Why do a lot of new movies/TV shows have exclusive content that is only on the Blu Ray disc versions? Don't the movie creators still make money if you choose to buy the DVD?
Answered general questions about movies, TV and more
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I remember watching this movie about 30 years ago, when I was a kid. I remember a scene where a young girl is trying to show off for her sibling and his/her friends, so she puts her pet bird on the ground and tries to make it fly by throwing small pebbles at the bird. What the young girl actually does is pelt the bird to death. Does anyone know the name of this movie?
Answer: The title of this is A Girl Named Sooner.
This movie is about a boy who, after losing his father, moves into a house and finds a ventriloquist's dummy in the shed. The dummy then comes to life and claims to be the boy's dead father. It eventually tries killing the boy. Does anyone know the title of movie? I have never been able to figure it out.
I am looking for a documentary about volcanoes that was made no later than 1997. I thought it was by National Geographic but I can't find it on their website (I have watched their film Volcano: Nature's Inferno, and it is not the one I'm looking for). All I can remember about this film is that it included the song "Hot hot hot", possibly as the opening music, and at least part of the movie was about volcanologists Maurice and Katia Kraft. It talks about how they eventually died in a volcanic eruption (ironic, I know). Can anyone tell me the title of this documentary?
Chosen answer: The only other documentary for which the Kraffts are credited on the IMDb is Nature: The Volcano Watchers which was made in 1987. Unfortunately this is before their death in 1991, which is an issue if the documentary discussed their deaths, although wouldn't be unusual for an updated edition to have been shown later with the additional information. Hope that's of some use. May not be the right one, but could be interesting anyway...
I don't remember much about this movie, but in one scene there is a group of about four people who enter a building and talk to some guy, who then opens a trapdoor under them. The people fall onto some roller coaster, which dumps them onto a conveyor belt, that feeds them into a machine that grinds them up and spits out their bones. I think the protagonist may later enter the machine himself and somehow escape it. There also may be a scene later in the movie with a lot of fire, but I don't know for sure. Can anyone help me with the title of this movie?
Chosen answer: Nothing But Trouble. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0102558/.
I only saw a few minutes of this movie on TV once. It's probably in the sci-fi genre. There was a high school or college-age boy with very white skin and red lips, and I think he was bald. I saw a scene where he was in a classroom and the other students started making fun of him. Thanks if you can make a guess.
Answer: I think the movie you are thinking of is Powder with Sean Patrick Flanery. His mother had been hit by lightning while on the way to the hospital to give birth. This resulted in him having abnormal powers and the pale skin and bald head.
Once saw on public tv only part of a movie that was a sprawling epic about Scandanavian or German immigrant steelworkers in the Midwest. A catch phrase, connecting or ending scenes, showed workers shoveling coal into a furnace with the foreman saying, "Let's make steel." Never saw the film pop up again, could never figure out what it was. Film seemed quite old. Anyone know the film?
Answer: Hope I have it for you now. "An American Romance" with Brian Donlevy. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0036596/.
I am looking for a comedy (maybe from the late 80s?) where the male character checks for his wallet, keys, and balls (not necessarily in that order) before leaving his apartment. Does anyone know what movie that's from?
Answer: This also happens in Nuns on the Run, which is a bit more within your timeframe.
Answer: In Austin Powers, The Spy Who Shagged Me, Austin said "Testicles, spectacles, wallet and watch" while touching each place as he says it.
It should be noted that in both films, they're not actually checking for them, it's how to remember the proper way to make the Catholic sign of the cross.
I wonder if anyone out there can help me. I am trying to find out which film star was once awarded the freedom of every toy shop in Tokyo? Any ideas gratefully received.
Answer: This was one of the questions in the Northern Echo's Superbrain 2008 quiz. Their answer was Ricky Schroder.
Does anyone know if the show "Freakylinks" (with Ethan Embry and Lisa Sheridan) is on DVD, or if it will be? I searched on Amazon.com, but there is just an option to be notified when it becomes available. Thanks.
I'm looking for a movie. It's about a house, on a street where some evil people live (I think), and they live at house number 669. Now when the door slams, the 9 turns upside-down to make it 666. That's all I can remember. Can anyone help me on this?
Chosen answer: This is The Blurbs with Tom Hanks, its a generally good 80's movie, with Corey Haim and Corey Feldman to boot.
I am looking for the name of a movie about a Cambodian family that came to the States with an American family. The Cambodian family consisted of a mom and a few kids who did not know anything about American life. There was one scene where one of the kids was using the toilet by standing up on the rim. Another scene was one of the younger kids who freaked out at school and would not come out from under the table. And the last scene I remember is one of the older girls trying to come on to the American husband. Does this sound familiar to anyone?
Answer: The Girl Who Spelled Freedom.
I remember seeing a film when I was younger. It featured a group of children as the lead characters, and the main antagonist was an evil, magical ventriloquist dummy that resided in an eerie house. I seem to recall the lead character having a robotic toy that came to life as well, and I know that one of the characters was fixated on Darth Vader, and actually saw a vision or a re-creation of him near the end of the movie. (He says something about seeing his "hero" afterwards.) I think it was an 80's or early 90's release. Anybody have any ideas what this was?
This is about a show called "Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction" And I want to know if anyone knows the episode in which a guy is hustled out of (as I remember it) a bar. The person throwing him out tossed a coin and said "Tails I win, heads you lose". Does anyone know the name of the episode?
Answer: The name of that segment is "Deadbeat Dad" and it's from Episode 30 of Season 3.
I'm looking for a film I heard about in drama class in high school. It takes place on a steamboat or river paddle boat. The main character is a woman that sings on the boat, but is kicked off for being half black. If this sounds familiar please please please let me know! Thanks.
Chosen answer: This is the musical, "Showboat." It was originally a Broadway musical by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein, based on Edna Ferber's novel set in the late-19th century American south. The character, Julie, is a mulatto who marries a white man, which was illegal. When it is discovered that she is half-black, the couple is arrested. There have been several movie adaptations of Showboat, the most notable being the 1951 MGM version starring Howard Keel, Kathryn Grayson, and Ava Gardner, among others. The 1936 film starring Paul Robeson is more faithful to the original story, however.
I'm searching for a movie I saw maybe 20 years ago about a community on Venus. Venus is covered in clouds and there is a legend/story that the clouds will part one day in however long and the sun will come out. A little girl believes in this story but everyone in her class makes fun of her. On the day it's supposed to happen, her classmates lock her in a shed or closet or something but the clouds do part. The kids run out in the sun while all the flowers bloom in the sunlight and the little girl only gets to see a streak of sunlight through a slot in the door. Finally, the clouds close up and the kids remember that they locked her in the closet. So they go and open the closet and give her all the flowers they collected in the time the sun was out.
Answer: The movie is "All Summer In A Day," based on the short story by Ray Bradbury. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0195517/) As of this writing, the film is on YouTube. (https://youtu.be/iz05RhA9Cyw).
I just borrowed a movie from my university library, and the cover of the DVD case reminded me of a query I've had for a long time about DVD cover/advertisement design. The movie is called The Island. It stars Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson. And here's the thing: On the front of the DVD case, under the name Ewan McGregor is Scarlett Johansson, and under the name Scarlett Johansson is Ewan McGregor. Is this a mix-up? This has seemed, to me, to be a sign of a shoddily-made, generally crappy movie, but I liked this one. What's the deal? Thank you.
Answer: These are two totally unconnected items that you're discussing. McGregor is the lead and the biggest name in the film, so his name appears first, just as it will in the credits of the film itself. As for the picture, that's purely down to aesthetics, how they felt the cover image looked best. The cover designers aren't going to limit themselves by constraints about having to match the image of the individual to where their name appears, they'll go with what they think is the better image. If the image and name order happen to match up, that's a happy accident, nothing more than that. If they don't, no big deal.
I wanted to submit this to the general questions page, since it is about more than one Disney movie. Has anyone ever explained why several Disney characters have deceased mothers (Belle, Snow White, etc.)?
Answer: Partially, it may be attributed to feelings of guilt over the death of Walt and Roy Disney's mother of carbon monoxide poisoning in the house they'd just bought her a month previously (For more on that, check http://www.snopes.com/disney/waltdisn/mother.asp), however, it's also a trope of children's literature to have the protagonists be orphaned or without one or the other parent, the better to go off on adventures without anyone worrying about them.
I am looking for a movie that was a direct to DVD movie. It had 3 or 4 stories in it. I remember the first story had a man fighting toy soldiers in his penthouse apartment. The last story had a couple where their car broke down in a small town. The town was being run by dead celebrities (Elvis was the sheriff) and the celebrities forced the visitors to stay and watch them perform every night. Anybody know the name of this movie?
Chosen answer: These stories were not from a movie, but from an anthology series called "Nightmares and Dreamscapes" that was shown on TNT in 2006. All of the episodes are based on Stephen King short stories. The first one you mentioned is called "Battleground" and the second one is called "You Know They Got a Hell of a Band".
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Answer: One possible factor is that BluRay discs and player have certain capabilities that regular DVD players do not. In some cases, these additional extras are designed to take advantage of those features and thus they cannot be put on the regular DVD. Another key point is that BluRay discs can currently be sold for a higher price, while not costing substantially more to make than regular DVDs, resulting in greater profits, and therefore it's in the interests of the studios to tempt more people into making the switch to the more profitable format. Having BluRay-exclusive features is one way of doing that.
Tailkinker ★