Is it really true that to shoot an IMAX film, the camera has to be reloaded with film every 3 minutes, and the reloading takes half-an-hour? Why on earth wouldn't they have fixed this yet to use high resolution digital capture (which could then be printed to film), for instance?
Answered general questions about movies, TV and more
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I'm searching a title of a movie I saw some 20-25 years ago. Here are the clues I remember: It was a martial arts movie. The were some fights on long, wooden poles. There was a cruel weapon like a triple chain with hooks at each end that stuck within the opponent. It was shown at the same time as a Jaws sequel. (Jaws 2, I guess). Can anybody help?
Chosen answer: Sounds like "Master of the Flying Guillotine". It came out roughly around the same time "Jaws 2" was released.
There is a very old movie I saw as a kid. It is about a robotic grandmother who is delivered to this family to help them out. The biggest scene I remember is her shooting milk from her fingers. Anyone know what movie this is?
In a couple of films and TV shows I've watched, the saying "Heeeeeeeeeere's Johnny" has sprouted up a couple of times. What film was this first mentioned in?
Answer: It's actually originally from "The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson. The announcer would say "Heeeeeeere's Johnny!" at the beginning of the show. It was most famously made use of in The Shining.
I recall seeing a movie as a child that scared the Dickens out of me. It was probably the early seventies, and it involved a lot of scenes where people were walking in grassy fields and every few hundred yards were large holes in the ground leading down to a network of tunnels where monsters lurked. It was supposedly set in the future. The premise was similar to the Sleestacks (?) from Land of the Lost, however, it was a theatrical release originally and was fairly well done. Does anyone have a clue as to what movie this is?
Answer: Sounds like the original Time Machine. The holes led to the realm of the Morlocks.
I'm looking for the name of a film about a couple who agree to meet in one year at the Eiffel Tower, and the woman is hit by a car on her way there.
Answer: Are you sure it is the Eiffel Tower? Your description sounds very like 'An Affair to Remember' with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. They agree to meet at the top of the Empire State Building and on her way there she gets hit by a car.
I remember a show I used to watch on the Disney Channel when I was a kid - about 10 or 12 years ago. It took place in a school/classroom, and I think all the characters were animals. I think that one of the students was named Skeleton, and I remember that the principal (who often visited the classroom) was female and kind of weird. Any help with the title?
Answer: Not a perfect fit, but might it have been "Gravesdale High"? That's the right setting and time frame, but the kids were all monsters (young frankenstein's monsters, werewolves, etc.) instead of animals.
I remember seeing a film set in a middle eastern or possibly Asian country, about a poor family who's father earns money by driving a rickshaw. There's a part where he and his kids build a really beautiful one in a bid to earn him more customers, but the competition come along and destroy it. Anyone know what movie that was?
Answer: Do Bigha Zamin (1953).
How many Oscar-winning actors/actresses have reprised their roles in sequels to the winning film (for example, Anthony Hopkins, who won for Silence of the Lambs, and later played Hannibal Lecter again in Hannibal and Red Dragon, or Gene Hackman, who won for The French Connection and played Popeye Doyle again in French Connection II)?
Chosen answer: Paul Newman in The Hustler/The Color of Money, Al Pacino in The Godfather/The Godfather II and Bing Crosby in Going My Way/The Bells of St. Mary's.
What was the first film to be released in cinemas in stereo sound, and which was the first to be released in surround sound?
Chosen answer: Fantasia, released in 1941, became the very first film to incorporate surround sound. During the '70s, Dolby experimented with placing two separate sound signals on the film. Because of the reduction in the detail that could be incorporated when reducing the area available for the analog signal, Dolby also incorporated noise reduction with a resultant change in the playback response from the Academy Curve. The first film to use this purely stereo sound was "Lisztomania" in 1975.
I remember a futuristic TV-show from approximately 15 years ago. It was about a battle between the good guys and the bad guys and they all used some kind of light guns to fight each other. All of them wore some form of (plastic-looking) armour with one important weak spot: a glass-like orb, which if hit resulted in the character being completely disintegrated. The good guys never seemed to get hit, the bad guys always were but had clones of themselves to allow them to come back again and again. The battle was about either dimensions or planets and it basically came down on whose side managed to find and hit the key glass-like orbs of that dimension/planet with their light guns first. All of the main characters appeared to be teens/young adults, for as far as I can remember. Does anybody know what I'm talking about and can give me the name of this show?
Answer: Sounds like the short-lived 1986 cartoon "LazerTag Academy."
I'm looking for the title of a film I once saw, a few years ago. I can only remember a couple of scenes/details from it though. All I remember is that the main character is on the run from the police. In one scene, he is racing down a street in a truck and he crashes into a baby's pram. He is mortified, thinking he's killed a baby, but in fact it turns out that all that was in the pram was cans of beer. The only other scene I can remember is a scene where he goes into a shop, and the shopkeeper agrees to hide him from the police. When a female officer enters the shop and asks the shopkeeper if he has seen the main guy, the shopkeeper says no and then makes some comment about why female police officers aren't called 'officeresses' (the shopkeeper guy is quite a creepy character). That's all I can remember of the film I'm afraid, other than the fact the main guy ends up pretty badly battered at the end of the film. It's not much to go on I know, but if anyone could tell me what film this is I'd be really grateful. Thanks.
Chosen answer: That is Falling Down with Micheal Douglas and Robert Duvall.
There is a Mary Chapin Carpenter song called "10,000 miles" that was used in a movie, maybe as the theme song? It has been driving me nuts, as I keep hearing the song on a CD we have at the office and I can't place the movie. It is a very plaintive song that starts off "Fare thee well, my own true love."
Answer: MCC's song "10,000 Miles" appears in the soundtrack of the movie "Fly Away Home".
I'm looking for the name of a TV-show, which I saw about 15-20 years ago on IIRC a British channel. It was a futuristic puppet series in outer space, and there were three pilots in three mainly red ships who could combine into one big red Megazord-ish robot (one ship became the head, the second became arms plus torso and the third was the legs). The three ships belonged to one mothership which could lift its cockpit to fire a giant laser. I have no idea about plot or stories as I was too young to understand English back then and there were no subtitles. Does this sound familiar to anybody?
Answer: Oh yes, that's very familiar. It was the fantastic Star Fleet and was a Japanese show dubbed into English. Check out The Star Fleet Homepage for a blast from the past.
What is the movie where Sandra Bullock is a country music fan? The only scene I remember is her joining some people who are line dancing and she's telling her friend to come on and join her.
Answer: The movie you are thinking of is called Hope Floats. Check out http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119313/ for more information.
What movie originally had the following quote in their advertising: "This time it's personal"?
Answer: 'This time it's personal' was the tagline for the 1987 movie, Jaws 4.
Why is the pavement in movies always soaked with water?
Answer: Pavements and roads are often made wet before filming (generally at night) as it makes them look 'nicer' once lit. If they are not made wet then they often just disappear and can appear totally black on the film.
I've noticed that in pretty much every movie that's set in the United States, if a phone number is mentioned, the first three digits are always 555. Why is this?
Answer: Because people end up dialing the phone numbers they hear in songs, television and movies. It becomes a major problem for the people with that phone number and results in lawsuits. 555 is the only prefix that will never be used as a phone number. There is only one 555 phone number, 555-1212, in every single area code and that is a number for information.
I am trying to remember a film I saw about 10 years ago about a high school kid on his way to France on a senior trip who gets mixed up with a secret agent at an airport and accidentally takes over the secret mission. Does anyone know this film?
Answer: "If Looks Could Kill", from 1991 starring Richard Grieco.
I remember seeing part of a movie where William Daniels (Mr. Braddock from The Graduate) is on a boat out in the ocean. What's the name of the movie?
Answer: In "Killer on Board" Daniels plays Marshall, a passenger on a cruise ship, on which a deadly virus begins killing off the passengers and crew. He was also in "The Blue Lagoon" in which he had a few scenes where he was drifting on the ocean.
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Chosen answer: From the research I've found, yes. And here's a few websites to view, and you have to realize how much bigger and realistic IMAX films are. http://www.georgianhousehotel.co.uk/imax_cinema.htm. http://www.bfi.org.uk/showing/imax/explained.php. Even the highest resolution digital cameras available don't come close to the quality of IMAX. Hope that helped!