Question: Are "Happy Tarts" an actual product in America? They're displayed throughout the film as an obvious product placement joke, but is it a product made up for the benefit of the joke, or did the film makers make a real product placement into a joke?
Question: Why is it too nutty that Orpheus arranged the flowers?
Answer: Orpheus was the greatest poet and musician of Greek mythology, his music could charm wild beasts and even persuade rocks and trees into movement; the idea of him arranging flowers is probably just a pun on his normal pasttime of 'arranging' music, or alternatively a reference to how he could have used his magical music to make the flowers spontaneously arrange themselves.
Question: On the round trip going from Milan to London and back, which spice girl keeps saying "Are we there yet?" in the plane?
Answer: It is Mel B, aka Scary Spice. You can tell by her distinctive northern accent.
Question: How exactly did they make John Leguizamo look so short? Was he just sitting on some seat concealed inside the fat suit?
Chosen answer: He is squatting the entire time in every scene. The suit probably helped in ways to balance himself whilst squatting, so he could hold on much longer than normally.
Question: From the way it is portrayed in the movie, it looks like Bond & Wai Lin just head straight for the stealth boat once they spot it. They come at it from the front. I don't see why they would do that. Even if the surveillance guy wasn't paying attention (there's no way Bond could've known that), shouldn't someone on the bridge be able to see the dingy approaching straight at it? It would've made more sense to me if Bond waited for the ship to pass and then come from behind or the sides.
Answer: It's getting dark by this point - Bond and Wai Lin are dressed in black in a dark coloured boat. Anyone looking out of the window would be looking down towards them - they wouldn't be able to pick them out against the sea.
Question: Is David Thewlis still banned from entering the China for his role in this movie? I know that Brad Pitt's ban was lifted in 2014, but was Thewlis' ban lifted too?
Answer: Brad Pitt's ban was lifted in 2014, but David Thewlis is still banned from entering China to this day.
Question: How did Cameron Drake know his former literature teacher Howard Brackett was gay, if nobody, not even Howard himself, knew it?
Answer: He made an assumption, based on certain things he'd observed, which turned out to be true. Other people in town must clearly have had similar ideas about Howard - witness all the Streisand albums at his bachelor party - but Cameron was probably just the first one to voice it aloud. And it was just as well for Howard, because it set him on the road to discovering the truth about himself.
Question: Why didn't Little Bill just dump his wife? Throw her out? Why kill her instead?
Question: I remember in the commercials for this film, there was a shot of a catatonic beaver in a padded cell, in a straitjacket. What was the context?
Answer: His teacher wanted him to see a psychologist as he didn't seem to be hitting the mile markers other kids his age were. His parents imagined this when this was suggested as that used to be what seeing a psychologist meant back in the day. That if they found anything wrong, they would lock the person up in an asylum in a straight jacket. This was showing his parents' fear that he might end up there for seeing a psychologist.
Question: The villain is driving off with Morgan Freeman running right behind him with a gun in his hand. Why didn't Freeman try and shoot the tyres? (01:10:00)
Answer: Shooting out of the tires on a fleeing vehicle is not a viable, realistic strategy. It is a movie cliche akin to shooting out a padlock or saving a hanging man by shooting the rope. It is not something people do in real life and it is therefore realistic that Morgan Freeman wouldn't attempt to do so in this film.
Question: Shouldn't Dr Jonas and his men have been arrested for what they did? And shouldn't the guys who employed have been arrested too?
Question: At the end of the movie, George Clooney and Nicole Kidman are trying to remove one of the small explosive plates that surround the plutonium sphere in a nuclear weapon. Couldn't they have just disconnected the wire connected to the explosive plate to prevent that trigger charge detonating properly? Or would it have detonated because it was touching the other plates?
Answer: Presumably they couldn't take the risk that removing the wire would stop that plate detonating, and/or were worried that there might be a failsafe to detect a wire being cut. Physically removing the charge seemed like the safer bet.
Question: Probably a dumb question, but is this the only film in which Miguel Ferrer has ever received top billing? Usually in everything I have seen him in, he is in a supporting role, so I was just wondering.
Chosen answer: He's received top billing at least 6 times, most notably "Hard Ride to Hell" and "The Harvest", but he's also shared in top billing another half dozen times or so.
Question: The Secret Service Agents rush up the mansion stairs to the bedroom grabbing the stair banister multiple times without gloves. Why didn't the police pick up their fingerprints? And where did they get the crowbar? Is that standard issue for agents?
Answer: The female detective states the carpet is spotlessly clean, indicating they had performed an intense cleanup not shown on camera so they would no doubt cover the staircase as well and wipe it clean of prints. As for the crowbar, it is more than likely part of a "kit" in the boot (trunk) of secret service vehicles.
Question: Does anyone know what kind of pistols Martin Blank uses in this film? Also, is the gunfire sound they make accurate? It's very distinctive.
Chosen answer: His pistols are 9mm Glock 17's (http://www.glock.com/g17.jpg). No movie firearm shot is authentic as it would sound very flat and unexciting because the blank rounds used are very quiet (not much louder than clapping your hands actually). The shot sounds are added in post production.
Question: Is there any story as to why the overall quality of this production was much less than the first Mortal Kombat? For example, the computer-animated creatures and morph effects seemed much worse than the first movies, and certainly worse than any other movie of the year. Also, the costumes and sets were of a lower quality than the first movie. Everything seemed to be a step down from Mortal Kombat 1. You would think that the sequel would have a bigger budget, but it seemed just the opposite with this movie.
Answer: Mortal Kombat 2 was given a budget around the same as the first one probably indicating that New Line (makers of the film) were not convinced the film would not be as much an success as the original was. The buget of 30 million is not too high of a risk for a major film studio. The original was more built on the novelty of the video game and the interest of how it would translate to the screen so a sequel was always going to be tough. While it's hard to find out why the quality was unimpressive, this can just be more from different film crews from the first or just tougher f/x to try and create for the film in the time available. Take The Mummy Returns for example. The Scorpion King near the end looked far too computer generated. This was despite a massive budget and impressive CGI for both films.
Answer: From what I've gathered about the film, the entire production was rushed by the studio and producers, as they wanted to capitalize on the first film's success. Pre-production was troubled at best. Funds weren't allocated to the right places. The film was often being re-written on the fly on set, so large chunks of the movie were being changed at the last minute. It also had a first-time director at the helm who supposedly had a very bad time making the movie due to how hectic it was. And finally, the studio forced them to release the film before it was completely finished, hence the effects and editing were never finalized. So basically, it was a perfect storm of a rushed production without a finished script, an overwhelmed first-time director, and a studio that wouldn't let the producers properly "complete" the movie. Hence, the entire film was a complete mess and was very low-quality.
Chosen answer: No, Happy Tarts is not a real product (unless you live in South Park where Cartman sometimes has them along with Cheesy Poofs and Snacky Cakes).
Myridon