Gavin Jackson

23rd Feb 2019

M*A*S*H (1972)

Trivia: Radar and Franks Burns in real life were just the opposite of the characters they played on the show.

hifijohn

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Suggested correction: "Just the opposite"? In what sense? According to whom? Very vague.

Brian Katcher

What he meant was Larry Linville (Frank Burns), despite playing a nasty, dumb character onscreen, was in fact incredibly sweet and intelligent and loved by the cast. Gary Burghoff (Radar), on the other hand, despite playing a sweet, likeable character, was in fact rude, arrogant and combative with cast members. He apparently didn't enjoy doing the show and wanted out when possible. No one missed him.

Gavin Jackson

Question: We learn in the film that Shazam and Wonder Woman are friends, and (Spoiler alert) she brings him back from the dead at the end. So, why didn't she help him during the final battle or give any other much-needed assistance during the film?

Gavin Jackson

Answer: The dinner scene, where Wonder Woman has the head of the Wizard, never happened. There's no indication they knew each other, let alone were friends. In the realm where superheroes actually do exist, there'd really be no reason why she, Superman, who is supposed to know them too, or any other hero wouldn't be there to help. So the only answer would be an unsatisfactory one that sounds pedantic: she didn't help because it's a Shazam movie and not a WW or JL movie. One could say that she and the other heroes were busy with fighting crime/battles in their own city or they didn't know they needed help. She only appears at the end, it seems, to restore the god realm. It's also been said they didn't think Gal Gadot would be available to shoot her cameo scene, so Wonder Woman may not have been in the film because of a scheduling conflict. But to me, if she was meant to be in the film, they would have secured her availability long before shooting.

Bishop73

Answer: Where did you get the idea that they are friends? The movie makes it pretty clear they have never met before.

Cause they are having dinner together near the beginning. And you still didn't answer why she didn't help.

Gavin Jackson

Answer: The other superheroes don't sit around waiting for someone to call. Batman has a city full of rogues' gallery: Joker, Penguin, Riddler, Mr. Freeze, Killer Croc, Catwoman. Wonder Woman also has the same. They're busy people! But they'll come if asked or if they find out another hero needs help.

Corrected entry: When Charlie is being pursued by Rose on the rooftop, at one point they both fall down near each other and Rose drops her axe. Charlie could have easily picked up the axe and defused the whole situation...but instead he gets up and just keeps running.

Gavin Jackson

Correction: If he was calm and thinking, yes. But in this case he was running for his life. People frequently make mistakes and miss opportunities when they're terrified.

It's still a stupidity. Especially considering he just put himself at further risk.

Gavin Jackson

People not behaving as you would, or even making stupid mistakes, doesn't qualify as a "stupidity" entry. Stupidity enters are basically minor plot holes. Just because Rose drops the axe doesn't mean Charlie would have gotten to it first or been able to defuse the situation just by having it. It's perfectly reasonable for him to take the opportunity to run away.

Bishop73

18th Jul 2020

Alien (1979)

Question: I recently saw this film at a local cinema and I noticed that there was a scene missing from when I first saw this film as a kid. In the aforementioned scene, Dallas is on the main computer (Mother) trying to get information about how to destroy the Alien. The computer just keeps responding with "Can not compute." He finally asks "What are my chances" and still gets the same response. I was wondering if anyone remembered this scene and knows why its been removed?

Gavin Jackson

Answer: If I'm not mistaken, the scene you're talking about (where Dallas consults Mother before going into the vent) was removed from the Director's Cut version of the film (which did get its own theatrical release in 2003). Perhaps that's the version they showed. I couldn't find the scene in its entirety, but is this what you're referring to? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OaoQES6C9ok.

Bishop73

Yes that was the scene. It was longer of course.

Gavin Jackson

Stupidity: John Candy was being dragged by the speedboat because he was holding the bar when the boat took off. It simply never occurred to him that letting go off the bar would have solved the problem (Of course then you wouldn't have had the speedboat scene at all but it's still pretty dumb).

Gavin Jackson

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Characters doing stupid things doesn't constitute a stupidity entry. That was part of the joke, that Chet spent all the time telling his son to remember to let go of the rope if something goes wrong, but then forgets his own advice in the heat of the moment. People do stupid things in real life all the time.

Bishop73

Well how does this not count as a Stupidity then? You just said it was and there was no need for him to stay holding onto the rope.

Gavin Jackson

Stupidity is basically a minor plot hole, something small that doesn't rise to the level of an plot hole entry. Characters are still allowed to do stupid things though if it's not a plot hole (otherwise everything Lloyd and Harry do in all the Dumb and Dumber movies would be stupidity entries).

Bishop73

26th Jun 2019

Child's Play (2019)

Other mistake: Andy and his friends are watching "Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2" in one scene. However, the scenes they watch are completely out of order compared to the actual film.

TedStixon

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Suggested correction: Actually this is simply a movie convention. When kids watch films onscreen, they deliberately only show the best bits of the film as oppose to just playing the film normally. Otherwise it would look dull and pointless.

Gavin Jackson

Explaining why a mistake exists doesn't invalidate them. Skipping time or jump cuts is one thing, showing scenes from a movie kids are watching out of order, without a valid in-film reason, is still a mistake.

Bishop73

Technically no.

Gavin Jackson

The issue isn't that they aren't showing the whole movie. They did the right thing by just showing clips, since it illustrates a passage of time. The issue is that the clips they show are all out of order. (You'll see one from the ending of the movie, then one from the beginning, then another from the ending, then one from the middle, etc.) They could have just as easily shown a couple clips in order from throughout the film, and it would have worked, but they chose not to for some bizarre reason.

TedStixon

Question: How did Claire get into the closet where Bender was? Vernon locked the door when he left and Bender had to crawl through the ceiling to get out and back in. So how did Claire simply open the door?

Gavin Jackson

Chosen answer: The key may have been left in the door knob, Bender wouldn't have known that so he returned the same way he left. Real question is how did Claire know which closet he was locked in?

Answer: Claire didn't have to pick a lock and the door doesn't lock automatically! It's plain to see: The storeroom door is closed behind Vernon and Bender. As Vernon leaves, he uses the doorhandle and then fumbles around on the outside, "locking" the door without a key. It very much looks as if Paul Gleason acts that there's a working lock. Inattentive viewers may then mistake the door from the next shot for that of the storeroom, but it states: Faculty Lounge. As for "how did she know"? *sigh* How about something so boring that wasn't worth filming it: When Bender returned, they asked what happened and he simply told them! The real question is: How scared must he have been after Vernon's bullying to crawl back through the ceiling (risking another fall) when Claire obviously managed to sneak out and meet him?

Answer: Perhaps she picked the lock.

Alan Keddie

Claire closed the door once she entered. Which means if she had picked it, then she would have locked herself in. I highly doubt she wanted to perform the ceiling crawl.

Gavin Jackson

Question: When Bond is getting ready to go down the ski jump, he starts getting chewed out by the guy at the top. What is the guy saying to him? I've always assumed that he is demanding to know why Bond has only one ski pole...but that's just a vague guess.

Gavin Jackson

Answer: He's complaining that Bond didn't wait his turn for the ski run. He cut in front of everyone.

Chosen answer: I always thought that the guy in charge of the jump was saying that Bond didn't have the correct skis to do the jump or something. As I saw it Bond's skis were generic ones for cross country and / or regular skiers and to do the jump Bond needed, and didn't have, special, specific skis designed for jumping.

Alan Keddie

I'm more inclined to agree with you. It didn't appear like Bond had queue jumped. And I doubt the guy at the top would have known (or even cared). The guy did seem to be looking at Bond's attire, so I have to agree that he was chewing him out on that.

Gavin Jackson

2nd Nov 2003

Halloween (1978)

Corrected entry: There is a scene involving Michael Myers breaking the closet in order to get to Laurie, then why near the end of the film does it show you the closet in tip-top condition?

Correction: The closet shown at the end of the film is the one at Annie's house, not the Doyle residence.

The ending of the film where Michaels breaks through the closet door is indeed at the Doyle residence. The Wallace house is across the street.

Gavin Jackson

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