I've noticed this in almost every cartoon I've seen, but recently I've noticed it in a lot of films too. whenever a character/actor is reading a book, they're always turning the pages the wrong way (as if they're reading the book backwards). This would go against the actors (and animators) basic reactions to reading a book, so why does it appear so often? Is it a sort of in-joke like the Wilhelm scream?
Gary O'Reilly
29th Dec 2005
General questions
29th Dec 2005
General questions
This applies to many, many action/spy movies. Silenced pistols in movies are pretty much silent, but I have read that this is not the case in real life and although a silencer does quieten a gunshot, it's still not exactly silent. My question is, does a real life silenced pistol still have a similar sound to movie silenced pistols (that sort of high pitched "ping" or "pew" sound), only louder, or is it an entirely different noise?
Chosen answer: It depends. You CANNOT silence a revolver. A silencer on an average pistol will only make the shot about half as loud as normal. It will not make the pistol go "pfft" like in the movies. However, there are some specifically designed weapons, such as the MP5 SD3 (as seen in Navy Seals), the S&W 9mm "Hush Puppy", the British Welrod and the Chinese Type 64, that are almost completely silent, the only noise being the muted clack of the bolt.
29th Dec 2005
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Question: This is an odd question, but have any historians commented on the battle scenes? Aside from the heroes' fights (such as Legolas, Gimili and Aragorn defeating hundreds of orcs by themselves), how true to life are the battles compared to real medieval sieges / battles?
Chosen answer: The LOTR is a heavy interpolation of different times, civilizations, religions, and cultures. Mainly, strict European and no Greek or Roman influence. There are bits and pieces of Medieval era, but then it can shoot to pre-Rome eras, and then shoot to strict religious material. It bounces back and forth all over the place, between pieces based on historical fact. For example, based on the armor, aspects, weapons, and fighting styles, the Elves would be the Gauls and Britonnic, around the time of Julius Caesar. The Dwarves are the Goths (Germany, Austria), but they also are the Nordic tribes ("vikings"). The Orcs bear strong similarity to the Vandals and Khazars, and the Mumakil are the Mauretanians (Moors). The Hobbits, Elves, Ents, Gandalf, are strong nods to the Druidism religion (Gandalf, the Elves, and Saruman are Druid priests, the Ents are supernatural beings). The Dwarves, dragons, trolls, giant spiders, orcs and Sauron show heavy nods to Asatru (Odin, Thor, Freya faith). Man seems somewhere in the middle, with more Medieval Christian hints here and there every so often, but very rarely. Besides the giant wolves, eagles, and such obvious fiction, the battles can go from very realistic to utter fiction. But they keep close enough to real history to be identifiable with who they are based on. The elves seem to follow a Gaul and Britonnic style, copper and gold armor, momentum-based swordplay, and a single-man fighting style. Many of the elves ring close to the Britonnic "kluddargos", high class swordsmen. The trolls seem similar to the very early Goths and Brits, as well as the Nordic "sky-clad" warriors who did at times use clubs and maces while stark naked and whipped up into a powerful "mind-over-body" state. The orcs show some resemblance to the Vandal forces, as well as the Thracians and many Celtic tribes (orcs are based off African American miners by J.R.R. Initially, and the whole story has rings of racism mixed with Christian elements, but take it for what it is. It mostly is a story copied from various myths, lore, and some events of Europe before Rome conquered the tribes Game of Thrones is closer to historical facts, and is not really racist at all, but also bounces around with interpolation as bad as LOTR). The Rohirrim bear strong resemblance to the Iberian horsemen who fought alongside Hannibal against Rome, as well as Viriatus; they were Celtic-like natives of Portugal (before Rome took it over and dominated the ethnic look of the region). The orc warg riders are akin to Nordic and Vandal horsemen, Dwarf combat is very close to actual Nordic and Gothic combat, lots of momentum, speed, heavy blows, and strength. The Elves have some resemblance to Gaulish and Britonnic high class warrior combat, but at swordplay and shields. The archery, on the other hand, is copied from Roman archers, Greek archers, and Sudanese (Nubian) archers (who could quickly whip from bow to sword in combat). The trolls use a style somewhere between fiction, but also with the real religion-hyped warriors of the Pechts, Vandals, Goths, viking tribes and Gauls: naked men armed who jumped into battle in a frenzy. The Uruk-hai berserker bears more resemblance to the Asatru religion "Úlfhéðnar", or Norse berserker. The Uruk-hai show resemblance to Goths mixed with European tribal warriors who sided with Byzantine. The Dunedain are very medieval Europeans, primarily England. So, to answer your question. Are the fights factual? sometimes, and not always the entire fight. Are they medieval fights? Again, sometimes, but usually they are mimicry of pieces of history or tribes and states during the Roman era. The closest to mimicking facts, even more than so-called fact based movies, is the game Skyrim. Skyrim can be very close to mimicking historical facts.
22nd Nov 2005
Father Ted (1995)
Question: In this episode, the actor who plays the priest who turns into a hippy seems to drop his accent occasionally, for instance when he says "Blind faith, that's all we have to go on", his accent sounds more London-ish when he says "go on". Is this normal for an Irish accent or what?
Chosen answer: It's characteristic of someone putting on a fake Irish accent.
8th Nov 2005
Spaceballs (1987)
Continuity mistake: When Barf and Lone Star are rescuing Dot and the princess for the first time (from the Mercedes), they position their ship over the Mercedes but facing the other way (ie. facing Spaceball 1). However, in the interior shots showing Lone Star in the cockpit, the view is just clear space. Spaceball 1 is a gigantic ship, and they are very close to it (as well as angled slightly up to it), together with Spaceball 1's "mouth" being open which makes the ship even bigger vertically. It should block their entire view, but it's not seen at all.
7th Nov 2005
Unleashed (2005)
Question: This is a very strange question but I cannot think of anywhere else to put it. In the UK, a poster-advert for this film that is stuck on phone boxes has me confused. The bottom half of the window has Danny (Jet Li) lying down with his face to the camera, looking up slightly (as he is seen during the film sometimes), but the top half has an arm/fist with what looks like a Christmas pudding (on fire and all) on top of it. What is the thing on his fist, and what's its relevance to the film? I've seen the film but I can't remember anything like it.
Chosen answer: If I am thinking of the same poster, it is someone's foot standing on his wrist. The shoe is really shiny.
18th Sep 2005
Red Dwarf (1988)
White Hole - S4-E4
Continuity mistake: When the Cat and Lister are trying to cook an egg with a bicycle powered hair drier, you can see the Cat holding a frying pan. When Lister gives up and gets off the bike, Cat picks up a spatula with his other hand and starts poking the egg with it. However, in the next shot, he is shown with both hands on his hips. It's an instant cut with the same conversation continuing, so he didn't have time to put them down. (00:15:25)
31st Aug 2005
The Running Man (1987)
Question: Has Stephen King ever commented on this film? It's an enjoyable film in it's own right but the only thing it has in common with the book is the title and some character names.
Chosen answer: Several movies (The Lawnmower Man, Maximum Overdrive, The Running Man, etc.) have been made from King stories that bear little or no resemblance to the original story. King has commented that this is unfortunate but normal movie-making.
31st Aug 2005
General questions
I can remember seeing a film on TV ages ago (at least, I think it was a film, might have been a TV series or something, but I'm assuming it was straight-to-TV) where a coachload of people crash because the bus driver is watching a couple have sex in another car, or something, and all the people on the coach become attached to a baby (they're dead) and they can't stray out of a certain range of the person. Then I remember the baby grows up into a pretty nasty/arrogant businessman and the people aren't happy about it, and then I remember a bus (driven by the driver who got them all killed) coming to take them to heaven and apologising for being so late. Does anyone know what this film/show was called?
Chosen answer: It's a movie called "Heart and Souls". It stars Robert Downey, Jr. and Elizabeth Shue among others.
22nd Aug 2005
Bottom (1991)
Revealing mistake: During a few of the "flaming fart" scenes, you can see a wire connected to the bottom of the actors. It's hard to see because it appears that it was attached to their legs in some way, but you can still see it when they move around a lot. The easiest place to see it is when the "devil" knocks on the door and they all fart and jump around, look carefully between/to the side of eddies legs for a black wire. It's not the dressing gown belt because that's tied around their waists.
6th Aug 2005
Bottom (1991)
Revealing mistake: During a few scenes after Richie's finger has been taped back on at an extreme angle, you can see Rick Mayall's real finger bent underneath it. This is most visible after his finger gets slammed in the window: look carefully after the window is opened.
6th Jul 2005
General questions
I remember seeing a film on the Sci-Fi channel ages ago. At the start of the film, there's a shot of a spaceship that looks like an earth vehicle (a car or something, and I'm not thinking of Spaceballs). It was a comedy film, with the main "funny" thing being that aliens that look like humans have either hijacked or accidentally stolen a ship of their species (I can remember a scene where a hi-ranking one of these aliens is pretty angry about them), and they crash land on earth, but turn out to be stupider than the average human. The scene clearest in my mind is where one of the "aliens" is trying to show off his advanced technology, which turns out to be a pen, by drawing a squiggly line on a piece of paper. Does anyone know what this film is called?
Chosen answer: That'll be 'Morons From Outer Space' then.
4th Jul 2005
Futurama (1999)
Continuity mistake: When the filming of the fake TV show begins, Fry says "Lights." and Bender dramatically opens his chest cabinet to display a large stage light. The camera cuts to Fry, who says "Camera one." and then the camera cuts back to Bender, whose chest is now closed again. There wasn't enough time to shut his chest between the shots and we would have heard it anyway, given the amount of noise the stage light gives off.
6th Apr 2005
Jabberwocky (1977)
Continuity mistake: When Dennis first meets the man who cut his own foot off, it's because he shoved his hand (with a cup in it) right in front of his face. When the shot changes so we can look down at who it was, we see that his hand is nowhere near Dennis' face (he would have had to have been standing up and leaning over to reach his face, when we see him he's sitting down and leaning back against a wall).
1st Apr 2005
Mystery Science Theatre 3000 (1996)
Question: This applies to the TV series as well as the Movie. How are the "watching the movie" segments filmed? Are they literally sitting in front of a large screen? In some of the TV episodes, Joel/Mike is seen pointing to something on the screen. And do they film each segment as one, or is it cut into different takes?
Chosen answer: They sit in front of a big screen -- or rather Joel or Mike sat. The puppeteers crouch down below the row of seats and hold up special black puppets to project the silhouettes. They did do takes for segments of the movies. I imagine it would be painful for the puppeteers to crouch for 90 minutes!
28th Feb 2005
Orgazmo (1997)
Question: Are "Happy Tarts" an actual product in America? They're displayed throughout the film as an obvious product placement joke, but is it a product made up for the benefit of the joke, or did the film makers make a real product placement into a joke?
Chosen answer: No, Happy Tarts is not a real product (unless you live in South Park where Cartman sometimes has them along with Cheesy Poofs and Snacky Cakes).
18th Jan 2005
Futurama (1999)
The Honking - S3-E1
Revealing mistake: In the final battle, Bender has fry trapped into the seat inside of him, and he drives over a ramp and nearly smashes into the original were-car mid-air. But when the were-car lands on the same ramp that Bender took off from, we see that the furnace is literally touching the end of the ramp. How did Bender get up enough speed to launch himself into the air, especially accidentally (he would have had to turn 90 degrees to get onto the ramp) with the furnace that close? Also at the start of this scene, we see the were-car crying in front of the furnace, and the ramp is nowhere to be seen. (00:19:50)
16th Jan 2005
Black Books (2000)
Continuity mistake: Simon Pegg's character shouts at Manny as he is picking up a muffin, and he slams it onto the desk, smashing it and making a large messy pile of crumbs. The shot changes, then changes back so you can see the muffin (in the same scene) and it is a perfectly formed, whole muffin with no crumbs around. Then when Fran shows up and Pegg's character leaves, the muffin is back to being a messy mound.
18th Oct 2004
Hellboy (2004)
Question: Rasputin and Hellboy each say Hellboy's real name towards the end. I didn't catch it properly, what exactly do they say, and what (if anything) does the phrase/name mean in English?
Chosen answer: According to the comic books, his name is Anung Un Rama, or 'World Destroyer, The Great Beast.'
17th Sep 2004
Family Guy (1999)
Continuity mistake: When the policeman asks Lois to describe Peter, it shows a view through a scope of a rifle. However, when the shot changes and the cop says "I've got him", there is no scope on the rifle. (00:18:15)
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Chosen answer: It is most likely because the film has been flipped, showing a "mirror image".
Phixius ★