Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: The world premiere of "Jurassic Park" in 1993 was organized in Washington, DC (rather than Hollywood), in hopes that newly-elected President Bill Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton would attend. Universal Studios was livid when the Clintons were a no-show at the premiere, so much so that the studio refused to provide a copy of the film when the White House later requested it for private viewing. The feud apparently cooled off within a couple of months.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: At the end of the film, Phil finally wakes up in bed with Rita on the day after Groundhog Day (meaning he's finally broken out of the time-loop and temporal continuity is restored). Doesn't this necessarily imply that everything he did the day before will have repercussions for him? I mean, as far as everyone knows, Phil Connors just suddenly became a local sensation in one day, flashing a lot of money on the same day as the armored car robbery. Wouldn't Phil naturally fall under suspicion?

Charles Austin Miller

Question: Why is there is such an absence of love in this film? Two birthdays are observed. Dr. Haywood Floyd calls his little 5-year-old daughter on Earth, wishes her happy birthday, but never once says "I love you," which seems only a natural thing for a father to tell his child. Later, astronaut Frank Poole's parents wish him happy birthday, but never once say "I love you"; rather, his father says, "Give our love to Dave (Bowman). " Nobody ever says "I love you," despite the dire circumstances.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: In this film, Marty suddenly appears and spends one week in 1955. So, how does Marty freely roam the hallways and cafeteria at Hill Valley High School (even getting into a physical altercation with another student) without challenge from teachers and administrators such as Mr. Strickland? All the kids are talking about Marty, but nobody in authority questions the fact that he's not enrolled, he's completely undocumented, he doesn't attend any classes, and he's apparently a troublemaker.

Charles Austin Miller

Audio problem: When Hutch re-enters the bus, Teddy tries to pull a gun on him. Hutch snatches up a bus grip (a pole made of lightweight, plastic-coated aluminum) and bashes Teddy into submission with it. After Teddy goes down, Hutch tosses the aluminum pole to the rubber-lined floor of the bus, but the sound it makes is that of a heavy iron pipe falling on concrete. Bad sound effects.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: The film begins and ends with Hutch handcuffed in custody, being interrogated by two police detectives. He was apprehended at the scene of a major violent crime with many fatalities, he has a gunshot wound, and he's a likely murder suspect. In real life, Hutch would be strip searched and treated for injuries under tight security, and he would not be allowed to carry personal effects into the subsequent interrogation. But during the interrogation, Hutch impossibly produces a pack of cigarettes and lighter, a can of cat food, a metal can opener and a live kitten from inside his jacket.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: During the restaurant scene with Mr. Creosote, John Cleese entices Terry Jones to finish his meal with a "wafer-thin mint," and Jones explodes in a shower of gastro-intestinal ejecta. In the chaos that follows, as dining guests flee in revulsion, we see Cleese in the background reach into Mr. Creosote's exploded torso and pluck out a very small object (presumably the wafer-thin mint) and start to place it in his own mouth. Cleese improvised this, adding another layer of disgust to the scene.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: At the end of the song "Just An Ordinary Man," Rex Harrison races around the room switching on several separate phonograph players (which are all mechanical devices), producing a dissonant, squabbling ruckus. But, a moment later, as he utters the last line of the song, "I shall never let a woman in my life," he switches off the one phonograph nearest to him, and ALL the mechanical phonographs in the room stop playing instantly. (00:44:36)

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: In Part Two, as Diana explains to Bruce Wayne the history of the Mother Boxes on Earth, we see an extended flashback of Earthly gods and warriors in an epic battle against Darkseid. When Diana says, "A golden age of heroes fighting together," we see a close-up of an Amazon archer drawing back an arrow right-handed, leaning right, and releasing it. However, the arrow is unsupported on the bow, so she couldn't possibly aim or control the arrow. (01:03:59)

Charles Austin Miller

Deliberate mistake: For Hans Gruber's iconic death scene, Alan Rickman's fall was filmed at high speed (for slow-motion playback) against a green screen, and the skyscraper perspective footage was added later as background. However, while Rickman falls away from the camera in slow motion, papers are fluttering around him in the background at normal speed. This was done deliberately to make the shot even more surreal.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: During the title sequence, as the camera is panning across all the clocks in Doc Brown's lab, we briefly see a simple electrical timer with its mechanical dial rapidly spinning. Electrical timer dials normally move at the same rate as a clock's minute hand, which is imperceptible. For this sequence, the timer's dial is spinning quickly as an inside tribute to the tabletop clock seen in the 1960 George Pal film, "The Time Machine" (the clock spun rapidly when the Time Machine was activated).

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: Throughout the movie, fire axes seem to be the weapons of choice. Only two fire axes are used, but they appear recurrently. In the very first use, the protagonists grab fire axes to butcher the monster called Beverly. Blood and gore go everywhere; yet, the axes emerge from this bloodbath with no blood or gore on the handles - they're virtually pristine moments later. The axes are used again and again, right up to the ending, and blood comes and goes from the axe handles seemingly at random.

Charles Austin Miller

Revealing mistake: Steve Trevor approaches and stands before an oval, wall-mounted mirror, incredulously looking at himself and seeing a stranger's face in close-up. Steve finally smiles approvingly, turns to Diana Prince and says, "He's got it! Y'know, I like him!" The camera immediately cuts to two wide shots from behind Steve standing directly in front of the mirror (only a couple of feet away from it), but there is no reflection of Steve in the mirror at all. This error reveals that the "mirror" is actually a hole in the wall (a low-budget practical effect used in films of decades past for such mirror illusions). They probably filmed a lot more footage of Steve mugging in front of the "mirror" but edited it out, because this old-school effect is notoriously difficult to get exactly right. (00:49:50 - 00:50:20)

Charles Austin Miller

The Red Circle - S1-E4

Continuity mistake: A whimpering housemaid rushes down the stairway, frightened by an intruder on the second floor. Doctor Watson gallantly charges upstairs to investigate, plunging his left hand into the right side of his jacket to retrieve his trusty Webley revolver as he advances on the camera. However, the shot immediately cuts to Watson withdrawing the revolver with his right hand from the left side of his jacket. (00:29:55)

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: During the protracted 11-minute car chase scene between the Ford Mustang and Dodge Charger, we repeatedly see a number of the same incidental cars in background traffic. For examples: In addition to the green VW Beetle that magically reappears in several nonsequential shots, the same white 1968 Firebird also repeatedly appears (as many times as does the Beetle), and the same lavender Cadillac nearly collides head-on with the Charger at two different points in the chase. This is mainly because many of the shots had up to 8 cameras shooting from different angles, and there was a lot of redundant footage. So, the same cars noticeably kept popping up time and again (and the Charger somehow threw 7 or 8 hubcaps). These were all blatant editing problems; however, strangely enough, Bullitt still won the 1969 Academy Award for Film Editing. Go figure.

Charles Austin Miller

[Fran Davis accidentally collides with a stranger on foot at the airport.]
Fran Davis: Sorry! We almost locked bumpers!
Stranger: [Leering at Fran's hourglass figure] If there's any damage to the chassis, I'll be glad to pay for repairs.
Fran Davis: Buster, you couldn't even pay for the headlights.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Aside from his considerable talent and theatrical qualifications, the reason that Jeremy Brett's portrayal of Sherlock Holmes was so nuanced, meticulous and authentic is because the role was therapeutic to him. In real life, all throughout the various Granada Television series (from 1984 to 1994), Brett was plagued with manic-depression, erratic behavior and heart problems, from which he fatalistically felt he would never recover. Immersing himself in the mentally-disciplined character of Sherlock Holmes gave Brett much-needed focus and clarity in the last ten years of his life.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne purchased a $6,300,000 mansion in Beverly Hills in 1999, three years before they starred in MTV's hit reality television show, "The Osbournes" (2002-2006). Bizarrely, the Prince of Darkness moved in next door to Pat Boone, the wholesome white bread Christian singing sensation of the 1950s and 1960s...and the two neighbors got on famously. Their neighborly friendship was such that Ozzy wanted to use Pat Boone's godawful 1997 cover of "Crazy Train" as the TV series theme song. MTV thought Boone would never agree to it, so they didn't even ask him; instead, MTV hired a Pat Boone impersonator to re-record the song. Later, MTV was amazed when Pat Boone himself said he would have gladly consented to them using his song, if they had only asked. Pat and Ozzy thought it was hilarious.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: Although actor Gary Busey was a professional rock and roll musician portraying one of the pioneers of Rock and Roll, Busey almost never plays a rock and roll riff in the entire movie. During his biggest scene in the Apollo Theatre sequence, for example, he holds a steady chord all the way through three songs, even as the music is rocking.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Robocop nearly murders Clarence Boddicker at the cocaine factory but delivers the badly-beaten Boddicker to the police station and turns him in at the booking desk. Robocop says, "He's a cop killer," and all eyes in the station turn on Boddicker menacingly. At this point in the production, Director Paul Verhoeven and actor Kurtwood Smith discussed what to do next to show Boddicker's utter contempt for the police, even when he was in custody. The line "Just give me my fuckin' phone call" was added to the end of the scene, but Verhoeven and Smith still didn't think it was forceful enough, and they were at an impasse. So, on the last take, unbeknownst to the rest of the cast, Kurtwood Smith slipped a readily-available blood capsule into his mouth and unexpectedly spat the bloody mess onto the booking desk, right in front of the camera. The startled reaction of everyone on the set was genuine; even actor Robert DoQui, who played the sergeant at the booking desk, involuntarily recoiled in disgust and exclaimed, "Shit!" (which was kept in the movie). Clarence Boddicker thus ended up realistically intimidating the police, and Kurtwood Smith's improvisation made it an iconic scene.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: As Sheriff Bart and The Waco Kid are first getting acquainted, The Kid demonstrates how fast he is by snatching a chess piece from the board before Bart can grab it. Even though Bart plainly captures the chess piece in both his hands, he is stunned to find the piece missing when he opens his hands again a moment later (all in the same shot). No special effects were necessary, because actor Cleavon Little used a simple tabletop magic illusion: As he clapped his hands together around the chess piece and drew it back from the table for a split second, he smoothly dropped the piece into his lap and then immediately opened his hands for the surprising reveal. (00:36:02 - 00:36:28)

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: The existing Justice League members realise that they cannot battle Steppenwolf without Superman, so they procure the last Motherbox to resurrect Superman from death. Unfortunately, the crippled Kryptonian spacecraft lacks sufficient power to activate the Motherbox. The Flash suggests that, given enough distance to accelerate, he can use his super speed to generate an enormous static electrical charge to activate the Motherbox. The problem with this scenario is that, although the Flash may generate a huge static electrical field at super speed, he is constantly discharging that static electricity, as we see every single time he exerts his power. As Flash races toward the Motherbox, gigantic arcs of electricity (easily hundreds of thousands of volts) pour off him, grounding to the spacecraft's bulkheads, thus neutralizing the static charge. Meaning that The Flash is not accumulating energy, he is discharging energy with every step; so, by the time he arrives at the Motherbox, he should have no more accumulated static electrical energy than if he started ten feet away from it.

Charles Austin Miller

Assignment: Earth - S2-E26

Question: Did actor Robert Lansing ever make any comments on Star Trek in general or "Assignment: Earth" (TOS S2E26) in particular? His co-star in this episode/pilot, Teri Garr, had a sour, cynical and dismissive opinion of "Assignment: Earth" and Star Trek fandom (Starlog #173). But what was Robert Lansing's feeling about his experience on Star Trek? Did he like it, hate it, was he excited about the prospect of entering into the new "Gary Seven" series; or, like Teri Garr, was Lansing glad to put it behind him? I've never seen or heard anything about Lansing's personal views on the show.

Charles Austin Miller

Revealing mistake: During the July 4th festivities at Madison Park, Professor Harold Hill prompts four school board members (the Buffalo Bills quartet) into performing the song "Sincere," allowing Hill to slip away into the crowd. As they complete the last verse, the singers stroll into a wide shot with a fireworks display in the background. However, the skybursts are oddly magnified and erratically shift positions against the background, revealing that the fireworks display is a large but clumsily-edited rear-screen projection.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: Mayor Shinn thanks the crowd for attending the Fourth of July exercises indoors at the gymnasium due to "the weather being so chancy" (meaning a good probability of rain). Mayor Shinn adds that the July 4th fireworks display will be held that evening unless the rain prohibits it. However, the year is 1912, and no advanced weather-tracking technology exists; so, they have no way of predicting the weather except by direct observation. Therefore, the mayor must be basing his cautionary weather statements on direct observation of overcast and stormy conditions. But, when Professor Harold Hill works the crowd into an excited frenzy that bursts out of the gymnasium and into the streets, it is revealed that the sky is perfectly clear and blue, with the sun shining brightly. There is no indication of inclement weather whatsoever. In fact, it remains clear and never rains in River City throughout the course of the entire movie.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: During the final of the arm-wrestling championship, Lincoln Hawk's nose is bleeding. Then it's not. Then it is. It goes back and forth.

Charles Austin Miller

Control - S1-E5

Revealing mistake: As Ed slowly backs away from the camera (from the foreground to the background), the towering Scrapper robot moves slowly forward (from the background to the foreground) to take Ed's place facing the camera. The lumbering robot is plainly casting a long shadow across this night-time shot towards the right side of the screen. But, as Ed and the giant robot pass one another, the CGI robot's shadow never falls across Ed at all. Throughout the shot, Ed remains uniformly illuminated, revealing that the digital-effects artist neglected to add the shadow passing over Ed. (00:38:55 - 00:39:19)

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: Near the end, when Tom Powers is waiting in the rain to murder Schemer Burns, we see Tom wearing a tall, straight-crowned fedora that is only slightly tilted to his right. Suddenly, and for no apparent reason, we see a close-up of Tom wearing a completely different, taper-crowned fedora that is tilted deeply to his left. This close-up lasts for 7 seconds, then the shot returns to Tom wearing his original tall, straight fedora.

Charles Austin Miller

In a Mirror, Darkly (1) - S4-E18

Trivia: In the opening scene of this episode (S4E18), footage from the 1996 movie "Star Trek: First Contact" was ingeniously intercut with new footage to create a startling revision that is still a Star Trek fan favorite to this day. Actors James Cromwell (Zefram Cochrane) and Cully Fredricksen (the Vulcan emissary) shot the original scene for the film "First Contact" in 1995. When the TV series "Star Trek: Enterprise" recycled the movie footage 10 years later, both Cromwell and Fredricksen received a day's pay for appearing as extras in this TV episode (about $120 for a day's work in 2005), even though they never physically appeared on the "Enterprise" set.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: It is long-established in Star Trek canon that onboard diagnostics can detect any animate intruders on Federation vessels. Any living thing that exists upon a Federation vessel can be identified, and its location specifically noted on Federation property. How is it, then, that there are rats aboard the Regula I space station (as observed by Doctor McCoy) that haven't been eradicated?

Charles Austin Miller

Whinfrey's Last Case - S2-E1

Revealing mistake: The opening scene was shot twice, complete with a rear-end automobile collision in the foreground for both takes. The initial collision destroyed the taillights of the first car and the headlights of the second car and ruptured the second car's radiator on impact, spilling its contents into the street. The production crew attempted to sweep away the debris with a broom before the scene was reshot. If you examine the roadway before the two cars appear in this scene, you will see a prominent splatter on the pavement that has been swept with a broom almost precisely where the cars impact again moments later.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: In the pilot of the first series, "Tomkinson's Schooldays," Michael Palin introduces the episode wearing a full black beard, a black poet hat and a black opera cape; but Palin repeatedly bungles his lines and must be coached (by an off-camera Terry Jones) through every word of his introduction. Palin affects the same costume and character to introduce the first episode of the second series, "Whinfrey's Last Case," as well. In both instances, Michael Palin and Terry Jones were mocking the legendary American filmmaker Orson Welles, a heavy drinker who was notoriously difficult to direct and who had descended to appearing in wine commercials on TV by the 1970s.

Charles Austin Miller

Revealing mistake: When John redeems his crucifix "ticket," the crucifix is heated to glowing red and used to brand John between his shoulderblades, signifying that the "ticket" has been redeemed. As the crucifix is removed from his bare back, the freshly scorched flesh is inexplicably glowing for a moment before it fades to black. (00:31:34)

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: In the first minute of the film before the title appears, we see the Medici Brothers Circus train leave Sarasota, Florida and head north into Georgia, touring the southern United States before arriving in Joplin, Missouri (where the first half of the film takes place). Upon arrival, the train's engine itself comes to a full stop directly in front of the Joplin depot. This shot immediately cuts to a frontal shot of the train engine coming to a full stop in open countryside with no sign of the depot or civilization anywhere, except for a fleeting glimpse of a rooftop about a hundred yards in the background.

Charles Austin Miller

Other mistake: After Earl and Vic tangle in the swamp, Earl staggers back to his house to discreetly use the basement shower, where he is shocked to find Vic already there and waiting for him, hiding in the dark behind the shower curtain. Both men are literally covered from head to toe in thick, muddy muck from the swamp. but there is no trace of mud (handprints, smears, etc) on the shower curtain nor in the clean, white shower; and, when Earl manages to chase Vic out of the basement, he leans heavily on the door for a moment after slamming it, which should have left a huge, muddy print on the door's clean, white surface. But, as Earl steps away, there is no muddy print on the door at all. (00:38:57 - 00:39:42)

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: The 1980 novel "Neighbors" by Thomas Berger (upon which this comic film is based) was actually a much darker and more serious psychological story about a reserved, unexceptional suburbanite going to war with his younger, less-inhibited new neighbors. In fact, the novel's lead character, Earl Keese (played by John Belushi in the movie), actually dies at the end of the book. The film adaptation attempted a lighthearted, almost slapstick approach to the story, allowing Earl Keese to survive and run away with his zany neighbors to pursue a happier life. Ironically, the movie's production was so chaotic (with temperamental conflicts and rampant drug use among the cast and crew) that John Belushi relapsed into heavy addiction and died of an overdose of cocaine and heroin less than four months after the film was released.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: When Roy McBride is reviewing a top-secret message regarding his father and the LIMA mission, the message filename is "6EQUJ5," which is a very obscure easter egg in the movie. The filename 6EQUJ5 refers to the real-life "WOW Signal," a deep space radio signal received by the Big Ear radio telescope at Ohio State University in 1977. The alpha-numeric designation "6EQUJ5" was a printed readout of the signal's duration and intensity. This signal lasted 72 seconds and was 20 times stronger than background radio noise, causing a surprised astronomer to circle the printed 6EQUJ5 readout in red ink and make the handwritten notation "WOW!" in the margin. While the signal was an anomalous one-time event that was never repeated, and there is still no proof that 6EQUJ5 was alien in origin, it has stimulated debate about extraterrestrial radio signals for decades. Ironically, the movie "Ad Astra" concludes that there are no alien radio signals and that we really are alone in the universe.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: In this wacky 1945 comedy (starring Fred MacMurray, Helen Walker, Marjorie Main, Peter Whitney and Porter Hall), the entire life-or-death plot is driven by a nonsense rhyme that must be decoded: "Honors Flysis, Income Beezis, Onches Nobis, Inob Keesis." The rhyme translates: "On horse flies is, In comb bees is, On chest knob is, In knob keys is" (and, indeed, the hero and heroine of the story eventually discover a valuable safe deposit box key hidden within a knob on a wooden chest). Throughout the film, this nonsense rhyme is repeatedly delivered as a simple but catchy 8-note musical ditty (that was also the movie's main theme song). Some 26 years later, when National Public Radio debuted "All Things Considered" in 1971 (its first news program in the United States), the radio show featured a simple and yet very-familiar musical intro that was credited to composer Don Vogeli. However, many listeners instantly recognized the "All Things Considered" intro as the theme music to "Murder, He Says," composed by Robert Emmett Dolan in 1944. National Public Radio was apparently oblivious to this amazing similarity. In fact, years after "All Things Considered" became their flagship news program, NPR conducted a listener contest inviting the audience to submit original lyrics for the established "All Things Considered" intro tune. To NPR's consternation, many hundreds of listeners contributed the lyrics: "Honors Flysis, Income Beezis, Onches Nobis, Inob Keesis."

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: The Charles Dickens classic "A Christmas Carol" was first published in 1843; and, although Dickens never mentioned the specific year in which this story is set, it is fairly obvious that he was inspired by the severe winter of 1840, when Great Britain saw sleet, ice, snow and below-average temperatures from early December through February. This made-for-television Hallmark Entertainment production (starring Patrick Stewart) is a faithful interpretation of the Dickens novel, depicting rather severe weather for Great Britain in December, with accumulated snow on rooftops and in the streets. However, despite the snow and bitter cold that is mentioned repeatedly throughout the movie, nobody's breath condensation is ever visible when speaking, laughing, singing or shouting outdoors. This is no doubt due to the fact that the movie was produced during the spring and summer of 1999.

Charles Austin Miller

Plot hole: Although this film is a virtual jigsaw puzzle of flashbacks, the dynamic between Dan, Laurie and Rorschach pretty much defines the movie's continuity in the present. However, when Rorschach is framed for murder and arrested, he goes directly to a maximum-security prison, apparently without trial, conviction or sentencing (all of which would require months of due-process, at least). Even if this lapse of time is some sort of artistic device to rapidly advance Rorschach's story, there is no corresponding lapse of months in the relationship between Dan and Laurie, which runs parallel with Rorschach's story. Either there is no due process for Rorschach in this story, or there is a glaring plot hole.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the film, protesters chase Harold through downtown traffic until he dives into his friend Todd's vehicle; whereupon the protesters urinate on Todd's windshield and splatter fecal matter across his driver's side window. For several scenes thereafter, the fecal splatter repeatedly changes shape, orientation and quantity on the side window, actually gaining mass in some shots.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Longtime TV actor Lee Majors was extremely influential in the overall development of the "Six Million Dollar Man" series. Although he had already appeared in the 3 successful made-for-TV pilot movies in 1973, Majors was very skeptical of entering into a weekly series, and he wanted a guarantee that the show would not devolve into a campy superhero series (like "Batman"). Majors further stipulated that there should be no blood and no violent death on the show. Executive producer Harve Bennett, producer Kenneth Johnson, and ABC Television immediately agreed. Majors also thought the original "Six Million Dollar Man" theme song (sung by Dusty Springfield) was embarrassingly bad, so composer Oliver Nelson wrote the iconic instrumental theme for the series. Two years into the hit show, Majors then became concerned that his character, Steve Austin, would be perceived as gay because he never had an onscreen love interest; so Majors essentially demanded that a female character be added to fill that role. The producers complied without question. According to Lee Majors: "People were really getting to the point where it was like, 'When's this guy [Steve Austin] going to come out of the closet here?' That's when we brought in Lindsay Wagner to be the first love interest."

Charles Austin Miller

Visible crew/equipment: When the anxious Benjamin takes Elaine on their first date (against Mrs. Robinson's wishes), he's driving his convertible Alfa Romeo fast and a bit recklessly on the crowded freeway. This brief nighttime scene is one continuous "backseat" shot from behind Ben and Elaine, looking out of the car's front windscreen. As the lighting shifts erratically, the distinct shadow of the camera and audio rigs with vertical cables repeatedly moves left and right across the entire shot for the duration of the scene. (00:58:09)

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: An especially stupid but common blunder in film and TV over the decades involves a character picking up a random object from nearby and bashing a heavy padlock and steel chain a few times until the lock and chain break and fall away. Of course, steel chain and heavy padlocks are designed to withstand tons of stress that a human being couldn't possibly exert through striking alone.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: When Neal's wife is watching TV in bed, she is impossibly viewing the John Hughes film "She's Having a Baby," which didn't even premier in theaters until February of 1988, three months after "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" premiered in November 1987. John Hughes (who directed both films) used his own unreleased "She's Having A Baby" footage/soundtrack and a cameo by Kevin Bacon as teasers for the upcoming 1988 film. There's still some speculation that the plots of the two films actually intersect, and that Kevin Bacon (who is credited as the Taxi-Racer in "Planes, Trains and Automobiles") was playing his character, Jake, from "She's Having a Baby."

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: When Captain Shakespeare is in drag, doing his fan dance before a full-length mirror in the foreground, Prince Septimus appears in the background in partial profile and slowly turns to his right to fully face the camera. The shot immediately cuts to a closeup of Septimus to get his stunned facial reaction, and he is again turning slowly to his right to fully face the camera.

Charles Austin Miller

Revealing mistake: At the end of "Hot Patootie," an enraged Frank-N-Furter snatches an ice axe from the deep-freezer and menaces the terrified Eddie. There is no blood seen in the freezer at this point. Frank swings his first blow and completely misses Eddie, who is scampering into the deep-freeze several feet ahead of Frank. There is no blood seen in the freezer at this point, either. Frank then pursues Eddie into the fog at the back of the deep-freezer and viciously murders him with the ice axe (a genuinely horrifying scene as Tim Curry plays it, but the murder occurs entirely off-camera). But then, as Frank emerges from the freezer moments later, we see a splattered and gory trail of fresh blood leading into the freezer, as though Frank had already mortally wounded the escaping Eddie even before the offscreen murder. This looks as though footage from an alternate and more graphically violent version of this scene was kept in the revised scene, causing the gory blood trail to appear out of nowhere. (00:45:15)

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: In this regrettable comedy-filler for NBC Television, writer/director Michael O'Donoghue (of "National Lampoon" and "Saturday Night Live" fame in the mid-1970s) presented a jumbled showcase of tasteless, cruel, stupid and unfunny sketches that managed to stoop lower than low production quality and dubious entertainment value. Even the very liberal NBC considered O'Donoghue's video beneath network standards and it was rejected for broadcast. As an example of the video's dismal offerings, one brief segment featured a deadpan Dan Aykroyd removing his shoes to reveal his real-life genetic deformities: His second and third toes are fused together on both feet. Aykroyd prodded his toes with a screwdriver to prove the deformities were real. NBC was not amused. (00:20:25)

Charles Austin Miller

Jacob and Jesse - S1-E2

Revealing mistake: Air Force Colonel Owen Crawford and his two personal assistants are poring over classified intelligence files in the Colonel's office. When they start to review a slideshow of photographs, one assistant sets up a projector screen and turns off the office lights as the other assistant switches on the slide projector. Photographic images immediately appear on the screen in the background, but the first assistant is still standing directly in front of the slide projector in the foreground. Not only does he not eclipse the projected image on the screen, but no projected image appears on the assistant's body. Obviously, the images on the screen in the background are projected from another source far off-camera. (00:48:50)

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: In this rather clunking classic murder mystery, the closing gimmick of the film is a sequence of several otherwise unremarkable supporting characters grandly removing their heavy latex makeup to reveal A-List Hollywood movie stars who played mundane roles in the film. The heavily-disguised stars in this film include Kirk Douglas, Tony Curtis, Robert Mitchum, Burt Lancaster and Frank Sinatra. Director John Huston (who also made a cameo appearance in the film) tried to convince Elizabeth Taylor to play a disguised part in this movie, as well; but, when Taylor learned that her lovely face would be completely hidden under heavy latex, she turned down the role.

Charles Austin Miller

This has been annoying the hell out of me for years. I'm thinking of an early 1960s (?) black and white American movie that features numerous cameos by A-List Hollywood actors who are so heavily made-up (with wigs and latex facial prosthetics) that they are all thoroughly unrecognizable. At the end of the film, as a complete surprise, there is a sequence of each of these otherwise unremarkable cameo characters removing their makeup for a big reveal. For example, a plain, middle-aged woman who only appeared for a few seconds onscreen grandly removes her latex face to reveal none other than Burt Lancaster. I believe Robert Mitchum and Tony Curtis were also among the reveals. What is this film?

Charles Austin Miller

Yesterday's Enterprise - S3-E15

Question: The ever-popular gag in this episode is that Worf consumes prune juice for the first time and declares that it is a "warrior's drink," to Guinan's amusement. However, Worf was adopted as a child by human parents, he grew up on Earth, he was highly educated and graduated Star Fleet Academy on Earth. Given the reputation of prune juice as a natural laxative throughout human history, how could Worf not know what prune juice is, having lived most of his life on Earth?

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: The Stalker, "Shrike," is a persistent hunter, but not terribly quick on his feet. He's sort of a lurching, Frankenstein-like cyborg who is always pursuing Hester Shaw at about walking speed. When Valentine frees Shrike from Sharkmoor prison, miles out to sea, we see Valentine in his airship destroying the prison and we see Shrike's prison cell sink to the sea floor. This cuts to a long distance shot of the prison exploding and sinking in the far background, miles away, as Valentine's airship comes sweeping from the far background into the foreground and out of frame. Almost immediately, Shrike emerges from the surf in the foreground and slowly trudges ashore, implying that he somehow travelled miles across the sea floor just as swiftly as did the airship, in a matter of moments, despite his slow, lumbering gait. (00:47:40)

Charles Austin Miller

Hawkins: I've got it! I've got it! The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true! Right?
Griselda: Right, but there's been a change. They broke the chalice from the palace.
Hawkins: They broke the chalice from the palace?!
Griselda: And replaced it with a flagon.
Hawkins: A flagon?
Griselda: With the figure of a dragon.
Hawkins: Flagon with a dragon.
Griselda: Right.
Hawkins: But did you put the pellet with the poison in the vessel with the pestle?
Griselda: No! The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon! The vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true!
Hawkins: The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon; the vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true.
Griselda: Just remember that.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Dick Van Dyke starred in this 1968 film about a fellow who purchases and restores a magical motorcar and must protect it from the greedy clutches of a conniving foreign tyrant; and, of course, "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" became a children's classic. Ironically, three years earlier, in 1965, Jerry Van Dyke (Dick's younger brother) starred in an NBC television situation-comedy about a fellow who purchases and restores a magical motorcar and must protect it from the greedy clutches of a conniving car collector. Widely panned by critics as the worst-ever idea for a TV series, "My Mother the Car" was cancelled in 1966 after one season, and the good-natured Jerry Van Dyke always admitted that the series was the very definition of bad television.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Widely panned by critics as the worst-ever idea for a TV series, "My Mother the Car" followed the antics of Jerry Van Dyke as he purchases and restores a magical motorcar and must protect it from the greedy clutches of a conniving car collector. The show was cancelled in 1966 after one season, and the good-natured Jerry Van Dyke always readily admitted that the series was the very definition of bad television. Ironically, two years later, in 1968, Jerry's older brother (Dick Van Dyke) starred in a film about a fellow who purchases and restores a magical motorcar and must protect it from the greedy clutches of a conniving foreign tyrant. "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" became a children's classic.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: From its inception, "The Munsters" was supposed to be produced in full color, and its earliest pilot was, in fact, shot in full color. The only reason the series was shot in black and white was because both CBS Television and Universal Studios refused to pay the additional $10,000 per episode for color.

Charles Austin Miller

The Addams Policy - S2-E28

Trivia: Throughout the various television treatments and feature films over many decades, the Addams Family storyline frequently concerned the family's fabulous and mysterious fortune, which was always the target of nefarious (and doomed) flim-flam schemes. However, it was almost never explained how the Addams Family obtained their incredible riches. In this episode from the original TV series, Gomez and Morticia finally revealed the diverse sources of their wealth: Gomez cites his mango plantation, "Mangoes Incorporated"; his Mozambique crocodile farm, "Crocodiles Unlimited"; his Himalayan tapioca mines on Mount Everest, "Tapioca Limited"; and Morticia additionally mentions "Amalgamated Swamp" and his buzzard farm.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Perhaps the most often-repeated "Jaws" trivia is that actor Roy Scheider spontaneously ad-libbed the film's most iconic line, "You're gonna need a bigger boat!" Screenwriter Carl Gottleib apparently started this rumor after "Jaws" became a worldwide sensation in 1975, probably because the only thing that generated as much publicity as the film itself was backstory of the film's production; and Gottleib's rumor has charmed fans and persisted to this day. However, when reporter Paul Iorio interviewed Roy Scheider in 2000 (for a story in the San Francisco Chronicle on the occasion of the "Jaws" 25th anniversary), he specifically asked Scheider about the line "You're gonna need a bigger boat." Scheider answered: "That was in the script. The first time he [Chief Brody] sees the shark. But I liked the line so much, it amused me so much, that I said, 'I bet I could work this in a few other places.' So I worked it in two more times." Indeed, Chief Brody does refer to needing a bigger boat twice more, and those subsequent lines are ad-libbed; but the very first and most memorable time he says the line, it was purely scripted. Paul Iorio's question and Roy Scheider's answer were edited out of the published San Francisco Chronicle story.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: While James Cagney was a fine and spirited dancer in his own right, known for spontaneously "ad-libbing" dance steps on stage, Cagney insisted that Warner Brothers hire choreographer Johnny Boyle for "Yankee Doodle Dandy" to teach Cagney the precise dancing style of George M. Cohan. Boyle was an expert imitator of famous dancers and their routines, and he had worked with and choreographed Cohan on stage many years earlier. Under Boyle's instruction, James Cagney delivered a near-perfect impression of George M. Cohan's eccentric, stiff-legged, marionette-like dancing style in this movie. Unfortunately, during rehearsals for the film, Johnny Boyle broke his ankle, and the injury effectively ended his dancing career.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: When the Brainstorm project is taken over by the sinister military operative Landan Marks, he begins weaponizing the brain-interface technology and testing it on the human guinea pig Gordon Forbes. As Gordon is subjected to increasingly difficult fighter-jet simulations, Landan Marks gleefully exclaims to military observers, "Now watch this! He can take a full 10-G rollout without losing control, just by thinking about it!" In the flight-simulator cockpit, Gordon grimaces, but the Brainstorm device allows him to remain conscious and maintain control despite his physical distress. But the fact is that no flight simulator in the 1980s or even today would be able to simulate extreme G-forces as described in this film. In fact, flight simulators then and now can't approximate even low G-forces. Only a giant centrifuge can produce such forces; but Gordon is not in a centrifuge for this scene. It's simply a flight simulator.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: In this incredibly stupid NBC television sitcom that lasted only one season (from Sept. 1965 to April 1966), Jerry Van Dyke's late mother is reincarnated as a hideous vintage ragtop jalopy called a "1928 Porter"; but, in fact, no such vehicle was ever produced in automotive history. The 1928 Porter was a fantasy car assembled strictly for this short-lived TV show, using bits and pieces of a Model-T Ford, a Maxwell, a Hudson, and a Chevrolet.

Charles Austin Miller

Revealing mistake: The sea creature Gorgo is paraded through the streets of London on a flatbed tractor trailer, and an off-screen American newsman announces the monster's arrival at Battersea Park, where it will be exhibited at Dorkin's Circus. The announcer introduces the creature's owners as they step from their motorcade, saying, "And our own Mr. Dorkin, of Dorkin's Circus, in the checkered suit." Problem is, Mr. Dorkin is wearing a plain gray flannel suit. Closeup shots of Mr. Dorkin over the next 40 seconds reveal that the suit is not checkered, not plaid, not striped, not patterned in any way at all. It's simply a plain gray suit. Apparently, the announcer's pre-recorded lines were never modified after changes were made in costuming. (00:34:05 - 00:35:00)

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: The original ending for this film (fully produced but then deleted) was a jaw-dropping apocalypse. For starters, Audrey II actually kills and eats both Seymour Krelborn and his bride-to-be, Audrey. The giant carnivorous plant grows to gargantuan proportions and divides into multiple monsters that go on a Godzilla-style rampage across New York City, tearing down bridges, eating whole passenger trains, climbing the Statue of Liberty, and doing battle with the military. The original ending alone cost over $5 million out of the film's $25 million budget, so it was a major undertaking. When director Frank Oz test-screened the finished film, he was stunned that audiences hated the deaths of lovable Seymour and Audrey and everything thereafter. Oz hastily reassembled his cast and crew to re-shoot a cheaper, much less gruesome happy ending, which was a hit with audiences. However, Frank Oz said that he thought the original ending was far superior and some of his best work, and he was extremely dissatisfied with the revised happy ending.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: From the very start, this movie's psychedelic visual effects (representing a test pattern grid) are rotating counter-clockwise in the background throughout the title sequence. This transitions to the opening scene in the lab, where the researchers are still trying to calibrate the test pattern grid. Christopher Walken, who is actually viewing the effects, complains that the grid is scrambled, out-of-phase and rotating. Louise Fletcher makes some technical adjustments and says, "What do you see, angel?" Walken answers, "Clockwise rotation." The shot instantly cuts to the visual-effects view again, to show us what Walken is seeing, and all of the grid effects are still rotating counter-clockwise. (00:00:50 - 00:03:00)

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Contrary to longstanding rumors, Natalie Wood's death did not change the plot or threaten production of this film. At the time of her death, Wood had already completed all of her principal photography, including the ending. According to producer/director Douglas Trumbull, the truth of the matter was that Metro Goldwyn Mayer was in financial trouble and saw Wood's death as an opportunity to bail itself out of debt; so, MGM halted production of "Brainstorm" and tried to write-off the film as a loss in order to collect a sizable insurance claim from Lloyd's of London. When Lloyd's investigated the claim and deposed Douglas Trumbull, he told Lloyd's that the movie was not at all damaged or threatened by Wood's death, and that it could easily be completed. Although MGM refused to pay for the film's completion, Lloyd's of London itself gave Trumbull $5.8 million to finish production.

Charles Austin Miller

Other mistake: At the very beginning, when K disintegrates the alien Mikey, an MIB cover-up team arrives on the scene and approaches K at a distance of about ten meters (roughly 30 feet) ; whereupon K instructs them: "Give me a splay burn around the perimeter with holes at forty, sixty and eighty meters from right here! Thank you!" The team members disperse a scant few steps and use their flamethrowers and extinguishers on the cacti and undergrowth in the immediate area for five seconds. However, the distances K describes (forty, sixty, and eighty meters) would require the team laboriously dispersing hundreds of feet into the desert. But five seconds later, they're still only about 30 feet away from K when he says, "That's good! Thank you!" (00:07:55)

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: Near the end, during the final combat scene between Aquaman and King Orm, the gigantic whirling propeller blades in the background noticeably change rotation rate: At the start of the battle, the blades are turning rather lazily; but at the height of the battle, the blades are spinning rapidly, a virtual blur in close-up shots, drawing a steady stream of sparks from Orm's helmet when it touches the propeller. When Aquaman defeats Orm moments later (and their mother, Queen Atlanna, appears), the huge blades are spinning slowly again. I'm not talking about during dramatic slo-mo action effects, but during the normal-speed action. (02:04:50 - 02:07:10)

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: When Atlantean King Orm tries to coerce the Fishermen Kingdom to join the war in this film, Orm calls the Fishermen leader by the name "King Ricou"; this was a tip-of-the-hat to Ricou Browning, the stunt swimmer who played the Gill-Man in underwater scenes for the 1950s "Creature from the Black Lagoon" trilogy.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: A tank's main gun could not blast Iron Man out of the sky, as depicted in this film, and the "lucky shot" theory holds no water. In military history, there are only a couple of instances of tanks using their main guns to shoot down aircraft by chance, and those involved tanks repeatedly firing their main guns on known flight paths until an aircraft literally ran into a tank round. However, in this movie, Iron Man comes out of nowhere on no known flight path, he's not recognizable as an aircraft, he's traveling at hundreds of miles per hour, and he's only airborne for about 4 seconds before he's hit with a tank round. The tank gunner could not possibly identify Iron Man as a new target, elevate the main gun, track him and fire in 4 seconds. Modern tanks do not have the ability to acquire and track fast-moving targets with the main gun, nevermind fast-moving aerial targets.

Charles Austin Miller

Season 1 generally

Trivia: As we see throughout the series, the demon Crowley's prized motorcar is a 1934 Bentley that he has owned and driven since it was new. The choice of this vehicle for the show was a deliberate departure from the original novel, in which Crowley drove a 1926 Bentley. As it turns out, neither Terry Pratchett nor Neil Gaiman knew anything about vintage cars when they co-authored "Good Omens"; in ignorance of the car's actual appearance, they arbitrarily chose a 1926 Bentley for The Book. During production of this TV series, however, when Neil Gaiman at last saw a 1926 Bentley, he realised that it was not at all the motorcar he and Pratchett had envisioned. Upon reviewing photos of many vintage Bentleys, Gaiman finally chose the 1934 model (as it more closely matched the "intended look" of Crowley's car) for the TV series.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Steven Spielberg originally conceived this movie as a science-fiction thriller, a sequel of sorts to "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," with much-more-sinister aliens terrorizing a family's rural home (that was the premise of "Night Skies," the Spielberg concept that was never produced but was eventually cannibalized by other projects including "E.T. The Extraterrestrial" and this film). When Spielberg brought in Tobe Hooper to direct what later became "Poltergeist," Hooper convinced Spielberg to drop the science-fiction trappings altogether and make it a straight-up supernatural horror story.

Charles Austin Miller

Revealing mistake: In this very-low-budget but star-studded flick about UFO contactees and cattle mutilations, Jan Michael Vincent's semi-auto handgun runs out of ammo during a firefight after firing only 3 rounds (the slide locks open, indicating the magazine is empty). Without reloading or racking the slide, Vincent continues firing 5 more rounds; but we see again, in close-up, that the slide is locked open, indicating an empty magazine. (01:00:55)

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: By the end of the film, we realise that the Djinn (in this case an invisible and shape-shifting earthly entity of Islamic lore) has staged most of the film's events as a mass illusion. Meaning, the Djinn is a deceiver and can lead humans into dangerous and even deadly situations, but the Djinn cannot perform physical miracles (or else the whole movie would end almost as soon as it started). At the story's climax, the lead characters, Khalid and Salama, end up in the 62nd-floor penthouse of a luxury high-rise, where Khalid drops Salama to her death from the penthouse balcony, just as the vengeful Djinn intended. However, only minutes earlier, we see that the high-rise building is actually still under construction, and it's stated that the building is months away from completion (its main entrance and plate glass have not even been installed). The Djinn only created the illusion that the building was completed to deceive the lead characters. In reality, without electricity and functioning elevators and hundreds of feet of completed stairwells, there was no physical way for Khalid and Salama to reach the 62nd-floor penthouse suite of the high-rise for the climax scene, even if they were being deceived by illusion.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: This low-budget suspense/adventure was produced during the early Cold War and the flying saucer craze of the late 1940s and early 1950s, and it's often hailed as the first UFO-themed feature film. But, except for a crude saucer prop and a couple of cheesy, split-second visual effects, this movie is primarily a Cold War espionage story with Russian spies attempting to steal American weapons technology. The filmmakers' original intent was to include actual government-authorized flying saucer footage; accordingly, the film's prologue reads "We gratefully acknowledge the cooperation of those in authority who made the release of 'The Flying Saucer' film possible at this time." However, the filmmakers apparently never obtained any flying saucer footage (government-authorized or otherwise), and no such footage appears in the movie.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: When Dr. Paul Kersey pays a visit to Joe Gannon, the garage mechanic, Kersey slices open Gannon's leg with a scalpel, then pours automotive brake fluid into the wound. The brake fluid sizzles and foams on contact with the blood, which is chemically impossible. Brake fluid is simply hydraulic fluid formulated for extreme temperatures. The diethylene glycol in brake fluid may be toxic and may sting slightly in open wounds, but it does not violently react with blood and sizzle like acid as depicted in this film. (01:14:45)

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: In this and other Avenger films, Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) is depicted as standing much shorter than Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr). In reality, Ruffalo is only one inch shorter than Downey (who is 5'9" tall); but Bruce Banner is always portrayed as a diminutive character in contrast to his gigantic Hulk persona.

Charles Austin Miller

Revealing mistake: When Donovan witnesses a fatal traffic accident on a rainy night, he suffers a mild heart attack and collapses in the street. Although he's lying on his back, unprotected from the downpour, surrounded by rain striking the pavement in both foreground and background, closeups show that no rain strikes his face, his felt hat, or his clothing. (00:12:20 - 00:12:50)

Charles Austin Miller

Plot hole: In this Australian time-travel fantasy, a college student discovers a one-way time portal that allows him to travel one day into the past each time he uses it. While he at first attempts to rescue his girlfriend from a traffic accident that occurred a day earlier, he eventually travels back 50 years (one day at a time) to save his young grandfather. However, in order to go back 50 years (one day at a time), he'd have to repeatedly climb through the portal over 18,000 times. Apparently, it's not an issue, because the movie just glosses right over it in less than a minute.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: At the 1985 Academy Awards ceremony, 78-year-old Sir Laurence Olivier appeared onstage to announce the Oscar nominees and winner for Best Picture. Olivier had been ill for years and was suffering dementia at the time, and the ceremony producers immediately knew something was wrong when Olivier started opening the envelope as soon as he reached the podium. Sure enough, Olivier completely forgot to mention the four other nominated films and simply announced, "The winner for this is Amadeus." After a bit of embarrassed confusion, Olivier presented the Best Picture Oscar to "Amadeus" producer Saul Zaentz, who saved the day somewhat by spontaneously and graciously thanking the producers of the other four nominated films, by name.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: During production of "The Exorcist," director William Friedkin abandoned the movie's original musical score (by Lalo Schifrin), and he turned to Atlantic Records for replacement music. During a visit to Atlantic Records, Friedkin picked up a random white-label recording, listened to its intro, and immediately wanted it in his movie. That random white-label recording was "Tubular Bells" by 19-year-old musician Mike Oldfield (his very first album). Although Friedkin used just a scant few seconds of Oldfield's music at only two points in the movie, "Tubular Bells" became a popular sensation, selling many millions of copies by virtue of its association to Friedkin's film. The enormous success of "Tubular Bells" made Mike Oldfield a worldwide star overnight. It was also the very first album released by Virgin Records (a young Richard Branson had provided the studio and equipment for Oldfield's work). Ironically, Mike Oldfield said he wouldn't watch "The Exorcist" because he heard it was too scary.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: For decades after "The Wizard of Oz" premiered, Margaret Hamilton was often called upon by adoring fans to render her witch's cackle and her most famous movie line: "I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too!" Although she obliged her fans, Hamilton always publicly expressed regret that her Wicked Witch of the West was too frightening for small children. However, after she died in 1985, her only son (Hamilton Wadsworth Meserve) admitted that his mom frequently used her wicked cackle and "I'll get you, my pretty" line in private life as he was growing up, just because she loved doing it.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: As well as singing the lyrics for "A Spoonful of Sugar," Julie Andrews also provided the voice of the robin, whistling in harmony with herself.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Child actor Karen Dotrice (who played Jane Banks) said in later years that she and Matthew Garber (who played Michael Banks) were shocked at Julie Andrews' frequent foul language and smoking on the set of "Mary Poppins"; and they were also aware of something very wrong with Dick Van Dyke (who was seriously hungover much of the time and having bouts of suicidal depression).

Charles Austin Miller

Deliberate mistake: Rather than gradually exploring character backgrounds as the story unfolds, characters in cheesier movies awkwardly rush to reveal whole biographies in just a couple of lines, right at the beginning of the film. Such an unlikely conversation might go like this: "I'm the luckiest girl in the world, married to the lead developer and system analyst of NASA's most ambitious interplanetary program ever"; and the husband replies, "Well, it helped that your father created the program and took a chance on me after that Wall Street computer-hacking scandal six years ago." There's no subtlety at all, it's just fast-food character development.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: Loosely based on the novel by Jules Verne, the entire story takes place on a remote Pacific island in the early 1860s. However, as pirates come under attack by a sea monster (in the second half of this two-part film), a modern fishing trawler or tugboat appears momentarily on the far right of the screen. (00:59:05)

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Yul Brynner, whose Man In Black character was made famous in earlier American western movies, agreed to reprise the character in Westworld for only $75,000, because he sorely needed the money.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Science-fiction author Harlan Ellison wrote the original novella "A Boy and His Dog" in 1969, and director L.Q. Jones wanted Ellison to also write the screenplay for this 1975 film. When it became apparent that Ellison could not provide a screenplay (due to "writer's block"), Jones co-wrote the screenplay. In a DVD commentary decades later, Jones said that Ellison was pleased with the finished screenplay and movie except for certain dialogue. Ellison was especially offended by the last line of the movie, spoken by the telepathic dog, Blood: "Well, I'd say she certainly had marvelous judgment, Albert, if not particularly good taste." (This grisly line alluded to Vic and Blood eating Quilla June Holmes, the female love interest, in an act that happens off-camera.) Harlan Ellison said it was a "moronic, hateful, chauvinist last line, which I despise."

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: When Yul Brynner chases Richard Benjamin into the android lab, Benjamin douses Brynner with concentrated hydrochloric acid (attempting to blind the killer android), and Brynner's face sizzles, bubbles and starts melting. The acid effect for this shot was achieved in a decidedly low-tech manner: Pulverized Alka Seltzer antacid tablets were mixed with Yul Brynner's facial makeup; Brynner's face was then doused with water, and the Alka Seltzer fizzed away Brynner's makeup as piped-in stage smoke swirled about his head. (01:16:50)

Charles Austin Miller

Stupidity: Ground troops armed with semi-auto handguns, automatic rifles and even heavy artillery just keep wasting ammo, barrage-after-barrage, magazine-after-magazine, against giant robots and monsters 100 feet tall, long after it becomes obvious that the weapons have zero effect. This is an ongoing stupidity dating back to some of the earliest giant monster movies, and is still seen in giant monster and superhero films today.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: In later interviews, Stanley Kubrick revealed that George C. Scott did not want to portray General Buck Turgidson as a campy character in the film; he very much wanted to play Turgidson straight and serious (just as Kubrick had originally envisioned the entire film). Kubrick agreed and filmed Scott playing the role straight, but only on the condition that Scott rehearse the role as over-the-top camp. Scott agreed to camp it up in rehearsal only if the cameras weren't rolling, and Kubrick assured him they weren't rolling. However, Kubrick lied and filmed the campy rehearsals, as well, which were used in the finished film. As a result Scott refused to work with Kubrick again.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: Sharp, distinct text and even graphics are shown projected from an early laptop screen onto the faces of Angelina Jolie and Jonny Lee Miller and even against a wall several feet in the background (starting 0:50:35 and throughout the rest of the movie). Of course, computer displays have never projected sharply-focused text or images onto user faces or any other nearby surfaces. (00:50:35)

Charles Austin Miller

Deliberate mistake: When the raptor breaks into the control room and is hopping around the computer workstations, we see sharp, distinct genetic coding projected from a computer screen and across the raptor's face (starting 1:55:50). Aside from the fact that computer displays have never projected focused images onto nearby surfaces, the projected text shown in this scene oddly reads from left-to-right, when it should actually be a flipped mirror-image (right-to-left). Spielberg probably realised this factual incongruity while filming but chose to use the left-to-right text for the sake of audience recognition, given that the multiple lines of "GATC" genetic code were already confusing enough. (01:55:50)

Charles Austin Miller

Deliberate mistake: Particularly in space-fantasy and science-fiction movies and television series, electronic control panels and components erupt in a shower of sparks when overloaded (as during space battles, collisions and technological failure scenes). Such furious sparking has been used in numerous futuristic films and TV shows dating from the mid-20th Century right up to the present. Of course, this sparking effect is intended to add "gee whiz" action and spectacle to otherwise mundane shots. But the implication is that advanced, futuristic technology idiotically neglects to incorporate electrical fuses or circuit breakers, which are designed to prevent equipment sparking and meltdown during power overloads. In reality, all of these control panels and electronic components should instantly and safely go dark and stop functioning as soon as the breakers are quietly tripped or the fuses are quietly blown.

Charles Austin Miller

Character mistake: Mainly in Old West films, actors who are portraying barbers very frequently sharpen their straight-razors the wrong way, flipping the blade with its sharp edge against the strop. This would instantly dull and damage the razor's edge. No real barber would make such a clumsy mistake, but it's a common movie error.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: In this relatively low-budget but extremely well-produced 2013 science fiction film, a 6-man crew travels from Earth to Europa (one of the moons of Jupiter) to search for traces of life in the vast oceans beneath Europa's icy surface. One of the astronauts dies in-transit, leaving 5 crewmembers to complete the mission. When the large "Europa One" interplanetary spacecraft arrives at its destination, all 5 surviving crewmembers descend in a small landing craft to the moon's surface, leaving the Europa One spacecraft in orbit, totally unmanned. This is an inconceivable factual blunder. The narration plainly states that this mission picked up where manned lunar missions of the 1970s left off; so, many of the same protocols are in place. Just so, no manned space mission would ever abandon the primary space vehicle in orbit, placing the mission at risk by sending the entire crew down together in a landing party. At least two astronauts should have remained aboard the orbiting Europa One just in case the landing mission went sideways (as it does in this film).

Charles Austin Miller

Revealing mistake: Near the beginning, when police Lieutenant Rowan is inquiring on the death of Ken Drake, there are only 4 men in the room, all facing one another in a wide shot. The camera cuts to a close-up of Dr. Bradford for a couple of seconds, and there is a distinct puff of cigarette smoke passing behind him, but none of the characters in this scene are smoking. Lieutenant Rowan does smoke later in the film (in fact, he's the only character who smokes), but he's not smoking in this early scene. Apparently, the close-up of Dr. Bradford was borrowed from omitted footage in which Lieutenant Rowan was smoking.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: Keanu Reeves appeared in heavy makeup for this film in the uncredited (yet prominent) supporting role of "Ortiz the Dog Boy," and most viewers were oblivious to Reeves' involvement in the movie for many years after its release. Inasmuch as Reeves had starred twice before in comedies with Alex Winter, I'm only guessing that this film's producers didn't want a "Bill and Ted" association to complicate or misdirect the film's marketing; but why exactly did Reeves go uncredited in "Freaked"?

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: This 1993 film was actually the third time actors Alex Winter and Keanu Reeves appeared together in a fantasy-comedy. Their first two "Bill and Ted" films were successful and their title characters are still widely remembered. But, in this movie, Alex Winter starred as the half-mutated "Ricky Coogan" while Keanu Reeves played a prominent supporting role as "Ortiz the Dog Boy." Completely covered in furry makeup and delivering an over-the-top comedic performance, Keanu Reeves was virtually unrecognizable and went uncredited in the film.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: With a final production budget of $13 Million, "Freaked" was a boxoffice disaster, grossing just under $30,000 in two theatres. Due to studio shake-ups at 20th Century Fox, the film's post-production budget had been cut and its advertising campaign was cancelled. After a number of bad test screenings, the movie was pulled from nationwide release, finally going to VHS in early 1994. Nonetheless, the film gained almost immediate cult status, which it retains to this day.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: In this 1955 horror film, Hollywood newcomer Clint Eastwood memorably appeared as a lab assistant (a speaking role) with a white rat in his pocket. Earlier the same day on a different set, Eastwood filmed his very first big-screen role as a jet fighter pilot (another speaking role) in the 1955 horror film "Tarantula," making it a big day for Clint Eastwood.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Clint Eastwood filmed his very first big-screen role as a jet fighter pilot (an uncredited speaking part) in 1955's "Tarantula"; later that afternoon on another set, Eastwood filmed his role as a lab assistant (a more extensive speaking role) in 1955's "Revenge of the Creature," making it a big day for a Hollywood newcomer.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: In addition to portraying and voicing the eponymous 7 Faces (Dr. Lao, the Abominable Snowman, Merlin, Appolonius of Tyana, The Giant Serpent, Pan, and Medusa), actor Tony Randall also appeared without makeup in a two-second cameo, as a solemn spectator in the crowd, for a total of 8 roles in the film.

Charles Austin Miller

Deliberate mistake: Characters who are being pursued on foot frequently hide in plain sight of their pursuers. You see characters (typically the "good guys") duck around the corner of a building, or a tree, or some other obstacle, where they freeze and glance over their shoulders to watch their oblivious pursuers (typically the "bad guys") wander past just a few feet in the background. Nevermind the fact that the good guy's body is only partially concealed by said obstacle, or not concealed at all. This is an old film-making trick intended to heighten audience tension, even though it is totally illogical.

Charles Austin Miller

Plot hole: Even if Dr. David Trent's and Annabelle Loren's elaborate plan had worked flawlessly (framing Nora Manning for Frederick Loren's death), the fact remains that they faked Annabelle's death for everyone to see, which would immediately arouse suspicions for investigators. Even if Annabelle and Dr. Trent somehow fled the scene before the police arrived the next morning, their actions would still raise many questions that implicated them; thus, their clumsy and convoluted scheme was far from being the "perfect crime" they imagined.

Charles Austin Miller

Show generally

Continuity mistake: Over the course of many Dark Shadows episodes set in the year 1795, Countess Natalie Dupres' dark, distinct, three-dimensional facial mole changes sides from left jaw to right jaw, briefly vanishes altogether, then returns as a faint, painted beauty mark on her right jaw.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: A phrase that is traditionally attributed to Liberace is "crying all the way to the bank." Liberace used the phrase throughout his career as a response to critics who often derided his extravagance and flamboyance on stage (in spite of the fact that he was a popular and financial success). The first documented time Liberace used the phrase was following a reception at Madison Square Garden (New York City) in 1956, when he humorously remarked, "The take was terrific, but the critics killed me. My brother George cried all the way to the bank." Thereafter, Liberace used the phrase so often that, over the decades, he came to be regarded as the originator of "crying all the way to the bank"; some sources have even retro-credited him with originating the phrase as far back as 1954. However, newspaper columnist Walter Winchell apparently originated the phrase in 1946, nearly a decade before Liberace started using it.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Of Dark Shadows' 1225 videotaped episodes, the master tapes of 30 episodes were inadvertently destroyed by the time the series went into syndication. Of the 30 episodes destroyed, 9 were black and white (from the series' first year) and 21 were full-color. Fortunately, 29 of the destroyed episodes were recovered, but only as black-and-white kinescope copies. Thus, when watching the entire original series today, the sequential episodes occasionally switch from color to black-and-white and back to color, with much lower image resolution in the black-and-white kinescope copies. The last episode (number 1225) was lost and the video was never recovered; only an audio backup existed. So, the final episode can only be seen today as a slideshow of production stills accompanied by the audio backup.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: In the opening lines of episode 286, when Victoria Winters admits that she feels very close to the late Josette Collins, Barnabas says, "It's very easy for me to believe that you are descended from Josette." Except that Barnabas knew very well Josette had no descendants; Josette died childless in the late 18th Century (a suicide). The implication is that Victoria is a reincarnation of Josette. Later in the series, however, Victoria travels back in time and actually meets Josette, but the two characters share no closeness at all, even though they share the same soul.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Actor Dennis Patrick brilliantly portrayed the cruel, manipulative character of Jason McGuire in the first and second seasons of the show. In the story line, Jason McGuire was blackmailing Elizabeth Collins-Stoddard for the death of her husband, Paul Stoddard, 18 years earlier. Deservedly, Jason McGuire was murdered by Barnabas Collins. Two years later, Dennis Patrick returned to the show, this time portraying Elizabeth's long-lost and very-much-alive husband Paul Stoddard.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: A prominent first-season character, Burke Devlin was originally portrayed by actor Mitchell Ryan. However, Ryan was abruptly fired from the show in 1967 due to his alcoholism. Actor Anthony George assumed the remainder of the role until Burke Devlin's death (in a plane crash) in 1968.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Barnabas is typically seen wearing a gold ring with a large black onyx stone on his right hand (as also depicted in both of his portraits). However, depending on the requirements of the camera shot, the ring occasionally appeared on his left hand (as when Barnabas reached from his coffin to strangle Jason McGuire, for one example).

Charles Austin Miller

Revealing mistake: Early in the film, when Commander Chris Draper is still wearing his space gear on the Martian surface, multiple helmet reflections reveal that at least two and as many as four powerful artificial light sources (in addition to the Sun) were used to illuminate the exterior scenes.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: The characters of "Fireball XL5" frequently left the protection of their spacecraft and floated around in open space with no helmets or spacesuits whatsoever. Producer Gerry Anderson's lame explanation was that, in the year 2067, spacefarers used "oxygen pills" that not only kept them oxygenated but also protected them from vacuum, lethal radiation and temperature extremes (so they didn't need spacesuits). In reality, the "Fireball XL5" characters didn't wear spacesuits or helmets because costume changes meant literally ripping the previous costumes off the puppets and meticulously sewing on new costumes, which would have exceeded the show's production schedule and budget.

Charles Austin Miller

Stupidity: As the movie progresses, we see the deranged killer, Martin, collecting a dozen victims for his Human Centipede project and depositing the victims in a sealed chamber. Every time we see the victims, they are nude, face-down (always in the same positions on the floor), struggling and moaning and sobbing. However, their hands are only duct-taped behind their backs, and their ankles are duct-taped. There is nothing to prevent these victims from rolling over, sitting up, standing, and even assisting each other to escape. Yet they never change positions or attempt to escape.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: During the surgical operation, Dr. Heiter makes incisions on the buttocks for the triangular flaps of connecting flesh; but the flaps are pointing outward, rather than inward. The only way to graft the buttock flesh to the face of the next subject would be with the buttock incisions pointing inward.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: For the scene in which Father Dyer rushes to give last rites to Father Karras before his death, actor William O'Malley (who played Dyer) was not conveying the urgency, anxiety and grief that director William Friedkin wanted for the scene. According to O'Malley, William Friedkin grabbed O'Malley by the shoulders, screamed and cursed in his face and slapped him before rolling the camera. Thus, O'Malley was authentically shaken up, trembling and on the verge of sobbing in that scene.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: In this poorly-researched film ("based on a true story"), Tom Horn lugs around a government-issue, lever-action 45.60 caliber rifle and even claims that he prefers the 45.60 because the ammunition is plentiful wherever he goes. However, there is no historical or biographical record of Tom Horn carrying and using a 45.60 rifle. In point of fact, the real Tom Horn's weapon of choice was the lever-action 30.30 rifle (a common range weapon of the day, often known as a "brushbuster"). When Tom Horn was arrested for murder in real life, he was carrying his 30.30 rifle, but a 45.60 cartridge was discovered in his pocket. This film fabricated its fictional plot around that 45.60 cartridge found in his possession.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: In his crude attempt to replicate the Human Centipede surgical procedure, Martin employs several handyman tools, including a carpenter's staple gun (using T50 staples as sutures). Problem is, carpenter's staples would never join soft human body tissues, they'd pull right out with little effort (T50 staples only join to very solid base materials, such as wood). Martin's victims, hysterical as they were, could have freed themselves from the T50 staples almost immediately.

Charles Austin Miller

Show generally

Question: In various episodes, Steve Zodiac, Venus and Matt use odd slang, such as "tootie" and "tooties" and "toot," usually in a demeaning or disparaging way. Venus says, "I'm a tootie!" when she forgets to make the coffee, for example, and Steve says "I'm a tootie!" when he forgets to press a certain button or something. In at least one episode, Matt is called "a cheating old toot." I gather that saying "toot" or "tootie" is like saying "fool" or "doofus" or something similar. Is this slang that producer Gerry Anderson just arbitrarily dreamed up? Or is it part of an English dialect that I've never heard elsewhere?

Charles Austin Miller

Question: In the first timeline ending, Russell (Firefist) is not convinced or changed by Deadpool's pleading; in fact, he casts Deadpool aside. Cable then lunges for the semi-auto handgun and takes his last shot, which is intercepted by Deadpool in his left chest (a fatal wound). Seemingly, the only thing that really changed Russell's mind was Deadpool's actual death scene, as Deadpool rambled on with his farewells and gradually faded away. But, in the alternate ending, Cable goes back in time a few minutes and uses an arcade token to stop the bullet that killed Deadpool; thus, Deadpool doesn't die from the gunshot and Russell doesn't react to Deadpool's farewells (that never happened). So, what event changed Russell's mind the second time, if not Deadpool's actual death?

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: For the memorable confrontation between two Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zeroes and two American F-14 Tomcats, a trial flyby was close enough that powerful air turbulence from the passing jets violently threw both Zeroes out of control for a few seconds, like toys. The lead Zero pilot even lost his wristwatch and communications headset, which were vacuumed out of the open canopy. Out of radio contact for several seconds, the condition of the Zero pilots was unknown. Camera angles and distances between all the aircraft were modified so as not to further endanger the Zeroes for the final take as seen in the film.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: When Deadpool and Cable confront Russell (Firefist) near the end, Cable glances to his right and says: "There's one bullet left in that gun!" We see a closeup of the semi-automatic several feet away, and the handgun is elevated above ground level, resting on a slab of concrete with a bit of flame burning just inches away. Moments later, as Deadpool pleads with Russell, Cable again glances at the gun, which is now lying in the dirt, below the level of the nearest concrete slab.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: The interior shots of the American Airlines Space Freighter "Valley Forge" were actually filmed aboard the Korean-War-era aircraft carrier "USS Valley Forge" (LPH-8) at the Long Beach Naval Shipyard in California. After filming was completed, the decommissioned aircraft carrier "Valley Forge" was scrapped.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Early in the film, as the Salt and Son theatrical troupe performs their stage version of Munchausen's adventures, the Baron is eaten by a giant fish; two mermaids immediately enter stage-left and sing a mournful ditty modestly accompanied by the pit orchestra: "What will become of the Baron? Surely this time there is no escape!" To those with sharp ears, this ditty is the same tune as the soaring, symphonic Baron Munchausen theme music featured throughout the movie.

Charles Austin Miller

Deliberate mistake: Baron Munchausen sends his courier, Berthold, on a one-hour errand to procure a bottle of the finest Tokay from the imperial wine cellars in Vienna. Berthold returns with the bottle within the hour and (in one continuous wide shot) hands the bottle to Baron Munchausen, who then hands it to the Sultan, who effortlessly plucks the cork from the bottle with his fingertips and pours a glass for himself. But there is no way the Sultan could simply pluck out the cork with his fingertips in one move; this extremely valuable bottle of wine is visibly sealed (in every shot) with a thick, air-tight red wax. This wax must first be cut and peeled away to access the deeply-embedded cork, and the cork must then be removed with a wine key (corkscrew). The action of properly opening the bottle would have required more time than the entire scene itself; so, to expedite the flow of the shot, director Terry Gilliam deliberately chose to forego a proper uncorking.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Actress Sally Field is yet remembered and sometimes mocked for her 1985 Academy Award speech that included the gushing line: "You like me! You really like me!" Problem is, that's a misquote, she didn't say that line. When accepting the Best Actress Oscar for "Places in the Heart," Sally Field actually said: "I can't deny the fact that you like me. Right now, you like me." So why does everyone remember the misquote? It's because Jim Carrey satirized Sally Field's award speech for his 1994 movie, "The Mask," in which he originated the misquote: "You like me! You really like me!"

Charles Austin Miller

Question: When Baron Munchausen and his cohorts clean out the Sultan's vault, the Sultan's horrified Treasurer crosses himself in the Catholic fashion. But, in this film, the Sultan is head of the Ottoman Empire (a Muslim empire), and the closest members of his court (such as his Treasurer) would surely be Muslim. So the treasurer's Christian gesture stands out as unlikely, at best. This seems to be a character error, but was it intended as a deliberate joke? If so, what was the joke?

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: In this live BBC remake of the 1955 film, Jason Flemyng starred as Bernard Quatermass, and David Tennant starred as Gordon Briscoe. During rehearsals, the cast and crew learned that Tennant had been selected for the coveted role of the upcoming Tenth Doctor Who (the public would not learn of Tennant's official Doctor Who selection until weeks after the Quatermass broadcast). During the live television performance of "The Quatermass Experiment," when Jason Flemyng and David Tennant first share dialogue, Flemyng was supposed to deliver the scripted greeting: "Good to have you back, Gordon!" However, Flemyng ad-libbed: "Good to have you back, Doctor!" This was a deliberate inside-congratulation to David Tennant for winning the Doctor Who role.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: Although this 2015 Norwegian disaster film is far superior to the many American disaster movies that it emulates, "The Wave" still suffers the most common error found in tsunami-themed disaster flicks: Crystal-clear flood waters. Of course, tsunami flood waters in particular are always inky-black with churning sediment and debris.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: At the end, when Jefferey shoots Frank in the forehead, the film editing becomes confusing, with two different closeup shots of Frank immediately after the gunfire. One shot is obviously Dennis Hopper with a wide-eyed and shocked expression (as well a hole in his head) as he falls backwards. But the following split-second closeup shot is apparently not Dennis Hopper: He now has what looks like facial hair, a sullen expression, larger brow and eyes that seem almost swollen shut (and he's still falling backwards). This second cut looks like a rubber mask or very, very different makeup from that which Dennis Hopper was wearing just a fraction of a second before. The appearance is so different that I wonder if David Lynch was ever asked to explain the continuity error?

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: The lead song, "Lollipop," wasn't written until 1958, seven years beyond the chronological order of the movie.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: Frederick Frankenstein only throws two darts through the window. But there are 9 darts in the car tires outside.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: Why attempt Russian accents in a film that is purely Russian? The star, Harrison Ford, doesn't even pretend to be Russian. Why should anyone else?

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: One perceived problem with George Lazenby as James Bond was that he did not exude the same self-confident charm and humor as Sean Connery's James Bond (who always quipped some memorable and comedic sound bite, particularly after killing a villain). Lazenby's humor-deficiency was acknowledged during production of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service"; toward rectifying this apparent lack of humor, Lazenby was allowed to do something no other James Bond ever did: Addressing the viewing audience with the line, "This never happened to the other fellow," which was a direct in-joke reference to his predecessor, Sean Connery.

Charles Austin Miller

Deliberate mistake: Blofeld doesn't recognize James Bond in this film, even though they met face-to-face in the previous movie, "You Only Live Twice." There is a production-related reason for this. Ian Fleming wrote "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" in 1963 (in which Bond and Blofeld met for the first time), and he wrote "You Only Live Twice" in 1964. However, "You Only Live Twice" was adapted for film first (in 1967), and "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" was adapted afterward (in 1969). Because the 1969 film was so faithful to its source material, Blofeld and Bond are basically meeting for the first time... again. The producers were aware of this continuity problem and intended to have James Bond undergo plastic surgery for "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (which would conveniently explain Blofeld not recognizing him, as well as the fact that Sean Connery had been replaced by George Lazenby in the lead role). But the plastic surgery idea was discarded in faithfulness to the novel, resulting in a glaring continuity problem between the 1967 and 1969 films.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Although Australian George Lazenby received mixed critical reception for his portrayal of James Bond in 1969, producer Albert R. Broccoli was so impressed with the actor that he offered Lazenby a contract to star in the next seven (7) James Bond films. If Lazenby had accepted the contract, it would have erased Sean Connery's return in 1970 and Roger Moore's participation in James Bond film history through the year 1983. As it happened, Lazenby's agent poorly advised him that the James Bond franchise would never survive the 1970s, so Lazenby turned down Broccoli's extraordinary contract offer.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Unlike other James Bond movies, this film is the most faithful adaptation of any James Bond novel. Everything that happens in Ian Fleming's 1963 novel, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," is included in this film.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Despite being nominated for 4 Academy Awards (and despite its decades-long cult following), this film was a box-office disaster upon its release, grossing only $8 million against a reported production cost of $46 million. Director Terry Gilliam denied the film cost anywhere near $40 million, and other reports place the total cost at around $35 million. But, even with this more conservative estimate, Gilliam went far beyond his initial budget of $25 million.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: This film was actually the third installment in director Terry Gilliam's "Trilogy of Imagination," all dealing with fantasy escapism at different ages in life. The first film of the trilogy was 1981's "Time Bandits," a surreal fantasy seen through the eyes of a child; the second film was 1985's "Brazil," another surreal fantasy seen through the eyes of a middle-aged man; 1988's "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" was yet another surreal fantasy seen through the eyes of an elderly gentleman.

Charles Austin Miller

Katsura Mafune: Please kill me! Destroy my body! Inside me is the controller! Mechagodzilla's brain's installed in my stomach!

Charles Austin Miller

Question: This was the first of Toho's "Minilla" films (Minilla being the diminutive son of Godzilla), featuring an actor known as "Marchan the Dwarf" in the role of Minilla. Is there an official or even unofficial biography of Marchan the Dwarf? I'm not seeing anything on him through conventional searches.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: Billy admits that he shot his wife and daughters to save them from a more horrible death at the hands of the vampires. Grieving, he says, "I tried to shoot myself, too, but the fucking gun jammed." But Billy is a deputy sheriff, and any competent law officer can resolve a jammed gun in a matter of seconds. Did Billy actually chicken-out of killing himself after murdering his family?

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: When Cameron melts down and starts kicking the 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder, he dents the front bumper. There is no way a human being could dent a pressed-steel, chromium-plated bumper by kicking it.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: This 1994 film was originally titled "Drunken Master 2" upon its release in Hong Kong; it was the second and last time Jackie Chan portrayed the titular Drunken Master. A hastily-assembled "Drunken Master 3" was also released in 1994, but Jackie Chan did not participate in the third movie because of "creative differences" (Chan felt that the Drunken Master films were sending the wrong message about drinking and fighting). Although fans have been clamoring for decades for Jackie Chan to reprise this comedic role that he famously created, he still refuses to do it. As recently as 2014, Chan explained: "Drunken Master 1 [1978], I teach drinking, fighting, drinking, fighting, and the audience liked it. Everybody ‘Ha, ha, ha.' But then I grew up and realised I'm wrong. I send out the wrong message. I have to make Drunken Master 2 [1994] to tell the audience ‘Don't drink! Don't fight!' I have to correct myself. All those years slowly correct everything... I believe after Drunken Master 2 - stop - better that we make no more."

Charles Austin Miller

Revealing mistake: When Roy and Chon are escaping from jail, Chon uses all his strength to bend one of the iron bars aside so that Roy can squeeze through. But, as Roy squeezes through, the iron bar behind him (which should be rigid) also visibly flexes, revealing that the bars are made of rubber or plastic tubing.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: "Drunken Master 2" actually premiered in 1994, a remake/reboot of 1978's "Drunken Master" (both starring Jackie Chan). "Drunken Master 2" was later released in America as "The Legend of Drunken Master" in the year 2000.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: The original title of this Jackie Chan film was "Drunken Master 2" when it was first released in Hong Kong in 1994 (it was not actually a sequel but was a remake/reboot of the 1978 Jackie Chan film "Drunken Master"). The title "Drunken Master 2" was changed to "The Legend of Drunken Master" when it was released in America in 2000.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: Early in the film, Lockhart tells his driver to take him to a hotel, and they start down a winding Alpine mountain road before suddenly slamming into a deer. The Mercedes sedan goes off the road, airborne, into the forest, rolling many times before crashing down hard on its side. But, when the camera cuts back to the mortally-injured deer in the road, we see the Mercedes is wrecked on the road shoulder only about 30 feet away from the animal.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: During the lethal-injection scene, an executioner is plainly visible to the witnesses through a broad glass window in the death chamber. He is shown flipping toggle switches in-sequence to release the sodium thiopental, pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride that comprise the lethal drug cocktail. For one thing, in modern Western culture, an executioner is never visible to the witnesses. For another thing, there is no "executioner," per se, flipping toggle switches in the lethal-injection process. The component drugs are loaded into the death machine in advance, and it automatically releases the drugs via a pre-set timer.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: After its release in 1999, "The Blair Witch Project" went on to make a fantastic $250 million profit on its lowly $64,000 budget, largely due to the film's realism; audiences were chilled by the possibility that this "found footage" was the real thing. But any cable viewers who followed the Independent Film Channel (IFC) knew very well that "The Blair Witch Project" was a purely scripted work as far back as 1997, when "The Blair Witch Project" writer/director Daniel Myrick previewed a segment of the work-in-progress featuring an 8-minute "pitch" (comprised mainly of voice-overs and edited footage) on IFC's specialty program, "Split Screens." Audience feedback was later gathered through traditional test-screenings.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: When Zephram Cochrane, Riker and LaForge activate the warp drive of the prototype starship Phoenix, the prismatic starscape is seen streaking past (same effect as in the Star Trek: TNG series). However, the Phoenix never leaves the solar system or even the vicinity of Earth, achieving only Warp One (the max velocity of the Phoenix) for a few seconds. Even at lightspeed, the Phoenix did not enter interstellar space nor pass any other stars; therefore, the starscape should have remained almost motionless.

Charles Austin Miller

Revealing mistake: At the end, when the monster grabs the sheriff and throws him across the front yard, the sheriff lands on his back and his right arm falls into a beartrap. The trap snaps and the sheriff screams in pain, but only one jaw of the prop beartrap actually snaps into vertical position (the opposing jaw remains flat and doesn't move). A real beartrap snaps both jaws together vertically. So, the sheriff's hand doesn't get snapped at all.

Charles Austin Miller

Plot hole: At the very end, when Leo Davidson crash-lands in Washington, DC, on the very steps of the Lincoln Memorial, the modified Lincoln statue depicts General Thade (the founder of the ape civilization on Earth) as wearing mid-19th Century clothing. This suggests that Thade escaped from his home planet Ashlar (aboard the recovered single-passenger Delta Pod, no doubt), entered the time-rift, and arrived on Earth in the early-to-mid 19th Century to begin taking over the human population. So, Thade by himself (with no advanced scientific knowledge) completely conquered human civilization on Earth in only about 150 years, which is absurd even for space fantasy.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: In the fight scene between Roy Munson and Claudia, it's very obvious that actress Vanessa Angel's acrobatic stunts were performed by a much more muscular woman. The stuntwoman is Donna Keegan, who played the attempted-rape victim in "RoboCop" nine years earlier.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: Near the end, when Dean Wormer and Mayor DePasto are in the grandstand, officially launching the parade, there is an elderly gentleman in the background (also in the grandstand, about 2 levels up, on the left side of the screen) who is making odd, excited gestures and comical facial expressions. His appearance and odd mannerisms are so striking that he draws my attention away from the dean and the mayor every time that I've seen this film, and that's a lot of times. Surely, director John Landis must have been aware of the gentleman and his antics in the background through multiple takes, so it would seem Landis intended the peculiar distraction. Who was that gentleman, and was there any significance to his appearing in the scene?

Charles Austin Miller

Plot hole: We know that Pericles the chimp (in Alpha Pod), then Leo Davidson (in Delta Pod), and then the entire Oberon space station are all pulled into the time rift and end up on planet Ashlar, each arriving at (drastically) different times. Apparently, just before the Oberon crashed on Ashlar, Commander Vasich sent a mayday transmission ("We're going down!") which is actually received by the Oberon itself before it entered the time rift. Commander Vasich and the Oberon crew are startled to see a very elderly Commander Vasich in the mayday transmission. This implies that Vasich and the Oberon crew instantly aged by decades while going through the time rift; yet, Leo Davidson and Pericles the chimp didn't age at all.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: In the original film, the Discovery's onboard computer states: "I am a HAL 9000 Computer, Production Number 3. I became operational at the HAL plant in Urbana, Illinois, on the 12th of January, 1992." So, "HAL" was a manufacturer identification prefix (standing for Heuristically-programmed ALgorithmic Computers), "9000" was its model number, and "No.3" was its production lineage. In this sequel, however, Dr. Chandra is chatting with one of HAL's earth-based twin computers which has a feminine voice and is called "SAL"; but how can they arbitrarily change its manufacturer identification prefix? Being produced by the HAL plant in Urbana, Illinois, and being identical to the computer aboard the Discovery, the twin's name should have a different production number, but it should still be called "HAL," should it not?

Charles Austin Miller

Revealing mistake: When Dr. Floyd arrives at the Moon and goes to the Monolith site at Tycho Crater, the moon shuttle never casts a shadow on the lunar surface. This is especially noticeable in the first shot, wherein the shuttle is coming straight at the camera, the Sun is on the far right, and there is a giant lunar cliff on the far left. No shadow of any sort.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: When private investigator Milton Arbogast is attacked on the stairway, this film inserts two non sequitur pieces of footage right in the middle of the attack sequence: Just as Arbogast's face is slashed twice, a shot of a virtually-nude woman wearing a sleep-mask is inserted for a split-second, followed a moment later by a split-second insert of what appears to be a small calf standing in the middle of a road in a rainstorm. What is the meaning of those two inserts?

Charles Austin Miller

Question: When Kirk and McCoy try to rescue Chekov at Mercy Hospital, Kirk removes the 20th Century medical team into an adjacent room and uses his phaser to instantly fuse the metal door lock. The medical team cannot directly see Kirk do this, as they are visibly several feet away on the other side of the door. It's also safe to say that the medical team has never seen a phaser and can't comprehend its function or capabilities. As Kirk turns away from the door to rejoin McCoy, the trapped medical team only then rushes up to the door, and the trauma surgeon exclaims, "He melted the lock!" However, it seems that you'd have to laboriously dismantle the doorknob to determine that the lock's internal components were fused. So, how did a 20th Century surgeon deduce at a glance that Kirk had somehow melted the lock?

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Originally, Metro Goldwyn Mayer had planned for producer Roger Corman to make a film entitled "Captain Nemo and the Floating City," but the project collapsed early on. Producer Steven Pallos later resurrected the project as "Captain Nemo and the Underwater City," and this time the film was completed.

Charles Austin Miller

Revealing mistake: When the castaways discover two women and a man washed up on the beach, they quickly determine that the women are still alive. The journalist, Gideon Spilitt, checks the pulse of the male and pronounces him dead; but the dead man's limp left hand very noticeably and unnaturally jerks twice just as Spilitt releases his wrist. The actor playing the dead man obviously had an anticipatory reflex action, but they chose to keep the shot in the film, anyway.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: Captain Nemo takes the castaways on an underwater tour around the island, where they observe Greek temple ruins on the sea floor. The ancient Greeks were pioneers of philosophy, politics and engineering, but they never colonized beyond the general area of the Mediterranean and they certainly never colonized the South Pacific (which is the setting of Mysterious Island).

Charles Austin Miller

Plot hole: At the very beginning, as the passenger ship is foundering in a powerful storm, the little boy places his kitten in a box and tucks the box inside his shirt just moments before he is cast into the churning sea. Sinking into the depths, the boy and other passengers are presently rescued by Captain Nemo's team of divers, who supply the drowning passengers with oxygen until they board the submarine Nautilus. Once aboard, the little boy opens his hidden box to reveal a wet but very much alive kitten that could not possibly have survived submersion for that length of time in a box that was not waterproof.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: While based on actual events and characters, "From Hell" takes considerable liberty with facts, in addition to leaving much of its convoluted fictional plot unexplained. The real Chief Inspector Frederick Abberline's first wife died of tuberculosis two months after they married (she was not pregnant at the time). Abberline remained married to his second wife for over 50 years, and they never had children. Abberline was not clairvoyant, was never an opium or absinthe user, either, and he died at the ripe old age of 86. The movie fabricated everything except a handful of essential historical facts regarding the Ripper murders.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: At the beginning, M and agents representing the USA, Soviet Union and France try to convince James Bond to come out of retirement. Bond steadfastly refuses; whereupon, M lights his cigar as a signal for British troops in the distance to destroy Bond's estate with mortar fire (M is accidentally killed in the mortar attack). But what was the purpose of destroying Bond's estate? Wouldn't that action only drive Bond further away from rejoining the spy corps? Why would the British government go to such lengths to punish Bond? And then why did Bond return to the secret service, anyway, after such treachery?

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: When Sir James and Mata Bond infiltrate Dr. Noah's headquarters, they hurry down a corridor with dozens of doorways. There are no flashing lights, but the corridor color repeatedly changes from blue with blue doors to red with red doors from one camera shot to the next.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: When the girls wake up on the beach, they see Nancy out in the surf, walking on water. As she casually strolls back to the shoreline, a wide shot shows the water is calm and flat and blue from the beach to as far as the eye can see. However, as the camera cuts to Nancy reaching the beach, the surf behind her is suddenly rough and crashing and murky brown, with 3-foot waves breaking on the shoreline.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: At the very beginning, John and Louise stroll down a dock, get into a row-boat and start across the lake; but John dies of a heart attack half-way across, and Louise dumps his body into the water. Throughout this entire scene, John's transistor radio is warbling a rockabilly song that sounds Elvis-inspired (but it's not Elvis). What is the song and who sang it?

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: This horror-fantasy film (a 1958 knockoff "The Mummy") was inspired by the faceless whole-body plaster casts taken from the volcanic ash of Pompeii, at the foot of Mt. Vesuvius. The running mistake in this movie is the assumption that the faceless bodies of Pompeii were 2000-year-old mummies preserved by volcanic ash and could, thus, be re-animated (by radiation, in this case). The fact is, the victims at Pompeii were originally encased in hot volcanic pumice and ash, and the corpses then disintegrated, leaving hollow "molds" of human bodies underground. It wasn't until the mid-19th Century that archaeologists first discovered the molds, filled them with plaster, then extracted the whole-body plaster casts for display. Since the faceless bodies of Pompeii are nothing but modern plaster casts, there would be nothing to re-animate, by radiation or any other improbable means.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: This film is based on a true story; but, of course, much dramatic license is taken with the facts. For example, while the movie depicts Lola shot in the chest (either by Willie Boy or by herself), the real-life "Lola" was shot in the back by the posse that was chasing them. Also, while the movie depicts Sheriff Cooper gunning down Willie Boy at the end, the real-life Willie Boy committed suicide by his own hand.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: When the MR-1 first lands on Mars, the sky visible through the portholes is fiery red, which is the uniform color of all exterior shots in the film. However, a whole series of interior shots throughout the film show that the sky visible through the portholes is suddenly and inexplicably baby blue. At two points, when Iris sees a Martian through the porthole, the sky momentarily turns pitch black.

Charles Austin Miller

Deliberate mistake: For all exterior shots on the surface of Mars, the crew's "pressurized" space helmets have no face-plates (their faces are fully exposed to the hostile Martian environment). The transparent face-plates they intended to use reflected far too much studio set lighting, such that the glare would have obscured the actors' faces. On a $200,000 budget and a 10-day production deadline, they simply scrapped the face-plates and shot the scenes with wide-open helmets.

Charles Austin Miller

Journey to Babel - S2-E10

Continuity mistake: An Orion spy (disguised as an Andorian) attacks Captain Kirk in the corridor on Deck 5 and plainly stabs Kirk in the back on the right side. As he staggers to his feet, Kirk first reaches to the wound with his right hand, indicating that it is, indeed, on the right side of his back. He then reaches far across his back with his left hand to touch the wound, and we see blood on the back of his hand (but not on his sleeve). So, it is visually established that the wound is on the right side of his back. But, a few moments later in SickBay, Dr. McCoy announces that Kirk's wound is a "puncture to the left lung." Then, later in the episode, Kirk his holding his left arm as though he is suffering pain on the left side.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: In the very last scene of the movie, we see Christina Ricci and David Krumholtz sitting in the Addams Family graveyard, and Krumholtz is placing flowers at Debbie Jellinski's tombstone, when a full human arm (presumably the late Debbie's) shoots out of the grave and grabs his wrist, sending him into screaming fits. However, Debbie was completely cremated to ash by electricity a few minutes earlier in the film. Nothing left of her but ash, shoes and credit cards. So, whose arm reached out from Debbie's grave?

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: After George knocks out Biff, Biff has an obvious contusion and blood on the right side of his nose and mouth. As the hoverboard chase scene progresses over the next several minutes (particularly in the lighted tunnel), the contusion and blood repeatedly disappear and reappear on Biff's face from one camera cut to the next.

Charles Austin Miller

Catspaw - S2-E7

Trivia: This episode (which first aired on ‎October 27, 1967‎) was the only "holiday-themed" episode of Star Trek TOS. It was supposed to be a Halloween-ish story with witches, a spooky castle, black cats, skeletons and zombies, and there are repeated references to Halloween and "Trick-or-Treat" throughout the episode.

Charles Austin Miller

The Menagerie (2) - S1-E13

Deliberate mistake: At the very end, the Talosians send a final visual transmission of Vina and Christopher Pike, now whole and happy and reunited after 13 years, holding hands as they enter the Talosian elevator in the hillside. However, in this last shot, the elevator is still half-disintegrated, exactly as it was 13 years earlier when the Enterprise crew destroyed the hillside with a laser cannon. Within the context of "The Menagerie" storyline, this suggests that the Talosians never attempted to repair the elevator for 13 years (even though they continued using it). This incongruity is due to Gene Roddenberry cannibalizing his Star Trek pilot "The Cage," which contained zero footage of Jeffrey Hunter and Susan Oliver entering the intact elevator together (only the destroyed elevator). So, Roddenberry deliberately tried to "slip one by" the audience in this brief shot.

Charles Austin Miller

The Menagerie (2) - S1-E13

Revealing mistake: When the Talosians place Christopher Pike and Vina into the "picnic" illusion (in the countryside on Earth), Pike wanders around marveling at how real it all seems. Well, "real" except for the fact that Pike's body is casting 4 distinct shadows in 4 different directions on the ground, the result of studio set lighting.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: When Superman is explosively resurrected by the MotherBox, it disintegrates the clothes and shoes in which he was buried, but he's still wearing pants immediately afterwards.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: What is the story behind the strange makeup blunders in Justice League? Early in the film, both Henry Cavill's and Ben Affleck's facial features seem oddly, almost creepily unrecognizable (in the smartphone sequence of Superman and in the private jet sequence with Bruce Wayne and Alfred). Also, Bruce Wayne's hair color seems to randomly change throughout the movie. As I understand it, between the directing upheaval and editing, many old scenes were deleted and new scenes added, requiring a lot of re-shooting. Is that the reason for the sloppy makeup continuity?

Charles Austin Miller

Question: At the very end of the film, Tony Stark informs Peter Parker that he is a now a member of the Avengers and reveals his new Spidey suit. Peter moves toward the camera, with Tony Stark plainly visible on the right side of the screen and Happy Hogan far in the background (all three are in this shot), as we hear a male voice in the foreground enthusiastically say, "Yeah! Give that a look!" Except that Tony Stark didn't say it, Peter Parker didn't say it, and Happy Hogan was much too far away to have said it. The dubbed voice obviously does not belong to Tom Holland, Robert Downey Jr or Jon Favreau at all. So who said it?

Charles Austin Miller

Deliberate mistake: After the hotel murder, Brophy makes a series of photographic enlargements to prove Dr. Thorndyke's innocence. However, instead of holding his magnifying glass directly in front of his face as he examines the photos, Brophy angles the magnifying glass far to his right so the movie audience can see the magnifying glass details, but he can't possibly see anything.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: When the giant bronze statue, Talos, attacks the Argo, the crew flees across the beach and up the ship's boarding ramp, and one sailor chops through a mooring line so the Argo can escape. But, in subsequent shots as the Argo departs, no chopped-off mooring line remains on the wide-open beach, and there's nothing to which they could tie a mooring line, anyway.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Although released to theatres in 1966, this beautifully-shot film was actually the pilot for an unrealised television series entitled "House of Wax" (which was never picked up by the networks). Despite its title, "Chamber of Horrors" was not particularly scary, much less horrifying; in fact, it was more like a 19th Century crime-detective drama. After the TV pilot was rejected, Warner Brothers opted for a theatrical release, even though the film was shot in television screen format rather than wide screen format. Attempting to sensationalize "Chamber of Horrors" for the big screen, Warner Brothers added the preposterous "Fear Flasher and Horror Horn" gimmick to warn audiences of imminent violence and gore...except that there was no gore and practically no onscreen violence.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: This film begins with a foreboding quote attributed to Edgar Allen Poe: "Sleep. Those little slices of death. How I loathe them." Problem is, Poe never wrote any such thing (and neither did Henry Wadsworth Longfellow), despite decades of misquotes and misattributions across the Internet. So, where did the quote actually originate? The answer is Walter Reisch, lead screenwriter on the 1959 film "Journey to the Center of the Earth." In Reisch's screenplay, the antagonist Count Arne Saknussemm is urged to get some rest, to which he memorably replies, "I don't sleep. I hate those little slices of death."

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: A naggingly familiar quote that has been attributed on the Internet to various authors (ranging from Edgar Allen Poe to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow) is "Sleep. Those little slices of death. How I loathe them." Problem is, Poe never wrote any such thing, and neither did Longfellow. The 1987 horror film "Nightmare on Elm Street III" seems to be the genesis of the misquote, which it incorrectly attributes to Poe. So, where did the actual quote originate? The answer is Walter Reisch, lead screenwriter on the 1959 film "Journey to the Center of the Earth." In the screenplay, the antagonist Count Arne Saknussemm is urged to get some rest, to which he memorably replies, "I don't sleep. I hate those little slices of death."

Charles Austin Miller

Question: After the Reliant ambushes the Enterprise, Kirk tricks Khan and hammers the Reliant into retreat. As Kirk turns to assess damage to the Enterprise, Scotty inexplicably appears on the bridge, carrying the charred body of Midshipman Peter Preston. Why on earth would Scotty bring the dying Preston to the bridge, rather than to SickBay with all the other injured? He had to deliberately bypass SickBay just to make an unnecessary appearance on the bridge.

Charles Austin Miller

Plot hole: It is firmly established in the last half of the film that movie characters and movie weapons do inflict damage and death in the real world. However, early in the film, a bundle of dynamite comes straight through the movie screen and explodes in the real world movie theatre. That quantity of dynamite should have gutted the theatre, easily; but, when Danny Madigan and Jack Slater cross from the movie world back into the real world, there is absolutely no damage to the theatre.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: When they first power-up the Stargate in the military facility (using Jackson's decryption), the thing surges to life, and electrical sparks spray out of overloaded connections all around the control room. This could only happen if there were no fuses or electrical breakers in the military's control system, which is a ridiculous notion for such advanced military technology. In real life, a powerful overload situation would instantly burn out fuses and trip breakers and the whole system would simply go dead (there would be no sparks). Showers of sparks are a common error in many science fiction and space fantasy films dating back many decades.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: Near the end, when the elderly Chaplin and his biographer are seated on the terrace, chatting about madness, Chaplin's hands are clasped high up on his chest, clutching the shawl around his shoulders. In several subsequent shots, his hands are relaxed in his lap, then clasped again high on his chest, again and again, from shot to shot.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: In at least two shots, as the Phoenix first becomes airborne, it is obvious that there are no men clinging to the wing surfaces.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Anthony Hopkins played George Hayden, Charlie Chaplin's biographer (throughout the film's many flashbacks). However, biographer George Hayden was a completely fictional character created only for this movie. In real life, Charlie Chaplin alone wrote his autobiography.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: When the Enterprise recovers Chekov and Captain Terrell, they just accept Chekov's and Terrell's false explanation, even though McCoy is standing right there with a medical tricorder. Why didn't McCoy's medical tricorder pick up the Ceti eels lodged in the brains of Chekov and Captain Terrell?

Charles Austin Miller

Other mistake: At the beginning, as Eggsy is pursued through city streets by the Golden Circle henchmen, the three pursuit vehicles are all firing rooftop mini-guns at Eggsy, in spite of the fact that they are all in single-file, one vehicle behind another. The Golden Circle vehicles would have been riddled with their own gunfire.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: When the animated series was being voice-cast, the only original actors chosen were William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelly, James Doohan and Majel Barrett (Gene Roddenberry's wife). James Doohan was going to double as Chief Engineer Scott and as Lieutenant Sulu, as well as any needed additional male voices; Majel Barrett was going to perform several female voices including the Ship's Computer and Communications Officer Uhura. When Leonard Nimoy (Spock) learned about the casting choices, he threatened to quit the animated series unless original series actors George Takei and Nichelle Nichols were hired to play Sulu and Uhura. Nimoy's opinion carried a lot of weight, so Takei and Nichols were immediately hired.

Charles Austin Miller

The Practical Joker - S2-E3

Trivia: The animated series featured the first appearance of the Holodeck (called the Rec Room) in this episode only. Gene Roddenberry wanted to use the Rec Room/Holodeck idea in the original live action series of the 1960s, but found that budgetary constraints were prohibitive at that time. The Rec Room finally appeared once in the animated series, in this episode, in 1973. It wouldn't be seen again until Star Trek: The Next Generation, in 1987, some 14 years later.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: Isn't this film blatantly derivative of Guillermo del Toro's earlier films, "HellBoy" and "HellBoy: The Golden Army"? It seems to me that the Asset in "The Shape of Water" is a direct knock-off Abe Sapien from the Hellboy films. The amphibious Asset is held at a top secret facility, as was Abe Sapien; the Asset is fed hard-boiled eggs, as was Abe Sapien; the Asset develops a love interest and romantic relationship with a female air-breather, as did Abe Sapien. To top it off, del Toro called in contortionist-actor Doug Jones to play the Asset in "The Shape of Water" (Doug Jones also played Abe Sapien in the HellBoy films). "Shape of Water" could almost be a spin-off the old HellBoy films, given Guillermo del Toro's involvement and recycling of familiar themes.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: Near the beginning of the film, Bill Murray takes a seat front-row-center in court. Moments later, he's doing push-ups in the corridor. A few moments later, he's back in the same seat front-row-center in the courtroom.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: For the last murder scene, when Norman brains his mother with a shovel in the kitchen (the only murder Norman actually commits in the entire film), his mother turns into a life-size dummy just before the fatal blow. You notice that she inexplicably leans far forward and bows her head (to hide her face for the dummy transition) just before Norman hammers her. This scene took several days to shoot, to get the transition just perfect, and it is the best practical special effect in the movie.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: When Vinny Panzienza has his cervical halo brace removed (without anesthetics), he yells and groans and grunts in pain, but his hands are relaxed on the arms of the chair. I can tell you, from experience with this exact situation, the pain is so intense that his hands should have been clenched as tight as a vise.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: Despite Dr. Mark Powell's certainty that "Prot" is a delusional man named Robert Porter who lost his mind and attempted suicide years earlier, no explanation is ever given for Prot's extraordinary resistance to powerful psychiatric drugs, his superhuman vision (into the Ultraviolet range), and his knowledge of deep-space astrophysics, which not only rivals but exceeds the knowledge of Earthly astrophysicists. Prot's enigmatic abilities are tested by experts, and the experts are left scratching their heads. The probability that Prot actually is an alien entity occupying a deeply-damaged and "discarded" human body seems confirmed on many levels, above and beyond the rantings of a mere mental patient. So, why does Dr. Powell consistently reject the hard evidence before his eyes?

Charles Austin Miller

Revealing mistake: At the beginning of the film, even though the sky is cloudless and clear blue, the streets and highways are uniformly wet, as if a storm had just swept the area. Then, even though all of the vehicles on the highway are raising clouds of wet spray, none of the vehicle windshields are splattered with moisture, and none of the vehicles are using their windshield wipers. In fact, the only time we see a woman use her windshield wipers is when the guy throws a lit blunt onto the woman's windshield and it catches some dry leaves there on fire. So, in summation, dry leaves catch fire on the windshield of a car in spite of heavy road spray on a wet highway on a cloudless day. Multiple inconsistencies.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: In the tavern, the dwarves emphatically tell the huntsman that dwarven females are so repulsive that dwarf reproduction only happens accidentally, in bad lighting and under the influence of drink. Which sounds quite repulsive. But, when the huntsman and male dwarves are later captured in the net trap, the female dwarves turn out to be perfectly lovely, even quite sexy. Then, even stranger, one of the male dwarves later apologizes for the appearance of a lovely female dwarf (who is standing right next to him in plain sight), claiming that she was hit in the face with a rock. So, what was the purpose of the male dwarves obsessively lying about the beauty of female dwarves? Or were the male dwarves blind to true beauty for some reason?

Charles Austin Miller

Question: During the botched raid on the university campus, the troops move in too quickly (alerting Bruce Banner), and General Ross snarls, "I wanna know who jumped the gun!" Did General Ross ever find out who jumped the gun? Was it Emil Blonsky? If it was Blonsky, why did General Ross never reprimand him?

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: At the airport, Jack attempts to disarm the bus bomb from underneath, on a dolly towed by another vehicle. Meanwhile, Annie must continue driving the bus in circles on the runway at a speed above 50 mph. This scene takes 8 minutes, meaning Annie makes at least 2 laps of the entire 2-mile-long runway, complete with turns at the ends. There is no way that the towed dolly could remain positioned directly underneath the bus through the turns, as Jack would have swung out under centrifugal force.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: Early in the film, Jack shoots Harry through the left thigh (taking the hostage out of the equation). At the police awards ceremony, Harry is using a cane on his right side and his limp favors his right leg. After the ceremony, in the bar, when Harry gets drunk and starts to leave, he's using his cane on the left side and his limp favors his left leg.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: When Scotty and Kirk are discussing the mysterious fate of Capt. Balthazar Edison, Scotty mentions a couple of theories, including the possibility that the USS Franklin was "captured by a giant green space hand." This is a direct allusion to the original Star Trek television episode "Who Mourns for Adonis?" in which the giant green hand of the Greek god Apollo actually grabs the USS Enterprise in space. Also, during the kaleidoscopic end credits of "Star Trek: Beyond" (specifically, at the moment the credits read "Paramount Pictures and Skydance Pictures present"), a giant green space hand reaches straight for the camera.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: For the treehouse sequence, young Macaulay Culkin and Elijah Wood made the 30-foot climb up the tree themselves, with no safety nets or wires. However, the tree was mostly surrounded (everything outside of the camera frame) with elaborate scaffolding, sufficient to support all the camera crew and equipment, so the boys were always within arm's reach of an adult.

Charles Austin Miller

Audio problem: During the failed kidnapping attempt at the mall, Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made for Walking" is playing over the mall sound system, and the song is badly edited to extend it for the duration of the scene. In the actual song, Nancy Sinatra famously says, "Are you ready, boots? Start walkin'!" only once. But, in this movie's chopped-up version, she says it twice.

Charles Austin Miller

Revealing mistake: After Rachel tumbles down the well, we see her heavy-duty Eveready Commander Flashlight, 12-volt battery and all, bobbing above the surface of the water like a cork. Which is ridiculous. A real 12-volt Commander Flashlight would sink like a rock, because it weighs about 4 pounds. However, the filmmakers needed to explain how Rachel could see at the bottom of a pitch-black well, so they used a lightweight, floating flashlight prop, supposedly providing a light source for the scene.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: Near the beginning, J.M. Barrie encounters Sylvia and the children in the park and performs a dancing bear routine with his dog, Porthos, for their entertainment. Afterwards, Barrie is kneeling with his arms around the dog as Sylvia and the children depart. The camera cuts for just a moment to the children as they say goodbye. As the camera cuts back to Barrie, the large dog has vanished entirely from the scene and Barrie is now kneeling with a two-piece fishing pole in both hands. The camera cuts for a split-second back to the children, then back to Barrie, and the fishing pole has vanished but Barrie is kneeling with the dog again.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: During a September 2017 interview on the BBC 4 Today programme, legendary comedian and comic filmmaker Mel Brooks was asked if he thought he could make some of his most famous films (such as "The Producers," "Blazing Saddles," and "Young Frankenstein") in today's over-sensitive, thin-skinned political climate. Brooks replied: "Maybe Young Frankenstein, but never Blazing Saddles, because we have become stupidly politically correct, which is the death of comedy. It's OK not to hurt the feelings of various tribes and groups. However, it's not good for comedy. Comedy has to walk a thin line, take risks. Comedy is the lecherous little elf whispering in the king's ear, always telling the truth about human behavior."

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: At the end, Casey and Elaine flee the house in the Volvo and find Chloe's crashed SUV. As Casey goes to investigate the SUV on foot, Miranda suddenly comes sprinting out of the woods, intending to kill Casey. To save Casey, Elaine rams Miranda with the Volvo, slamming her into the rear of the SUV. A camera shot from inside the SUV looking out shows that Miranda impacted right in the center of the SUV's rear hatch. In the same shot, we see Miranda's lifeless body slowly slide straight down the hatch, meaning her body should have collapsed directly between the Volvo and the SUV. When the camera cuts to an exterior view, we see Miranda's lifeless body stretched out in the snow (parallel to both vehicles) a couple of feet away from the Volvo's front right fender; so her body is now about 6 feet away from where it should be.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Longtime actor Michael Keaton seems permanently attached to winged superhero roles. Keaton began the superhero phase of his career in 1989 as "Batman" in the original film and its first sequel. Keaton was nominated for an Academy Award for 2014's "Birdman," playing a washed-up actor who was once a flying superhero movie star. In "Spiderman: Homecoming," Keaton plays the high-flying villain Adrian Toomes (aka "Vulture").

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: When Willard goes to confront his boss, Al Martin, about killing Socrates earlier that day, we get a good view all around Al Martin's office. There are a few rats on the desk, coffee table and a chair; but there are absolutely no rats climbing the curtains. Al Martin realises Willard is insane and they struggle briefly, whereupon a single rat leaps on Martin's arm and bites him as he screams. In that moment, seven rats suddenly appear climbing high up on the curtains behind Al Martin. The camera makes a one-second cut to Willard for his famous line, "Tear him up!" The camera immediately cuts back to Al Martin, and now all the rats have disappeared from the curtains in the background.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: At the beginning, Robert Angier (the Great Danton) travels to Colorado Springs to see Nikola Tesla. When Angier meets Tesla's assistant, Alley, it's obvious that his arrival was not expected. Angier then explains that Tesla had built a machine for Angier's colleague (and Angier wants to purchase the same or similar machine). However, when Alfred Borden gave Angier the "Tesla" clue, it was a complete ruse to waste Angier's time and money and throw him far off the much simpler secret of The Transported Man trick. Tesla had never built such a machine for Borden and had never attempted to build a teleportation device before. So, why did Tesla just agree to build the mysterious machine without questioning Angier's "colleague" remark? Was Tesla colluding with Alfred Borden? And why?

Charles Austin Miller

Part 16 - S1-E16

Bushnell Mullins: What about the FBI?
Dale Cooper: I AM the FBI.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: When Andy Konsong discovers his brother's mutilated body in the bloody swimming pool, he vomits, then tries calling for help on his cellphone. As he makes his call, the gigantic crocodile lunges out of the pool and bites off Andy's arm, cellphone and all, above the elbow. Andy screams, staggers and lands on his back, but his only injury thus far is his severed right arm. His mouth is not bloody at all, nor should it be. The camera cuts to another angle as the crocodile lunges a second time; but, before it even enters the frame and bites into his legs, Andy's mouth is suddenly full of blood, his teeth are bloody, and blood is streaming down his chin, even though he has suffered no abdominal injuries.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: At the end, when Gloria hurls Oscar completely out of sight beyond the horizon, a huge crowd of South Koreans rush up directly behind Gloria, cheering and applauding, only a few feet away from her. The camera cuts to a frontal shot of Gloria, and now the crowd is 30 feet or more in the background.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: After the raven attacks journalist Joan Hart, pecking her eyes out, she blindly staggers into the highway and is run down by a Mack tractor-trailer. As the truck locks up its brakes and strikes her, we see Joan Hart levitate straight up into the air, arc completely over the truck's massive front-end (even over the cab of the truck), and finally impact the top of the freight trailer, which is about 13 feet in height. More than merely absurd-looking, this sequence utterly defies Newtonian physics. From her standing position at ground level, Joan Hart should have been instantly pulverized on impact and launched many meters down the road in the same direction the truck is traveling.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: Following his lecture on cold fusion, Ed Walters attends a reception, mingling with the academic crowd. At one point, millionaire Louis Bamberger approaches Walters and excitedly presents him with a Bic 4-Color Ballpoint Pen, which suggests that the pen was new on the market in the early-to-mid 1950s. Problem is, the Bic 4-Color Ballpoint Pen wasn't invented and marketed until 1974, some 20 years after the setting of this film.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Producer/screenwriter/director John Boorman deliberately chose renowned stage actors Nicol Williamson and Helen Mirren to play the sorcerer Merlin and the sorceress Morgana, knowing very well that Williamson and Mirren hated each other in real life (because of a disastrous stage production of Macbeth they worked on, years earlier). Boorman anticipated real friction, tension and anger between the two actors, which was the effect he wanted onscreen. On the contrary, the experience of working together in "Excalibur" completely changed Nicol Williamson and Helen Mirren into the best of friends.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: The Kiss of the Dragon acupuncture point, known as "Point 15," is in a delicate area of the spinal column, a little below the second cervical vertebra. It's a definite knock-out target in fighting, and it can even be a lethal target. But Jet Li's explanation that it somehow prevents blood from flowing away from the brain is pure nonsense.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: Sean Connery took dancing lessons for 11 years in his youth, and he surely knew how to dance when he made this film in his 50s. So, why is his choreographed tango with Kim Basinger in this film so painfully, embarrassingly awkward and heavily edited? Is this perhaps due to the fact that Kim Basinger had virtually no dancing skills?

Charles Austin Miller

Question: While re-watching "Sin City" on HBO recently, I realised that the closed captioning for this film has been noticeably censored. While the audio track seems intact, every instance of the word "fag" results in that entire line of dialogue being omitted from closed captioning. Is this strangely selective closed captioning censorship featured on the original "Sin City" DVD, or is this HBO's own particular brand of censorship?

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: Scarlett and George use the Rose Key to translate the inscription on the back of Flamel's ancient tombstone, and it translates into a rhyming English lyric puzzle. Problem is, they are translating this lyric puzzle from Aramaic (an ancient and virtually dead Middle Eastern language) to modern English. Aramaic would not and could not translate into rhyming modern English.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: When "Auto Focus" debuted, Bob Crane's son, Scotty Crane, complained loudly that the film was completely inaccurate and misleading. Scotty said that, while his father had been a lifelong sex-addict who recorded and photographed sex acts as far back as 1956, he was not a church-goer (as depicted in the film), he never tried S&M (as depicted in the film), and that he only started socializing with John Henry Carpenter in 1975, long after the Hogan's Heroes TV series ended, just 3 years before the unsolved murder that took Bob Crane's life. The film jumbles all of these events out of chronological order, omitting factual events while fabricating pure fantasy events for no other reason than to sensationalize Crane's troubled life and death.

Charles Austin Miller

Deliberate mistake: Although much of Auto Focus revolves around the 1960s hit television series "Hogan's Heroes," the producers of this independent film could not work out a licensing agreement with CBS regarding the famous "Hogan's Heroes" theme music. As a result, the familiar "Hogan's Heroes" theme music is entirely absent from Auto Focus, replaced with contrived theme music that isn't even remotely similar to the original.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: When Shelly is possessed, she and Scotty fight and she amputates her own right hand before she goes down. Moments later, she comes back to life and Scotty starts dismembering her with an axe, starting with her left hand. We plainly see the axe come down full-force on her left wrist. However, in two subsequent shots, we see her intact left arm and hand in the foreground, reaching for Scotty as he continues chopping.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: The original 1961 story by Polish sci-fi writer Stanisław Lem was about the utter futility of attempted communications between humans and intelligent extraterrestrial species, because humans and aliens would have no common physical or psychological frame of reference for any attempted communication. For example, in the book, human scientists study the ocean planet Solaris for many decades without ever deciphering what they think are intelligent, changing patterns on the planet's fluid surface. They attempt to provoke a response from Solaris by firing X-rays at the planet, and the planet responds by reaching into the minds of the scientists and creating physical manifestations of their most guilty and painful memories. This has a traumatic effect on the baffled scientists, of course, and they have no idea what kind of communication they have established. Ultimately, the human scientists realise that the intelligence of Solaris is so vastly different from human intelligence, no meaningful interspecies communication is possible. This is a common theme in other works by Stanislaw Lem.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Throughout its long run on American television, M*A*S*H employed "canned laughter" (recorded audience laughter used to punctuate humorous lines of dialogue and comedic antics). However, the producers deliberately omitted the canned laughter in every surgery scene, even when the jokes were still flying thick and fast.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Jamie Farr (who played the cross-dressing Corporal and later Sergeant Maxwell Klinger) really did serve in the U.S. Army in Japan and Korea for two years, starting in 1955. When he joined the M*A*S*H television series in the 1970s, Jamie Farr wore his actual U.S. Army dog-tags in every appearance.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Both the rocket pistol and the cigarette rocket featured in the movie were real-life weapons. The arms manufacturer that created these gadgets paid for their product placement in the film with the intention of later marketing the weapons to the military and intelligence communities. Unfortunately, the rocket pistol and cigarette rocket proved too expensive, too clumsy, and too unreliable for field use, and the manufacturer ceased production two years later.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: "The Box" was based on a short horror story entitled "Button Button" by prolific and legendary sci-fi author Richard Matheson. Matheson's original story was first published in a 1970 issue of Playboy Magazine. He adapted his own story for the screen in a 1985 episode of the new "Twilight Zone" TV series, but it was significantly rewritten after he submitted it. Matheson was so angered by the Twilight Zone rewrite that he refused to allow his real name in the episode credits and instead used his pseudonym, "Logan Swanson."

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Ever since "Planet Terror," a common misconception among some fans is that lead actor Freddy Rodriguez is related to film maker Robert Rodriguez (probably due to the fact that Robert is known for casting family members in his films). However, Robert and Freddy aren't related at all. Robert Rodriguez was born in San Antonio, Texas, in 1968, of Mexican descent. Freddy was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1975, of Puerto Rican descent.

Charles Austin Miller

Revealing mistake: During the high-speed chase with the tractor trailer, Vince fires one grappling wire through the truck's passenger windscreen to pull the glass out. He fires a second grappling wire through the now-open windscreen and grapples the passenger seat, then attaches the grappling wire to his harness and leaps to the front of the truck. So, his only tether to the truck is the horizontal grappling wire attached inside the truck cab. But, when the truck driver slams on the brakes, Vince is catapulted around the truck's front-end to the side door, his full weight suspended from a visible, vertical line that is attached to something several feet above the truck cab. The taut line from above even crushes the truck's side-view mirror under Vince's weight. This is the stuntman's safety cable, attached to an overhead boom mounted out-of-frame on top of the truck rig.

Charles Austin Miller

Character mistake: Although great care was taken to duplicate Bob Crane's distinctive hairstyle for Greg Kinnear, Bob Crane's hair was actually parted on the left. The makeup department for this film parted Greg Kinnear's hair on the right, producing a mirror-image of Bob Crane's hairstyle.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: At the beginning, MacReady dumps a tumbler of ice and scotch into his computer, which spews a shower of sparks as it shorts out. No electronic device, not even an old 1980s personal computer, sparks like that when shorted out. It simply goes dead.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: In reality, Adolf Hitler ordered his commanders and troops to stand down and allow Allied forces to escape at Dunkirk. The German General von Blumentritt is quoted as saying "He (Hitler) then astonished us by speaking with admiration of the British Empire, of the necessity for its existence, and of the civilisation that Britain had brought into the world...He said that all he wanted from Britain was that she should acknowledge Germany's position on the Continent." But the exact reason for the order remains unknown.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: In the Watchmen timeline, Rorschach's polymorphic head mask was supposed to be a commercialized offshoot of Dr. Manhattan technology. It was a double-layered, temperature-sensitive fabric that changed patterns in response to fluctuating body heat, and it was originally intended to be marketed in the garment industry. That is where Walter Kovac (Rorschach) discovered the fabric, when he worked for a dressmaker in his youth. He privately used samples of the fabric to create his own head mask. Unfortunately, the novelty fabric was a commercial failure in the Watchmen timeline, which is why we don't see it used anywhere else in the Watchmen film.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: During the flashback to 1712, Connor and Duncan fight it out with highwaymen who are collecting fake tolls from travelers. Throughout this scene, Duncan McLeod's five-o-clock shadow starts out dark, becoming lighter, then darker, and then almost clean-shaven from shot-to-shot as the fight progresses. This continuity problem persists, to a lesser extent, throughout the film.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: During the real Deepwater Horizon oil spill, actor Kevin Costner offered his services, claiming that a small company he bought from the U.S. Department of Energy could clean up 90% of the oil in a week, using poorly-tested technology. His offer was accepted, despite zero evidence that the technology ever worked; and it failed miserably, of course.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Given that Clint Eastwood has composed much of the music for his films over the last 25 years, it's not surprising that the soundtracks of "Hereafter" and "Unforgiven" are incredibly similar, if not interchangeable.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: At the very beginning, "Hereafter" makes the same factual mistake as was made in "2012" and "San Andreas": Crystal-clear tsunami flood waters. Of course, tsunami floods are always inky-black, filled with churned-up silt, sediment and debris.

Charles Austin Miller

Stupidity: In the scene with the water-jug puzzle, both Zeus Carver and John McClane initially suspect that the small carrying case contains a bomb. McClane goes ahead and opens the case, which confirms that it is a bomb (the electronic readout in the case even says: "I AM A BOMB. YOU HAVE JUST ARMED ME"). If they suspected it was a bomb in the first place, why didn't Carver and McClane immediately try to warn the dozens of pedestrians all around them to evacuate the area before McClane opened it? That would be a seasoned police officer's first instinct. Instead, McClane and Carver banter and bicker and never attempt to warn the public, even as the timer is ticking down.

Charles Austin Miller

When did purely percussive movie and television soundtracks become popular? What landmark movie or TV soundtrack set this percussive precedent?

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: We see Vic outside the halfway house, just starting to chop a 4-foot log with a double-bit axe. In the same scene a few moments later, as Joey approaches, Vic has chopped about a third of the way through the log. Problem is, it's a completely different log (different shape, texture and color).

Charles Austin Miller

Question: The largest sandstorms ever recorded are less than a mile high (reaching only about 5000 feet in altitude). Isn't 5000 feet considered low altitude for a Fairchild C-119G "Flying Boxcar," which could easily climb over such a storm in a matter of minutes?

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: After Charlie Sheen performed brilliantly in such highly-acclaimed Oliver Stone films as "Platoon" and "Wall Street," film maker Stone had a face-to-face meeting with Sheen to discuss him starring in "Born on the Fourth of July." Charlie Sheen came away from the meeting confident that the lead role belonged to him. However, after several weeks, Charlie Sheen was stunned and infuriated to learn (from his brother, Emilio Estevez) that Oliver Stone had chosen Tom Cruise for the lead role. Stone never even bothered to call Sheen with the news.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: When Prince Nuada defies his father, he kills every royal guardsman in a matter of seconds. There are only two guards left, and he kills them, also, before he kills his father. As Nuada kills his father, we see Mr. Wink in the background, fighting a very-much-alive royal guardsman.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: When Robert Neville is driving golf balls off the deck of the ship, he sees a deer on the mainland. He and his dog go in pursuit. In a wide, distant shot, we see the deer fleeing full-tilt down a city street, with Robert Neville pursuing at the same speed as the deer, only about 10 yards behind the animal. Impossible. A panicked deer can run over twice as fast as the fastest human being.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: In the final scene on the rooftop helipad, Mark Wahlberg raises his semi-auto handgun and shoots Beau Bridges once, straight through the heart. Bridges is dead before he hits the ground: His knees buckle and he falls face-down, with both arms hanging limp at his sides. The camera cuts to a close-up of Bridges face-down on the helipad, but now his left arm is raised with his hand directly in front of his face. That would only be possible if he fell with his left arm raised after he was shot.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: Writer/director Adam MacDonald boasted that he studied black bear predatory behavior and black bear attacks on humans for years in preparation for making this film, because he wanted to depict a black bear attack in as factual and as authentic a manner as possible. But, at the most crucial point in this film (when the black bear actually does attack Alex and Jenn), factual accuracy goes out the window. As Alex and Jenn cower in terror, the bear lunges into their tent and bites into Alex's leg; whereupon, Jenn fires a can of bear spray (a stifling pepper-based chemical) point-blank into the animal's face. The startled bear retreats for a moment, but then lunges into the tent again, dragging Alex outside and killing him; thereafter, the bear continues pursuing Jenn for the remainder of the film. However, according to years of extensive study by the University of Calgary, no bear has ever attacked a human after the animal was sprayed with bear spray, much less resumed an attack, as depicted in this film. To date, the success rate of defensive bear spray is 100%. So, the factual accuracy of "Backcountry" was abandoned for the sake of cheap thrills.

Charles Austin Miller

Revealing mistake: Near the end, when the little league ball field is under construction, mob hit men suddenly appear and Vinnie dives for cover behind a stack of pallets; as soon as Vinnie dives for cover, he almost instantly stands up behind the pallets and opens fire. Of course, Vinnie is played by two people in this shot: A stuntman (who dives) and Steve Martin (who stands up). Watch the right side of the screen, and you will see the shadow of Steve Martin crouched and hiding behind the pallets while the stuntman makes his dive for cover. As the stuntman dives out of sight, you then see Steve Martin's crouched shadow stand straight up.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: Near the end, Ethan Hunt and Sean Ambrose engage in a high-speed motorcycle chase that culminates with them crashing their motorcycles head-on. Just before the crash, both men leap off their bikes and their bodies collide in mid-air above the crash. However, if Hunt and Ambrose were racing towards each other at 40 mph (a conservative estimate), then the combined force of their bodies colliding would be equivalent to an 80 mph impact, which would pulverize their skeletons and kill both men instantly.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: At the very end of the scene in which Walter and the Dude are spreading Donnie's ashes at the coast, a dark and unidentifiable figure appears for a few seconds in the upper right screen, apparently hiking a trail along the cliff. Was this an accidental walk-on by an actual hiker, or was it written into the script? With all the star-power in this film, I thought every bit of background action was supposed to be meticulously crafted.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: While rumors of many deaths and strange events surrounding The Exorcist's production were largely fabricated and/or sensationalized for publicity purposes, two of the film's actors did in fact die before the movie was released. The character of Burke Dennings was killed in the film, and the actor who played him, Jack MacGowran, died of influenza shortly after completing his role. Likewise, the character of Mary Karras (elderly mother of Fr. Damien Karras) died in the film, and the actress who portrayed her, Vasiliki Maliaros, also died of natural causes shortly after completing her role.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Actress Eileen Dietz doubled for Linda Blair in many of the film's possession sequences, including the infamous projectile-vomiting scene. Dietz, however, received no screen credit for her work, and she later unsuccessfully sued Warner Brothers and the film makers for puking credits.

Charles Austin Miller

Revealing mistake: When Doctor Detroit and his girls make their escape from the automobile salvage yard, they drive a wrecker straight through a large sliding wooden gate, which punches a perfectly clean outline of the truck and Doctor Detroit through the gate. Problem is, the resulting (pre-cut) hole does not match the dimensions of the wrecker or Doctor Detroit at all. In fact, at the point of impact, the stuntman playing Doctor Detroit hugs in close to the wrecker for protection as it plows through the gate, and the outline of his body just magically opens up two feet away from him.

Charles Austin Miller

Deliberate mistake: The wrecker used in this film is a Western Star Model 4964. The manufacturer emblem (a chrome 5-point star superimposed on a large "W") is normally displayed at the top-center of the truck's radiator. Apparently, the film makers could not bring Western Star on board for an advertising agreement, or Western Star specifically objected to their logo appearing in the movie, because the Western Star emblem on the wrecker's radiator is carefully kept out of frame or otherwise obstructed from view throughout the film. For scenes in which a full frontal shot of the wrecker is unavoidable, the Western Star emblem is very deliberately covered up with dark green tape.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: As I always understood Ant-Man, he always retained the same mass, regardless of his physical size. When he reduces his size, he still retains about 160 lbs of mass, which makes him more formidable, like a 160 lb grain of sand. When he enlarges, even to gigantic size, he is still only 160 lbs. So, how can he kick vehicles around in the airport scene?

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: Late in the film, Alex Browning hides out in the cabin and attempts to make it as death-proof as possible, securing everything therein with ropes and duct tape, and carefully placing his kerosene lantern in a tray of water. At first, we see that the antique lantern is painted dark green; but, one scene later, the same antique lantern (in the same tray of water) is now painted bright red.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: The Ghost of Christmas Past takes Frank to the year 1969, where he watches his younger self giving Claire a set of twelve Ginsu knives on Christmas Eve. Young Frank even remarks that the Ginsu knives are sharp enough to cut through a tin can as easily as a tomato. Problem is, Ginsu knives didn't arrive on the market until 1978, which is when the tin-can-cutting demonstration was first used.

Charles Austin Miller

Part 8 - S1-E8

The Woodsman: This is the water. And this is the well. Drink full and descend. The horse is the white of the eyes and dark within.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: 18-year-old actress Sarah Holcomb started her movie career in 1978's "Animal House" (playing Clorette DePasto, the mayor's 13-year-old daughter) and ended her movie career two years later in 1980's "Caddyshack" (playing the fiery Maggie O'Hooligan). Holcomb actually appeared in five films during her two-year career, which came to an abrupt end due to severe schizophrenia brought about by cocaine addiction. Holcomb was institutionalized and never returned to acting. Today, at age 58, Holcomb lives a quiet, reclusive life under an assumed name somewhere in Connecticut.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: When the authorities and moving crews are clearing all of the junk out of Delta House, we see a workman with a hammer removing the fraternity symbols from the house's upstairs railing. However, the symbols are not in the correct order: They read "Delta Chi Tau," and the workman is removing the "Tau" from the end. Moments later, we see the workman still removing the fraternity symbols, but now they are in the correct order, "Delta Tau Chi," and he is removing the "Tau" again, but removing it from the center.

Charles Austin Miller

Revealing mistake: Near the end, during the night-time bridge exchange scene, the Americans enter from one end of the bridge and the Soviets enter from the other end. Suddenly, the Soviets switch on multiple flood lights directly behind the Soviet party, which should have cast shadows from their bodies dozens of meters in length. Instead, the shadows from the Soviet party are quite short, only a couple of meters, indicating that the primary lighting is out-of-frame, far above their heads.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Brent Spiner performed the majority of his scenes alone, with no other principal actors on the set. In fact, Spiner is digitally inserted into some scenes where he appears with other principal actors.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: Early in the film, as Jake and Charlie are towing a new weapon system to its destination on the Moon, we see Earth in the background, more than half illuminated by the Sun. Jake says they are 7 miles away and closing on their lunar destination (which should only take a matter of moments). A few moments later, as Jake and Charlie are still in approach, we see Earth in the background again, but it is now in a waning crescent, only 1/3 illuminated by the Sun. This would indicate over a week's passage of time.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: Multi-part question regarding the actual brawl between Batman and Superman. Batman's first barrier is a sonic attack (lifted right out of Marvel's "Incredible Hulk," which Superman defeats the same way the Hulk did: Ripping apart an iron plate and destroying the sonic emitters with the two halves of iron). Why was Superman bending over, holding his head, when we know he has super-selective hearing? Superman could instantly block out a sonic attack without even blinking. Batman's second barrier was comprised of a couple of machine-cannons; again, Superman ducks and covers until he realises the cannons do not affect him. Why would Superman attempt to shield himself from conventional firearms? Did he suspect they were Kryptonite rounds? If so, why even bother shielding himself? If Superman suspected that Batman was using Kryptonite-based weaponry, why would he even walk into that scenario? After Superman strolls through Batman's first two deterrents, Batman then uses a third barrier, a smoke bomb that can, apparently, block Superman's X-ray vision. What was in the smoke? Was it lead-based smoke? Because Batman escapes while Superman seemingly can't see through the smoke. As far as I can tell, Superman doesn't realise that Batman is using Kryptonite-based weapons until Batman uses the Kryptonite gas mortars on Superman. So, why did the first three weapons even slow Superman down? Superman could have defeated Batman in a fraction of a second without killing him.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: Near the end, Scott Lang inadvertently shrinks to subatomic size, drifting through a kaleidoscopic quantum universe, and we see him reacting to the visual effects. However, at subatomic size, Scott shouldn't be able to "see" anything, because the rods and cones in the human retina can only "see" in a narrow band of light frequencies, and Scott is far, far smaller than the frequency of visible light waves. Additionally, Scott couldn't possibly "hear" his daughter Cassie crying "Where are you, Daddy?" Human hearing is based completely on air vibrations at certain frequencies, and Scott is millions of times smaller than sonic frequencies or even the nearest air molecule.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: At the onset of the Third Wave (avian-transmitted disease), Chloe Moretz narrates: "There are over 300 billion birds in the world. That's 75 birds for every person." Apparently, the screenwriters couldn't use a simple calculator. Given that the movie is set in the present (with our current human population of about 7.4 Billion), the ratio of birds-to-people can only be about 43 birds for every person, if we accept the film's "300 Billion birds" statistic. Indeed, if there were 75 birds for every person on earth, the total population of birds on the planet would be about 555 Billion, or nearly twice the number stated in the film. Additionally, if she is basing her narrative statistics on reduced human and bird populations (because so many people AND birds were exterminated in the first and second waves), HOW would she know that? The first wave knocked out electronic communications, including the Internet.

Charles Austin Miller

Show generally

Continuity mistake: Overcome by mysterious toxic fumes, Bad Cooper loses control of his car and rolls it on the roadside. The vehicle tumbles but lands upright; and, as it comes to rest, the interior camera shot looking out shows a relatively minor crack in the far left side of the windshield. Camera cuts to an exterior frontal shot looking in at Bad Cooper, and now the windshield is shattered all the way past center, with the left side partially caved-in. Camera cuts back to an interior shot looking out, and the windshield is, again, largely undamaged. Camera cuts back to exterior and the windshield is, again, thoroughly shattered. Another interior shot looking out, again, shows minor damage.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: After Bobby Darin loses the Academy Award for supporting actor, he and Sandra Dee argue and threaten to leave one another. Sandra Dee jumps into her pink '63 Cadillac Coupe Deville and roars away as Bobby Darin jumps into his red '61 Cadillac Convertible and futilely tries to start it. The car's battery fails, and we see the four headlights flicker and go dark. Enraged, Bobby Darin jumps out of the convertible and begins smashing the car with a golf club. When he starts smashing out the headlights, all four lights are now glowing brightly.

Charles Austin Miller

Audio problem: Although Kevin Spacey actually sang for the soundtrack, his lip-sync blunders are noticeable in every song, and virtually all of the musical routines in this film are out-of-sync with the audio track. Even rhythmic hand-clapping on stage is out-of-sync.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: In the very last scene, we see Michael Shannon in shackles (presumably in a federal prison) with electroencephalographic sensors attached to his forehead and scalp, oddly gazing at the sunrise as two prison guards flank him. In the very last shot of the film, a closeup of his face, we see his eyes faintly glow for a split-second as he smiles a very slight smile. Question: Is the film implying that Alton is in otherworldly contact with his father, or that his father absorbed some of Alton's otherworldly power; or is it implying that, being the boy's biological father, he was the source of Alton's power? In any event, this may never be revealed, because the film barely made back one-third of its $18 million production budget, making the probability of a sequel highly unlikely.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: I suppose this is more a request for an educated guess than anything. Why can't anyone seem to produce a working Fantastic 4 movie franchise? The first two movies and the first reboot were awful, simply put, and the poor box office returns made future sequels or reboots even less likely. Why can no one seem to get a grip on what makes Fantastic 4 tick?

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: The Mariner's tiny gill-slits behind each ear could barely oxygenate a one-foot-long fish, never mind a full-grown human being. To accommodate his 6-foot body, the Mariner would need multiple 8-inch gills stacked on either side of his neck, at least. Compounding this error, the Mariner then draws Helen to safety underwater, telling her, "I'll breathe for both of us!" So, now his grossly undersized gills are oxygenating two full-grown human beings.

Charles Austin Miller

Visible crew/equipment: As Bruce Willis and Andi McDowell improbably make their castle-escape aboard the da Vinci glider, a wide, open-air aerial shot looking down shows the model glider pass right through the shadow of the hovering helicopter that is shooting the footage.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: The red ink stain on Shaun's shirt pocket disappears and reappears repeatedly throughout the film.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: When Tom Arnold introduces Arnold Schwarzenegger to the remote camera eyeglasses, Arnold sees his daughter stealing money from his jacket. In two camera cuts, the angle and width of the remote camera view changes, although the remote camera is stationary on the fireplace mantle.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: Late in the film, Nicolas Cage throws a grenade to kill the Japanese who have captured Roger Willie. The resulting explosion is a prolonged pyrotechnic plume with petroleum flames bursting out of the ground. WWII grenades didn't produce flames of any kind, and they still don't.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: Here's a question that's never been answered. After Captain Quint addresses the Amity city council, he bids them good day and leaves, and a dog and a little guy wearing a cap obediently follow Quint down the hall. For a split-second, we also see this little guy's cap pass before the camera inside Quint's dock-front quarters. Who was this little guy, Quint's first mate? We don't know, because that little guy is never seen again after the dock quarters scene.

Charles Austin Miller

Plot hole: At the end, Hartigan races out to the Roark Farm to save Nancy, where he takes out two guards quietly, with a switchblade knife. As he dispatches the second guard, we see the ruthless cannibal killer Kevin just yards away, inside the house, reading. Hartigan then makes a blunder, starts rushing, and he is shot by a third guard. Hartigan kills the third and a fourth guard with two handgun shots. Obvious question: With three gunshots in rapid succession just outside the remote house, why didn't the hyper-alert and agile Kevin come out and rip Hartigan to shreds? No, the generic contention that "Kevin wasn't concerned with Roark's son" is not an answer. When Marv infiltrated and attacked the Roark compound (twice), Kevin immediately engaged Marv. In both instances, Kevin responded to attacks on the compound without even knowing who was attacking. But Kevin completely ignores Hartigan's attack, which seems like a plot hole.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: On a budget of only $3 million, the producers offered actor Donald Sutherland a choice of $35,000 cash for 2 days work or 2% of the film's box office gross. Because nobody in the cast or crew believed that "Animal House" would be a hit, Sutherland opted for the $35,000 cash. As it happened, the $3 million comedy went on to gross over $141 million at the box office. Meaning that Sutherland would've made $2.8 million if he had chosen 2% of the gross.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: When Joseph Gorden-Levitt is performing his street act in Paris, somebody drops a jaw-breaker candy into his hat instead of money. He removes the jaw-breaker, performs some sleight-of-hand with it for the entertainment of the crowd, then deftly drop-kicks the candy into his mouth and bites down on it hard on the right side. It breaks his tooth and he immediately goes to the dentist; but he is clutching the left side of his face, instead of the right side.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: The marine biologist, Hooper, was an unlikable character in Peter Benchley's novel. In the book, Hooper had an affair with Chief Brody's wife, and Hooper was appropriately eaten alive by the Great White at the end. Steven Spielberg originally intended to follow the Benchley novel and allow Hooper to be eaten inside the shark cage. As it happened, Spielberg fell in love with some accidental footage of a real Great White thrashing wildly with an empty shark cage; in fact, he loved that shot so much, the scene was rewritten on-the-fly to allow Hooper to escape the cage and survive.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: At the end, to whom does Lex Luthor refer when he tells Batman, "He is coming for us, and he is hungry"? Does this suggest that Luthor used Kryptonian technology to send a message into space, alerting someone or something? But who?

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Its teaser trailers are, for the most part, out-take footage that doesn't actually appear in the episodes. For example, in the scene in which ShadowMoon and Mr. Wednesday first meet aboard the airliner, the teaser trailer uses completely different camera shots and different performances from the actors. In the actual episode, the camera shots and performances for the same scene are noticeably different.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: In Michael Crichton's original novel, John Hammond was a rather unlikeable character and was eaten alive by a swarm of Compsognathus dinos near the end. However, Steven Spielberg wanted to make John Hammond a more personable, sympathetic character in the first movie, allowing him to survive into sequel films. Therefore, John Hammond was spared. Nonetheless, the imagery of a person being swarmed and eaten by Compies was irresistible to Spielberg, and so the heavy character Dieter Stark was chosen as deserving victim of the lethal Compy attack in the second movie.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: At the very beginning of the film, the burglars take care to switch off the home alarm system before ransacking the house. Why, then, as they are leaving, do they turn the system back on and shatter a window to trigger the home alarm? Makes no sense.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Jason Statham not only performs the majority of his own movie stunts and fight scenes, but he is highly trained in kickboxing and jiu-jitsu and is considered as skilled as most MMA fighters.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: At the end of the film, in the bridge confrontation between Holmes, Blackwood and Irene Adler, Lord Blackwood forces Adler to the edge of a precipitous (and deadly) fall into the Thames. There is even a perspective shot, looking straight down, of her heels teetering on the edge and nothing between her and the river except two sailboats far below. There are obviously no scaffolds or other means of obstructing her fall in this shot. It's a dead drop. Then Blackwood shoves her straight backwards over the edge. But, when Holmes looks over moments later, Irene Adler is safe and sound on a convenient bit of scaffolding that magically appeared just a few feet below.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: Late in the film, after The Beast emerges, he partially devours two of the young girls like a ravenous animal; yet, when he catches up to the third girl, Casey, a few moments later, The Beast has no blood on his face, body or hands. Furthermore, when The Beast corners Casey in the cage, he presses his face between the bars, and we see no blood on his face. The camera cuts to Casey then back to The Beast, and now streams of blood are running from his mouth and down his chin. The camera cuts to Casey and back to The Beast once more, and now we see no blood on his face.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Indiana Jones could have escaped the rolling ball of rock by simply standing still, because the boulder started out about 15 feet over his head. Even if the boulder ended up blocking the entrance, there are several shafts of sunlight visible throughout the tunnel, indicating several potential points of escape.

Charles Austin Miller

Revealing mistake: In the opening scenes, we see a very pregnant Draka reclining on a bed of animal hides as Durotan watches over her. In the extreme closeup, we see Draka twitch her lips, and her small tusks flex from side-to-side with her lips, instead of remaining firmly aligned with her jaw as they should.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Christopher Lambert could barely speak any English when he was chosen for the lead role in this film.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: Early in the film, the Mangalore warrior Aknot mutters "Showtime" as he leads the attack on the Mondoshawan transport ship, destroying it. Shortly thereafter, at Zorg's factory, we see Aknot shape-shift between his human disguise and his natural Mangalore appearance. Much later in the film, we see Aknot in his same human disguise again aboard the Fhloston cruise ship, where Aknot again mutters "Showtime" before leading a murderous assault. So we recognize Aknot by his appearance and his mannerisms throughout the film. But wait: Presumably, Zorg killed the Mangalores who failed him (including Aknot) with a powerful explosive booby-trap at his factory, early in the film. So, how did Aknot appear much later aboard the Fhloston cruise ship? (There is no reason to assume that the Mangalores were capable of surviving the powerful blast at Zorg's factory, because we see Mangalores killed by smaller explosions and small firearms throughout the film).

Charles Austin Miller

Stupidity: Early in the film, Peter Parker desperately wants to see Mary Jane's performance, but he is turned away at the theatre doors because he is a few minutes late. Defeated, Peter shuffles away and sulks. Seriously? Why couldn't Peter simply enter the theatre through a side door or the roof? He's Spider Man.

Charles Austin Miller

Character mistake: When John Henry Irons is arrested, two police officers lay him face-down in order to zip-tie his wrists behind his back. A close-up of Irons' hands, however, reveals that the zip-tie only wraps around his right wrist while crossing about mid-way on his left thumb, meaning that he could easily remove his left hand from the restraint with very little effort. Arresting police officers would never make this mistake in real life.

Charles Austin Miller

Revealing mistake: When Luke tries to ram the gate with his car, a huge piece of spear-point wrought iron falls and impacts the roof of his vehicle. As the others rush to rescue Luke from the car, we can see the wrought-iron spear points flexing and bending, because they are made of rubber.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: Petite Christine Brown goes to the cemetery and spends hours digging up the grave of Sylvia Ganush in a pouring rainstorm. In spite of the rain, the 6-foot-deep grave is completely open and the soil is still dry and loose when Christine reaches the bottom. As soon as she reaches the bottom, however, the grave suddenly fills up with over a thousand gallons of water in about 45 seconds.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: When Harry is narrating a letter to Padfoot, he sees a Thestral flying in the far distance, and it disappears behind a mountain. He hikes (presumably) all the way to where he thinks the Thestral went, and he finds Luna Lovegood in a clearing with a few Thestrals. For one thing, the Thestral that disappeared behind the mountain was MILES away, and it would have taken Harry a couple of hours, at least, to hike that distance through mountainous terrain. But, when he arrives at the clearing with the Thestrals, the daylight hasn't changed at all (should have been noticeably different lighting). Once he arrives there, he sees that even the largest Thestral is no bigger than a horse. But, when he first saw the Thestral disappear behind the mountain, at that distance the Thestral was about the size of a commercial jet airliner.

Charles Austin Miller

Stupidity: Near the end, Sydney Wells and Paul Faulkner try to rescue a little 10-year-old girl who is trapped in the recreational vehicle. Sydney is banging on the door from the outside while the little girl is banging on the door from the inside. Paul then smashes out the door window, reaches inside and easily releases the door latch in one move. So, a 10-year-old girl was "trapped" because she couldn't simply open a door latch? Stupid.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: When Moira and Bill Davidson are strolling in the pasture, they pause to admire a beautiful mare that is posing for them, and Bill offers the horse something to eat from the palm of his hand (sugar cubes or some other treat, presumably, but it's not visible). However, the horse does not react to the treat nor eat anything that Bill offers, because the actor's hand was actually empty. The trained horse was obeying cues from her trainer, off-camera, and only her trainer carried the real treats.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: Near the end, in the "Leap of Faith" scene, Jones steps off the edge of the abyss and discovers an ingeniously-camouflaged stone bridge. The camera pans to show the camouflage effect from another angle, and it's obvious that the stone bridge is only about one foot thick from one end to the other. Relieved, Jones scampers across to the other side, and the camera cuts again to show that the bridge is now a full three feet thick.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Strangely, when "Patton" was first released, the most controversial scene in this film was that in which General Patton shoots a pair of mules that are blocking a bridge and dumps their carcasses over the side. While the true fate of the two animals is still unknown (were they actually shot, were they anesthetized, were they poisoned, were those real carcasses thrown from the bridge?), the fact is that no actual animal cruelty appears onscreen. Rather, in distinct cuts, Patton draws his revolver, gunshots are heard, two dead mules are seen in the roadway, followed by a wide, distant shot of the carcasses as they are tossed from the bridge. Any actual shooting or cruelty was, therefore, only inferred by the audience. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals protested the scene loudly in the press, but they did so with absolutely no evidence of animal cruelty in this scene.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: Near the end, Emma Gaines drives a small fiberglass boat at high speed straight through the plate-glass window of a downtown skyscraper. Plate glass is incredibly dense, much more dense than the fiberglass hull of a boat. On high-speed impact, the plate glass might indeed shatter, but the fiberglass hull of the boat would be utterly demolished.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: We repeatedly see Ray Gaines and his daughter, Blake, swimming and thrashing about in crystal-clear floodwater following the tsunami. But floodwater from a tsunami is invariably inky black with thick, churning silt, sediment and debris. The same crystal-clear tsunami floodwater mistake appears in the movie "2012"

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Although Adrian Brody was officially the star of "Hollywoodland," his character (private detective Louis Simo) was a completely fictional role in the movie. Virtually all of the other characters in the film are based on real people, but there never was a Louis Simo, and he's not based on any actual person (s). George Reeves' mother did hire an attorney and a detective agency in real life; however, "Hollywoodland" director Allen Coulter said that the character of Louis Simo wasn't even partially based on anyone in real life.

Charles Austin Miller

Other mistake: When Raymond shoots Senator Jordan, his first shot penetrates the carton of milk that Jordan is holding in his left hand. From Raymond's perspective, that carton of milk is positioned over Jordan's upper left arm; so, the first shot should have merely wounded Jordan in the left bicep, hardly a mortal wound. But Jordan's eyes roll up and he collapses as if shot in the heart.

Charles Austin Miller

Home Again - S2-E9

Plot hole: Old Ash travels back in time to 1982 to snatch the Necronomicon before Young Ash ever finds it (which should, presumably, erase all of the evil events from the original Evil Dead film right up to the present). Upon escaping the cabin, Old Ash finds that the timeline has self-corrected, and his amputated right hand has reappeared on his arm. But he is still in the 1980s. If the timeline had truly self-corrected, then Old Ash's car, his friends, and he himself would have vanished instantly from the 1980s, because the purpose of their mission never existed.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: Robbie is grabbed by the big, gnarly tree outside his bedroom window during a severe thunderstorm, and Steve rushes outside to save the boy as a full-blown tornado passes overhead. The tornado sucks up the tree (which certainly weighs several tons); yet, completely defying physics, Steve and Robbie remain unaffected by the powerful updraft, even though the two are directly beneath the tornado vortex.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: The government operatives go to great lengths to cordon-off and sanitize Elliott's home with extensive hazardous material preparation. Controlled airflow, Hazmat suits and everything. But as soon as E.T. "dies," everybody takes off their Hazmat masks. So, E.T. was only a Hazmat threat when he was alive? A real government Hazmat team would never drop their guard like this, as long as the alien body was still present.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: When Charlton Heston first arrives at the Flatiron Ranch, some ranch hands recognize the pack-horse that Heston is leading, and they call the horse by name: "Bright Eyes." A year later, Heston appeared in the first "Planet of the Apes" movie, where he himself is nicknamed "Bright Eyes" by Dr. Zira.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Charlton Heston is shot in the throat and captured by the apes. During his healing in captivity, Dr. Zira nicknames him "Bright Eyes," because of his obvious intelligence. A year earlier, when Charlton Heston appeared in the western "Will Penny," Heston's pack-horse was also named "Bright Eyes" in the film.

Charles Austin Miller

Show generally

Question: Does anyone know who appeared in later seasons as the Outer Limits "Intro Girl"? This question has circulated on the Internet for the last 20 years with no definitive answer. There is unsubstantiated speculation that the Intro Girl was either Diane Venora, Sofia Shinas, or even Paz de la Huerto; however, none of these actresses look anything remotely like the Intro Girl.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: In the boardroom of the Very Big Corporation of America, the company's holdings are listed on the wall in the background. It is a repeating list of names, some which are Monty Python puns, inside jokes and references to other scenes in the movie. The listed names are: Acme Construction Company; Payne, Bickers and Dogood Ltd.; Stn. Pendons Ltd.; V. Rich and Son; Doneys (Florence) ; Mirage Land Co.; Arctic Geo. Lab Co.; Liver Donors Inc.; World Wide Wine Corp.; Universal Amalgamations Ltd.; Consolidated Steel Co.; Micro Computer Inc.; Moonscape Products Ltd.; Rubber Goods Incorporated; D.Odgey Enterprises Ltd.; Money Factor Printers Ltd.; Better Plastics Corps.; D.Crepid Holdings; Super Big Ltd.; Space Propulsion Lab; Interstellar Travel Corp.; Dawking's Mining Co.; Lange and Sons (International) ; Cooper's (Purveyors) ; Dickinson Kincain Association; The All Enveloping Co. Ltd.; O.Verpaid Associates Ltd.; E. Normons and Sons; A. Maze and Lee Huge; Horace Mann and Yure Ltd.; R. Devious Inc.; Wakefeld and Daughter; Vast Holdings (Europe) Ltd.; Phil Thevich Consortium; Fastness and Vast Co. Ltd; Star Bright Merchandise Org.; X. Tortion World Wide Ltd.; Cartwright Tutorials; Black and White Picture Co. Ltd.; R. J. McArthur Parks Ltd.; Walker, Walker and Jones Bros.; Data Travel and Experiments.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Early on, Terry Jones spent almost the entire movie budget solely on the production of "Every Sperm is Sacred" without telling Terry Gilliam or the other Pythons.

Charles Austin Miller

In Our Own Image - S4-E26

Revealing mistake: When the android Mac 27 tries to plug a digital cable into the data port on the back of his neck, the camera cuts to an extreme close-up and we see the data port very obviously slip and move by a quarter-of-an-inch across his skin.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: Bernie made a full confession of murdering Mrs. Nugent to the police. In the event of full confessions, the cases go before a judge only for conviction and sentencing. So why did Bernie have to go before a jury trial?

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: Near the end, after the huge gold heist, Simon Peter Gruber and his psychotic lover, Katya, engage in rough celebratory sex, ripping off each other's clothing, such that Katya's upper torso and black lace brassiere are fully exposed. A few minutes later, when John McClain interrupts their sex, Katya's shirt is fully closed.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: As Jones and his father prepare to escape aboard the zeppelin, they walk past two men who are reading newspapers (one man on either side of the doorway). The two newspaper-reading men are George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: When Mickey Rourke is introduced to Sam Rockwell, they sit down for a rather lavish lunch in the Hammer aircraft hangar. As Sam drones on in his introductory remarks, the camera watches a waiter starting to pour red wine into the glass directly in front of Mickey Rourke. The camera cuts back to Sam, and Mickey's wineglass is already full. Camera cuts back to Mickey, and the full wineglass has moved about a foot to Mickey's right, although he hasn't touched it.

Charles Austin Miller

The Bicameral Mind - S1-E10

Trivia: Dolores tells William: "They say great beasts once roamed this world, as big as mountains, but all that's left of them is bone and amber." This is a general allusion to dinosaurs, of course; but, more specifically, it's a tip-of-the-hat to "Jurassic Park," by author Michael Crichton, who also wrote The Original "Westworld." The theme of most of Crichton's science fiction was human shortsightedness resulting in scientific nightmares. Crichton's "Westworld" and "Jurassic Park" are virtually identical stories about scientific amusement parks running amok.

Charles Austin Miller

Show generally

Continuity mistake: When the Man in Black wakes up with a noose around his neck, there are only 4 distinct loops in the hangman's knot. A few seconds later, he cuts the rope and collapses to the ground, and there are now 6 distinct loops in the hangman's knot.

Charles Austin Miller

Season 1 generally

Continuity mistake: Throughout the entire first season, Ash's 1973 Olds Delta 88 variably has 4 working taillights and then only 3 working taillights from one scene to the next (and even from one shot to the next).

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: All of the PT boats in this film are painted in the same Navy Gray used by larger warships of the US Navy in WWII. However, the real PT 109 and the other PTs in its squadron were painted green in order to better blend into their daytime anchorages or moorings near island jungles. The common green color scheme of this period was designated as "Design 5P" and incorporated Navy Green over a base coat of Ocean Green.

Charles Austin Miller

Spock's Brain - S3-E1

Factual error: In the opening sequence, Spock identifies the alien ship as possessing "ion propulsion" which he says is "unique technology." Scotty is similarly impressed and says, "They could teach us a thing or two!" Kirk later comments that "Advanced ion propulsion is beyond even our capabilities." However, even back in the 1960s, ion propulsion was physically feasible, while Warp propulsion was complete fantasy. Ion propulsion of any kind could never even reach lightspeed and would be incredibly primitive compared to Warp technology. In fact, we in the 21st Century have already developed ion propulsion, but it will probably take many hundreds or thousands of years to develop anything even close to Warp technology.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Probably the most impressive visual effect in this film is when Corso consults the twin brothers Pablo and Pedro Ceniza (rare book experts). Both Ceniza twins were played by actor José López Rodero in the subtle and entirely convincing digital effect sequence. The only flaw was that the elderly twins had identical facial wrinkles, which never happens with real-life twins. Beyond that, José López Rodero additionally played the two nameless workmen that Corso encounters at the end of the film, meaning that Rodero played four digital-effect roles in this movie.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: During the last great battle with Apocalypse, Beast hurls an entire automobile at Storm, and she recoils in fright. Before the car crushes Storm, Psylocke slices the automobile in half, with the two halves separating by several feet (at least 10 feet) before the shot changes. But in the next shot, the two halves of the car crash down on either side of Storm, separated by only a couple of feet.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: Virtually all of the CGI animals in this film are rendered at about 150% of their natural size. Additionally, even a small gorilla could tear the strongest human limb-from-limb, so Tarzan wouldn't have lasted two seconds in a hand-to-hand combat with an alpha male gorilla.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: In the military warehouse scene at the beginning of the film, the huge sliding doors are designated "51" in numbers 30 feet tall, on the inside of the warehouse doors. If you were already on the premises of a top-secret government base, and already inside a top-secret government warehouse, why would you need a 30-foot-tall numerical designation inside the building?

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Longtime Hollywood film composer Leonard Rosenman scored a stirring title theme for "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home," and it was well-received as an original Star Trek theme at the time (1986). However, the Star Trek IV title theme was actually a note-for-note recycled piece from the 1978 Ralph Bakshi animated film, "The Lord of the Rings," which Leonard Rosenman also scored. The victory fanfare in the Lord of the Rings' final battle scene is virtually the same music as Star Trek IV's title theme.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Longtime Hollywood film composer Leonard Rosenman scored the soundtrack of this 1978 Ralph Bakshi animated film, which was not a particular box office success. Seven years later, Leonard Rosenman recycled portions of the Lord of the Rings soundtrack when he also scored the soundtrack of "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home"; in fact, Star Trek IV's stirring title theme music is the same music as Lord of the Ring's final battle fanfare, note-for-note.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: When Logan and Francis chase the first Runner around and up the balconies inside The Great Hall, it seems as though the chase starts on the ground floor and only goes up one floor. But, when Francis shoots the Runner, he falls from about seven floors up, a long, protracted fall.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: Just watched "Die Hard 2" for the ten-thousandth time. Finally occurred to me, WHY would a pilot use a burning plane crash as a landing light? "Oh, there's a burning plane crash down there! Must be a good place to land!" As far as I know, all air traffic is diverted to other airports when an aircraft crashes.

Charles Austin Miller

Revealing mistake: In the beginning, a three-column newspaper story about the Arizona Quints is shown for a couple of seconds. Aside from the lead paragraph, the entire, lengthy newspaper story is composed of the same three paragraphs repeated over and over.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: When H.I. robs a convenience store with Ed and Nathan Jr in the car, their 1972 Chevrolet Impala Sedan has 4 working tail lights. In subsequent shots, there are only 3 working tail lights, then back to 4 again by the end of the sequence.

Charles Austin Miller

Plot hole: Marty Mikalski discovers a micro-camera in the cabin and is immediately grabbed by the cursed zombie Judah Bruckner, who drags Marty through the window and plants a machete in Marty's back. In that shot, the machete is obviously buried in Marty's back, which should have broken ribs both back and front, severed spinal nerves, penetrated arteries (as well as the right lung), and protruded from his chest. Marty was dead on arrival in that one stroke. Yet Marty emerges at the end of the film as the hero, with no gushing blood from his back or chest or mouth, and no explanation of how he miraculously removed the machete from his back.

Charles Austin Miller

Revealing mistake: When the Nazi doctor starts to torture Solo in the electric chair, he turns off all lights in the room except for a single dim light bulb over Solo's head; so, we know that the background is uniformly dark. Moments later, when Ilya comes to the rescue, a lighted control room appears behind the doctor, off to one side. After they strap the Nazi doctor into the electric chair, there is now a lighted control room directly behind the chair.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: Near the end, Jackie Chan's vastly-outnumbered forces resort to throwing stones to somehow utterly destroy a phalanx of Roman legionnaires in close-quarter combat. This scene flies in the face of what we know about Roman military superiority in the time of Tiberius. The Roman Army was the best-trained, best-organized, best-equipped military force of the Ancient World, specializing in tireless close-quarter combat and impenetrable defense. To suggest that Jackie Chan's frantic and disorganized group of fighters (throwing stones by hand) might overcome Roman legionnaires is like suggesting that cave men might overcome the modern U.S. Marine Corps.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: Why was Han Solo ever promoted to general, given that he typically ran from a fight?

Charles Austin Miller

Question: The Dark Lord Darth Vader has no military rank, he only answers to the Emperor. So, why do admirals give him orders that he obeys?

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: There are three major mistakes regarding gravity in the escape sequence in the asteroid field. Han and Chewie take the Millennium Falcon to refuge on an asteroid that, while visually huge, is still far too tiny to have sufficient gravity to allow humans to walk in anything like a normal fashion; yet, they walk normally both inside and outside of the ship. They also do not use pressurized suits outside of the ship, even though the asteroid's gravity should be far too weak to accumulate any significant atmospheric pressure; they use oxygen masks, but their blood should have boiled in near-zero atmospheric pressure. Finally, and most ridiculously, they fly straight down the giant cave worm's throat and land on the side of its throat (this is obvious in the shot where the Millennium Falcon lifts off and heads toward the toothy exit), and they get out and walk around on the side of its throat, which would mean the asteroid's gravity was impossibly perpendicular to its mass. (00:57:50)

Charles Austin Miller

Wink of an Eye - S3-E11

Continuity mistake: In the 40th Anniversary release of the complete original series, this episode opens with Scotty at the conn, making an extended log entry, wearing his third-season swept-back hairstyle, and it is very obvious that he is visually mouthing several completely different sentences than we hear in the audio. After the opening credits roll, we next see Scotty wearing his more typical relaxed hairstyle with slight bangs. It is apparent that, in remastering and editing this episode, they inserted footage of Scotty from another episode altogether. For whatever reason, it is a glaring mistake of both continuity and audio editing.

Charles Austin Miller

Plato's Stepchildren - S3-E10

Continuity mistake: Just before Parmen starts mind-controlling Kirk, McCoy and Spock, he presents them with three gifts. Kirk receives a large, gold Greek shield, which the captain holds with both hands, in front of him, as the lengthy scene continues. In the wide shot, Kirk is holding the shield high up on his chest, completely obscuring his Federation insignia. In subsequent close-ups, Kirk is holding the shield down low, around waist-level, fully exposing his chest and insignia. Every time the camera cuts back to wide-shot, Kirk is again holding the shield up high on his chest.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: What was the explanation for Princess Leia changing from an American accent to a bad British accent and back to an American again during "A New Hope"? Was this simply a case of bad acting and sloppy editing, or was Leia actually mocking Tarkin's British accent (which doesn't seem very dignified for a Princess)?

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: Amy arrives at the cabin and sets down her shoulder bag in the doorway as she searches for Mort. When she realises that Mort has become a homicidal maniac, she runs for her life, but she pauses long enough to retrieve her shoulder bag at the doorway as she flees the cabin. The camera immediately cuts to an exterior shot as Amy exits the cabin and runs for her car, but her shoulder bag has suddenly vanished and is never seen again.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: In the final duel between the Hulk and his energy-absorbing father in the remote lake, an aerial military task force drops a tactical nuclear missile on the lake, effectively sub-atomizing the Hulk's dad in an instant. While acknowledging that, yes, the Hulk himself might even survive a nuclear detonation, there is no doubt that the small lake (as well as Hulk's one-size-fits-all purple pants) should have been completely vaporized at temperatures of tens of thousands of degrees. However, immediately after the blast, we see the normal Bruce Banner drifting peacefully in the lake (which is not boiling nor even steaming) with his form-fitting purple pants entirely intact.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: When Biff and his gang are first chasing Marty on the skateboard in 1955, Marty escapes by grabbing the tailgate of a passing pickup truck which tows him around the corner. The gang jumps into Biff's convertible to continue the pursuit, and Biff's convertible actually has a rear-end collision with the pickup truck, barely missing Marty. How is it that the truck driver doesn't even react to all this insane activity and the rear-end collision? Rather than stopping and demanding an explanation, the truck driver continues away from the scene without even slowing down.

Charles Austin Miller

Audio problem: At the beginning, when Professor Broom and the young Hellboy are spending Christmas Eve at a military base in New Mexico, Broom insists that Hellboy go to bed, while Hellboy insists that Broom first tell a bedtime story: "Just one, and then I'll go to bed right away, I promise!" Which is an overdub (one of several in this scene). More than once, the young Hellboy's mouth visibly says something very different than is heard in the audio.

Charles Austin Miller

Other mistake: Dating back to the first Hellboy movie, we know that Abe Sapien has very prominent webbing between his fingers (extending almost to his fingertips). However, in the Troll Market scenes from Golden Army, Abe is wearing snug, full-fingered human gloves, which should be impossible with his webbed fingers.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: During the giant siege on the English castle, the giants use grappling hooks to pull the drawbridge open as the human defenders inside struggle to pull the drawbridge closed with an enormous hand-winch. The giants overpower the humans, and the huge hand-winch is actually torn loose of its moorings and tumbles away, useless. The humans then scramble to use "scorpion" tow lines to close the drawbridge. As the order is given to man the tow lines, the camera briefly cuts to the drawbridge entrance, where we again see the enormous hand-winch, still on its moorings, quite intact and fully functional.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: Near the end, Zoe and Trey battle to the death, Zoe armed with a tomahawk and a knife, Trey armed with a Husqvarna chainsaw. During the battle, Zoe manages to amputate Trey's right hand, with which he was gripping the chainsaw's safety release and trigger (as his left hand gripped the support handle). Bellowing in pain, Trey continues swinging the chainsaw by its support handle with his left hand. Lo and behold, the chainsaw is somehow, miraculously, still revving in-and-out, which is only possible if the safety release is continuously depressed with the palm of the right hand as the fingers rhythmically flex to squeeze the trigger. Of course, with all major tendons in the wrist severed, an amputated hand cannot grip or flex or squeeze anything.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: One puzzling point for newcomers to "Hellboy" through the cinema was the scene in which Hellboy rhetorically asks John Myers, "You know what'll kill me, don't you?" The question is left open and unanswered for the rest of the movie (and it remains unanswered in "Golden Army," as well). Long-time readers of Mike Mignola's comics, however, have known for years that the only thing that can kill Hellboy is ripping his heart out of his chest. This is precisely what happened in the 2011 Hellboy comic entitled "The Storm and the Fury," when the dragon-witch Nimue unexpectedly ripped out Hellboy's heart, killing him on the spot and sending his soul back to Hell.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Actor Billy Redden (who portrayed the inbred hillbilly banjo player) actually could not play the banjo at all. Despite training for the film, Redden's hand movements simply weren't convincing, so a local musician was hired to hide behind Redden and portray the left-handed fingerplay in complex banjo-picking shots. We only see the briefest snippets of Redden handling the banjo with his own two hands; however, when the iconic "Dueling Banjos" scene reaches a fever pitch, the left hand seen working the banjo frets is that of the real musician hiding behind Redden.

Charles Austin Miller

Other mistake: When Benjamin Dingle first steps into Connie Milligan's apartment, a closed bedroom door in the background inexplicably swings wide open on its own, right in the middle of the shot.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: After Ernest Hemingway guided two extremely expensive (and failed) offshore excursions for original marlin-fishing footage, Warner Brothers settled for existing footage of a world-record marlin caught off the coast of Peru by Alfred C. Glassell, Jr. His taut, heavy-duty fishing line can be seen bouncing wildly, high in the air, in the scene where the marlin finally breaches (even though the Old Man's hand-line is pretty much stationary and angled low to the ocean surface).

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: During the film's formidable two years in production, actor Spencer Tracy lapsed back into alcoholism and found a ready drinking partner in author Ernest Hemingway. One night, while on one of their binges, the two even demolished a bar in Havana, Cuba, and the bar owner demanded that Warner Brothers Studios pay $150,000 in damages. Warner Brothers was so infuriated with Spencer Tracy that they were on the verge of firing him and replacing him with Ernest Borgnine. (source: "Spencer Tracy: Tragic Idol" by Bill Davidson).

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Spencer Tracy's hair was not naturally white when they first started filming "The Old Man and the Sea"; so, his hair was cosmetically bleached white for the part of Santiago. However, after a grueling two years in production and his lapse back into alcoholism, Tracy's hair naturally turned white by the time they finished the film.

Charles Austin Miller

Elegy - S4-E22

Trivia: In this episode, longtime character actor Sydney Lassick was cast to play Chuck Forsch, an over-sensitive and delusional patient in a psychiatric hospital. Eighteen years earlier, Sydney Lassick played a virtually identical delusional psychiatric patient, Charlie Cheswick, in the Oscar-winning film "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (1975).

Charles Austin Miller

Small Potatoes - S4-E20

Question: We know that the chameleon Eddie Van Blundht can manipulate his unique extra layer of muscles to mimic male faces and physiques, thus hijacking their identities. However, Eddie can't mimic clothing, so he must hastily seek new clothing to go with each new identity. But when Eddie is on the run from Mulder and Scully, he abruptly mimics Fox Mulder and is seen wearing exactly the same tailored suit and tie that Fox Mulder is wearing on the same day. In fact, they even cross paths in the hospital while they are wearing identical tailored suits and ties. Question: where and when could Eddie possibly acquire an exact tailored suit and tie to match Fox Mulder's on such short notice?

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: The 2009 horror film "Dark House" was a much-lower-budget, B-grade remake of 1999's "House on Haunted Hill," with virtually identical plot, characters and motivations (i.e., a flamboyant amusement park mogul offers people money to stay in a technologically-rigged spook house that turns out to really be haunted). Interestingly, legendary horror actor Jeffrey Combs appeared in both films. In "House on Haunted Hill," Combs played the murderous ghost of a mad doctor who really haunts the house; in "Dark House," Combs played the flamboyant amusement park mogul.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: In the days before ubiquitous digital technology, the majority of visual effects in film were "practical" effects using stuntmen and props on wires, springboards, flash-pots, et cetera. In "Ladyhawke" (which was decidedly on the low-end of visual effects budgets), one of the most dangerous practical effects is seen when Matthew Broderick and Rutger Hauer have a heated discussion in the woods and seem about to part company. As Broderick turns to leave, Hauer's 53" longsword sizzles past the boy's left shoulder and embeds in a tree trunk, to Broderick's horror. In fact, the steel sword was real and hurtled to its target on a guide-wire, barely 8 inches from Broderick's back. If you slow-advance the scene, you can see the sword actually changing trajectory in-flight, it was so unstable. The sword came up in a Hollywood memorabilia auction in 2002 but was not sold. http://www.icollector.com/Rutger-Hauer-prop-special-effects-sword-from-Ladyhawke_i169815.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Over the decades, one persistent Internet rumor maintains that the tiger used in the first Beastmaster film died a horrible, lingering, 2-year death from skin cancer as a result of having his entire coat dyed black with toxic chemicals. As usual for Internet gossip, the details of this story are dreadfully confused, at best. According to director Don Coscarelli (speaking during an interview with author Staci Layne Wilson for her 2007 book "Animal Movies Guide," page 350), the film's executive producer brought in an animal handler who chose to dye more than one tiger black. Just to be clear, none of the tigers became diseased or expired from the non-toxic black vegetable dye. It was necessary, however, to anesthetize the tigers before applying the dye to their coats; and, unfortunately, one of the tigers simply never woke up from the anesthesia (a known problem with cats). Coscarelli felt horrible about the unexpected death; but, in fairness to him, the decision to anesthetize and dye the tigers was not his choice.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Near the end, as Lucy starts travelling backwards in time, she pauses in various periods of Earth's natural history. However, after she travels all the way back to the age of the Dinosaurs (at least 65 million years ago), she inexplicably travels forward in time by about 60 million years and meets an Australopithecine, one of humankind's earliest ancestors (that lived around 4 million years ago). She then resumes traveling backward in time to the beginning of the universe.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: Near the end, as Paul Shaffer judges the Battle of the Bands, the red stage curtain is closed and the stage is empty. We know that the Blues Brothers were the last performers, and they carried their microphone stands with them as they retreated behind the curtain; so, all sound gear and both bands are behind the curtain, and the stage is empty in front of the curtain except for Paul Shaffer. As Shaffer announces the winner, he ducks to his right and goes center-stage, where the curtain is instantly wide open again with band members and sound gear filling the stage all the way to the edge, which would be physically impossible to accomplish in the split-second camera cut.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: When Carrie Fisher first attacks the boys with rocket-propelled grenades at the hotel doorway, they dive for the sidewalk and are covered with debris. As they rise moments later and enter the hotel, their black suits and hats are covered in white cement dust. In the immediate next shot, as they climb the hotel staircase, their hats and suits have no dust whatsoever.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: During the mall chase, a semi-profile shot shows the squad car roll onto its roof and slide with a large panel of orange signage pinned under the roof. Camera cuts to a view of the officers inside the squad car, and there is no signage nor any other debris pinned under the car's roof. Camera cuts back, and the signage is again pinned under roof. Camera cuts back to frontal view, and the signage is gone again.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: One of the reasons that Eric Stoltz was fired from BTTF is because he took the role too seriously and had no comedic instinct. But there were other reasons, too. Following his method-acting chops, Stoltz was always in character; he insisted on being called "Marty" all the time, both on and off the set; and he was always trying seduce Lea Thompson, which made the cast and crew leery of him. Also, Eric would not fake a punch; he made full contact in fight scenes, because he believed it was the only way to achieve realism. Co-star Thomas F. Wilson (who played Biff Tannen) said he was very pissed off that Eric Stoltz kept slamming him full-force in the cafeteria scene, take-after-take, until Wilson's shoulder and collarbone were bruised. In fact, the much larger Thomas Wilson had planned to give Eric Stoltz an actual beating in the parking scene at the school dance, in revenge. Fortunately for Eric Stoltz, he was fired from the role of Marty McFly before they filmed the parking scene, or Thomas Wilson may have killed him. Once Michael J. Fox was hired, everything went smoothly.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Debbie Reynolds was severely intimidated by power-dancer Gene Kelly. Her feet were blistered and bleeding after just one day on the set with him. She sobbed about working with Kelly so much that her good friend Fred Astaire privately tutored her, gently, in the dance routines.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: If Tuco seriously thought that The Man with No Name would shoot him, why did Tuco voluntarily stick his head in the noose? Death is death. Why choose hanging over gunshot?

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: While every other actor in this movie wears the same costume day and night, day after day, John Wayne's costume changes regularly, even between shots. For all daytime scenes, he wears an orange long-sleeved shirt with a contrasting blue neck-kerchief; in some night-time scenes, he wears a blue long-sleeved shirt with a contrasting yellow neck-kerchief; and sometimes his daytime neck-kerchief changes from blue to yellow in a matter of seconds, between shots.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: According to Robert Zemeckis, the kitchen scene with Michael J. Fox playing three characters simultaneously (middle-aged Marty McFly, his goofy son and bubble-headed daughter all sitting at the same table) was a nightmare to shoot. The characters required individual matte shots that were later spliced together into one scene, requiring many takes; so every visible object in the kitchen background had to remain perfectly stationary and consistent over several days of filming. Thinking ahead, Zemeckis ordered his property crew to hot-glue every single background object in the kitchen in-place, to prevent accidental movement. However, when they were well into filming the tricky scene, the studio was struck by an earthquake, which essentially destroyed the kitchen set, hot glue and all, requiring a rebuild and complete re-shoot.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the movie, Bruce Lee enters a restaurant in the Rome airport and, because he can't read the menu nor speak the language, he accidentally orders five bowls of Campbell's Soup. When the waitress first delivers the five bowls, the soups are very different colors than they are in subsequent close-ups. Disappointed but hungry, Bruce plows into the soup. Ten sequential close-up shots show him dipping his spoon into bright red, tomato-based soups; but, by the time the spoon reaches his mouth, the spoon is dripping creamy white soup, every time.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: The highly unstable explosive nitroglycerin plays a crucial role in the film, as it is painstakingly stolen and then used to obliterate a wooden bridge that separates the War Wagon from its armed escort. However, at the end of the film, a single bottle of this incredibly volatile stuff somehow survives to be stolen by an Indian brave who haphazardly snatches it (thinking it is a bottle of whiskey) and scampers away with it. Any one of the Indian's actions, from roughly snatching it to leaping off the wagon with it and impacting the ground, should have detonated the nitroglycerin. The leader of the Indian war party even chugs a mouthful of the Nitro and violently spits it out, the action of which should have exploded his head. But the nitroglycerin doesn't explode until the Indian leader finally throws the bottle to the ground.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: Actor David Niven was, in fact, terminally ill with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) when he appeared in both "Trail of the Pink Panther" and "Curse of the Pink Panther" before his death in 1983. Niven's illness was so debilitating that his voice often completely failed him while filming, such that it was necessary to hire celebrity impressionist Rich Little to overdub Niven's voice in both films.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: When Young Joe is waiting in the field for Old Joe's arrival from the future, the sky is perfectly clear blue, except for a single, strange and very prominent zig-zag cloud that almost looks like a contrail of some sort. What is the significance of or explanation for that weird cloud?

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: Clint Eastwood and Donald Sutherland go scooting around in open space (admiring a view of Italy on the sunlit side of the Earth) with their gold solar-screen visors retracted wide open. To avoid accidental instant blindness, real astronauts would never open their solar-screen visors during EVA on the sunlit side of the Earth; yet the astronauts in this film do it constantly, with no ill-effects.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: Why didn't the ape-keeper, Rodney, simply shoot Caesar? He was in the sniping platform, he was aiming the tranquilizer rifle, he had a clear shot, but he just lowered his rifle and fled when Caesar yelled "No!" for the first time. If Rodney had pulled the trigger, the ape rebellion would have been nipped in the bud.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: For the infamous closing scene, a van of drug-runners fire a double-barrelled 12-gauge shotgun straight into the windscreen of Officer Wintergreen's Electra Glide motorcycle, killing him. In the full front view, the gunfire virtually explodes the windscreen, shattering it on all sides all the way to the frame. Camera cuts to a side view and we see Wintergreen topple off as the motorcycle keeps traveling down the road. In this profile shot, the windscreen is no longer exploded, but now has a neat 4-inch hole in it.

Charles Austin Miller

Factual error: When Clint Eastwood catches an Indian arrow in his left shoulder, he instructs Shirley MacLaine to prime the arrow shaft with gunpowder, which he then ignites as she forces the shaft all the way through his shoulder. Presumably, the burning gunpowder would cauterize the wound all the way through his body, or that's what the filmmakers asked the audience to believe. In reality, gunpowder is historically well-known for causing gangrene in open wounds. With a shoulder full of gunpowder cinders, Clint Eastwood should have died of gangrene and sepsis by the end of the movie.

Charles Austin Miller

Continuity mistake: Near the end, banditos murder Fred C. Dobbs and leave his stripped body by the waterhole as they go chasing after the burros, which they later try to sell in town. Within hours, Howard and Bob Curtin ride right past the same waterhole on their way to town, but Fred Dobbs' body is nowhere to be seen.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: The Diva gets to perform only one song of her concert before she is mortally gunshot in the abdomen. Almost simultaneously, Zorg sets a time-bomb to detonate in 20 minutes. Korben removes the stones from the Diva's dead body and barely escapes from the Fhloston cruise liner before it explodes 20 minutes later. Korben and his party immediately fly at hyperspeed straight to Earth and set the stones in place with only 5 minutes to spare. If they had followed the original plan without interruption and the Diva hadn't been unexpectedly murdered, she would have proceeded with the remainder of her concert, lasting an indeterminate amount of time; thereafter, presumably, she would have to undergo surgery to remove the stones from her body and deliver them to Korben, all of which would have taken far too long for him to save the Earth, correct?

Charles Austin Miller