Cubs Fan

Chosen answer: If all that was necessary was for a vampire to drink from a human, then every person the vampire fed from would rise as a vampire, resulting in colossal over-population. There has to be an exchange - the factors that make a vampire what they are have to pass into the newcomer - the only way to do this is through the blood.

Tailkinker

12th Apr 2008

Firefly (2002)

Chosen answer: One of the premises of the show is that the two major Earth societies that survived, and ultimately merged, were the Chinese and Americans. As a result the common language includes much Chinese. Clothing, signage, and building designs also have a heavy Chinese influence.

10th Apr 2008

Angel (1999)

Chosen answer: It was David Fury, one of the show's writers and producers.

Sierra1

9th Apr 2008

Angel (1999)

Chosen answer: In short. No. Joss Whedon had originally want to do a spin-off of Buffy starring Eliza Dushku and James Marsters. Dushku turned it down to do Tru Calling so Marsters went onto Angel.

Maria Santos

Chosen answer: Daniel Day-Lewis based his voice for and characterization of Daniel Plainview in part on old recordings of the director, writer, and actor John Huston. An article by Christopher Goodwin in the Sunday Times (of London) revealed Paul Thomas Anderson sent Day-Lewis documentaries about Huston while Day-Lewis was preparing to play the role.

Cnyvek

Just watched it. Sounds exactly like Huston in Chinatown.

8th Apr 2008

Sweeney Todd (2007)

Question: After Sweeney kills Signor Pirelli, why isn't Toby curious about where he is/why he's missing?

Cubs Fan

Chosen answer: Because Toby is glad to be free of him; Toby doesn't care where he is, just so long as he's gone.

Phixius

21st Mar 2008

Angel (1999)

Chosen answer: Quinn didn't die until three years after being written out of the show. According to Joss Whedon, the character, while popular, simply failed to mesh well with the pre-existing characters brought across from the Buffy series, and the reluctant decision was taken to write the character out of the series; it was also mentioned by producer David Fury that Whedon liked the idea of messing with the audience a bit by introducing a main cast member, then defying expectations by killing them off swiftly, although he also mentioned this was not the original intent with Doyle.

Tailkinker

9th Mar 2008

General questions

I've noticed that occasionally, some of the no. 1 films at the box office are also some of the worst reviewed by critics. Why is this?

Cubs Fan

Chosen answer: The films are reviewed by critics, but attended by the regular movie-going public. Critics see every movie, so they have a tendency to get (a) jaded or (b) overly critical. They tire of plot devices and story lines that they have seen all too many times and often wish for more intelligent writing and witty dialogue. However the movie-going public is, admittedly, less demanding. They easily flock to movies that simply appeal to the masses.

Garlonuss

7th Mar 2008

Zodiac (2007)

Chosen answer: Scorpio is loosely based on the Zodiac killer, yes. However, "Zodiac" is made to portray the hunt for the real-life Zodiac killer (as accurately as possible), with only a few ficticious elements thrown in for the sake of story-telling, while "Dirty Harry" is pure fiction.

Twotall

7th Mar 2008

Angel (1999)

Chosen answer: There are severals ways to go about this. They could film the scene without the vampire in place so there's no reflection of him/her in the mirror, then film the scene with the vampire, and finally digitally splice the two together. Or, for quick passes, they could just digitally remove the reflection and replace it with the background. Camera tricks can also be used by putting the camera at a certain angle in relation to the mirror so it only looks like the person's reflection would be visible if they weren't a vampire. Depends on how much time and money they've got available.

Phixius

6th Mar 2008

Gilmore Girls (2000)

Chosen answer: Lorelai and Christopher get married impulsively in Paris but they get divorced shortly after returning home. I don't know the exact number of days or weeks but they definitely weren't married for more than a couple of months.

Chosen answer: Actors sometimes choose not to be credited, particularly in cases where they're playing a role much smaller than one would normally expect them to be playing.

Tailkinker

26th Feb 2008

Angel (1999)

Show generally

Question: I'm about halfway through season 2 on DVD. Without spoiling anything for me, do the gypsies who ensouled Angel ever appear in the flashbacks, or are they only mentioned in passing?

Cubs Fan

Chosen answer: Pretty much in passing although you see descendants of the gypsy clan in season two of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. If you read the first Spike comics with Dracula there's mention of the gypsy clan.

Maria Santos

Answer: It is shown in a flashback.

21st Feb 2008

24 (2001)

Season 6 generally

Question: It is mentioned that 14 months prior to Day 6, Abu Fayed was detained by CTU Seattle, and his release was signed by Bill Buchanan. Considering the 20-month jump between seasons five and six and no mention of Buchanan ever being reassigned, the math doesn't add up; it seems to me that Buchanan would still have been at CTU Los Angeles. Can someone help me out?

Cubs Fan

Chosen answer: It is stated in season 4 somewhere around the 9:00 pm to 11:00 pm time frame that Buchanan worked at CTU Seattle before being transfered to Los Angeles. Michelle Dessler worked with him there while Tony was in prison between seasons 3 and 4.

Question: Why does it take the Federation two months to do anything about the explosion on Praxis?

Cubs Fan

Chosen answer: Because (as we see in the first ten minutes of the film) the prideful Klingons didn't want anyone entering their space.

JC Fernandez

13th Feb 2008

Apollo 13 (1995)

Question: When Aquarius is descending during re-entry, why is the Navy preparing Search & Rescue instead of the Coast Guard?

Cubs Fan

Chosen answer: Aquarius was most likely going to splashdown in international waters; since the U.S. Coast Guard only has jurisdiction within American waters, the Navy would have to rescue them.

Xofer

Answer: Because the Navy was assigned the Search, Rescue and Recovery task for all of NASA's space program. Imagine how long it would take the Coast Guard to get to the other side of the world.

stiiggy

9th Feb 2008

General questions

I noticed on the list of 2008 Razzie nominations, Lindsay Lohan was nominated for Worst Screen Couple for her roles in I Know Who Killed Me. Are there any other actors/actresses who have shared that nomination with themselves?

Cubs Fan

Chosen answer: Eddie Murphy is also nominated for Worst Screen Couple this year (so would have been on the same list) for his multiple roles in Norbit. Murphy was also nominated in the 2002 awards for his appearances with several different people, including his own clone in The Adventures of Pluto Nash. Ahnult Schwarzenegger received the nomination at the 2000 awards for his double role in The Sixth Day, with Leonardo di Caprio achieving the honour the previous year for The Man in the Iron Mask. There have also been several occasions where an actor or actress has been nominated along with an item of clothing or other prop, which could arguably count as a solo nomination, and three occasions on which an actress has had her breasts nominated, which would also seem to qualify.

Tailkinker

Question: In the first film, the scene where Dr. Evil shushes Scott was improvised by the two actors. Was the "zip it" scene in this film also improvised?

Cubs Fan

Chosen answer: Yes.

31st Jan 2008

General questions

How is it possible that Gary Fitzgerald was nominated for both Leading and Supporting Actor Oscars for Going My Way?

Cubs Fan

Chosen answer: The initial nominations process involves each member of the Academy nominating those within their own field for the various awards appropriate to what they do. From these, the shortlists are drawn up for the second round of voting. In the case of Barry Fitzgerald, opinion was apparently divided as to whether his role qualifies as a lead role or a supporting role. Ultimately, he received a sufficiently high number of nominations from his fellow actors and actresses that he ended up on the shortlist for both categories. Since then, the rules have been changed to prevent it from happening again.

Tailkinker

24th Dec 2007

The Dead Zone (2002)

Chosen answer: Unreasonable Doubt aired as the fifth episode, on July 14 2002, with Netherworld airing as the eighth episode on August 4th. One possible explanation is that the networks are sometimes known to air episodes out of their actual production order. In cases like this, the DVD release usually uses the production order, thus placing the episodes in the order which they were intended to be watched.

Tailkinker

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