Does anyone recognize this? 80s or 90s horror movie in which one character is a "nerdy" teenage boy. Despite being bullied by a group of stereotypical "mean popular kids," he ends up lying down or throwing himself on top of an explosive device in order to save them. I think they were standing some distance away, so they don't even see him deciding to make the sacrifice.
General questions about movies, TV and more
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Answer: Massacre at Central High. 1976. After being bullied and nearly crippled by the "cool" kids, a nerdy guy gets revenge on them. At the end, he sets a bomb to blow up the prom in the school gym. When the girl he loves discovers this and refuses to leave, he grabs the bomb and runs with it. When he reaches the outside, it explodes. Everyone ignores it.
A B/W made in the late 30s or early 40s. A girl reporter thinks she's stumbled onto a spy ring. One man is in a dentist's chair and whistles a code to the doctor. The girl handcuffs one guy and says he's an agent working undercover to expose the spy ring. When the girl hears a loud noise, she jumps into the man's arms. The movie ends with her jumping into his arms again. It has a comedic, suspenseful tone, like the Falcon and Saint movie franchises. The comedy is from the girl reporter.
Does anyone remember a sitcom episode in which the mom was trying to organize a "no-dinner dinner" for a charity or something at her job? She called people from home and asked for donations, but had to keep explaining that there was no actual event for them to attend in person.
This is a fantasy movie that I think was made recently, in the 2020s. A young woman marries a prince from a much wealthier family. It turns out that his family always sacrifices their sons' first brides to a dragon or some other monster. This prince seems to actually like the young woman and is glad when she escapes the monster.
Answer: The film is 2024's "Damsel," starring Millie Bobby Brown.
Thank you.
This is a television movie, possibly a Lifetime movie, from the late 2000s or 2010s. A married woman has been chatting on the Internet with a man named Chris. At some point, she decides to meet Chris in a diner-type place. Chris is actually a woman, but insists that she was honest about everything else. I remember seeing part of a true crime show that involved the same situation (Internet "boyfriend" named Chris was actually a woman), so this movie was probably inspired by it.
There's an animated movie I used to watch as a kid, but I can't remember what it was called or exactly what it's about. I think I used to have it on VHS. The only thing I really remember about it is there was a frog who was a James Bond-like secret agent, and they called him FR07 instead of 007. And he was French. I've been racking my brain trying to remember what the movie was called, and I don't know how old it is. I just know I watched it as a kid. Anybody know?
Answer: It was the 1992 film "Freddie as F.R.O.7."
I'm trying to find the title of a western movie where the sheriff of the town has a rebellious son who is now part of a youth gang causing problems and comes to cause problems in the sheriff's town. One of the gang members wears a Confederate uniform and waves around a sword. When a gang of bad guys comes to the town to kill the sheriff, the kid gang helps the sheriff fight them off. I remember the Confederate kid gets killed with a bullet to his throat. Anybody know the name of the movie?
Answer: No, the movie I saw did not have John Wayne in it. I do remember another scene where the sheriff is hiding in the bed of a buckboard wagon and the bad guy slowly peeks his head over the edge of the wagon. When he does that, the sheriff fires his pistol into the bad guy's face and blood from the bad guy's face splatters everywhere.
Answer: I don't know about the Confederate uniform, but what you described is a lot like a John Wayne movie, Cahill, US Marshal. Two of his rebellious sons help a gang with a bank heist.
Does anyone remember what sitcom episode this was? A man and woman are "making out." I think the woman was his co-worker or supervisor. She suddenly decides that they shouldn't be doing this, and she says, "No one can know about this!" Then she walks away, but there are hand-shaped prints on her pants/shorts. I think it was paint or some type of ink on the guy's hands.
Answer: Sorry, I forgot to add that I saw this at least 15 years ago now.
It may have been "Frasier" season 3, episode 7. I believe Frasier and his manager, Kate, make out in a freight elevator, and his dirty hand prints end up on her skirt.
Thank you for the suggestion, but I've watched "Frasier" several times and this was not it. I think both of the people in the scene were younger than Frasier and Kate.
Didn't that happen on NCIS between Agent DiNozzo and Jenny, who happened to be the Director of the agency?
I have a question. I know actors like Clint Eastwood and Sylvester Stallone would direct films that they starred in. How would their pay structure be? Would they get two salaries? One big salary for both? Or be paid for one thing but not the other? What sort of SAG union rules or regulations were they allowed to have and/or not allowed to have? What sort of changes, if any, happened between, let's say, 1985 to today in 2025 to make it more proficient?
Answer: To partially answer your question, movie directors belong to the Directors Guild of America (DGA) union while actors are members of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). An actor who is directing the film they are starring in would also be a Directors' Guild union member. Their pay as a director would be negotiated and accounted for separately.
There was a movie that had Christopher Reeve and Michael Caine. The only scene I remember is that Christopher was choking a person to death.
Answer: It was Deathtrap. Noises Off was a comedy about the behind-the-scenes of a play. Deathtrap was about Caine and Reeves scaring Dyan Cannon to death, collecting her life insurance. Like all conspiracies, the two men have a falling out and try to kill each other.
Thank you.
Answer: Reeve and Caine only made two movies together, Deathtrap (1982) and Noises Off (1992). It's most likely Deathtrap.
Looking for a black-and-white movie in which a young woman doesn't want to believe that her uncle is a criminal. I am pretty sure that his name ended in a "y" or "ie" sound, like Billy. I only saw part of it at a family member's house. Thanks.
Answer: Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943)?
Thank you.
I can't remember the name of this '70s, '80s horror movie that has twin brothers. When they are nine or ten years old, one of them murders someone and is sent to an institution. Years later, he escapes and wants revenge. It turns out that his twin actually murdered the first person.
Answer: Thank you for both of the suggestions. I ended up finding the movie. It's "Blood Rage," 1987.
Answer: Another similar film is The Other. Twin boys are "bad seeds"; later, it's revealed that one has died. The surviving twin goes insane and hallucinates, talking with his dead brother.
Answer: The Creature with the Blue Hand. 1967. An innocent man, Klaus Kinski, is sent to an insane asylum. He later escapes. Returning home, he pretends to be his own twin brother in order to hide from the police, all the while searching for the identity of the murderer with the blue hand.
There might not be one answer for this, but why are movie scenes (and TV episode scenes, I assume) filmed out of order from how they happen in the final production?
Answer: One of the most common reasons is just efficiency. For example, say a movie or episode has six scenes that take place in an office, evenly spaced throughout the runtime. There's no point filming one scene in the office, then moving elsewhere, then coming back and setting up again, etc. It's far easier to film all the office scenes together, with costume changes, etc., as needed, then just edit them into place. Cast and crew availability is a factor too—if half the cast are needed in one scene and the other half somewhere else, film them both at the same time. Big stars might only have X days of availability, so they film all their scenes in a short period. Basically, there's very rarely a specific reason to film things in the final order when it's easier, cheaper, or more efficient to film them whichever way works best, then just put them in the right order at the end.
Answer: Fred MacMurray, of My Three Sons, filmed all his scenes for every episode first before anyone else in the cast filmed theirs.
Does anyone remember a commercial for a waterproof cell phone that had the phone coming out of the water while The Cars' "Moving In Stereo" was playing in the same manner Phoebe Cates comes out of the water in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High"? Which phone was it for, and any idea where to find a clip of the commercial?
Answer: ChatGPT is telling me it was for the Sony Xperia Z smartphone, introduced around 2013. I asked GROK and looked for over an hour. I can't find it anywhere.
I saw part of what I think was an 80s movie. It was about aliens who look like humans or can take on a human appearance. One alien woman had a cage of birds, and she ate one. The birds used for the scene appeared to be Blue-Masked Lovebirds. There was also a young human woman who was pregnant and found out that her boyfriend was one of the aliens. He claimed that he really loved her and wanted to raise their child together. If I remember correctly, she didn't believe him.
Answer: It definitely is "V," the original series from the 1980s. I remember these scenes vividly. Marc Singer was a TV cameraman who snuck on board the alien ship. He went into a ventilation duct and observed them in their quarters. He found the leader's room, Diana, talking with someone. They would move in and out of his view, each time taking a hamster from a cage, disappearing and returning to get another. Finally, he saw them swallow them whole. Later, it was birds. The young human was a teenage girl who made friends with a young alien boy. She was taken to their ship and observed. Diana ordered the boy to seduce the girl to learn about human sex. After the girl is released, she learns the aliens are reptilian and pregnant. In the sequel, "V: The Final Battle," the teenage girl gives birth to a hybrid girl. The resistance fighters capture the alien boy. The girl shows him their daughter. He says he loves her and wants to be a family, but the girl knows he's lying to save himself.
Thank you, I think it was "V."
Answer: Not sure about the birds (a long time ago), but 80s + Aliens + Alien Baby sounds a lot like "V."
Thank you.
What show had a black male character who would say, "Aw, gee! Aww, geee!" whenever he felt touched about something? It's probably from before the 2000s.
Answer: Waldo in "Family Matters".
When a show has locations that are shown often enough, but not in every episode, how is that set handled? Is it created and put aside somewhere, or rebuilt whenever needed? For example, Niles' apartment in "Frasier," Deacon and Kelly's apartment in "King of Queens," Walter Skinner's office in "X-Files," the Mighty Weenie restaurant in "Family Matters," etc.
Answer: Sets not used in every episode are usually built in sections that can easily be dismantled and reassembled as needed. I've noticed in some shows that one shell structure is often repurposed with minor changes into whatever is needed. In "Friends," one set was used for Chandler's work office, also as Rachel's office at Ralph Lauren, for Joey's new apartment when he briefly moved out, etc. The same with "Roseanne," where Crystal's house was also used for David's home, for "The Fifties Show" episode, etc. Darlene's Chicago apartment set was also used for Becky and Mark's Minneapolis apartment.
I remember a movie scene in which a teenager/early-twenties woman is in a car with a "bad boy" type of guy. She reaches for her purse and he asks what she is doing, in a "no sudden moves" tone (that a kidnapper would use). She says "I was going to offer you some gum." I saw this in the early 2000s, so it's at least that old. I thought it was "Freeway" (1997, with Reese Witherspoon), but I just watched that and it's not. Thank you for any guesses.
Answer: The Chase.
There's a movie with Peter Billingsley. In the movie, his uncle is a spy. While on a mission, Peter asks the uncle if he can stay up past eleven o'clock. What movie is this?
Answer: I don't know about the quote, but there is a made-for-TV movie called "Massarati and the Brain" (1982). Billingsley plays the Brain and lives with his uncle, who is a secret agent.
Is there a general reason why American actors are chosen for starring roles as British characters, or vice versa? I've read about Renée Zellweger working at a British publishing firm to prepare for the Bridget Jones movie. Andrew Lincoln played a Southern US man on "The Walking Dead" for several years. Natalie Portman hired a coach to help her prepare for playing Anne Boleyn. With all due respect to them, would it not be easier to simply use an actual British or American actor?
Answer: Why "easier"? If an actor can do the right accent and is the best fit for the role, there's no great hardship in someone traveling for work and changing their voice. It's not like they're hiring someone with a completely inappropriate physical look that will involve hours in makeup every day. If the best person for the role happens to be a different nationality, far better to get them to do an accent and make the movie better, rather than hiring someone with the right natural accent but who isn't actually as good a fit. Producers and directors and casting directors don't owe it to actors of either nationality to give them work, their job is to find the best person for the film they're making.
Why the snappy response? This is why people are afraid to ask questions.
What was "snappy"? You used the word easier, I asked why. I didn't accuse you of implying anyone was owed work, I was just stating that as a fact. Slightly odd you'd reply "thank you for your comment" then later come back with your own "snappy" response, when I just answered the question you asked. No evidence anyone's afraid to ask question either - they get asked here all the time.
By "easier", I only meant that some of the preparation work might have been skipped by choosing someone who is already American or British. Also, I did not mean to imply that any actors are "owed" work. They're not. I was only curious about why actors are chosen for such roles. Thank you for your comment.
Even actors playing someone of their own nationality often have to work with a dialect coach to perfect a regional accent. An American actor who grew up on the West Coast does not speak the same as someone from New England, the Mid-West, the South, Texas, New York, etc. The same for British actors as there are many regional accents and dialects they may have to master.
Answer: Working Title Films tried for years to raise the finance to make "Bridget Jones' Diary", but nobody was interested, even with Rachel Weisz and later Kate Winslet attached as Bridget. Then one day Renée Zellweger signed on and Miramax and Universal threw money at them. This explains the many jarring Americanisms in the film, sops to the film's US financiers.
Answer: Would add that it's typical when casting a movie that multiple actors are typically considered for a main role. Movies are a huge and risky financial investment, so for a big-budget film, it's usually a small pool of bankable A-list actors that are considered, regardless of nationality. In the case of Bridget Jones' Diary, Helena Bonham-Carter, Cate Blanchett, Emily Watson, Rachel Weisz, Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, and Toni Collette were considered. Some were tied to other projects, Winslet was considered too young, Weisz too pretty, and so on before producers landed on Zellweger.
Answer: There is a scene like that in Child's Play 3.
LorgSkyegon
This might have been it. Thanks.