Answered general questions about movies, TV and more

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This movie is quite old, I saw it about 25+ years ago in 3rd grade. It was about a young boy who lost his hair, because he got spooked after peeping in an abandoned building. Two homeless ghosts (I think they were ghosts) gave him a recipe to mix up and put on his head to make the hair grow, but the hair would not stop growing, it grew by the second. Then the boy was kidnapped by an artist who wanted his hair to make paintbrushes. That is how they found the boy at the end, because his sister saw some of the brushes in a store and knew it was made from her brother's hair. Can anyone help me out?

Answer: It is called The Peanut Butter Solution. Check out http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089789/.

JCT05

There was a movie out a while ago that is similar to Death Race, but it featured Ice T., and it was about all the criminals that got locked in a building and they had to kill each other to be the last one out the building. I remember one scene well. They had just gotten there and all these guns fell from the ceiling onto a table and that was the beginning of the movie. Does anyone know this movie?

Answer: The movie is called 'Mean Guns', released in 1997.

Super Grover

This was a movie that I saw on TV (not sure if it was made-for-TV) sometime in the mid-'90's to early 2000's. A record label found a woman who had a great voice, but was not attractive, so they made a music video with a younger girl (I think she had dark hair), and put the other woman's voice in the video. I think the other woman was cleaning a house when she suddenly saw the video on TV, with the younger woman singing the song she recorded. Does anyone know the title?

Answer: I believe this is the made-for-TV movie "Out of Sync," starring Gail O'Grady and Kari Wuhrer, and aired in 2000.

Chanteuse66

There was a cable TV show, during the mid-1980's on Sunday evenings (I think), that was about a woman veterinarian who flew a helicopter. It was set on a island. For the life of me I can't remember the name of that show. Can you possibly help me? Thank you.

Answer: It sounds like the Canadian series Danger Bay.

Jeff Swanson

Does anyone know the name of the Abbott & Costello movie that had the "Who's on First?" routine? Thanks.

Answer: Per Wikipedia: "The routine was featured in the team's 1940 film debut, "One Night in the Tropics". The duo reprised the bit in their 1945 film "The Naughty Nineties", and it is that version which is considered their finest recorded rendition. They also performed the routine numerous times on radio and television (notably in the Abbott and Costello Show episode "The Actor's Home")."

johnrosa

It seems that whenever they try to make a TV show from a movie the show never lasts. I can think of two shows that were successful (M*A*S*H and Buffy The Vampire Slayer). Does anyone know if there are any other shows that have lasted more than one year? Thanks.

Answer: There were/are many successful TV shows, both live-action and animated, that were/are adapted from or inspired by films. To start with, two spin-offs of TV's M*A*S*H and Buffy the Vampire Slayer are Trapper John and Angel. A few others that that come to mind are: The Odd Couple, In the Heat of the Night, Highlander, Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, which just started its second season. For a more concise list see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_movies_made_into_TV_shows.

Super Grover

What is the title of the fairly recent movie which portrays one black and one white man as brothers?

Answer: It's the 1996 movie, "A Family Thing," starring Robert Duvall and James Earl Jones. After discovering they are half-brothers, two middle-aged men, one white, one black, struggle to bond with one another.

raywest

I'm trying to remember the name of a movie. I think it was released mid-late 90's. It's about a guy who meets a girl on a train/subway, then tries to find her again. All this talk about "my sassy girl" reminded me of it and I can't get it out of my head. Thanks for any help you can give.

Answer: Could it be "On the Line" starring Lance Bass and Emannuelle Chriqui?

Dedderbot

I am trying to find the name of a late 80's or early 90's movie. The film features a newlywed couple who are honeymooning in a castle. The castle has a few ghosts inhabiting it, and the husband falls in love with one of the ghosts. Somehow the ghost becomes human again at the end, and then she and the husband end up together. Does anyone know the name of this movie?

Answer: The movie is called High Spirits. It starred Steve Guttenberg and Daryl Hannah.

SAZOO1975

This was a comedy show that I think was part of ABC's TGIF line-up, but it might have been Nickelodeon. A single mom with a teenage daughter and younger son somehow found a genie, who was a man with dark hair. I remember a Halloween episode, where the mom wished that the genie had to be a normal human with no powers for Halloween (since she had explained that Halloween was about dressing up as something scary, and having no powers was what the genie thought was scary). It was on in the late '90's or early 2000's. Does anyone know the name of it?

Answer: I believe what you're looking for is "You Wish" which did air on ABC in 1997. It starred: John Ales as Genie, Harley Jane Kozak as Gillian Apple, Nathan Lawrence as Travis, and Alex McKenna as Mickey. Hope that helped!

Angela Brown

I saw a movie about this girl, Holly (I think) and her best friend whose name I don't remember. Her best friend convinces her to apply to the Playboy restaurant, and the two of them end up working there. Holly becomes one of the best bunnies but her best friend falls apart and starts breaking the rules and abusing diet pills. This leads to a falling out between the two. Holly ends up falling in love with the bartender and there is an emotional reunion scene between her and her best friend at a train station at the end of the movie. Does anyone know what movie I'm talking about?

Answer: You are thinking of "A Tale of Two Bunnies", a TV movie made in 2000.

Why don't very many 2-D animation movies come to theaters anymore (whenever I see a commercial for a new one, it's always on DVD right away)?

Answer: Mainly because the entertainment medium has moved on since the days of drawn animation. They're very time consuming and labor intensive, so they cost a lot. That means such a film is less likely to make a significant profit. The film financiers don't want to put money into drawn animation while moviegoers, generally speaking, are no longer interesting in paying to see them. Having said that, Disney's releasing "The Princess and the Frog" in theatres in 2009, which will their first hand-drawn animation in 5 years.

Phixius

I once saw a movie where a bunch of strangers were locked in this building, Then a whole bunch of guns and weapons were dropped onto a table. The objection was to make it out of the building alive and win a reward. The less people that made it out alive the bigger share the winners had to divide. I remember Ice T was in it.

Answer: The movie is called 'Mean Guns', released in 1997.

Super Grover

Was it ever true that actors would get paid more if they were willing to do nude scenes? If so, is it still true today (since nude scenes are not such a shocking new thing)?

Answer: There is really no definitive answer to this. The best example to say they would is Demi Moore. She was paid around 12.5 million dollars to do the film Striptease, which was substantially more than what she usually got. While the main reason behind that might have been because the quality of the film was fairly poor, it seems to be more of an artistic decision than money. Stars in arthouse and foreign films are more likely to do nude scenes and the likelihood is they are getting less in salary. While in major films it would seem unlikely. Actors who reach a certain success will generally be able to have clauses in their contracts preventing them having to do nude scenes. Studios would also be unlikely to pay more as they would not want to risk higher ratings for their films as it might hurt box office receipts. The way it might directly be true is if someone specifically demands more money if they're asked to do a nude scene - Halle Berry was reportedly paid an extra $1m for her topless scene in Swordfish (her first nude appearance), presumably because the studio thought the extra press was worth the cost.

Lummie

Is there a specific reason Tuesday was chosen as the release day for new DVD/Blu-Ray releases?

Cubs Fan

Chosen answer: A lot of reasons went into this decision. Most prominently: Sales figures are released on Mondays. Releasing a DVD on Tuesday maximizes the number of days in which to make sales that will count toward that figure. Next, if a video is selling particularly well, the retailer has plenty of time to order more copies for the weekend shoppers. Finally, releasing on Tuesday, as opposed to Monday, gives the retailer more time to stock their shelves. Not a big issue with super-huge chain stores, but rental establishments especially need time to reorganize everything on their shelves to fit the new releases in. Doing this over the weekend, when the store is most likely to be full of customers, for a Monday release isn't practical from a business perspective. Tuesday releases allow retailers to use the typically slow business day of Monday to get everything ready.

Phixius

I saw this movie on TV, during the mid-to-late 70s, about a guy with glasses who turned into a fish who wore glasses. Any ideas about its name?

Answer: The movie is called 'The Incredible Mr. Limpet' and it stars Don Knotts.

Super Grover

I am looking for the name of a television show that aired in the mid- to late 1990s. I recall seeing about five minutes of one episode in probably 1996 or 1997. I think each episode had different characters and different stories, not a consistent cast. It was supposed to be a series of horror stories, I believe. The part of the episode that I saw seemed like an intro, and it involved a man with a pig mask on (or a pig with a human body) that was pulling a man's body from either a toilet or bathtub. I believe it was a toilet, but I am not sure. There were other pig people in the house, and possibly some children who were hiding from them. The part I remember best is definitely the pig man and a body in the bathroom. I don't recall the channel that it aired on, but was definitely frightening. If this description rings a bell for anyone, please respond. It's been bothering me for years.

Answer: Sounds to me like "Tales from the Crypt".

Phixius

I heard that in some movies with bar fight scenes (such as Shanghai Noon), "fake" beer bottles that are easier to break are used, instead of real ones that are made from glass. Does anyone know if this is true?

Answer: Of course it's true. Genuine glass bottles are hard and can take some considerable force to break. Trying to do so over somebody's head would result it, at best, a concussion and quite possibly a serious skull fracture. Plus you've then got lots of sharp bits of glass around the place, which is obviously a severe hazard. Fakes are always used in such circumstances.

Tailkinker

I am looking for the title of a movie that I vaguely remember. It is an older movie (like already on DVD or TV) that I saw within the last year or so. The plot is something about a girl who breaks up with her boyfriend and moves in with a co-worker who is known as the office player. I want to say she chose to take the co-worker up on his offer to make someone else jealous, and this scene took place in a break room. I think he has some type of rent-controlled apartment and when she moves in he has a sheet hung over her door because he was making improvements with his previous girlfriend, who broke his heart. He promises to put in a door and finish the repairs for her, and by the end of the movie, he finishes them and ends up falling for her. I remember another scene of a conversation in the apartment kitchen one night where he was with another girl (one of his one-night stands) and he came out to get something out of the kitchen and ended up talking to her. She said she used to be a cheerleader and somehow ends up showing him a cheer in her underwear when the girl he was with walks out to find out what is keeping him. I'm not sure of any of the actors in this, but they were not complete unknowns. Any ideas?

I'm looking for the title of a movie about a group of actors in a stage play. Someone was murdered and they are all suspects. It is not Rehearsal For Murder.

Answer: I think you are talking about Murder Most Foul. Its an Agatha Christie - Ms Marple story.

Answer: The 1964 movie, "Murder Most Foul," Margret Rutherford as Miss Marple. The third in the series of movies made in the 1960's.

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