Gavin Jackson

27th Nov 2004

Philadelphia (1993)

Question: At the end of the film just before Tom hanks dies, he lowers his oxygen mask and says to partner Banderas "I'm ready". Ready for what exactly? Ready to die? Ready for a bit of final smooching? Or ready (and this is just my assumption) for Banderas to pull the plug?

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: Ready to die.

27th Nov 2004

Forever Young (1992)

Question: Mel Gibson spends 50 years frozen inside a machine that his friend Harry built. After Mel awakes, he is still the same age, but he slowly starts to age back into what he would been at the time that he awoke. Later on He discovers that Harry knew this would happen. If Harry knew, why did he build the machine in the first place?. It seems to serve no purpose other than to waste years of someone's life.

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: Harry Findlay only discovered the ageing would irreversible after Daniel had been frozen; don't forget this was the first time he'd tried it on a human. Plus he only ever intended to freeze Daniel for a year, so this may not have been the main focus of the experiment anyway.

Answer: He only wanted to be frozen because his girlfriend was in a coma. Harry said, he only tried it on animals and wasn't to keen on the idea. Mel said to wake him when his girlfriend woke up. He figured it would only be for a few weeks or months. Joe Morton, the scientist, read a file on the experiment, stating that Harry died when a fire broke out in the lab and ran in to save him.

26th Oct 2004

Candyman (1992)

Question: I'm confused by the ending. Did Helen herself become just like Candyman, was it really Candyman using Helen's body, or did Helen simply decide to make a brief return from the dead to make her husband pay for his betrayal?

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: It's a bit ambiguous, but just as Candyman became a tortured soul who suffered a painful and unjust death, to too did Helen.

18th Sep 2004

Miracle (2004)

Question: Why is this film going straight to video and DVD in Australia?. If it got poor reviews I would understand. But it got good reviews as did Kurt Russell for his performance. I just don't understand.

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: The film's international appeal would be very limited to those who knew the story or knew of the event, and this story is really only known well in the US and not in countries like Australia. On the review section, it's not the distributors main priority. Unless they see potential overseas it's costly to try and promote it in Australian cinemas and is likely to see a better audience in video and DVD than theatres.

Lummie

2nd Sep 2004

The Lost Boys (1987)

Question: How is David able to make Michael see the maggots and worms in the Chinese food, considering Michael hasn't yet drunk his blood at this point?

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: Many legends give the vampire certain rather hypnotic abilities - this is presumably along the same lines.

Tailkinker

Answer: I always assumed it was because the joint they passed was dusted.

27th Aug 2004

Duel (1971)

Visible crew/equipment: Just after the truck has run down the phone booth at the Reptile lady's place, it starts smashing into all the glass reptile cages nearby. If you look closely at the reptile cage which David falls over, you can see the film crew in the reflection. (00:58:05)

Gavin Jackson

15th Aug 2004

The Time Machine (1960)

Plot hole: In 1966 when George is about to return to his machine and the atomic bombs (or whatever) go off, George just barely gets out of there before the lava from a nearby volcano cooks him alive. Two plot holes here. One is that in the short time it takes George to walk a few meters to his machine, a volcano explodes and the lava reaches him. Thats very speedy lava..especially considering there were no mountains near George's house. Secondly when the lava approaches, it is just flowing along the ground like normal. But when it reaches George, it splashes around him like a broken water tank. That lava can certainly defy gravity.

Gavin Jackson

Question: All of Isaac's followers in this film are young people, no older than about their mid 20's. So why in the opening scene during the Cafe slaughter, is there a elderly lady helping them do their dirty work (the worker who poisons the coffees). This makes no sense at all considering it's the older people they were killing.

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: Who knows? Maybe they blackmailed her, because she works there, and the children wouldn't get caught poisoning the coffee, or maybe she isn't as old as you think, she could well be in her mid 20's, it's hard to tell, you only see her briefly.

Hamster

She is obviously in her late teens, early 20s.

31st Jul 2004

The Specialist (1994)

Deliberate mistake: Eric Roberts certainly knows the secret of eternal youth. In the 30 years since his character killed Sharon Stones' parents to the present day, he doesn't appear to have aged a single day.

Gavin Jackson

28th Jul 2004

The Omega Man (1971)

Other mistake: In the opening scene where Charlton Heston drives into a Deserted Los Angeles, he drives past at least 3 people walking down the sidewalk. The first person he passes is quite visibly holding up the traffic for the shooting. Another can be seen on the left of the screen when Heston puts the tape on. And one more can be seen in the wide shot of the street. Other than this, the film makers did a great of making LA look deserted.

Gavin Jackson

25th Jul 2004

Hot Shots! (1991)

22nd Jul 2004

The Karate Kid (1984)

Chosen answer: The Park is called "Golf 'n' Stuff" (like in the movie) and is located in Norwalk, CA. The slide unfortunately was removed in the early 90s.

20th Jul 2004

The Shining (1980)

Question: We see Jack in the picture at the end of the film which was painted in 1921 which I guess means that Nicholson was either possessed or reincarnated...but does anyone have a definite answer? Or does Kubrick just want us to decide for ourselves?

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: The idea is that Nicholson's soul has been around for a long time, and that each time he is reborn he returns to the Overlook Hotel and goes on a murder spree. This is facilitated by the evil, restless spirits residing in the hotel. The movie definitely drops some hints that Jack is a reincarnation in the following scenes: After they have been at the Overlook awhile, Wendy talks to Jack upstairs in the bedroom after she brings him breakfast. Jack tells Wendy that he feels like he has been at the Overlook before and upon being given the initial tour of the hotel, he almost knew what was around every corner. According to Delbert Grady during the chilling bathroom scene, Jack has always been the caretaker, which most certainly suggests he is a reincarnation.

Phoenix

15th Jul 2004

Blazing Saddles (1974)

Audio problem: When Taggart kicks over the fake building, he turns around and says "it's a fake, we've been suckered in." But his mouth is wide open and doesn't appear to be saying anything at all. (01:21:25)

Gavin Jackson

Trivia: When the camera crew were rigging the bridge to be blown up, the supervisor in charge of the detonation who didn't speak any foreign language thought he had been given the instruction to blow up the bridge and proceded to do it. Trouble was, the camera crew hadn't finished setting everything up and it was not filmed at all. Sergio Leone was (according to Clint Eastwood) the angriest anyone had ever seen him. As a result, the army agreed to rebuild the bridge for free and it hired a detonator who did speak the right language. This time they got the shot.

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: Yes. A "googol" is the number 10 raised to the 100th power, or a 1 followed by 100 zeroes. A "googolplex" is an even larger number - 10 raised to the power of a "googol", or represented as 1 followed by a "googol" zeroes.

BGraz

30th Jun 2004

The Punisher (2004)

29th Jun 2004

Robocop (1987)

Robocop mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When the bearded man is robbing the convenience store, he demands that the owner opens the safe. Look at the Lite cans on the safe. When seen from the right, there are four cans. When the owner kneels down to try and open it, there are now three. When we cut back to a view from the right there are again four. Finally when the robber is shooting at Robocop there are only two. (00:33:20)

Gavin Jackson

26th Jun 2004

Beverly Hills Cop (1984)