raywest

25th Mar 2015

General questions

What disaster film involved earthquakes, a fire, a childbirth and someone shooting a man dead regarding the loss of a son?

Kenny Benjamin

Chosen answer: This sounds like the 1974 film, "Earthquake, " starring Charlton Heston.

raywest

29th Mar 2015

Poltergeist (1982)

Question: What exactly did the ghosts want with Carol Anne?

Answer: They were attracted to her life force. She was such a young child, that it was particularly pure and strong within her.

raywest

Answer: They were partly attracted to Carol Anne because she she was born in her house.

She was not literally born inside the house. She was born while the family was living there.

raywest

The movie literally says she was born IN the house. When Teague asks, "One of your children was born in your house, huh?" and Steve replies, "Carol Anne."

24th Mar 2015

Burn Notice (2007)

Season 7 generally

Question: How do Jesse and Sam intend to continue as P.Is, when their faces were broadcast over the state news? Undercover/stealth work is torpedoed by that.

dizzyd

Chosen answer: They could wear disguises to hide their appearance.

raywest

26th Mar 2015

The Good Girl (2002)

Question: Is there any significance to Justine looking almost the same - wearing a jacket over jeans, with her hair tied back - for much of the movie?

Answer: I would say her similar clothing style represents that although she wanted her life to change, it never did, and she ultimately remained stuck in her never-ending routine, always looking the same, never moving forward in a new direction.

raywest

16th Mar 2015

General questions

I am looking for a Casanova movie where the first Casanova sails off with his wife/girlfriend that he fell in love with and his apprentice / wannabee Casanova 'takes over' being Casanova and no one knows the real / first Casanova has gone with his love.

naures

Chosen answer: This sounds like the 1954 film, "Casanova's Big Night."

raywest

Answer: It's a 2005 movie, Casanova, starring Heath Ledger. Casanova's Big Night was a B/W comedy.

9th Mar 2015

School of Rock (2003)

Question: When Roz says people think she's a bitch, we can't hear the word bitch. Was the word intentionally mouthed by her or was it muted by the movie's editor? From her body language, facial expression and lip movement, it looks like she actually said it, and possibly yelled it. But why would they want to mute it when it's rated PG-13 and there are worse words said in the movie? And why would they mute it instead of doing something that makes more sense like cutting out or changing the word? And why would Roz refrain from swearing when it's just her and Dewey in the car?

Answer: It wasn't muted. Roz is simply unable to say the word out loud when it refers to herself.

raywest

Question: Why did McGonagall send all the Slytherins to the dungeon? It was only one Slytherin who wanted them to turn in Harry, and many times in the series people say not all Slytherins are bad.

MikeH

Chosen answer: Not all Slytherins were bad, but many were and they would fight against Harry. McGonagall did not have time to pick out which ones were allies or enemies. It was simply more efficient to lock them all up at once. Also, even though there were good Slytherins, they would know that taking sides against Voldemort and failing to fully support him could result in later retaliation against them or their families.

raywest

Question: Draco said in the previous book/movie that Voldemort would kill him if he didn't kill Dumbledore, so why didn't Voldemort kill him after he refused and Severus had to do it instead?

Answer: Draco didn't refuse outright, though he did not want to kill Dumbledore. Voldemort threatened to kill Draco's family if he failed. Draco did make attempts, but they were half-hearted ones that failed. Snape stepped in before Draco was forced into killing Dumbledore. Voldemort would have killed Draco eventually, but keeping him alive was useful in his controlling both Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy (Draco's parents) and also Bellatrix Lestrange (Draco's aunt). Killing Draco early on would have turned them against him.

raywest

13th Mar 2015

General questions

There was a movie that I believe had John Shea in it. In the movie, a woman becomes angry at a driver for almost running her down and throws something at the car. The driver responds by actually putting the car in reverse and knocking the woman to the ground. The woman lives but ends up with amnesia. While her husband helps her recover, she not only begins to remember the accident but starts to accuse him of sexually molesting their daughter.

Answer: This sounds like the 1995 TV movie, "See Jane Run." Joanna Kearns plays Shea's wife.

raywest

Question: Why is Sean happy that Will rejected the job interview to go to California? I know he thinks love is important, but his goal was to stop Will from wasting his potential.

MikeH

Chosen answer: Will is not wasting his potential. Sean knows that Will has overcome many of his emotional difficulties and with his exceptional abilities, there will be many other job opportunities, regardless of where he lives. Sean believes it is far more important for Will to pursue a lasting relationship with a woman for the first time in his life.

raywest

Will had multiple job offers - someone of his intelligence could pick up any job he wanted hence he wasn't disappointed.

Question: Why did Will lie about having twelve brothers? What did he think it would achieve? And why would someone as smart as Skylar believe it?

MikeH

Chosen answer: It's just part of his personality. He had become used to keeping people at a distance and made up stories so they didn't know what he was actually like. There's no reason for Skylar not to believe him at first. Large families with ten or more children are not unheard of, particularly if the parents have been married more than once.

raywest

Answer: The judge pointed out that Will "went through several foster homes." Whether the foster parents had their own biological children and/or other foster kids, Will could have easily had twelve "brothers" who were the functional equivalent of biological brothers. Using his own operational definition of "brother", Will had twelve, so was not lying. However, using a more common definition of "brother", Will was not exactly telling the truth. Will can be said to have told her a "white lie" - only telling her what he wanted to and omitting the details. This can be a type of defense mechanism, giving her the impression that he - like almost everyone else - grew up in a family with his siblings. In a way, he was protecting himself by hiding the way in which he was raised. Because it wasn't typical for Will to become attached to whatever girl he was seeing, he saw no need to reveal his past (although, unknown to him at the time, this relationship would turn out differently than previous ones).

KeyZOid

Why would she think that he was making up something like how many brothers he has? Not only did Will go through the names of his twelve "brothers", he was able to convincingly repeat the twelve names after she asked him to. IF he had not been able to quickly repeat a sequence of twelve boys' names, it would have been a giveaway that he was lying. Common sense was more significant than intelligence in discerning whether or not Will was telling the truth. (But common sense often does not match reality).

KeyZOid

Question: On the beach, Mr Scroggins carves Anna's name - Anna Muir - on the end of the wrong end of a wooden "fence" (it faces inland; so how on earth could captains at sea see her name as they pass by?) and what is the purpose of the wooden "fence"?

kh1616

Chosen answer: The scene takes place at a public beach where Anna and her mother go swimming and the fence may be connected to that. Anna is a small child and Mr. Scroggins carves her name where she can always easily see it, and it is far away from the water's edge. Of course, for the purpose of the movie, it was placed in such a way to be seen by the audience as a way to gauge the amount of time that is passing. It becomes worn and deteriorated over the years.

raywest

Answer: Whether or not the carving was placed inland as a convenience for the audience to see it, it is still a mistake with regard to the dialogue indicating that persons at sea being able to read Anna's name on the post. To avoid the mistake, the scene should begun showing Mr. Scroggins on the seaward side of the post carving and the for the camera to pan around to show that he is carving the name "Anna Muir." The sea could still be in the background and the dialogue would then make sense.

agenthunter

Question: If Kreacher could belong to Sirius even though Sirius was disowned by his family, then shouldn't he have gone to Andromeda, who was also disowned, before going to Andromeda's younger sister, Narcissa?

Answer: Even though Sirius' family had "disowned" him, he still inherited the family's entire estate after his brother's death (he was the sole heir). Siris, who was Harry's godfather, had drawn a will leaving all his property to Harry. That is why Kreacher became Harry's legal possession.

raywest

3rd Mar 2015

Avatar (2009)

Question: At the end when all the forest animals on Pandora join in the fight, they seem to be targeting only humans. Since they can't determine the good ones from the bad ones, wouldn't this have put Norm Spellman (now back in his human form) in extreme danger? Always considered it a plot-hole, but any explanations would be welcome.

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: I wouldn't say it was a plot hole. Animals may be able to attack only humans, but they would be unable to differentiate between individual ones, so yes, Norm would be at risk of being attacked.

raywest

Question: This is about the deleted scene that takes place in the Borgin and Burkes shop. What is the object that Mr. Malfoy says is not for sale? And why bring it to the shop at all if he doesn't want to sell it?

Answer: It's never explained what it is or why Malfoy brought it with him. He may just have wanted to see if the clerk might be interested in it, in case he decided later to sell it and could therefore demand a higher price. It could be the diary, and that it's being alluded to that it belongs to him here.

raywest

3rd Mar 2015

The Village (2004)

Question: Can somebody tell me why the elders don't allow people to leave the village at the start of the film?

MyNameIsJeff

Chosen answer: They left modern civilization to escape violence. They have been living a lie and do not want their children to know about the real world, fearing they will want go there and might never return. That is why they concocted the story about the monsters in the wood to frighten them from leaving the village.

raywest

Question: Why did Tony have a wedding ring, when it turned out he was never married? The movie even did a close up of his ring to emphasise this.

Answer: Tony is secretly investigating Sarah while engaging in an affair with her. Pretending to be married would be a convenient cover that allows him to be vague about where he lives, arranging to see her at odd times and in out-of-the way places.

raywest

Question: I saw the deleted scene that has Professor Trelawney eating during the start-of-term feast. What is the significance of her eating? Why make a scene about it?

Answer: It's to show her odd character traits and how she's rather out-of-sync with everyone else. She begins eating, almost completely unaware of what is going on around her when everyone else knows they should be paying attention to the proceedings. She basically lives in her own world and doesn't function well when she's around others.

raywest

Question: Why does Dumbledore purposely hit Ron's injured leg?

Answer: This didn't happen in the book. It appears to be done purely for comic effect in the movie, showing Dumbledore's eccentric and quirky nature. He's seemingly oblivious to what he's doing and how it affects Ron.

raywest

Answer: Ron had previously bragged to Hermione about how bad his leg was injured, and had lied and said his leg might be chopped off. When Dumbledore later hits Ron's leg, he is saying that a child's voice no matter how honest and true. He is giving Ron a little payback for exaggerating.

Highly unlikely Dumbledore knew what Ron told Hermione at the Whomping Willow. Ron's leg was seriously hurt, so he wasn't "bragging" about it, nor did he lie. Ron, who is a bit of a hypochondriac, was simply embellishing to be more dramatic and to gain Hermione's sympathy. Hardly anything Dumbledore would consider worth giving him "payback" by inflicting pain.

raywest

Question: Why doesn't Snape just apparate away when Voldemort is about to kill him?

Answer: Snape was taken by surprise and he was confused. He was Voldemort's right-hand man, and wouldn't have expected the Dark Lord to kill him, at least not then or in that way. Appararating also takes some deliberate thought and physical action, and Snape simply didn't have enough time to react.

raywest

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