Question: Towards the end of the movie, after he kidnaps her a second time, Christine originally has on her outfit from Don Juan but then has time to change into the white wedding dress. Why did she change? Did he make her change into that? I understand from like a movie point of view that it's a different song/act.
raywest
30th Aug 2018
The Phantom of the Opera (2004)
30th Aug 2018
The Village (2004)
Question: After being locked up in a room, how did Noah know that Ivy went to the woods?
26th Aug 2018
The Stranger (1946)
Question: At the end, Orson Welles is wounded and flees up a ladder out onto the face of the church clock. The clock contains an automata of statues that move in front of the clock face. One statue holds a sword which impales Orson Welles. We have a distance shot in which the sword is sticking out of Orson Welles' back. Orson Welles presses against the statue to withdraw the sword and falls to his death. Is such an end feasible? Surely, for a sword to fully pierce a human body it would have to be very sharp and be driven with incredible force and speed. Would the statue be moving with anything remotely approaching such force and speed? And surely a statue on a clock would not carry a real sword, but a facsimile, meant to look like a weapon from a distance? And, if somebody was pierced completely through with a sword, could they press their body forward to fully withdraw the weapon? (01:34:45)
26th Aug 2018
The Omen (1976)
Question: Something that puzzles me about the thee Omen films taken together. In the first film of the series the very young Damien is taken into a church. As the son of the Devil he has a great aversion to all things Christian, so he has a huge tantrum, and screams, struggles and resists going into the building. So how is it, that, as the series progresses, he can enter Christian buildings without any ill effects? (The denouement of the third and final Omen film is set in Fountains Abbey, a venerated Christian church in Yorkshire).
Answer: It may be similar to myths around vampires. In many variations, their fear of crucifixes is purely psychological. As a child, Damian may have feared the symbolism of the church, but as he grew he realised it had no actual power over him.
Answer: There's no clear-cut answer. The first film was intended as a stand-alone movie. When the later sequels were made, the plot details were changed or otherwise adapted to fit a new story line.
A quick addendum to this correction: There was indeed a general idea from the start that the Omen could spawn a trilogy of movies, though there weren't detailed plans, and the first film was written so that it could function fine as a stand-alone movie if they never got around to sequels.
26th Aug 2018
MythBusters (2003)
26th Aug 2018
The Phantom of the Opera (1962)
Question: In this version the Phantom was a highly gifted composer, who, as a grown adult, was horribly disfigured in an accident. Much of the Hammer version centres on the performance of the Phantom's masterpiece, an opera about Joan Of Arc, segments of which are shown during the film. I am not an expert on opera, but it seemed to me that the Phantom's musical take on the Joan Of Arc legend was one of the dullest musical performances I have ever seen, consisting of perfectly ordinary (and uninspiring) dialogue, sung on a single (and rather monotonous) octave. (Imagine some people who can't sing very well singing the text of a second rate historical novel.) Did anybody else who saw this little known film of the classic horror story have any opinion on the Joan Of Arc opera?
26th Aug 2018
Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Question: Vader tortured Han to lure Luke into a trap because he knows Luke will sense they are in danger and will come try to rescue them since they are his friends. How did Vader know Han, Leia, and Chewbacca were Luke's friends?
Answer: Vader would be able to piece together information from the time Luke, Leia, Han, Chewbacca, and Ben Kenobi were on the Death Star in Episode IV. Luke was Ben's apprentice, Luke escaped with Princess Leia and Han, so it's logical Vader would make the connection that they are friends and allies. Spies would also be feeding him information.
20th Aug 2018
A Quiet Place (2018)
Question: The father seems to be a very scientific guy. But why hasn't he built some "sound-grenades" which they always carry around and throwing them away to distract the dangerous aliens when they are near? (for example loud toys, egg timers, etc.).
Answer: Possibly because it would be too dangerous. Most times an object like that could not be thrown far enough away to allow the family to escape, particularly in a panicked situation. A creature might be momentarily distracted, but would quickly zero in on them as very frightened children would probably be yelling, screaming, and crying.
18th Aug 2018
Escape from Alcatraz (1979)
16th Aug 2018
Chicago (2002)
Question: Viewers always say Katalin Helinszki was innocent. How do you know? Sure, she said she was innocent, but so did some of the others.
Answer: Many feel she was innocent because she was the only one during the Cell Block Tango scene not holding a red scarf (indicating the other women had blood on their hands). The others boasted about what they'd done while she proclaimed her innocence. She was also the only one executed, probably because she was unable to defend herself due to her poor English. There may have been discrimination against her because she was foreign.
Also during her dance, the light that shown down on her was white while the others were either in the dark or under a red light for the blood they shed.
16th Aug 2018
Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)
Question: A man said that after the two years of house arrest, Scott would have three years of probation. What does that probation involve?
Answer: Probation varies depending on the case, but it involves adhering to whatever conditions that is set by the court. In Scott's case it could include but not be limited to regularly reporting to a probation officer, not traveling out-of-state, avoiding certain areas, people, or activities, attending counseling or joining a support group and so on.
15th Aug 2018
Goldfinger (1964)
Question: How did Bond know which room Goldfinger had at the hotel?
Answer: He deduced that Goldfinger was using a partner to spy on his opponent's hand, and to check his theory he went to the room with the best line of sight. Alternatively, he went (off-screen) to the desk and used his charm, which was utterly irresistible in the Bond films of the '60s, to find out where Goldfinger was staying.
15th Aug 2018
Goldfinger (1964)
Question: Why did Goldfinger go through the hassle of telling the other gangsters his plan, only to kill them right after?
Answer: Goldfinger wants to keep the charade going up until the end so the others suspect nothing unusual. It is also a means of exposition to explain the plot to the audience.
Answer: I believe that Goldfinger is a showman / show off and wanted to boast for the pure hell of it. Also I think that he had to string them along so they wouldn't suspect he was about to do what he ultimately did to them.
Answer: Like all Bond villains, he wants someone to appreciate his genius, even if he plans to kill that person immediately after. How many times have villains told Bond their plans, then stuck him in a deathtrap that he manages to escape? These guys got the same treatment except for that part at the end.
9th Aug 2018
Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)
Question: When Brian is about to be crucified, soldiers arrive with news of his release. The soldiers ask for Brian, and everybody shouts "I'm Brian." Is this a parody of the "I'm Spartacus" episode in the Kirk Douglas/Stanley Kubrick film of "Spartacus"? If so, would this support my feeling that Life Of Brian is primarily a parody of classical/biblical 'epic' films?
Answer: Actually, no, the primary goal of "Life of Brian" was not to parody biblical films. Terry Gilliam has stated that the "important" objective of the movie was "to offend a lot of people," particularly "Jews and Christians, because they're easy to push around." Gilliam further said that, at the same time, they were "very cautious not to offend Muslims, because they're the dangerous ones." Both Gilliam and John Cleese have also said that, while the Pythons took care to avoid blasphemy (not directly mocking Jesus of Nazareth, with whom the Pythons had no quarrel), they fully intended that the film be heretical (in defiance of Catholic Church doctrine and dogma). Make no mistake, "Life of Brian" is not supposed to be a lighthearted parody of biblical films; it's supposed to be a sharp stick in the eye to the Roman Catholic Church.
Answer: The scene is a parody of the scene in "Spartacus" (although they are saying "I am Brian" for completely different reasons.) However, the film is meant to be a satire on religion itself and not a parody of epic films. The Pythons did a lot of research to try and accurately portray 1st century Judea, which is why it may look like a biblical epic, but I can't recall any biblical epics they parodied. At the time it was considered blasphemous, and not a parody, and banned in several areas in the UK and some countries. Although the Pythons argued it's not blasphemy but heresy.
Answer: You are indeed correct. It is a parody of the "Spartacus" scene but mostly of religion.
Perhaps not so much a parody of "Spartacus" as a tribute to Stanley Kubrick. Monty Python writer Terry Gilliam was very much a fan of Kubrick films and became friends with Kubrick in the 1980s. Gilliam claimed that Kubrick had even spoken with him about making a sequel to Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove" (with Gilliam as director). Chances are, the "Spartacus" allusion was part of Gilliam's contribution to the "Life of Brian" screenplay, a tip-o-the-hat to Stanley Kubrick.
8th Aug 2018
Escape from Alcatraz (1979)
Question: Why was Wolf such a bully to Frank Morris?
Answer: This is a fictional account of a real-life event and the people depicted in it. Frank Morris was a vicious and dangerous criminal who, played by movie-hero Clint Eastwood, is made into a sympathetic figure. The Wolf character, who was probably not real or highly fictionalized, is contrived solely to create conflict in the plot by making him Morris' enemy. It also shows the constant danger and abuse from other prisoners.
6th Aug 2018
The Village (2004)
Question: As there were not any real creatures and they were only Noah and the elders in suits, how did they make the monsters' growls / scary sounds?
Answer: Ivy's father revealed to her before she left that they "created" the sounds. This implies they planted speakers with animal recordings in the woods and keep them playing on a loop.
2nd Aug 2018
A Place in the Sun (1951)
Question: How does Angela Vickers know that it is George Eastman's birthday when they have just met in the billiard room? (00:29:55)
2nd Aug 2018
The Martian (2015)
Question: Mark says he will have to get to the crater, which is 3200 kilometers away. Mark says he has one working rover, designed to go a max distance of 35 kilometers, before the battery has to be recharged at the hab. During the nighttime scene, he says he has doubled his battery by scavenging Rover 1, but if he uses the heater he will burn through half his battery everyday. I did some math, and worked out that the max distance his rover would be able to go without using the heater would only be about 140 kilometers. How would he travel 3200 kilometers to get to the crater?
Answer: Mark says he has 1 Rover that can travel 35km before recharging. He estimated he would need to travel for 50 days to reach the Ares IV site (down to approximately 22 days when not using the heater, as per your maths). Mark is shown using the solar panels (stolen from the Hab) to recharge the Rover during his journey. He drives for 4 hours before noon, waits 13 hours for the Rover to recharge to full and then starts driving again.
Answer: He wouldn't need to use the heater because he salvaged the Radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) and this also saves his power.
2nd Aug 2018
The Village (2004)
Question: Why didn't the ranger tell his supervisor about Ivy/the community?
Answer: Of course the Supervisor knew. It was the Village Elders who hired them. To keep people out and disturbing their way of life. If you're wondering why he seemed so nonchalant about the situation. I've been in security for thirty years, sitting outside and doing nothing is the most boring way to make a living.
Answer: I don't think the supervisor knew. I think the guy just felt bad for her or understood her. And if the supervisor found out about it, he probably would have reported it and it would have became public. IMO.
1st Aug 2018
Answer: The Phantom forced her to change into the wedding dress shortly after he kidnapped her the second time. He intended to make Christine his "bride."
raywest ★