Answered general questions about movies, TV and more

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Was it ever true that actors would get paid more if they were willing to do nude scenes? If so, is it still true today (since nude scenes are not such a shocking new thing)?

Answer: There is really no definitive answer to this. The best example to say they would is Demi Moore. She was paid around 12.5 million dollars to do the film Striptease, which was substantially more than what she usually got. While the main reason behind that might have been because the quality of the film was fairly poor, it seems to be more of an artistic decision than money. Stars in arthouse and foreign films are more likely to do nude scenes and the likelihood is they are getting less in salary. While in major films it would seem unlikely. Actors who reach a certain success will generally be able to have clauses in their contracts preventing them having to do nude scenes. Studios would also be unlikely to pay more as they would not want to risk higher ratings for their films as it might hurt box office receipts. The way it might directly be true is if someone specifically demands more money if they're asked to do a nude scene - Halle Berry was reportedly paid an extra $1m for her topless scene in Swordfish (her first nude appearance), presumably because the studio thought the extra press was worth the cost.

Lummie

Is there a specific reason Tuesday was chosen as the release day for new DVD/Blu-Ray releases?

Cubs Fan

Chosen answer: A lot of reasons went into this decision. Most prominently: Sales figures are released on Mondays. Releasing a DVD on Tuesday maximizes the number of days in which to make sales that will count toward that figure. Next, if a video is selling particularly well, the retailer has plenty of time to order more copies for the weekend shoppers. Finally, releasing on Tuesday, as opposed to Monday, gives the retailer more time to stock their shelves. Not a big issue with super-huge chain stores, but rental establishments especially need time to reorganize everything on their shelves to fit the new releases in. Doing this over the weekend, when the store is most likely to be full of customers, for a Monday release isn't practical from a business perspective. Tuesday releases allow retailers to use the typically slow business day of Monday to get everything ready.

Phixius

I saw this movie on TV, during the mid-to-late 70s, about a guy with glasses who turned into a fish who wore glasses. Any ideas about its name?

Answer: The movie is called 'The Incredible Mr. Limpet' and it stars Don Knotts.

Super Grover

I am looking for the name of a television show that aired in the mid- to late 1990s. I recall seeing about five minutes of one episode in probably 1996 or 1997. I think each episode had different characters and different stories, not a consistent cast. It was supposed to be a series of horror stories, I believe. The part of the episode that I saw seemed like an intro, and it involved a man with a pig mask on (or a pig with a human body) that was pulling a man's body from either a toilet or bathtub. I believe it was a toilet, but I am not sure. There were other pig people in the house, and possibly some children who were hiding from them. The part I remember best is definitely the pig man and a body in the bathroom. I don't recall the channel that it aired on, but was definitely frightening. If this description rings a bell for anyone, please respond. It's been bothering me for years.

Answer: Sounds to me like "Tales from the Crypt".

Phixius

I heard that in some movies with bar fight scenes (such as Shanghai Noon), "fake" beer bottles that are easier to break are used, instead of real ones that are made from glass. Does anyone know if this is true?

Answer: Of course it's true. Genuine glass bottles are hard and can take some considerable force to break. Trying to do so over somebody's head would result it, at best, a concussion and quite possibly a serious skull fracture. Plus you've then got lots of sharp bits of glass around the place, which is obviously a severe hazard. Fakes are always used in such circumstances.

Tailkinker

I am looking for the title of a movie that I vaguely remember. It is an older movie (like already on DVD or TV) that I saw within the last year or so. The plot is something about a girl who breaks up with her boyfriend and moves in with a co-worker who is known as the office player. I want to say she chose to take the co-worker up on his offer to make someone else jealous, and this scene took place in a break room. I think he has some type of rent-controlled apartment and when she moves in he has a sheet hung over her door because he was making improvements with his previous girlfriend, who broke his heart. He promises to put in a door and finish the repairs for her, and by the end of the movie, he finishes them and ends up falling for her. I remember another scene of a conversation in the apartment kitchen one night where he was with another girl (one of his one-night stands) and he came out to get something out of the kitchen and ended up talking to her. She said she used to be a cheerleader and somehow ends up showing him a cheer in her underwear when the girl he was with walks out to find out what is keeping him. I'm not sure of any of the actors in this, but they were not complete unknowns. Any ideas?

I'm looking for the title of a movie about a group of actors in a stage play. Someone was murdered and they are all suspects. It is not Rehearsal For Murder.

Answer: I think you are talking about Murder Most Foul. Its an Agatha Christie - Ms Marple story.

Answer: The 1964 movie, "Murder Most Foul," Margret Rutherford as Miss Marple. The third in the series of movies made in the 1960's.

There was a cartoon where a little girl during WWII learns how to blow up a bridge by watching her grandfather knock down a house of cards and so is able to stop a Nazi train. Then she ends up living in the woods for the rest of her life. What is this movie?

Answer: "Sarah" AKA "Sarah and the Squirrel" AKA "The Seventh Match".

My dad remembers a movie from when he was younger about an old man living in someone's house while they were gone (squatting, not housesitting). He also thinks the plot somehow involved salt and pepper shakers. The movie would be older, probably 1940s or 50s; he's pretty sure it was in black and white. The title or more plot information would be much appreciated.

Answer: How about "It Happend on 5th Ave" 1943 with Don Defor and Charles Ruggles?

I'm looking for a movie that I watched in the 1980s as a kid. I remember a girl that had to save these children in bubbles. I thought at first that it was part of the "Rainbow Brite" episodes or movie, but this was real actors and I've searched all of them. I want to say that it might have turned into animation, but it's very faint. The only other thing I can think of is that it did have to do with rainbows somehow. Thanks.

Answer: It is indeed Rainbow Brite. Go on Youtube and type in Rainbow Brite-the beginning of Rainbowland. In part 2 they show the kids in the bubbles.

I want to find out the name of a sci-fi movie I saw when I was kid in 1974. Aliens from a planet soon to be doomed due to an expanding sun appeared on Earth through some transporter-like device and sought our help. The movie sticks in my mind because, in spite of our efforts, we could not help and the planet was destroyed.

Adam Feller

Chosen answer: Sounds like "This Island Earth (1955)".

This was an episode of an animated show. I thought it might be Spiderman or Batman, but I'm not sure. A red-haired young woman was captured by another woman, who I think had red hair also. The woman who captured the other had a large, machine-like chair. She wanted to take the other woman's body (I don't remember exactly how), so she could have her "youth and beauty".

Answer: It was from an episode of Spider-Man. A disfigured actress was trying to steal Mary Jane's beauty.

I am looking for the name of a movie, I think from the 80s, where a man wants a child, but is not married. He has a woman agree to have the child, she moves in with him. They don't get along, cause his is very picky and watches everything she does, eats, etc. There was a housekeeper who was nice to the woman. They end up falling in love. Man has dark hair, woman blonde and I think set in NYC. Can you tell me the name of the movie?

Answer: The movie is called "Paternity" starring Burt Reynolds and Beverly D'Angelo.

Do movies and TV shows really have to pay to show popular soda/beer/candy whatever brands being used by their characters? For example, in Employee Of The Month, a few guys are drinking out of cans with plain paper lapels that just say "BEER" on them, so that the can's real label is covered. Also, if this is true, why do the companies dislike their label being shown without permission? Isn't it free advertising for them if their name is shown in a movie?

Answer: Actually, the opposite is true: Companies pay to have their labels shown in movies and TV. It's called "Product Placement." Typically, covering up the labels is done when the company HASN'T paid for Product Placement to avoid giving them advertising that the filmmakers aren't getting paid for.

Captain Defenestrator

I'm not sure if there is an answer to this, but does anyone know why the ages of high school/middle school kids in some books and movies are a year behind what they are in real life? For example, a lot of high school seniors are portrayed as being seventeen around prom or graduation time (the end of the year), but in real life, most students start out the school year as seventeen-year-olds and their next birthday is their eighteenth one.

Answer: The simplest answer I can think of is that their 18th birthday falls after the date of prom/graduation. Sometimes for the sake of the narrative having them be under 18 makes sense.

Cubs Fan

This is an episode of a TV show that I saw a while ago. A man was really some kind of monster that liked to eat people's brains, but I think he felt bad about it. At one point in the show, he visited a therapist (without telling her that he kills people), who had blonde hair. While she was talking and flipping through some cards, there was a close-up shot of her head, which he was staring at. At another part of the episode, he goes to a meeting for people with addictions, and talked about his taste for brains, but I think he made it sound like he was addicted to meat.

Answer: It's a season 7 episode of The X-Files entitled "Hungry".

Grumpy Scot

I can remember what this movie is about but I can't remember the name or any of the actors in the movie. I pretty sure that the movie came out in the 1990's. It's about a family who is going on a vacation in a motor home. At one point in the movie the Dad was showering in the motor home while his wife was driving. He came out of the shower to grab a towel but opened the wrong door, he opened the door leading outside, and landed in the street naked. Another scene in the movie is when the Mom gets bitten by a snake and a friend sucks the vemon out of her leg, the son walks in seeing this happen and goes to tell his Dad. If anyone has any answers it would be really helpful. Thanks.

Answer: This movie is called the 'Tourist Trap'.

I am looking for a title of a b/w film that was made in the early 50's. A housewife writes a letter to her husband that accidentally gets mailed. She then proceeds to try to retrieve the letter or stop the postman. I know this is a very general description. I watched this movie on TCM and the actress looks like Linda Darnell. I've Googled her name and none of the movie descriptions match. I hope someone can help me. It's driving me crazy.

Answer: The starring actress is Loretta Young. The movie title is Cause For Alarm! Hope this helps!

There was a movie in the 80s or 90s and it was about murders in college. I remember this student was murdering teachers and students and nobody knew who it was. He killed the librarian or some teacher by squashing her head in the photocopier. The only hint that people found was the guy's ring, which was on the photocopied sheet. And this girl student blamed her boyfriend because apparently she had given him the ring, but it had been stolen by the murderer student a long time ago. I remember that it ended with the murderer student having trapped the girl in a some sort of cellar or boiler room and forcing her to kiss him. So she told him she would and when he shut his eyes, she bashed his head with a hammer from the table.

Answer: Sounds like the movie Cutting Class with Brad Pitt.

I'm trying to remember a movie that I saw back in the 60s or early 70s about two children who fall in love with each other. One is Jewish and the other is Christian, I think. The scene I recall is the Christian child screaming, "You killed Christ! You killed Christ!" when she found out he was Jewish.

Answer: Hand in Hand (1960).

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