raywest

15th Mar 2014

Chocolat (2000)

Question: What did the little town have that the mayor wished to preserve?

Answer: The mayor is resistant to any change and tries to subvert any influence that threatens its traditions.

raywest

Question: When Vito Corleone visits Sicily with his family, he is received by an old woman and a man. These people are the ones who helped Vito to escape when he was a child. However, when they are having lunch together, Vito refers to her as "grandmother". Are the old woman and the man members of the family? What are their names?

Luiz Iervolino

Chosen answer: They were not his actual grandparents, just people that knew his family and who helped Vito after his mother, father, and brother were killed. Vito refers to her as "grandmother" because they treated him like family. Their names are unknown.

raywest

13th Dec 2012

Paul (2011)

Question: How on earth did agent O'Reilly manage to survive the gas explosion? He is in the crowd at the end of the movie.

Answer: When it is revealed two years later that he is alive, there is no explanation given as to how he survived the blast. Any answer would be speculation.

raywest

Question: In the scene when Celie is first brought home with Mister there are three kids waiting outside. Harpo and two sisters. No one ever says their names and after the hair combing you never see them again. What happened to them?

Answer: It is never explained what happened to them in the movie, but in the book they marry and move away from home. Neither character is ever mentioned by their name in the book or the film.

raywest

Question: Do the sewers of New York really fill up with toxic waste every night as stated in the movie, or was this just for the purpose of the plot?

lartaker1975

Chosen answer: No they do not. This is only for the purpose of the film's plot.

raywest

9th Mar 2014

General questions

Does anybody know the name of a TV movie that was made about Milli Vanili, it was aired sometime after they were found out. Also a TV movie about the the life of Elvis.

drown_2_nite@hotmail.com

Chosen answer: There was a 2000 BBC documentary titled It Takes Two: The Story of the Pop Duo about musical duos that included Milli Vanilli. The duo were also featured in the premiere episode of VH1 Behind the Music. In February 2007 Universal Pictures announced it was developing a film based on Milli Vanilli's rise and fall in the music industry and in February 2011, it was announced that the movie was being rewritten. It has yet to be released. Also, there have been a number of TV movies about Elvis Presley as far back as the 1978 version starring Kurt Russell. There were also several mini-series.

raywest

3rd Jan 2014

American Hustle (2013)

Answer: Modern tempered glass was developed and patented in the early 1900s and was in general use by the 1940s. It would have been routinely used by businesses at the time Irving was breaking out store windows when he was a boy.

raywest

Question: Why did all of the slaves have such beautiful teeth? The elderly woman slave who sang had a perfect set of white teeth. I can't imagine that slave owners took their "property" to the dentist on a regular basis. And how good was the dental work in the mid 1800's anyway?

Answer: Few slaves would have had healthy, straight white teeth or had access to professional dental care, which was not very advanced at that time and it was painful. This is a detail the filmmakers either deliberately chose to ignore or were careless in how they depicted the characters' conditions.

raywest

13th Feb 2014

Robocop 3 (1993)

Answer: There was a time conflict. Weller was filming another movie (Naked Lunch) at the same time RoboCop 3 was scheduled for production.

raywest

12th Jan 2014

Monster's Ball (2001)

Question: What was with him vomiting throughout the movie? Did it mean something?

outceltc

Answer: Hank threw up in the toilet because the picture of Letitia's husband as scratched by her son. He had escorted him to the death chamber.

Chosen answer: Hank is a deputy warden in a Georgia state prison.He oversees the executions of condemned prisoners, and before each one he is literally sickened by having to perform this duty.

raywest

No - he threw up after sex with Berry which is well after he quit. He threw up after drinking heavily the night before.

Per the vomit-after-sex scene. I too, thought that the drinking must have caused it. I rewound and watched the scene again and BAM, I'd missed it! He's in the bathroom at the sink facing the mirror. THERE, TWICE, he can see the reflected picture of her dead executed husband: in the main mirror plus in the little round mirror to the right. (Musgrove's pic must be hung on the wall behind him.) That execution memory = vomiting.

He threw up because he saw her husband's picture.

Answer: It's quite evident that he vomited after seeing Leticia's husband's pic juxtaposed with his image which fortified guilt, it was sickening to him.

27th Jan 2014

The Brady Bunch (1969)

Show generally

Question: When you look at the front of the house, the 2nd story is to the left of the front door. The stairs and the bedrooms are on the right. Also, there has to be a very high cathedral ceiling to account for the stairs which isn't shown in the front of the house photo. Does anyone know what the house looks like where the show was filmed?

Answer: There are a number of photos online of the Brady house's exterior of what it looked like when the show was being filmed and what it looks like today. Only the exterior shots were of a real house. The interior was a studio set and it did not exactly match the real home's floor plan. There are also some YouTube virtual tours of the house that explore the interior. If you Google "Brady Bunch House" you will find much information about this.

raywest

Question: I am confused as to why the House Cup winner (Gryffindor) is named at the feast where Hagrid returns. Shortly after, there is a mention of "the rest of the final term" passing quickly. If school is still in session, couldn't the students' actions/behavior still change the total amounts of points?

Answer: No, the points are tallied and the cup is awarded by a specific time, which is the Leaving Feast. There is only a short period of time after the feast before the students go home for the summer. Anything a student might do during that time does not count against their House for that year. Any penalties or rewards given to a House after the feast could be carried over to the following year.

raywest

27th Jan 2014

The Exorcist (1973)

Question: As far as I can tell, Damian visits his mother at her apartment and says she can't stay here on her own, but she says no, she's not leaving her home. Then we see the mother in hospital. But then Damian is told that his mother died in her home and wasn't found for a couple of days. But she was in hospital, wasn't she?

kh1616

Chosen answer: She was in a hospital but that does not mean she died there. She was likely discharged and, refusing to go into any type of assisted living situation, was sent home, where she later died. A person, unless declared legally incompetent, cannot be forced to go into a facility. Due to insurance regulations, a person can only stay in a hospital as long as they are being actively treated for a medical condition. Once their condition reaches a certain level, they are discharged-either to a rehab center, a nursing facility, or to their own home.

raywest

Answer: In the novel it's clear, that the hospital scene is a memory of Karras.

12th Jan 2014

The Dead Pool (1988)

Question: At the beginning after Callahan has killed two guys who shot at him, the third is running away. In real life, would he have faced charges for this? The first two were self defense but the 3rd guy was running away. He is not the type of person to deny the shooter was fleeing and not a threat.

The_Iceman

Chosen answer: Under those circumstances, when someone has just committed an extreme act to protect themselves it would be hard to claim that the third shooting was deliberate murder, that he was thinking normally, and that there was no further danger. From Callahan's perspective, he might have believed the shooter was not actually fleeing and still posed a threat if he came back.

raywest

Question: I know what excelsior means, I googled it, but is there more of a significance for it here?

kh1616

Chosen answer: According to Wikipedia, excelsior is a Latin adjective meaning "higher" or "loftier", used in English as an interjection with a poetic meaning of "ever upward." The characters have a goal and are striving to achieve something lofty.

raywest

13th Jan 2014

American Hustle (2013)

Question: Rosalyn twice references the book "Power of Intention." Wasn't that first published around 2005?

Answer: It was published in December of 2005.

raywest

Question: When Hauk reads Plissken's military history to him, he refers to him as SD Plissken. Does anyone know what the D stands for?

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: I searched this character on the internet, and it's mentioned in several places that Plisskin's full name is never given.

raywest

Question: Except for Remus Lupin in this movie, it seems as though the Hogwarts teachers do not use the Hogwarts Express. How do they arrive at and leave the school?

Answer: There's a variety of ways that wizards can travel including magical vehicles (like the motorcycle that Hagrid drove), broomsticks, port keys, or riding flying animals (like a hippogriff or the threstrals). They could also use floo powder if their fireplace was connected to the floo network like Umbridge had in her office. The other teachers can certainly travel on the Hogwarts Express, and some probably do but just aren't shown. In the book, "Half-Blood Prince", Professor Slughorn rode the train and some teachers live at the school year round.

raywest

Answer: They can apparate whenever they want (as seen in Half Blood Prince).

Some can Apparate, but it's tricky and uncomfortable. In one of the books, Arthur Weasley mentions that many wizards don't like to Apparate. They prefer other ways to travel. Broomsticks, port keys, etc.

Plus you can't apparate into Hogwarts. They would have to apparate into Hogsmead and travel to the school.

Ssiscool

29th Dec 2013

Alien (1979)

Question: Just after Ripley finds out from mother "crew expendable", she has a run-in with Ash, but he doesn't hurt her - she hurts him - so why does she have a bloody nose?

kh1616

Answer: The reason for the nosebleed was a deleted scene from the film. Ripley, in her attempt to escape from Ash, opened a hatch into a corridor which had been previously damaged by the alien (also a deleted scene) and wasn't supposed to be used. She suffered depressurization and retreated back and closed the hatch before looking for another escape route. That is what caused the nosebleed.

Chosen answer: Some people are prone to bloody noses without actually being physically hurt. Extreme emotional stress or physical exertion can trigger it by breaking small blood vessels in the nasal passages. She could also have bumped her head at some point off screen and had a delayed reaction.

raywest

Question: How and where did Quin get a hacksaw to cut the pontoons off the WWII plane that crashed up in the trees?

Answer: Quin would likely have tools stored in his own airplane.

raywest

Answer: They were on the run from the pirates at that point, he didn't have his tool bag with him. I presumed he found it on the Japanese WW2 plane but I'm not so sure a hacksaw was standard issue to a Japanese WW2 pilot but eh who cares, love the movie anyway.

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