Corrected entry: Dickie knows how to be rich and then lose it all. The man in Rob Reiner's film is a billionaire who loses it all making a house and then tearing it down. Dickie knew how to do the part. Why did he have to hire the family?
J I Cohen
15th Sep 2003
Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star (2003)
28th Aug 2003
Police Academy (1984)
Corrected entry: All Jones has is a microphone, which is hooked up to something, (we never see what, though), and he is able to control the police station and Police Academy's PA systems. So what is he carrying around which makes him able to do this? (And where can I get one)?
Correction: When we first meet Jones, we see that his microphone is hooked up to a portable bullhorn, of the type police use for crowd control. Jones does not control the PA systems, people just think that's where the sound is coming from.
Plus the person doing the PA announcements sounds like Jones, because during the call for riot control Mahoney says something like "Was that you Jones?" and he says "Not this time."
15th May 2003
The Adventures of Huck Finn (1993)
Corrected entry: When Huck and the bratty blonde girl are talking about England, the girl says that George IV is the king. George IV reigned from 1820-1830, but the story of Huckleberry Finn is thought to take place in the 1830's or 1840's, not as early as the 1820s. (01:08:30)
Correction: It's only a mistake if the movie is not set in the 1820s. The books setting could well be slightly different.
22nd Feb 2002
AntiTrust (2001)
Corrected entry: On the AntiTrust DVD, in the "Deleted Scenes" section, scene 5 (entitled "Gary & Milo's Game") has Milo (Ryan Phillipe) and Gary (Tim Robbins) playing the familiar PC game "Diablo 2" (an addition to the irony of the scene). The supposition is that Gary's character has died in the Arcane Sanctuary level while fighting the level boss, known as "The Summoner." All his armor, weapons, (he specifically mentions though his magical shield and his gold) have dropped at the spot where his character was killed. He asks Milo to complete the level for him, and hands him a Playstation controller. The camera zooms in on the game screen which reads, "You Lost Gold. Press ESC to Continue." How many playstations have an escape key? (00:00:38)
Correction: Just for Clarification, these controllers are in fact Playstation controllers. There are many adapters on the market that allow Playstation controllers to plug into a PCs USB port. There are also many PC gamepads that have the same shape and button layout as a Playstation controller.
20th Dec 2002
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984)
Corrected entry: In the scene where Willie (Kate Capshaw) asks Indiana where he found Shortround, Indiana says he caught him picking his pocket after both his parents were killed when the Japanese bombed Shanghai. This movie was set in 1935 and the Japanese didn't bomb Shanghai until 1937.
Correction: The Japanese bombed Shanghai in 1932. See http://xliu.web.wesleyan.edu/wescourses/2001f/timeline.htm.
27th Aug 2001
The Final Countdown (1980)
Corrected entry: When Senator Chapman (Charles Durning) is landed on the Nimitz, he asks his assistant, "what kind of machine was that that they picked us up with?" He is referring to the helicopter. Yet helicopters, although primitive, existed in the early 40s, and most people in America were familiar with autogyros, which had been around since the late 1920s.
Correction: If the Senator knew anything about autogyros, it would be obvious to him that this was not an autogyro (they can't hover). The 1st single main rotor helicopter did fly in 1939, but the 1st production helicopter was not produced until 1942 (see: http://www.sikorskyarchives.com/timeline.html). As the events in the movie happen in late '41, it is quite reasonable that the Senator would be unfamiliar with helicopters.
27th Aug 2003
The Scorpion King (2002)
Corrected entry: The Rock escapes from Memnon's goons by running into the scientist's lab and catapulting himself out of the window. But then, when the goons come into the lab to look for The Rock, they have no idea that The Rock has been in the lab even though he left a huge hole in the window.
Correction: The window was very high up in the wall, and obviously designed to let light in, not to look out of. The guards would had to have looked up to see the hole, none of them did.
22nd Nov 2002
First Knight (1995)
Corrected entry: The stories of King Arthur take place in the Dark Ages, between 500-1000 AD. In the movie, lots and lots of people, mostly Arthur and his knights, wear blue clothes. Yet blue dye wasn't used in Europe until Marco Polo brought it from China in 1274, and even then it was extremely expensive.
Correction: Woad was an extremely well-known blue dye, used for thousands of years in northern Europe (see http://www.botgard.ucla.edu/html/botanytextbooks/economicbotany/Isatis/). Far from being a rare and expensive colour, blue would have been one of the most common colours available.
1st Jul 2003
Meet the Parents (2000)
Corrected entry: In the scene when Greg is smoking on the roof, he hears Pam's dad speaking fluent Thai on the telephone. Thai is a tonal language, so each sound has a different meaning depending on its tone. Pam's dad is speaking in a monotone voice, so there is no way the person on the other end of the line would have understood him.
Correction: The person on the other end could probably work out the meaning from context, especially if they are used to talking to people who speak Thai as a second language.
26th Aug 2003
Meet the Parents (2000)
Corrected entry: When Pam is explaining to Greg why she and Kevin have Top Gun nicknames for each other, she says it's because Top Gun was a very popular movie when she and Kevin dated. Top Gun came out in 1986, so Pam and Kevin couldn't have been any more than about 10 or 12 years old at the time.
Correction: Assuming that the characters are roughly the same age as the actors who play them, Pam would have been 16 or 17, and Kevin 17 or 18.
26th Dec 2003
Hulk (2003)
Corrected entry: When General Ross enters the control room just after Bruce is brought into the desert base under sedation, the ranking officer in the room says "Attention on deck". This is a naval term not used in the Army.
Correction: True, but it was said by a Marine, and the operation seems to be joint Army/Marine Corps. When the Hulk is being brought to the base, he is escorted by Cobra gunships, which are now used almost exclusively by the Marines.
27th Aug 2003
Chariots of Fire (1981)
Corrected entry: This 'college dash' that Abrahams impresses Cambridge University by completing - something's not right. The challenge is to get around the courtyard in the time it takes the clock to strike midday. The big deal is that this challenge is supposed to have been around for almost seven centuries and no one has ever completed it successfully. That means that the college dash originated in the early 13th century. There couldn't have been a clock like the one used to time the dash back in the 1200's.
Correction: There could have been manually-rung midday bells.
Correction: The 'College Dash' is not a centuries old tradition: it is a twentieth century tradition. And it is not called 'The College Dash', it is called 'The Great Court Run'. Even so, lots of things are wrong with the scene in question! Keep reading, and I will give you some details. It is a Cambridge tradition for students to try to run around the Great Court of Trinity College while the college clock strikes 12. This would be quite an achievement, because this is not just the largestest courtyard in Cambridge, but possibly the largest courtyard in England. It measures (very) roughly 100 meters (110 yards) north-south and 80 meters (88 yards) east-west: so its four sides cover a grand total of 360 meters (400 yards). (My figures are not 100% mathematically accurate, but I am trying to convey an idea of how far students have to run.) Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross) successfully completes 'The Great Court Run' accompanied by another student, Andrew Lindsay (Nigel Havers). But this scene was not filmed in Trinity College. It was not even filmed in Cambridge! It was filmed in the much smaller 'School Yard' at Eton College (a school in Berkshire, 70 miles from Cambridge) which only measures (very roughly) 45 meters (50 yards) north-south and 65 metres (70 yards) east-west, so its four sides only cover 220 meters (240 yards). Harold Abrahams studied at Cambridge between 1919 and 1923, but he never attempted the Great Court Run: the tradition may not have begun until 1927, when David Cecil (also known as Lord Burghley, the future Marquess of Exeter) was the first person to accomplish the feat (with reliable witnesses watching him). 'Chariots Of Fire' contains another inaccuracy: Abrahams and Lindsay make the run as the clock rings 12 times, but the clock in the Great Court at Trinity College is rather unusual, in that it strikes twice for each hour, and will thus strike 24 times at mid-day (and midnight) : this takes between 45 and 55 seconds. Even so, in over 90 years since 1927, very few people have been able to run a full circuit of the courtyard before the clock finishes striking.
23rd Dec 2003
Cheers (1982)
Corrected entry: When Sam is fantasizing about what life would be like with Diane when they are old and living in the house, when Diane serves the tea to Sam and the regulars who stop by, there is no steam rising from the cups to prove that the tea is hot.
Correction: You don't always see this in real life, and it might be hard to capture on camera, anyway.
6th Aug 2003
Foul Play (1978)
Corrected entry: When Scarface breaks into Gloria's apartment to steal the evidence, watch the close-up shot of him holding the film - you can see that there is a "leader" coming out of the roll, indicating the film has not yet been used.
Correction: Assuming that we are talking about 35mm film here, the leader is sometimes also visible on used rolls.
27th Aug 2001
Instinct (1999)
Corrected entry: Cuba Gooding Jr. freaks out at non-threatening sudden stimuli, but is stoney faced when the "animal" (Anthony Hopkins) lurches at him.
Correction: He's a psychologist. He was expecting it to happen, from his observations of Hopkins' behaviour.
8th Dec 2003
Alien Resurrection (1997)
Corrected entry: When Gediman is rambling about the queen's new 'perfect mutation', he fails to realize how imperfect it actually is when compared to its normal state. Instead of cranking out hundreds of eggs in a short amount of time which can lead to a huge army being built in a matter of months, now the queen has to spend countless hours straining and suffering while trying to force out an awkward, bumbling monster that attacks her on sight. Hardly a situation that I would describe as 'perfect'.
Correction: Gediman obviously does not consider the relatively low birth-rate to be important, the mutation is perfect by his personal criteria. Others may disagree with his opinion, but it is (at most) an error on the part of the character, not a movie mistake.
27th Aug 2001
Somewhere In Time (1980)
Corrected entry: When Christopher Reeve is looking backstage for the amazing Elise McKenna, we see a number of plywood stage items. Set in 1912, this action predates the invention of plywood - 1933. There are also extruded aluminium door controllers on many doors.
Correction: Modern plywood was invented in the mid-19th century, and was in common use before 1900. See: http://www.gp.com/build/newsRelease.aspx?NewsID=2372.
4th Nov 2002
Ronin (1998)
Corrected entry: In the coloseum when the Irish guy fires his gun, the bullet ricochets and hits De Niro. After this he sees that the bullet has been upgraded with teflon (for piercing bullet-proof vests). But how can the armour piercing bullet ricochet from a sand/chalk building block? The bullet should have gone into the wall.
Correction: The same way any other bullet would: It hit at an angle, and was deflected. The fact it's an armour-piercing bullet should make little difference. Ricocheting bullets don't bounce off surfaces like rubber balls.
16th Dec 2003
Red Dwarf (1988)
Corrected entry: The whole business about putting people into stasus as a punishment makes no sense at all. What is punishing about being put in a status cubicle and then (in your perception) immediately stepping out when time is several months/years further on (but yourself no older)? Even if you weren't earning your salary during the statis period, you had no expenses either.
Correction: It's a no-fuss way of keeping troublemakers out of the way. You don't have to feed them, you don't have to guard them, they can't injure themselves, they can't shout and make noise. It may be less of a punishment, but it's a lot less hassle for the crew.
Correction: Plus they can't exactly fire Lister when they're off in deep space. They have to wait until they're back to earth.
8th Dec 2003
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000)
Corrected entry: DNA results usually take weeks instead of just days like usually happens on the show.
Correction: They have the lab in-house, so they don't have to send the samples off to another lab; and they prioritise the cases by importance, so samples from the 'big' cases go first. DNA tests themselves don't take weeks, sending them off to a lab, and waiting for the lab to get around to testing them, does. Them having the lab in-house relies on suspension of disbelief, but isn't inherently a mistake.
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Correction: It's having a normal childhood and family life that Dickie has no experience of, not loosing a fortune. He's not right for the part because he's not a 'normal guy'.
J I Cohen