Michaels obviously.  I'd also add the Goldust feud in 1995.  The match itself sucked but the feud was freaking entertaining to me.  I'd also skip most of 95 for the WWF, they were running on fumes at that point.

Oh fuck.  My favorite Hurt role was Ned in Body Heat.