Question: When watching Cosmic Wars, Lisa refers to the character who looks like Jar-Jar off Star Wars as a "tired stereotype", what does she mean by this?
Captain Defenestrator
30th Dec 2012
The Simpsons (1989)
13th Dec 2012
Moonraker (1979)
Question: At first I thought that Jaws was chasing Bond throughout the movie, because he failed to kill him in the previous movie, The Spy Who Loved Me, but it turns out that he works for Drax now, whereas he first worked for Stromberg in TSWLM. As far as I know, Drax and Stromberg have nothing to do with each other, so is it purely a coincidence that Jaws now works for a new employer, which happens to be Bond's new target?
Answer: There's a scene where Drax is on the phone trying to hire someone to kill Bond. He says to the person on the other end "Well, of COURSE, if you can get HIM!" This is when he hires Jaws.
14th Dec 2012
Thor (2011)
Question: Early on, Odin is shown telling very young Thor and Loki about the great Frost Giant battle held in Scandinavia, presumably before they were born. Yet the children's book and Erik's own childhood memories indicate that adult Thor and Loki were part of the legends that come from that region, and by implication, would date to that time (965 AD?). Is Thor old enough to remember visiting Earth hundreds of years ago, or not?
14th Dec 2012
Doctor Who (2005)
Question: When the Doctor says good-bye to Sarah-Jane at the end of the show, it is as if he'll never see her again, yet, he visits her on 'The Sarah Jane Adventures'. Being a time lord, he would know if he'd see her again so why did he say good-bye?
Chosen answer: He doesn't know his own future. She might die or he might regenerate before he sees her again.
14th Dec 2012
American Pie 2 (2001)
Question: When Kevin admits to having slept with no one at college,considering what Jess tells Vicky that if he said he slept with 3 he more likely slept with 1 or none will it be true what Stifler said about Vicky that if she said 1 it more likely to be 3?
Chosen answer: Yes. That's the point of the theory. Men multiply the number of women they've had sex with by 3, women divide the number by 3.
13th Dec 2012
The Godfather (1972)
Question: How does Don Vito Corleone know that a meeting was going to be setup for Michael's assassination?
Answer: Being a Don for such a long time, Vito has probably seen most every dirty trick used by the other families.
Answer: Because at the end of the olive oil war in 1934, Vito used the exact same plan to execute his falling enemy Mariposa, and the traitor in Mariposa's family was his capo Emilio Barzini, and Vito figured out that Barzini will use the same plan to get rid of Michael, an unexperienced boss of a falling family (as known to Barzini).
Answer: The five Mafia heads have periodic meetings to discuss various issues. The Corleones are the most powerful of the New York Five Families. With Don Corleone now retired, the other Dons would appear to want to discuss Michael's new role. Michael is perceived as an inexperienced and weak successor, making him an easy target at a closed meeting. Vito knows this and that if Michael were assassinated, the Corleone empire would fall apart and their territory taken over.
Chosen answer: Because that's how he would organize a hit like that.
13th Dec 2012
Doctor Who (2005)
Question: If Amelia and Rory 'died' in 2012 (Angels Take Manhattan) How come the Doctor had dinner with them in 2013? He 'died' to them in 2011 (The Impossible Astronaut) And, in "The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe" he said he was gone 2 years. 2011+2 = 2013. But they 'died' in 2012.
Chosen answer: Angels Take Manhattan takes place in Amy and Rory's personal timelines after they experience the events of The Doctor's visits. When the Angels take someone, they consume all of that person's potential temporal energy after that point, so they'd already had those experiences with The Doctor before being taken.
13th Dec 2012
The Simpsons (1989)
Angry Dad: The Movie - S22-E14
Question: When Homer says Bart is his little Roman Polanksi, Marge whispers something into his ear relating to Roman Polanski and Homer starts strangling Bart. What did Marge whisper to him?
Chosen answer: Roman Polanski has been a fugitive from the US Government since 1978 after fleeing to France to avoid a rape conviction. Marge probably told Homer this and he decided to punish "his little Roman Polanski" for the real one's crimes.
22nd Nov 2012
Back to the Future Part III (1990)
Question: Heres something that never made sense to me. I could see how Marty's great-great-grandfather Shemus could resemble Marty (so Michael J. Fox plays him), but why would his great-great-grandmother Maggie McFly resemble his mother when this is his father's side of the family?
Chosen answer: This has been covered before. Men tend to be attracted to women who remind them of their mothers, so the McFly men would be attracted to a certain "type" throughout the years until we get to George meeting Lorraine.
22nd Aug 2012
Doctor Who (2005)
A Good Man Goes to War - S6-E8
Question: Between the classic and revived series, has River Song's parents been mentioned or hinted before? If so, what was said about them?
Answer: We find out who River's parents are later, but, eh, spoilers.
Chosen answer: They have not.
29th Jul 2012
First Blood (1982)
Question: If Rambo could afford to eat, why couldn't he afford a bus ticket?
Chosen answer: A meal in the 80s would have cost 4 or 5 dollars. A bus ticket would have been around 50, or more, depending on where he was going.
Answer: There's no evidence he could afford to eat. It's possible he was planning on working for a meal.
24th Jul 2012
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Question: Who's idea was it, or the reason, Kubrick decided to kill off Gunnery Sergeant Hartman? Was it to merely show the casualty of war?
Answer: It was Gustav Hasford's idea. It happened in the original book that the story is based on, "The Short Timers."
Answer: It was to show what someone might do (someone with a loaded gun and confronted by their abuser) whilst in the process of having a mental breakdown.
25th Jul 2012
Doctor Who (2005)
Question: I just wanted to check before I post it as a mistake. When Morvin and Foon are fixing the Host, Foon says she spent 5000 credits on phone calls and that they'll never be able to pay it off. At the end of the episode, the Doctor tells Mr. Copper that he has 50,000,056 credits on his card which he says is equal to £1,000,000. According to this calculation, the 5000 credits that Foon spent, divided by 50.000056 = £99.999888. Surely even though they work on a milk market they'd be able to pay that off easily, wouldn't they.
Chosen answer: Depends on how much money they made at the market. For some people, a £99 expense WOULD be too much to pay off.
19th Jun 2012
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Question: Are 'Dawn of the Dead' and 'Day of the Dead' the morning and day after 'Night of the Living Dead'?
Answer: No. Each is a progression of several weeks or years.
4th May 2012
The Avengers (2012)
Question: Between the events in The Incredible Hulk (2008) and The Avengers how did Bruce Banner end up in India when he was last in Canada? Did it have anything to do with what happened at the end of the Incredible Hulk movie?
Chosen answer: Very probably. The moving around is just how he lives: He goes to some remote area where he won't be recognized, but either the Hulk comes out or someone tracks him down and he has to move again.
18th Mar 2012
General questions
Saw a movie in the late 90's or in the early 2000's. An adventure about an elder man and a kid (maybe two kids) that finds or are in possession of something - a book or medallion or something that made things from the past appear in their time. I remember lions and a hunter chasing them with bad intents. A lot of other things chased them as well, but I remembered those things specifically. I only remember one particular scene which involves the hunter entering a weapons shop trying to buy ammunition for his old rifle, and the clerk clarifies that the round the hunter displays has not been for sale in a long time.
Chosen answer: Sounds like Jumanji, starring Robin Williams. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113497/)
18th Mar 2012
The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
Question: This is the 6th iteration of Matrix and Neo succeeds in killing Smith by unbalancing the equation. But doesn't the equation get unbalanced when the previous 5 Neos don't succeed and die?
Answer: Smith's being "set free" by Neo is something new to this iteration of the Matrix. The previous iterations simply ended and began anew, as was the machines' plan.
18th Mar 2012
The Usual Suspects (1995)
Question: At the start of the film we see Keyser Soze kill Keaton and then set fire to the boat and walk away. If he has already accomplished all his goals (killing the witness and killing the 3 remaining thieves), why do we see him later as Verbal Kint in the police station? Why wouldn't Keyser Soze (a mastermind) simply have escaped into thin air after he blows up the ship?
Chosen answer: He needed to give the police SOME kind of explanation for all the violence at the harbor, or it would have become a big mystery like Jimmy Hoffa or Amelia Earhart's disappearances that people are always trying to solve, and then someone may have discovered more truth than he wanted. As Verbal he could tell a story to the police that implicated Keaton as Soze and he could disappear again.
18th Mar 2012
General questions
I am looking for the name of a dubbed French or possibly Italian film that I viewed as a youngster in the 60s or early 70s. Concerned everyday life in a city neighbourhood, where a not too bright middle aged man manages to know all the right answers to quizzes. Eventually he becomes a minor celebrity and everybody from politicians to business leaders seeks his advice.
Chosen answer: Sounds like "Being There," starring Peter Sellers. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078841/)
18th Mar 2012
General questions
I am trying to remember a film that I think takes place at a summer camp (or at least some place with lot of kids). In it there is a scene where several boys fake a groin injury so the attractive female nurse will touch them.
Chosen answer: The scene you describe makes me think of the 1985 TV movie "Poison Ivy," starring Michael J. Fox (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089820/), or maybe the 1984 film "Oddballs".
Chosen answer: Amongst the many complaints people have about Jar-Jar is that he seems to be portraying an old stereotype of an ignorant black person. Lisa is probably commenting on this.
Captain Defenestrator