General questions about movies, TV and more

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When I was in the third grade I remember watching a Halloween movie. The year was 1993 and I remember very little from the movie. I remember these kids going to another boys house, but he is being taken away in an ambulance, I think he was sick or something. The kids find a creepy old house and a ghost boy climbs up a tree and takes a pumpkin. I remember a man takes them through Halloween traditions in the past. Does anyone know what this movie was called?

Answer: Sounds like "The Halloween Tree" (1993). A Hanna-Barbera cartoon and based on a Ray Bradbury novel.

Bishop73

There was a short cartoon I saw in the early 80s where every time the guy used a figure of speech, it would happen literally: I combed the beach (with an actual comb); I put my foot in my mouth (literally); She had a lot of little ones (tiny numeral 1s).

Brian Katcher

Answer: "Symphony in Slang" by Tex Avery (1951).

Thanks. You just solved a 40-year-old problem for me.

Brian Katcher

You're welcome.

What was this science fiction movie from the early 80s or earlier? An earth man is undergoing a procedure by aliens (or future people) to make him super intelligent. I just remember the aliens chanting 'Think about the brain...think about the brain...' over and over again.

Brian Katcher

Answer: Maybe "Starship Invasions," (1977) two alien races bring their war to Earth. One set experiments on humans, while the others ask for their help.

I don't think that's it either. I'm pretty sure I saw it in the theater and that was before my time.

Brian Katcher

Answer: There is a 1977 TV-Movie, "The Man with the Power." A man discovers his father was an alien from another planet. He has super powers. An alien emissary appears to advise him on how to use his powers to help mankind. I don't know about the "think about the brain" scene. It hasn't been broadcast in twenty years. There are a couple of other movies, but I believe this is the one your looking for.

Thanks, but after googling it, I don't think that's it. The man in my movie was older, they definitely were performing some sort of medical procedure on him, there were in some sort of futuristic hospital, there were multiple aliens, and I'm almost certain I saw this in the theater.

Brian Katcher

What was this science fiction show or movie I saw in the early 80s? There was this eclectic group of aliens, including, strangely, an earth cowboy. Some of the group were identical aliens who did everything exactly the same. When the cowboy offered an alien a hot dog, they all began chewing, and reciting the ingredients ("and artificial flavoring").

Brian Katcher

I need help with the title of a book my teacher read to my class in 5th grade, circa 1995. The only details I remember were it taking place in either the North or South Pole, and the main character killed a polar bear by shooting it in the head.

Phaneron

Answer: It may or may not help, but polar bears don't live in Antarctica (the South Pole).

Bishop73

Answer: If you aren't recalling the details, the only movie (and book) around this time period that I can think of is "Alaska" (1996), starring Vincent Kartheiser and Thora Birch. But Vincent did not shoot a polar bear - a poacher shot a mother polar bear and the baby followed the kids while they searched for their father who had wrecked his plane.

KeyZOid

I've never seen the movie Alaska, but the book in question feels like it was probably more of a survival story rather than an adventure. The only additional detail I can give is that the teacher assigned us to draw a scene from the book, and since the protagonist shot the polar bear in the head, many of the boys in the class, myself included, decided to draw that scene, complete with exaggerated gore.

Phaneron

"Alaska" was about survival.

KeyZOid

I wonder if your teacher may have deliberately altered some information (e.g, the boy shooting the bear) to make the story more relevant and provocative to the grade level and whatever discussion questions that were given?

KeyZOid

Unlikely. I live in Utah, and the teacher as well as many of my classmates are/were Mormon, so if anything, the teacher would have altered the story to tone down the violence or any other potentially objectionable content.

Phaneron

I've only seen the Nostalgia Critic's review of it, but wasn't it about the father's survival while his children were on an adventure of sorts to rescue him? Again, I'm not familiar with the "Alaska" book, but it seems like the protagonist for my book was an adult male and it was told from his point of view.

Phaneron

Answer: I believe I may have found the answer after searching "novel where man shoots a polar bear" on Google. A novel titled "The Iceberg Hermit" came up, and the cover art looked familiar.

Phaneron

Trying to remember what product or service this 1990's infomercial was for. It started (in narration form) with a man about to board a plane in Chicago who then stops, changes his mind and walks away from getting on the plane - then the plane goes down in flames. Next was about a prediction from a woman that had to do with crying children in another part of the world. I forgot the rest of the commercial but does anyone remember it or remember what this was advertising for?

Answer: Time Life Books "Mysteries of the Unknown." I remember the commercial and just checked and found a video of it on YouTube.

kayelbe

Answer: Thank you for that.

When any movies are shown on television, why are non offensive lines dubbed with another line? Ex. In the movie *batteries not included, Carlos says to Frank, "You kill my head, man." When the movie appeared on TV, the line was changed to, You make me sick, man."

Answer: Agree with the other answer, but specifically to your example, phrases like, "You kill my head, man," while inoffensive regarding sex or profanity, could be considered problematic due to constant mass shootings and a concern about inciting violence. In other cases, some dialogue may be changed because it is now recognized as being socially and culturally offensive to women, disabled people, certain ethnic groups, and others.

raywest

Answer: It's often done so the movie can air on television and be presented to younger audiences. Ex. In the 1984 Ghostbusters film, Bill Murray says, "I'll sue your ass for wrongful prosecution," but the first time I saw it on TV (in the 80's) the line was now, "I'll sue your funny face for wrongful prosecution."

And to make the words more easily understood - "You kill my head, man" may have ambiguous meaning, but "You make me sick, man" is more straightforward.

KeyZOid

Answer: To add the answers, generally movie studios provided edited films for TV airing. This not only includes dubbing lines that may be offensive, but deleting inappropriate scenes, editing for time, and formatting. Sometimes studios will add scenes if too many scenes were deleted to add time. The example you gave is from a 1987 film where standards are different from today. But the network or studio isn't going to re-release a newly edited version for today's audience. And it's unlikely the network would be able to play the original film without any edits.

Bishop73

I remember this moment from an '80s or '90s TV show. A woman tells another woman "Early is on time, on time is late, and late is unheard of." Then she walks away. I seem to remember that one or both women were black. Does anyone know what show it was?

Answer: This was a line of dialogue in the TV series, The Blacklist, S5, Ep. 6, titled "The Travel Agency," though that does not quite fit your timeline. The line originates from a phrase in a novel by Eric Jerome Dickey, and it may also have been used in other movies or TV shows.

raywest

I don't know what year this movie was made but I only seem to remember the ending of the movie. I remember a family staying at a house in the country, and they are all woken up one night and taken to a room downstairs. I remember a man comes in and some others follow. Then they take out some guns, and they all start shooting at the family members. I remember there was lots of blood in the scene as well especially on the wall behind them. The movie ends after but I want to know what this was from.

Answer: It was from Nicholas and Alexandra I looked it up and was able to watch the scene on YouTube. I remember the father carrying the boy because he had something wrong with one of his legs.

Answer: That is the story of Anastasia. The last Royal family to rule Russia, when the revolution came they ran hoping to reach a friendly country to ask for asylum. They were betrayed and massacred. Years later, a young girl came forward claiming to be the long-lost daughter who survived.

Answer: This is probably the 1971 movie, "Nicholas and Alexandra" about the final days of the royal Romanov family during the Russian Revolution. As pointed out, there's been a number of other films and documentaries about Czar Nicholas II (the last Russian emperor), his wife, Czarina Alexandra, and their five children who were murdered by the Bolsheviks in 1918. If that's not it, this Wikipedia page might help you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_about_the_Romanovs.

raywest

Answer: This is what happened to the Russian Tsar, Nicholas II and his family in real life. There have been several films and series about him with this scene. For example, "The Romanovs: An Imperial Family" (2000) or "The Last Czars" (2019).

Bishop73

I remember seeing in the early 1970's a children's movie about a young boy who befriends a lion and his owner, an old man. In the story, a serial killer is murdering construction workers and throwing their bodies off a cliff. At the end of the movie, the lion has the serial killer trapped between two large rocks, the lion lunges, and the serial killer falls to his death off the cliff. Yes, it was a children's movie! Anybody know of it?

Scott215

Answer: You're right, there was no serial killer, but he was a dangerous criminal wanted by the police. It was a Disney film. The man, the two kids are looking for, is a long-lost distant cousin of the boy. The only one he can turn to after being orphaned. When the cousin goes looking for the grandmother of the girl, the woman mistakenly believes he kidnapped the kids and calls the police. At the station the cousin sees a wanted poster of his friend, who he left in charge of the kids. He tries to convince them of this, but don't listen, he escapes and leads the police to his cabin in the forest. He finds the kids unharmed and the police take the man away. FYI, the long-lost cousin is played by Michael Douglas.

Answer: Going to throw this out there, even though I don't think there was the serial killer scene. "Napoleon and Samantha" (1972), which was Jodie Foster's film debut, is about a boy, Napoleon, who adopts a lion (with his grandfather) from an old circus clown. The boy's grandfather dies and he and his friend Samantha go looking for someone. There's a scene where the boy nearly falls off a cliff, but the lion saves him. At the end, they find the man they're looking for at his cabin. When he leaves to find Samantha's parents, he leaves them with a man who turns out to be a dangerous psychopath, but he's the one who ends up saving the children.

Bishop73

Looking for a comedy show sometime in the mid 80's. It was a family show and one scene I remember was a girl in the family who was sick, so they decide to make her some chicken soup. Instead of making her eat the soup out of a bowl, they have the soup in a huge metal pot. They put a towel over her head and stuck her head in the pot, so she could breathe in the smell in hopes of making her better. When asked how she feels, she says that she feels her face is melting off. Not Charles In Charge.

Looking for a video game for the PS4. The game takes place in outer space where a woman is trapped in a space station looking for survivors. She has the help of an AI built into the station. Eventually, she discovers that the space station is orbiting Saturn even though it shouldn't. When she asks the AI how she ended up near Saturn, he responds that he took her there although he doesn't know why.

Answer: Possibly "Observation" (2019)?

Bishop73

That's it.

I saw part of this movie and can't remember the title. A quiet, "pushover"-type man works at a bank inside a grocery store. He meets another guy who is a "wild and crazy" type. Possibly a past friend who he ran into again. There is a scene in which they are on a boat. The song "Sun Daze" by Florida-Georgia Line is playing. So this movie was made after 2014, when that song was released. Thank you.

Answer: "The Do-Over" (2016). David Spade plays a bank manager inside a supermarket and meets up with his old high school friend, Adam Sandler.

Bishop73

That is it. Thank you.

What movie does an underage kid go to buy alcohol and is asked how old he is, and he holds up a $50 dollar bill and says "Fifty"?

Answer: Class (1983). Rob Lowe says it in the liquor store.

Looking for something I saw on TV - set in the Wild west but might have been intended as a parody. Townspeople plead with a black man (played by Robert Townsend I think), a sort of man with no name type character to help them against a villain. The townspeople don't have much money, so they offer him a crack at "the town virgin"; the man insists on seeing a picture of her to decide if she's attractive enough (he asks, "She a dog? Let me see a picture.").

Answer: This could be the 1975 TV movie Black Bart which was based off Blazing Saddles. There were originally going to be more episodes aired but the studio decided not to release them.

Pretty sure what I saw was made in the 90's, if not early 2000's.

Answer: Except for the part of the "Town Virgin," it could be Mel Brooks' "Blazing Saddles." A parody of the old west. A black man, actor Cleavon Little, is appointed sheriff to a town, but the white people hate it. However, they call on him for help, when a cartoon type villain terrorizes the them. Later the town sexpot tries to seduce him. There was an unsold pilot, "Black Bart," but I don't know the storyline. If your thinking of Robert Townsend, he made the movie, "Hollywood Shuffle." He plays an actor tired of being stereotyped, he fantasies of being the hero of his own films.

No this was way more recent than Blazing Saddles, it was something else, not feature length and with a totally different cast.

A few years ago I caught part of a TV show, and it was spoofing the end of Goodfellas - complete with the second movement of "Layla" by Derek and the Dominos - only it was using the California Raisins as characters. I specifically remember one of the raisins being shot, and it had purple blood. Anyone know what this was from?

Phaneron

I recently - in the last month or two - saw an advertisement for this TV show or movie. The plot involves bank technology failing. Everyone's credit and debit cards are basically useless.

Answer: It may have been "The Endgame", it involved a plot against banks in order to draw out a specific FBI agent.

Answer: There is a 1980 movie, "Rollover," Jane Fonda discovers that her late husband's death is tied to a secret bank account within the confines of of a national Investment Bank. Whose contents if exposed would destroy the U.S. economy, like the stock market crash of 1929.

Thank you for answering, but that is not it. This movie/show appeared to have been made recently, within the last year or two.

What film is it where two people are fighting in a mostly black corridor over an automatic weapon, and it fires, making a semicircle of orange over their heads, illuminating the scene?

Jon Sandys

Chosen answer: Found the answer elsewhere - I was thinking of The Matrix Revolutions, where Agent Smith in someone else's body is fighting with Neo over an arc weapon of some kind in a darkened spaceship.

Jon Sandys

Answer: It isn't very much to go on but the first thing that comes to mind is the 2011 remake of "Fright Night." At the end Charlie and Jerry the vampire fight over a shotgun in the underground basement of a building. When it goes off, holes in the ceiling, bring in the sunlight.

I remember watching a movie when I was younger around 1996 and a boy has a learning disability, and he becomes friends with a blind lady who is black. He tries to read but can't because the words look funny to him, so she teaches him Braille. I remember the old lady later dies and the boy becomes so upset that he runs away and finds his grandmother and stays with her until he feels ready to return home to his single mom. I think actress Della Reese was in it. What was this movie called?

Answer: Did a quick Google search, and the television film "Anya's Bell" from 1999 seems to fit the bill perfectly plot-wise, plus it stars Della Reese. Only discrepancy is the date (it came out in 1999). But I'm 99% sure that's it. Check out the Wikipedia and IMDb pages for it.

TedStixon

Answer: Thank you that is the move. I don't know why I thought it was 1996 must have been because of the tape we had it on. It was full of movies that were taped off TV, and they were all from different years, so I just estimated with the year.

Looking for the name of a movie that was either from the 80's or 90's. The only thing I know about it is that a man turns into a pig demon whenever he gets sexually aroused. Eventually, he has to use what has happened to him to fight a demon. The curse is lifted from him and is shocked to discover that his girlfriend is not carrying the curse that he had. As they walk away, it's discovered that another man is now cursed to turn into a demon pig but it doesn't bother him at all.

Answer: You're probably thinking of My Demon Lover (1987).

That's it.

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