What is the name of this point and click video game I played in 1986 or 87? You follow your dog through a portal in your uncle's (?) lab and wind up in a world where everyone (including the dog) is super cool. It being the 80s, that meant they dressed like martians. I could never get very far, because after a couple of minutes of game time, the bad guy would feed you to a carnivorous zoo animal.
Answered general questions about movies, TV and more
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In a lot of movies, whenever somebody gets into a fight and gets hit hard enough in the mouth to have blood practically spurt out, how is the effect achieved?
Answer: Blood packet in the mouth, usually a small plastic pill or bag that the actor bites into then spits out.
How long does a typical half-hour sitcom episode take to make?
Answer: It depends on what you mean by "make." Are you referring to the writing of the script through filming? Or just filming the episode?
From writing throughout filming.
In that case, it can take between 7-10 days. The writers generate a script anywhere from 1-3 days. It gets reviewed and edited in roughly one day. The actors have a one day table read where more revisions are located and made and that's normally the same day. Once the script is approved, rehearsals and blocking are done over the course of the next 3-4 days until filming is done in one day. Hope this helps.
How can I get better at spotting movie mistakes on my own? Especially the revealing mistakes and visible camera crew and equipment type ones?
Answer: Honestly, what made me start to notice revealing mistakes/visible crew was just learning about those types of mistakes on this very website and figuring out what to look for. Watching behind-the-scenes materials and learning how movies are made also helps. If I'm specifically going through a movie or show looking for mistakes, which I do sometimes for fun, I usually load up a Blu-Ray copy or the streaming service I'm using, and just scan through every shot, frequently rewinding and looking at all the little details. It can be subtle, so you may have to watch the same few shots 3, 4, 5+ times before you notice things. And even then, I'm sure I miss a lot of them.
Answer: First, it's imperative you watch a film or show with the ability to rewind (DVD, On Demand, Streaming, etc). Second, you should be familiar with the different types of filming techniques and procedures so you can visualize how the scene is being shot and where equipment and crew might be that could accidentally get in the shot. A lot of wide shots are going to expose revealing mistake, often time just briefly. While a continuous shot (where the camera doesn't cut) isn't going to have continuity issues. When the camera angle changes, that's when you can pick up mistakes. Finally, you can't be a passive viewer, if you're texting or looking at your phone, you're going to miss mistakes. And if you're really out to find mistakes, you'll probably miss the show (so it's best to look for mistake on your 2nd or 3rd viewing).
I've seen this in a few movie/TV scenes. A man wants to ask a woman out on a date, but he expects her to say no and make an excuse. One common excuse is "I'm washing my hair that night." What is the origin of this? I am a woman who was born in the late '80s, so, for as long as I can remember, girls and women have washed their hair a few times per week.
Answer: According to my research, this was a more reasonable excuse before the 1980s. Many women wanted time for their hair to dry and "set", i.e. for a perm style in the 1950s. Some preferred to have this done at a salon, so an appointment could actually prevent them from accepting a date. Also, families in rural or low-income areas might conserve water. A girl/woman would not always have the luxury of going to a salon, or washing her hair every couple of nights.
Answer: They are making a lame, flimsy excuse to avoid going out with the guy. Washing one's hair doesn't take that long and isn't something that couldn't be rescheduled. Instead of coming up with a plausible excuse, they're basically letting the guy (and the audience) know they just don't like the guy.
This doesn't explain why it has become such a common joke/excuse in movies and TV.
The line "I'm washing my hair" is a way to tell a guy she's not interested. Example. In the movie "Back To The Future", Biff asks Lorraine out to the school dance and she says she's busy washing her hair. This is because she doesn't want to go out with him. Using this line in other TV shows and movies has become something of a trope.
Answer: Before the invention of shampoo conditioner, women would use lye soap. It would take literally a day for a complete washing, cleaning and grooming of hair.
Hardly something that happened after the advent of TV.
Sometime in the 2000s, I read a mention of this upcoming movie. A teacher suspects that another teacher (also female) at her school is having an affair with a student. I think the story would mostly be told from the friend's point of view. Hayden Christensen (younger adult at the time) was going to play the student, but I can't find anything like this on his IMDB page. Could this be a movie with a different actor?
Answer: This could be the 2003 TV movie "Student Seduction." Actress Elizabeth Berkley plays Christie Dawson, who is accused of sexually assaulting Josh Gaines who is portrayed by Corey Sevier. Although Christie denies the allegations, Josh keeps insisting that she did it.
Answer: I think this is "Notes on a Scandal" from 2006. Judi Dench plays an older teacher who befriends a younger new teacher (Cate Blanchett). She suspects that her friend is having an affair with a student (Andrew Simpson). If Hayden Christensen had played the student, he would have been 23-24 years old during filming. It's not unusual for actors of that age to do teenage roles.
Answer: It could be "The Good Student," (2005) Tim Daly plays a widowed and depressed teacher, who has a small crush on a student, Hayden Panettiere. Who disappears after he gives her a ride home. There's also "Dirty Teacher," (2013) Josie Davis plays a mentally unbalanced teacher who has an affair with one of her students. When his girlfriend finds out, the teacher sets her up for a murder.
Neither of those plots sounds like an answer to the question. This movie involves a female teacher and male student, so it's not the one with Tim Daly. A movie released in 2013 would probably have been made too late for Hayden Christensen to play the student.
Why do some TV shows have different directors and producers throughout a season? Don't networks order/approve an entire season at once - meaning that a regular director and producers could join the crew? For example, I am currently watching the first season of "Melissa and Joey", and there have been six different directors for the episodes I've seen so far.
Answer: The workload of making a TV show is usually intense, and they often film multiple episodes simultaneously or back-to-back in order to save time. It's basically like filming multiple feature-length films. Having a single director or the same producers working on every single episode would be borderline impossible and would take way too long, especially if the season is more than 10 episodes. They have a schedule to keep.
Looking for a cabinet game I played in an arcade in the early 1990s. It was a first person shooter, where you used a plastic gun to shoot the screen. The premise is you are in a city that's been taken over by ghosts and demons and you fight possessed items rather than monsters. The final boss on the first level is a movie poster where a actor and actress' face jump out of the poster and attack you. The second level is a restaurant where you fight flying plates and coats.
Answer: Maybe "Laser Ghost" (1990)?
That's it! Thanks.
There was a TMNT video game maybe sometime in the 90's. One of the levels takes place in Central Park and is completely covered in snow. The main boss of the level was a giant Arctic Wolf who would throw huge snowballs.
Answer: TMNT 2: The Arcade Game (1987). He was actually supposed to be a giant polar bear from another planet. He's throwing ice blocks that fall from the sky.
That's the game. Thanks.
Looking for a specific PS4 game. In the game, an abandoned ship is at a dock and a young woman climbs on board to investigate. While on the ship, she travels back in time at different points and even sees shadows of monsters that she has to avoid.
Answer: Maybe "Return of the Obra Dinn"? It's set in the past where a ghost ship appears that you investigate the crew's death. It's 1st person so you're the one who goes onboard. You have a pocket watch that allows to travel back in time to the moment of a crew member's death.
It's not this game. The main protagonist is a woman and she witnesses a man stabbing another man to death.
Are there any notable examples of a TV character being written out/killed off because viewers hated them?
Answer: Roseanne Barr was killed off from the second version of "Roseanne" when she became too controversial.
Answer: Nicolette Sheridan, who portrayed Edie Britt in the TV series Desperate Housewives was considered a diva and didn't get along with the shows creator Marc Cherry. Her character was killed off when she swerved to avoid hitting Orson. Unaware that there was water under the car and that a powerline had snapped, Edie gets out of the car, is electrocuted and killed.
Answer: During the season 4 run of "Moonlighting," Cybil Shepherd was pregnant in real life, so it was written into the show. During her paternity leave, her character, Maddie, was having mixed emotions about the baby and her relationship with David. She goes home to do some soul searching. She's still unsure, when on the train ride back to L.A, she meets a man. Walter Bishop, actor turned director Dennis Dugan, on impulse she marries him. Viewers thought this was the dumbest mistake, since the "Dallas" it was all a dream season. Everyone waited with baited breath on how they were going to fix this. Finally the character, Walter, realised the whole thing was a mistake and got an annulment. He says goodbye to everyone and as he walks out the office door, he turns toward the camera and says, "Are you happy now."
Answer: I would include Jennifer Love Hewitt, who replaced Jeanne Tripplehorn in "Criminal Minds" after season 9. Love Hewitt wasn't well received by viewers. The official reason given for Love Hewitt's departure after one season was that she was pregnant. Despite the show's claim that viewers had "warmed" to her character, she was permanently written out.
Answer: I think the character Seven was written out of "Married with Children" because viewers disliked him so much. He was an example of "Cousin Oliver Syndrome" - an annoying younger child character who is added to a show after a few seasons. He basically disappears. The neighbors mention that he is staying at their house, but eventually, he is never mentioned again.
There was a movie about a girl who entered a gaming competition. While playing, she has an energy drink that slows down everything around her, and she wins the competition. As her boyfriend congratulates her, the energy drink is knocked to the ground causing her to suddenly find herself twenty years in the future and married with three kids. When she walks outside of the house she sees the entire world is practically desolate.
Answer: Doing some research, it appears you are referring to an episode of the science fiction black-comedy series "Dimension 404." It's an anthology series where every episode told an original story. The sixth and final episode, "Impulse", seems to match your description almost 100%. The show was produced for Hulu (where it is still available to stream, at least in the US) and seems to only have one season.
Thank you.
I watch a lot of 80s and 90s shows. I've noticed that when two characters sit on a couch, they often sit close beside each other, in the couch's center. It's not so unrealistic for a dating/married couple, a parent and young child, or times when a character needs to hug and comfort another. But in real life, if there is plenty of room on a couch, many teens and adults don't choose to sit so close together. Is this done for a filming reason? Or is my real-life experience odd?
Answer: It's usually done that way for framing/composition reasons, since it looks more aesthetically pleasing to the eye to see two people beside each other than on opposite ends of a couch. Things that may seem more natural, like sitting on opposite ends of a couch, just don't often look good on camera. Plus, it subtly indicates that they are close in some way, making it a good storytelling shorthand. (It's kinda similar to how in TV shows, if a scene is set during the morning, there's usually a giant, ornate breakfast out on the table that nobody actually touches, save for maybe grabbing something before they run out the door. Totally unrealistic, but it looks good on camera and is a visual shorthand to indicate it's the morning).
I'd imagine with older 4:3 ratio TV screens if people were at opposite ends of a couch the camera would have to be quite far back to see them both (easier on 16:9 widescreens), so it's easier to have them in the middle with a bit of space either side to make it symmetrical.
Does anybody know the name of this 90s TV movie? A woman's mother-in-law is controlling and possessive of her son/the woman's husband. The woman eventually leaves her husband because of it. I remember in one scene, the mother-in-law is displeased because the couple named their son Matthew instead of Nicholas (after the man's late father). Eventually, the mother murders the wife or hires someone to do it. The husband's brother had a blonde wife, who the mother didn't approve of either.
Answer: It could be "The Perfect Mother," (1997) TV-Movie based on a true story, Tyne Daly plays a controlling possessive mother, who rules her family with an iron fist. When her daughter-in-law leaves, taking her grandchild, she has her murdered.
Thank you. That is the movie.
I am trying to remember an episode of a show that I watched at my Grandparents house one summer. I want to say it was Stargate but I'm not so sure. I remember a lady takes a baby boy and later discovers that he is sick with something. She is told that all of the baby boys in this specific dimension have something in them that makes them sick and eventually die. I remember she fights to have him saved and I think her father is able to get him the antidote to make him better. What was this from?
Answer: I found it the show was called Sliders.
Was it "Mother and Child", s04e14?
Answer: If you're looking for a Stargate SG-1 episode, maybe s02e20, "Show and Tell." The Reetou are an incest-like race out of phase and thus invisible to the unaided eye. One of the Reetou, referred to as Mother, genetically engineers a human boy and sends him to SG Command to warn them. But because of his rapid growth, he is quickly dying. He develops a bond with Jack and takes the name Charlie, the name of Jack's (now dead) son. By the end off the episode Charlie's organs are shutting down and the Tok'ra agree to take the boy and blend him with a symbiote to heal him. Although we never discover if it works or not.
I checked it out and that isn't it. This is driving me crazy. I remember that people travelled through tunnels or something to get to different dimensions or alternate worlds or something like that. I remember the baby receiving the medicine and I think he lives as well. I remember when he gets the medicine it is through a weird looking syringe that was put flat against the baby's arm and then a man injecting it into him. I want to say it was around 1999 maybe 2000 if that narrows it down.
Are there any bloopers available online from VERY serious movies, like Schindler's List or 12 Years a Slave? Actors must slip up when filming them like anything else - is the subject matter just serious enough that they don't laugh about them at the time, making the bloopers nothing worth watching, or are they just never compiled and released because it's felt to be too inappropriate?
Chosen answer: From what I've seen, in serious films, or scenes, when actors mess up their lines, they're more apologetic and what they said wasn't funny or outrageous. I feel like serious films have more rehearsal times as well, where comedy films are often shot quickly with a lot of ad-libbing or improv. So there's less slip ups during the actual shoot. Similar to how a play has a lot of rehearsals, but improv shows won't have as much. There's are some outtakes of "Silence of the Lamb." This is something that I've wondered too though and tried to search for. I had a chance to go to a Q&A session with Cary Elwes and wanted to ask him if he had as much fun making "Saw" as "Princess Bride" and "Men in Tights" and were there "Saw" outtakes, but we ran out of time before my question could get asked and I've always regretted it.
Answer: Youtube has plenty. Simply enter "serious movie bloopers." You'll even find some for "The Silence Of The Lambs."
I remember seeing a movie about 10 years ago, I think. I wanna say it was a heist movie or something along those lines, and it may have been a British film, but I was honestly deathly ill at the time and can't remember too much. All I remember is that there was a team of criminals, and one of them was an amateur adult-film actor, and I think there was a scene where he was tortured (and possibly threatened with castration if not castrated?) and killed for information. Ring any bells?
Answer: The Bank Job (2008) based on a true story. A femme fatale, Saffron Burrows, convinces Jason Statham and his crew to rob bank full of safe deposits, not knowing it's a cover to retrieve some photos of a royal family member in a "Fifty Shades" situation. It takes place during the 1970's. Unfortunately, the other boxes belong to the mob. They capture and torture the adult film actor for information and as a hostage.
Thanks! That seems to be the one.
In the 90s, I was watching a TV show about a summer camp. This episode involved a new camper who was a "bad girl"/punk type. At one point, she was sitting at a table, lifted the cover/cloth, and used a knife to carve marks into it. A guy - not sure if he was a counselor or another camper - approached her and said "You were carving the table." This might have been on Nickelodeon.
Answer: Sounds like "Hey Dude", s03e12, "The Bad Seed."
Thank you, I think that was it.
I'm trying to find a TV show or movie where a girl is in a friend group that are all seniors except for one girl, who is a sophomore. That sophomore loses her "virginity" to the f boy or douchebag of the school. The douchebag or the guy keeps spreading rumors about the sophomore girl to the point where the girl is in an emotional mess. The main character, the senior girl, stands up to him asking him why he has to prey on little girls like her friend. She says something like this after, "Is it because of the inferiority complex you have because your father doesn't come to your games?" and then she tells him to grow up in a growling, in rage tone of voice. She then leaves him speechless. The boy was shocked, which is probably why he begins to talk to the main character more and tries to get to know her better. He then starts liking him. The main character also starts liking him learning that he isn't a total douchebag. Then they both fall in love at the end. What's the name of the show?
Answer: Try "Circle of Friends" - 1995. Starred Chirs O'Donnell and Minnie Driver.
There was a movie from either the 50's or 60's. The only thing I know about it is that a married couple commit suicide by sitting in a car with the engine running.
Answer: There is a 1983 TV-Movie, "Right of Way," an elderly couple, Jimmy Stewart and Bette Davis, decide to make a suicide pact. She has a terminal illness and realises that the health care would not only be expensive, but would put a strain on their children. He does it because he won't live without her.
Thank you. That's the movie.
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Answer: Some of this description sounds a lot like "Pepper's Adventures in Time" but that came out in the early 90s. Also the game didn't have any Martians in it.
If it came out in the 90s, I didn't play it in the 80s.
Brian Katcher