Are there any bloopers available online from VERY serious movies, like Schindler's List or 12 Years a Slave? Actors must slip up when filming them like anything else - is the subject matter just serious enough that they don't laugh about them at the time, making the bloopers nothing worth watching, or are they just never compiled and released because it's felt to be too inappropriate?
Jon Sandys
2nd Jan 2023
General questions
Answer: Youtube has plenty. Simply enter "serious movie bloopers." You'll even find some for "The Silence Of The Lambs."
11th May 2022
General questions
What film is it where two people are fighting in a mostly black corridor over an automatic weapon, and it fires, making a semicircle of orange over their heads, illuminating the scene?
Chosen answer: Found the answer elsewhere - I was thinking of The Matrix Revolutions, where Agent Smith in someone else's body is fighting with Neo over an arc weapon of some kind in a darkened spaceship.
Answer: It isn't very much to go on but the first thing that comes to mind is the 2011 remake of "Fright Night." At the end Charlie and Jerry the vampire fight over a shotgun in the underground basement of a building. When it goes off, holes in the ceiling, bring in the sunlight.
14th Nov 2021
General questions
There's a movie or maybe TV show where at the end two little kids get adopted - a boy who's black and a blonde haired white girl. Someone crouches down to them, maybe in an airport, and asks if they want to come with them. Any clues what this is from?
Chosen answer: Something similar happens in one of the final episodes of the sitcom "30 Rock." Liz Lemon ends up adopting two children that she picks up from an airport - a black boy named Terry and a blond white girl named Janet - who humorously and ironically have almost the exact same personalities as her annoying co-workers Tracey and Jenna. Could that be it?
Aha, that's it! My wife sends her thanks, that was annoying her. :-).
8th Aug 2020
General questions
It's a bit of a trope in films for an explosive device of some kind to be placed in a microwave, often catching the victim unawares until the final few seconds before the beeper goes and it explodes. Grosse Point Blank and Under Siege come to mind, to name but two. But is there any real reason the countdown should match the explosion? Is there anything specific about the end of a microwave cycle that might cause a detonation in something capable of it, or is it just a Hollywood convention that the hero's skills are such that they manage to set the timer for the perfect length to cause an explosion?
Answer: To start, exploding microwaves in film are like gas tanks exploding when shot, what the movies show is nothing like real life. Most explosive simply do not explode in microwaves, even after 15 minutes. Flash powder (flashbang grenades) can go off in a microwave after about 5 minutes, but just from being heated up, nothing to do with the final seconds of the countdown. Although they certainly wouldn't explode an entire store or cause more damage then the flashbang would do normally. Explosives like C4, hand grenades, or modern TNT and dynamite-type explosives will not go off like seen in the films, at least not with low powered home microwaves.
14th Jul 2020
General questions
I'm trying to remember what movie it's from when the bad guy (I think) says "you find something that's important to them, and...you squeeze." Drawing a blank. Anyone know?
Chosen answer: "Mission Impossible." Kitteridge says it to his colleague, Barnes (when the Feds turn up at the place where Max and her team were, and find them gone) when describing how he's going to get Ethan to come out of hiding.
That's it! Fantastic, thank you. :-)
4th Jan 2019
General questions
Do most movie and TV studios have a team of mechanics constantly repairing vehicles? It seems that whenever minor/medium car crashes are filmed the cars are far from written off, but they also must need a lot of work done to make them driveable again, or even just look good enough to be reused on film.
Answer: They would have mechanics and/or film crew with mechanical expertise on hand to perform repairs as needed, but they also use multiples of the same makes and models of vehicles used in a movie, particularly cars that are being used in crashes or stunts. This is something that occasionally shows up as a movie mistake where viewers notice a slight variation on what is supposed to be the same car in a scene.
12th Oct 2018
General questions
A random movie or TV quote has occurred to me and I can't place it. It's delivered in a faintly Al Pacino way, but I don't think it's him, saying "I will not let...these animals...", then something like "ruin my city", but I only remember the first part. Any clue what it's from?
Chosen answer: That's from the movie Bad Boys II (2003), Captain Howard played by Joe Pantoliano says it at the end of this scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aw6WIbR1eQw.
Thank you! Not seen that in far too long.
24th Oct 2015
General questions
I remember playing a PC game in the early 90s - 2D cartoony thing with a detective character who wore a top hat with spindly legs and floppy yellow hair, photographing things in a school. Can't remember the name - ring a bell for anyone?
Chosen answer: Midnight Rescue! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midnight_Rescue.
25th Jan 2015
General questions
A friend is trying to identify which Western this quote comes from: "If I could find the man who taught you those tricks, I'd shake him by the hand and then shoot him like a dog." He has just spent the night with a woman and this is his quote in the morning.
2nd Jun 2014
General questions
I saw a trailer a few years ago for a movie that looked interesting but I've forgotten the title. All I remember is that it was vaguely steampunky and/or futuristic and a sniper seemed to play an important part (who maybe wore a mask/goggles?). Fairly sure it was live action - sorry it's so vague, but maybe it'll ring a bell for someone.
4th Feb 2006
General questions
I remember a cartoon a while ago, I think involving Bugs Bunny, where he had a magic wand and was being chased by someone (I'm almost sure NOT Elmer Fudd), ending up in an opera. The climax was the chaser singing on stage while Bugs (or whoever) kept using the magic wand and changing the singer's costume. Any ideas what this cartoon was called?
1st Jun 2005
General questions
Only one film has had the "Universal Pictures" logo removed before the titles (not including films such as Jurassic Park and Waterworld that used variations of the logo). Does anyone know what it is?
Chosen answer: I think that was John Carpenter's the THING. He mentions that in the commentary on the new DVD.
15th Mar 2005
General questions
Looking at the broadcast dates of various US TV shows, it seems that they're normally aired once a week, but occasionally have a gap of up to several weeks mid-season. Why is this?
Chosen answer: Because some shows only have new episodes during "sweeps" weeks or months, they have air dates that are sometimes months apart for consecutive episodes. During December/January and again in March/April, many networks air repeats of their current hit shows. Then, in February and May, they air new episodes of these same shows. This ensures that the most people possible will be watching in February and May so that networks can set their advertising rates. The more viewers a particular show has, the more the network can charge for commercials to run during that show. That's why "sweeps" stunts (weddings, murders, major plot shifts, etc.) usually only occur during February and May, so more people will be watching.
11th Jan 2005
General questions
Some years ago I watched a film, now I know this sounds strange, but some Electricity Pylons sort of came to life and started walking on a mission. The story seemed to revolve round a little boy if my memory serves me right. Does anyone know what the film was?
Chosen answer: Sounds a lot like The Iron Giant.
11th Jan 2005
General questions
In many films, I have read, (and actually seen in the films) that an actor/actress onscreen mouths the words another actor is saying. It happens in Home alone 1, one of the Harry Potter films and in the latest Bond film. Why does this happen?
Chosen answer: I can't give a definite answer, but all I can think is that they've rehearsed the scene so often that they know other people's lines (possibly leading up to their own cue), so mouth along with them without even realising it, and no-one else notices. Kind of like during the filming of the Phantom Menace - Ewan McGregor was making lightsaber noises during the fights and wasn't even aware he was doing it until someone pointed it out to him!
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Chosen answer: From what I've seen, in serious films, or scenes, when actors mess up their lines, they're more apologetic and what they said wasn't funny or outrageous. I feel like serious films have more rehearsal times as well, where comedy films are often shot quickly with a lot of ad-libbing or improv. So there's less slip ups during the actual shoot. Similar to how a play has a lot of rehearsals, but improv shows won't have as much. There's are some outtakes of "Silence of the Lamb." This is something that I've wondered too though and tried to search for. I had a chance to go to a Q&A session with Cary Elwes and wanted to ask him if he had as much fun making "Saw" as "Princess Bride" and "Men in Tights" and were there "Saw" outtakes, but we ran out of time before my question could get asked and I've always regretted it.
Bishop73