Question: Before Burt and Heather are attacked in their basement by the graboid, she puts some bullets and dirt in a machine and turns it on. The machine makes noise and attracts the graboids. What is that machine doing to the bullets and dirt?
BGraz
13th Jul 2007
Tremors (1990)
18th Mar 2007
General questions
I'm trying to find a movie I was sure it was 'Ghost' but it's not. The main character dies in a car crash (I vaguely remember a bridge) and becomes a ghost. He returns to his family and they can see him when the light are off. In the end his daughter/wife gets hurt and becomes a ghost and he tells her to go back to her body then finds his own at the hospital. Sorry there is not much detail. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Answer: I am pretty certain you are referring to "Ghost Dad" starring Bill Cosby. You can find more info at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099654/.
16th Mar 2007
General questions
I remember the first film I ever saw was with my mum and grandmother and I wanted to know the name of it. I only remember that the main lady was cheating on her husband either with a doctor - or her husband was the doctor - I'm not sure, but she brought the affair guy home with her and when they went to 'do things' in her bed there was either a syringe or a pin sticking up and she cut herself on it. That's all I remember and my mum has no idea what I'm talking about. If you know what film this is, can you help? Thanks.
Answer: Sounds like the movie, "Malice" starring Nicole Kidman, Alec Baldwin, and Bill Pullman. Nicole and Bill are married, and she is having an affair with her doctor, Alec. More here...http://imdb.com/title/tt0107497/.
6th Mar 2007
General questions
I remember watching a programme on TV about movie mistakes a few months ago on VH1 and saw a clip with a lot of people in a school gymnasium and at the back there was a man standing up "exposing" himself that the editors supposedly missed. Can anyone tell me which film this was?
4th Aug 2006
The Princess Bride (1987)
Question: What does Miracle Max mumble before agreeing to help Inigo and Fezzik with mostly-dead Westley? It's after Inigo says "humiliations galore," as Max is turning away to get his hat.
Answer: He is just singing/babbling happily. According to the captions, he sings, "Hi diddle lick do day dee shie!" He then says, "That is a noble cause".
4th Aug 2006
Grease (1978)
Question: Can anybody explain why the T-Birds didn't see each other all summer? Even if Kenickie had a job, wouldn't he still be around after work?
Answer: Well, Danny was out of town, at the beach. It's quite possible that the rest of T-Birds didn't live close enough to each other to see each other during the summer. Also, they may have all had jobs, or been travelling with their families. It's also possible that they DID see each other, although maybe not as "T-Birds". When they saw each other on the first day of school, though, they were Seniors, and they were ready and excited to be T-Bird seniors.
Another possible reason is that not all of them were allowed to see friends during the summer. I had a couple of classmates whose parents were strict about them focusing on schoolwork and/or getting a job. No phone calls or visiting friends on the weekends or during summer: "You can see your friends at school."
Do you really think any of the T-Birds had strict parents?
People quite often rebel against strict parents.
When they asked Kenickie where he was, he said "working, which is more than I can say for any of youse kids" suggesting that the 3 stooges (pun intended for their stupid routine that prompts Danny to tell them to "be cool") didn't work all summer. Also, Sonny needed to borrow money in the dinner until he could get his allowance.
In regards to not living close enough to each other, it is worth mentioning that having access to a vehicle was much less common compared to nowadays.
Answer: During that time, it wasn't uncommon for people to go out of town for the whole summer. Often, it was close enough so that the father could commute on weekends while the mother and kids spent the summer at the vacation spot. Even when I was growing up in the 70's and 80's, I knew a lot of people who did it.
4th Aug 2006
Smokey and the Bandit (1977)
Question: When Bandit is getting the money for the run, he asks for a speedy car and Little Enos counts out the bills. Exactly how much was a 1977 Trans Am?
Answer: The base price for a 1977 Trans Am was around $5450. By the time you added the Hurst hatches (T-Tops), gold trim package, and CB radio, the final price was around $7000.
16th Nov 2004
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)
Question: What I don't understand is: Dumbledore has the brilliant idea of using the Mirror of Erised to hide the stone in. Yet the mirror is in some room in the castle, where Harry eventually finds it, and not inside the guarded area, where the stone is hidden, until very much later into the movie. Why is that? Even if it was there to teach Harry its secret, it would mean the stone was less efficiently guarded. Or did Dumbledure just get the idea of using the mirror later into the movie ?
Answer: Presumably, Dumbledore came up with his idea after catching Harry in front of the mirror, after he explained the mirror's "power" to Harry. It is safe to assume that the stone was stored in some other magical manner that was less secure before Dumbledore decided to use the mirror.
26th Oct 2004
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Question: Towards the beginning, after the guard captain beats up the fat guy, the says "call the trustees and have them take him to the infirmary." What are the "trustees"?
Chosen answer: As referenced in this movie, trustees are prisoners that have earned the right to work in parts of the prison - in this case, the hospital wing. The name implies that they can be trusted to do the required work with minimal supervision.
16th Sep 2004
Rat Race (2001)
Question: What is the name of the song that plays when the car is being lifted at the airport by the thing spinning?
Chosen answer: That would be "In the Hall of the Mountain King". It is the final movement of Edvard Grieg's classical work, Peer Gynt Suite No. 1.
6th Jul 2004
Back to the Future Part III (1990)
Question: Is "Googolplex" an actual word?
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.
15th Mar 2004
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Question: In the shot when Doc is in the time machine and it is hit by lightning, it apparently explodes. After the initial explosion you can see what appears to be two backward nines. Does anyone know what this means?
Answer: Whenever the Delorean travelled backwards or forwards in time, it would leave a trail of flames. There was no reason given, but it was a neat effect. When it was struck by the lightning it activated the flux capacitor, etc. And sent Doc and the car back to Jan 1st 1885. The "double nines" you saw was because the Delorean tilted on its axis.
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Chosen answer: The machine is a vibrating case cleaner, which is used to polish the brass casings of pistol and rifle ammo. The "dirt" is actually an abrasive polishing compound.
BGraz