Question: At Jack Jr's birthday party, you don't see Shelby's head at all... It was her 'body' because later that day she is wearing the same shirt when she gets her hair cut. Was there a sit in for Julia Roberts in that scene?
Answer: I believe that Jack Jr is being held by a man. When you freeze the scene, you can see facial hair on the chin and when the person says "blow, blow" it sounds to be a man trying to sound like a woman.
I actually think it's a man, too. The person's hands seem to be deliberately hidden.
Answer: I agree with the other answers that this was probably the child's real mother and not Julia Roberts. It was probably because the boy was upset, but major movies do use second and third-unit directors and often shoot scenes using a body-double as a stand-ins so that other scenes can be filmed simultaneously with the principal actors. It shortens the film's production time and is more economical. It's possible that Roberts was shooting another scene elsewhere. Also, it's definitely not Jack's father (Dylan McDermott) holding him as he is sitting next to Shelby and is saying "blow." It was also not Shelby's father (Tom Skerrit) holding Jack, as he is videotaping the party at the opposite end of the table.
Answer: Yes, there was a sit-in. My mom was Julia's double for this movie. Jack Jr. was played by two babies, my brother being one of them. My brother was upset during this scene and was being held by our mom.
Answer: It was said that the child actor was crying, so they had his real mother sit with him in that scene instead of Julia.
Answer: No. It wasn't a man. It was the child's real mother holding her kid during the scene. The kid wouldn't shut up with the crying and only would calm itself sitting on the mother's lap.
Answer: It's Shelby's father that is holding him.
Shelby's father is across the table taking pictures.
Question: At the very beginning of the movie, Joe Clark is enraged when he finds out that there is a meeting going on without him. What exactly is the subject of this meeting (other than the obvious dismissal of Mr. Clark)? Why is Mr. Clark accusing them of "selling out," and what do the people in the meeting refer to when they say, "You want to be posturing, etc., but we just want to work."?
Chosen answer: They are discussing some of the things that Mr. Clark has done that has "embarassed" the school. They are debating what to do about him. And by "posturing," they mean his insistance on wearing African dress and espousing his political beliefs.
Question: At the end of the movie, the Voice is credited as Himself. Who was really responsible for doing the voice that sent Ray on his journey?
Answer: It was actually his own voice (Kevin Costner) that sent him on the journey. At the end of the movie there's even the part where Ray is recalling the voices he heard and turned to Shoeless Joe Jackson and says, "It was you". At which point Joe Jackson turns around and says, "No Ray. It was you".
Question: When Uncle Buck is going to the party to get Bug, he is stopped at a red light and there are two parents in the car next to him. The father says, "don't go in there with that hat on, they'll kill you". Why would someone be killed for wearing a hat?
Chosen answer: He's being sarcastic, as Buck says in the beginning some of his hats anger a lot of people, which probably connects to when his hat gets taken by one of the teenagers at the party.
Buck is actually referring to his aviator style hat in the earlier scene about people being angered by it. He's wearing the fedora style hat in the scene en route to the party. But I agree the guy was being sarcastic about teenagers.
The black purse bedside to the possible 'pile of bunched-up blankets' looks like Chanice's from later scenes; suggesting the writers or Hughes changed the script after the bedroom scene was shot to Buck's simpler but delightfully funny half-conversation with her on the phone.
Answer: The Uncle Buck movie was made in the late 80s, near the end of the Cold War. And Because the hat resembles the Russian ushanka worn by Russian soldiers in that time, it can be said that wearing it might anger some, especially young Americans opposed to world events at the time.
Question: Both the main characters are named after cowboys, Dalton and Wade Garrett. Was this intentional?
Answer: Only in the sense that the writer wanted them to have very masculine names.
Question: What was Lindsey referring to when she called Coffey "Roger Ramjet"?
Answer: Roger Ramjet was a 1960's American cartoon character who was extremely patriotic, but dimwitted.
Answer: She's comparing the overzealous, gung-ho Coffey to the 1960s cartoon character, Roger Ramjet, a frenetic, extremely patriotic, though not particularly bright American-hero guy. He worked for the U.S. government and routinely saved the world, using energy pills that gave him brief increased strength.
Answer: Dudley Do-right, Inspector Clouseau or Maxwell Smart, only in a '50's space cartoon, that's Roger Ramjet (I imagine Buzz Lightyear is the nearest pop cultural successor).
Question: Why did Louis kill Church at the end? He only planned on killing Gage if he came back like Timmy Baterman did, and he could have just walked in after distracting Church with the meat.
Chosen answer: Church's behavior had changed after being buried. He was now violent (and working with Gage) and needed to be put down before killing anyone.
Question: When Charlie brings a pizza to the puppies, and they shout, "Charlie", how do they know what his name is?
Answer: Charlie talks to Anne Marie about them so my guess is that he has visited the puppies and the female dog before maybe even a few times.
Answer: Charlie may have visited the puppies before so they know who he is.
Question: When the men finally get their shoes, they are just tossed a pair from the wagon and they automatically fit. Were military shoes back then one size fits all? How could they have shoes that automatically fit them?
Answer: To add to the answer, it's shown in the film in this scene as a soldier approaches a pile of shoes and places a pair on the pile and grabs another.
Chosen answer: The shoes would have been a mix of the most common sizes, and the men would have gone through them to find the right size...swapping when necessary. Keep in mind many of them were barefoot, so even shoes of the wrong size would have been a blessing.
Question: In the scene in Joe's bar there's a jazz singer named Mae Mercer. I could swear that the voice is the absolutely unique one of Nina Simone's, even the way she plays the piano, but there is no hint either in the cast or the list of song. I'd like to hear other people's opinion on that. (00:49:55)
Chosen answer: Just my opinion: Mae Mercer is a great jazz singer - and there is a soundtrack of this movie, just in case someone wants to check it out - and I am sure she was the one singing.
Question: While Robin Williams is packing his things in his small room, he waves down out the window at whom I believe is the Latin teacher, walking along a snowy sidewalk. What is the teacher doing, exactly? It appears that he's giving a guided tour of the campus, but he's also muttering Latin words. It can't be a classroom exercise because there are only 4 or 5 people with him. Does anyone know what he's doing?
Chosen answer: It is a classroom exercise. He is being followed by pupils and is reinforcing their latin vocabulary by taking them on a tour of the garden and showing them the things that the words actually relate to (edificium = building, flora = flower etc.) This contrasts with his earlier behaviour when he simply had them mindlessly recite conjugations (amamo, amamas, amabat). The point is that this illustrates how the Latin Master has been affected by his contact with Keating and has become a better teacher as a result.
Answer: I thought it was a punishment for the pupils involved in the scandal.
Question: There's a scene in this movie that I've never understood. When Ron Kovic is in the VA hospital, there's one scene where he wakes up in the middle of the night, and looks up and sees something, and screams. What did he see that made him scream?
Answer: He doesn't see anything. He hears his blood dripping back into the makeshift machine the doctors have set up and realizes it isn't working properly. In the previous scene he was told that if they couldn't get the machine to work, he would never walk again.
No, in the previous scene he was told that if they couldn't get the machine to work, he would lose his leg. He was already told he would never walk again.
Question: What is that song by 311 called? I cant find the soundtrack anywhere. And I know it's only on the soundtrack so it's not on any of their CD's.
Answer: According to imdb.com the song is 'Anytime'.
Question: Was there any reason why Tong Po is listed as being played by himself when he was played by Michel Qissi? This is in the film's credit, I know IMDB listed Qissi as the actor. And if this was just a mistake, was there an explanation given as to how it was made or got past editing?
Answer: He didn't want to use his real name.
Answer: This is a mistake that has never been explained.
Question: In the later scene where the two Asian gang members are being interrogated to discover who hired them, they jokingly say something to each other in their own language, the translator cop makes some smug comment back, and then reveals to Steven Bauer that their employer was Lauderdale. Is anyone able to translate what was said during this little exchange?
Answer: More than likely, it was probably something made up and meaningless. But of course, we would never know because it's Vietnamese. The best you can do is have a Vietnamese person view that part of the film and get them to translate it if it was actually a real sentence being spoken, which I doubt.
Question: When the guys are getting ready to go into town, one of them says about the sarge "as short as he is he's out of here in 30 days." Someone also said "anyone as short as Brownie shouldn't have been out there". What do they mean by short?
Answer: "Short" in this context is military slang for someone whose tour of duty is coming close to an end. It's a derivative of "short-timer."
Question: Is the timeline in this movie supposed to be somewhat non-linear? For example - in the scene where Karen and Gill go to Kevin's school to talk to the principal and psychologist, it is specifically mentioned that the new school year is 4 months away meaning it is approximately April since kids typically began school in August. Later, when Larry comes to visit and is talking to the dad in the garage, he mentions the Super Bowl (which you reasonably would have assumed they just watched) but that takes place in January. Plus, Larry's mom tells them that Cool (Larry's son) has just finished eating lunch. How? If they just watched the Super Bowl, it would be dinner since the game is always played in the afternoon. And despite being in "St. Louis" (we know they actually filmed in Florida), it never seems to be winter. The end is really the most confusing with the birthing order. We learned earlier in a scene that Karen is pregnant and is due in February. At some point around this time, we find out that Julie is also pregnant. At this point, Julie's mom Helen has just gone on her first date with Mr. Bowen (Garry's biology teacher) but the end, Helen is having a baby, Julie and Tod's baby barely looks a month old and Karen's baby looks to be about 4 months old. Did Helen marry Mr. Bowen immediately and get pregnant right away?
Answer: The movie is being told in a linear timeline. You have just about all the information right! I think the one thing you are letting throw you off is your assessment of the Super Bowl. You are surmising that they had just watched the game that day, but my assessment is that they are talking about the game from months ago (bearing in mind that Larry has not been around for years and has not seen his father since the last Super Bowl). My belief is the movie takes place in May. That would add up with Kevin's next year of school being 4 months away as schools usually start in September, and the math also works out with Karen's February due date. This would also explain your concern about the weather. As for Helen's baby, it is not made clear whether or not she married Mr. Bowman, nor does it really matter for timeline purposes, but they consummated the relationship not long after the first date and she got pregnant.
Question: In the scene where she is walking home in the rain after visiting her prostitute friend, in the background you can see 3 huge "tank" like structures. They are made twice as high by open girder and cable contraptions. The same things can be seen in the movie, "Spider", starring Ralph Fiennes. What are they?
Answer: Gas storage tanks.
Answer: I believe it is because the child playing Jack Jr. was basically crying through this whole scene, as you can see. It's most likely his (actually her, as the real baby was a girl) real mother holding him to calm him down. Also, when the family is saying "Blow, blow," you can hear a female voice that is neither Julia Roberts or Sally Field.
When she is sitting with Jack Jr, it is before she goes to get her hair cut. When she tells M'Lynn she wants to cut her hair, she is wearing it in a banana clip and you can see the hair past her shoulders. When "she's" sitting with Jack Jr, there's no hair to be seen. Total stand in.
Daniel Camp is the actor who played Jack Jr.
Along with Daniel two other children played Jack Jr, C. Houser and Clara Gabrielle.