Question: When Vito Corleone visits Sicily with his family, he is received by an old woman and a man. These people are the ones who helped Vito to escape when he was a child. However, when they are having lunch together, Vito refers to her as "grandmother". Are the old woman and the man members of the family? What are their names?
raywest
13th Dec 2012
The Godfather: Part II (1974)
13th Dec 2012
Paul (2011)
4th Feb 2014
The Color Purple (1985)
Question: In the scene when Celie is first brought home with Mister there are three kids waiting outside. Harpo and two sisters. No one ever says their names and after the hair combing you never see them again. What happened to them?
23rd Oct 2013
Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
Question: Do the sewers of New York really fill up with toxic waste every night as stated in the movie, or was this just for the purpose of the plot?
9th Mar 2014
General questions
Does anybody know the name of a TV movie that was made about Milli Vanili, it was aired sometime after they were found out. Also a TV movie about the the life of Elvis.
Chosen answer: There was a 2000 BBC documentary titled It Takes Two: The Story of the Pop Duo about musical duos that included Milli Vanilli. The duo were also featured in the premiere episode of VH1 Behind the Music. In February 2007 Universal Pictures announced it was developing a film based on Milli Vanilli's rise and fall in the music industry and in February 2011, it was announced that the movie was being rewritten. It has yet to be released. Also, there have been a number of TV movies about Elvis Presley as far back as the 1978 version starring Kurt Russell. There were also several mini-series.
3rd Jan 2014
American Hustle (2013)
Question: Was tempered glass routinely used in the time when Irving Rosenfeld was a boy breaking out store windows?
2nd Mar 2014
12 Years a Slave (2013)
Question: Why did all of the slaves have such beautiful teeth? The elderly woman slave who sang had a perfect set of white teeth. I can't imagine that slave owners took their "property" to the dentist on a regular basis. And how good was the dental work in the mid 1800's anyway?
Answer: Few slaves would have had healthy, straight white teeth or had access to professional dental care, which was not very advanced at that time and it was painful. This is a detail the filmmakers either deliberately chose to ignore or were careless in how they depicted the characters' conditions.
13th Feb 2014
Robocop 3 (1993)
Question: Why didn't Peter Weller return for Robocop 3?
Answer: There was a time conflict. Weller was filming another movie (Naked Lunch) at the same time RoboCop 3 was scheduled for production.
12th Jan 2014
Monster's Ball (2001)
Question: What was with him vomiting throughout the movie? Did it mean something?
Answer: Hank threw up in the toilet because the picture of Letitia's husband as scratched by her son. He had escorted him to the death chamber.
Chosen answer: Hank is a deputy warden in a Georgia state prison.He oversees the executions of condemned prisoners, and before each one he is literally sickened by having to perform this duty.
No - he threw up after sex with Berry which is well after he quit. He threw up after drinking heavily the night before.
Per the vomit-after-sex scene. I too, thought that the drinking must have caused it. I rewound and watched the scene again and BAM, I'd missed it! He's in the bathroom at the sink facing the mirror. THERE, TWICE, he can see the reflected picture of her dead executed husband: in the main mirror plus in the little round mirror to the right. (Musgrove's pic must be hung on the wall behind him.) That execution memory = vomiting.
He threw up because he saw her husband's picture.
Answer: It's quite evident that he vomited after seeing Leticia's husband's pic juxtaposed with his image which fortified guilt, it was sickening to him.
27th Jan 2014
The Brady Bunch (1969)
Question: When you look at the front of the house, the 2nd story is to the left of the front door. The stairs and the bedrooms are on the right. Also, there has to be a very high cathedral ceiling to account for the stairs which isn't shown in the front of the house photo. Does anyone know what the house looks like where the show was filmed?
Answer: There are a number of photos online of the Brady house's exterior of what it looked like when the show was being filmed and what it looks like today. Only the exterior shots were of a real house. The interior was a studio set and it did not exactly match the real home's floor plan. There are also some YouTube virtual tours of the house that explore the interior. If you Google "Brady Bunch House" you will find much information about this.
7th Feb 2014
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Question: I am confused as to why the House Cup winner (Gryffindor) is named at the feast where Hagrid returns. Shortly after, there is a mention of "the rest of the final term" passing quickly. If school is still in session, couldn't the students' actions/behavior still change the total amounts of points?
Answer: No, the points are tallied and the cup is awarded by a specific time, which is the Leaving Feast. There is only a short period of time after the feast before the students go home for the summer. Anything a student might do during that time does not count against their House for that year. Any penalties or rewards given to a House after the feast could be carried over to the following year.
27th Jan 2014
The Exorcist (1973)
Question: As far as I can tell, Damian visits his mother at her apartment and says she can't stay here on her own, but she says no, she's not leaving her home. Then we see the mother in hospital. But then Damian is told that his mother died in her home and wasn't found for a couple of days. But she was in hospital, wasn't she?
Chosen answer: She was in a hospital but that does not mean she died there. She was likely discharged and, refusing to go into any type of assisted living situation, was sent home, where she later died. A person, unless declared legally incompetent, cannot be forced to go into a facility. Due to insurance regulations, a person can only stay in a hospital as long as they are being actively treated for a medical condition. Once their condition reaches a certain level, they are discharged-either to a rehab center, a nursing facility, or to their own home.
Answer: In the novel it's clear, that the hospital scene is a memory of Karras.
12th Jan 2014
The Dead Pool (1988)
Question: At the beginning after Callahan has killed two guys who shot at him, the third is running away. In real life, would he have faced charges for this? The first two were self defense but the 3rd guy was running away. He is not the type of person to deny the shooter was fleeing and not a threat.
Chosen answer: Under those circumstances, when someone has just committed an extreme act to protect themselves it would be hard to claim that the third shooting was deliberate murder, that he was thinking normally, and that there was no further danger. From Callahan's perspective, he might have believed the shooter was not actually fleeing and still posed a threat if he came back.
12th Jan 2014
Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
Question: I know what excelsior means, I googled it, but is there more of a significance for it here?
13th Jan 2014
American Hustle (2013)
11th Jan 2014
Escape From New York (1981)
2nd Jan 2014
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Question: Except for Remus Lupin in this movie, it seems as though the Hogwarts teachers do not use the Hogwarts Express. How do they arrive at and leave the school?
Answer: There's a variety of ways that wizards can travel including magical vehicles (like the motorcycle that Hagrid drove), broomsticks, port keys, or riding flying animals (like a hippogriff or the threstrals). They could also use floo powder if their fireplace was connected to the floo network like Umbridge had in her office. The other teachers can certainly travel on the Hogwarts Express, and some probably do but just aren't shown. In the book, "Half-Blood Prince", Professor Slughorn rode the train and some teachers live at the school year round.
Answer: They can apparate whenever they want (as seen in Half Blood Prince).
Some can Apparate, but it's tricky and uncomfortable. In one of the books, Arthur Weasley mentions that many wizards don't like to Apparate. They prefer other ways to travel. Broomsticks, port keys, etc.
29th Dec 2013
Alien (1979)
Question: Just after Ripley finds out from mother "crew expendable", she has a run-in with Ash, but he doesn't hurt her - she hurts him - so why does she have a bloody nose?
Answer: The reason for the nosebleed was a deleted scene from the film. Ripley, in her attempt to escape from Ash, opened a hatch into a corridor which had been previously damaged by the alien (also a deleted scene) and wasn't supposed to be used. She suffered depressurization and retreated back and closed the hatch before looking for another escape route. That is what caused the nosebleed.
Chosen answer: Some people are prone to bloody noses without actually being physically hurt. Extreme emotional stress or physical exertion can trigger it by breaking small blood vessels in the nasal passages. She could also have bumped her head at some point off screen and had a delayed reaction.
29th Dec 2013
Six Days, Seven Nights (1998)
Question: How and where did Quin get a hacksaw to cut the pontoons off the WWII plane that crashed up in the trees?
Answer: They were on the run from the pirates at that point, he didn't have his tool bag with him. I presumed he found it on the Japanese WW2 plane but I'm not so sure a hacksaw was standard issue to a Japanese WW2 pilot but eh who cares, love the movie anyway.
15th Nov 2013
The Shining (1980)
Question: What is the significance of the play that Jack is writing, in both the book and movie?
Answer: Jack, who lost his teaching job due to his alcoholism and violent temper, is attempting to rebuild his life as a writer and working at the hotel gives him the financial means to do that. As the ghosts begin taking over Jack's mind, he is increasingly unable to work on the play. As he mentally deteriorates, the play's progress (or lack of) gauges his mental decline.
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Chosen answer: They were not his actual grandparents, just people that knew his family and who helped Vito after his mother, father, and brother were killed. Vito refers to her as "grandmother" because they treated him like family. Their names are unknown.
raywest ★