Category: Trivia

Quentin Tarantino’s Top 5 Boxing Movies

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Boxing Clever at the Boxing Scene recently posted Quentin Tarantino Breaks Down His Top 5 Boxing Movies.  The first one mentioned was Rocky and here is what Tarantino had to say…

“If we talk about boxing and cinema, the first thing that comes to mind is Rocky. By far the most successful boxing film in history. The story of the Italian-American boxer Rocky Balboa was written by and starred Sylvester Stallone, in the role that catapulted him to stardom.

“The history of cinema mixes the necessary ingredients to be liked by most of the public. The humble man who attains fame by pure heart, a love story behind the rise of relevance in a super emotional finale. And some action in a fight worthy of the great boxing evenings in boxing history.

“The film won 3 Oscars and was a huge box office success, as well as being the kickoff for its sequels.”

Tarantino rounded out his top five with Million Dollar Baby, The Fighter, Cinderella Man and Raging Bull.  Click over and check out Tarantino’s thoughts on each film.  (If it was my list I would have found a spot for The Set-up! – Craig)

How About Behind-the-Scenes Facts from the “Rambo” Movies?

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Ben Sherlock, at ScreenRant, posted They Drew First Blood: 10 Behind-The-Scenes Facts About The Rambo Movies.   Before you click over, here are three of my favorite facts and my comments on each…

The Fifth Movie Had A Ton Of Unused Scripts.
…A script called Rambo 5: Savage Hunt was a horror movie in which Rambo led a Special Forces team into the Arctic Circle to track down a flesh-eating mutant creature.

…Another script called Rambo 5: Last Stand pitted Rambo against a band of meth dealers who were terrorizing a small town. There were also a few drafts about Rambo saving a kidnapped girl from a Mexican cartel before the final script was written.

(The Rambo 5: Savage Hunt script was based on James Byron Huggins’ Hunter novel.  While this would have made an interesting Rambo movie, it might have been too much of a genre change.  I hope that someday Sly will turn Hunter into the film it deserves.  Rambo 5: Last Stand sounds a lot like Arnold’s Last Stand movie. – Craig)

Dolph Lundgren Was Initially Cast As The Villain In First Blood Part II. The role of Russian Lieutenant Colonel Sergei Podovsky, the only villain in Rambo: First Blood Part II with any lines in English, was originally offered to Dolph Lundgren. Lundgren even accepted the part and signed a contract.

(I did not know this. – Craig)

…Burmese Freedom Fighters even adopted some dialogue from the movie to use as battle cries. In particular, they were known to say, “Live for nothing, or die for something.” When he heard about this, Sylvester Stallone said, “That, to me, is one of the proudest moments I’ve ever had in film.”

(And we thought people only quoted Rocky for inspiration!  – Craig)

James Arness Trivia!

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MeTV posted 8 Out-of-this-World Facts about James Arness.  Here are three of my favorite facts and my comments on each…

He appeared in two classic sci-fi movies.  Though he is synonymous with Marshal Matt Dillon, Arness appeared in two classic science fiction films early on in his career: The Thing From Another World (1951) and Them! (1954). In The Thing, the 6′ 7″ actor was a perfect fit for the titular “thing,” a murderous alien that wreaks havoc on a North Pole scientific outpost. Of course, Arness is heavily made-up and unrecognizable as the honest do-gooder he would soon become.

(The Thing from Another World and Them! are two of the best horror / scifi movies ever made! – Craig)

He was good friends with John Wayne.  The screen tough guys were good friends in real life and Arness co-starred with Wayne in Big Jim McLain (1952), Hondo (1953), Island in the Sky (1953) and The Sea Chase (1955). John Wayne even recommended that Arness star in Gunsmoke and introduces his friend in a prologue to the first episode of the series.

(John Wayne was the first choice to play Matt Dillon in Gunsmoke.  The fact that Wayne recommended Arness and then did a special introduction to the first episode says a lot about their friendship. – Craig)

His character Zeb Macahan reached cult status in Europe.  While American audiences will forever know Arness as Marshal Matt Dillon, the actor reached cult status in Europe as Zeb Macahan in How the West Was Won. The late-’70s Western television series found its audience in Europe and was rebroadcast many times on networks in France, Germany, Italy and Sweden.

(I prefer his Zeb Macahan character to Matt Dillon!  – Craig)

“Rawhide” Trivia

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The staff at MeTV posted 9 Tough as Leather Facts about Rawhide.  Wow!  This brought back great memories.  I loved Rawhide as a kid.  Here are three of my favorite facts and my comments on each…

Eastwood wore his ‘Rawhide’ boots in ‘Unforgiven.’ No need for a wardrobe department when it comes to Clint. To bookend his career as a cowboy, Eastwood wore his same Rowdy Yates boots in his Oscar-winning 1992 masterpiece Unforgiven.

(I absolutely love this fact!  How cool is it that Eastwood could bookend his cowboy career like this?  I guess you could say Eastwood’s cowboy career died with his boots on.  – Craig)

Loads of soon-to-be-famous faces appeared on the show.  That’s Bewitched star Elizabeth Montgomery taking aim in “Incident at El Crucero,” in a guest role that would foreshadow her gig as Mrs. Sundance. Star Trek crew members Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley appeared on the Western, too. Sitcom legends Buddy Ebsen, Barbara Eden, Alan Hale, Jr., June Lockhart, Gavin MacLeod, Marion Ross and William Schallert also pop up — just to name a few. Then there’s Martin Landau, Frankie Avalon, Anne Francis, Peter Lorre…

(I love watching old shows and seeing stars in an early role.  Rawhide had more than its share.  – Craig)

Eric Fleming died filming a canoe scene shortly after the series ended.  Eastwood’s stature as an American icon overshadows the work of Fleming, the top-billed star of Rawhide. Fleming left the series in 1965 and began work on the big screen. He appeared in the Doris Day comedy The Glass Bottom Boat and then began work on location in Peru for the adventure High Jungle. When filming a scene on the Huallaga River, Fleming’s canoe overturned and the actor perished in the rapids. Urban legends about piranha developed, but those are untrue.

(Although I was about 7, I can remember adults talking about Fleming’s death and being shocked that he drowned.  Never heard the piranha rumor though. – Craig)

If you’ve enjoyed these facts, check out 9 Tough as Leather Facts about Rawhide.

First Blood: Differences Between the Book & Movie!

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Phillip Etemesi at ScreenRant posted an article that should appeal to a lot of folks who check in here.  First Blood: 10 Differences Between The Movie & The Book takes a look at, well you read the title.  Here are three of my favorite differences and my comments on each…

Escape From Jail.
In the film, the deputy sheriff decides to beat him up… The officers keep on brutalizing him… one of them comes with a razor to shave hi(m), it triggers memories of his torture in a POW camp in Vietnam. He thus fights his way out of the station while still clothes… No one dies in the process.

In the book, Rambo is not abused. He is simply locked in a cell. When Teasle shows up to cut his hair, he begins to panic. And when the deputy comes with another straight razor, he loses his mind completely. He takes the razor and slices through the deputy’s abdomen before escaping while naked. He steals a motorcycle and manages to hide from the police for the night after a good samaritan offers him shelter.

(One of the reasons that First Blood was hard to get made as a movie is because Rambo in the book killed police officers and wasn’t as sympathetic or heroic as he ultimately became in the movie.   – Craig)

Guerilla Tactics
In the book…
Rambo in the novel doesn’t value the lives of law enforcement officers. He kills most of them together with their dogs before cornering Teasle and giving him a warning.
In the movie…
Rambo takes out the entire town’s police force by himself. Using guerilla tactics, he attacks one at a time until they are all wounded. It’s important to note that he only wounds the officers in the movie and doesn’t kill them.

(Again, the book made it harder for audiences to sympathize or empathize with Rambo.  Killing a dog in a movie is perhaps the ultimate downer.  – Craig)

Fleeing From The Cave
In Morell’s book,
Rambo keeps up with his murderous ways and goes on to kill plenty of the members of the state police who had been brought in after he decimated the local police. A couple of civilians and national guard members also ned up being casualties.
In the movie,
Rambo damages plenty of property in the town but doesn’t kill anyone.

(First Blood had been floating around Hollywood for years before Sly become attached.  No one prior was able to get a handle on the character. Under Sly, Rambo became more heroic, sympathetic and less of a killer… at least until Last Blood.   – Craig)

If you’ve read this far I encourage you to click over to get the full story!

“Stand by Me” Trivia!

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Jessica Fisher at GeekTyrant posted Behind-the-Scenes Facts About the Classic Coming of Age Stephen King Adaptation STAND BY ME.  Here are three of my favorite facts and my comments on each…

As with most of Stephen King’s stories, this one originally contained connections to other books he has written. Ace Merrill later re-appeared in the book Needful Things (1993), although he does not appear in the film. The dog Chopper is compared to Cujo (1983). Characters are familiar with Shawshank Prison, from The Shawshank Redemption (1994). Teddy Duchamp was actually first mentioned in King’s first book, Carrie (1976), in which Carrie destroys a gas station he once worked at.

(I love when authors create different books/movies with overlapping characters.  Elmore Leonard did it well.  Jonathan Maberry does it regularly.  Tarantino has carried the idea into movies. – Craig)

Rob Reiner considers this the best film he has ever made. This is pretty big, considering he has directed some of my favorite movies, including The Princess Bride, When Harry Met Sally, This is Spinal Tap, and A Few Good Men. But he’s not the only one who is proud of the film. King, who has been a vocal critic of many of his adaptations, also praised the movie.

(High praise indeed.  I lean towards The Princess Bride as Reiner’s best, but a rewatching of Stand by Me may be in order to verify.  – Craig)

In the shot where Gordie and Vern are running towards the camera with the train right behind them, the train was actually at the far end of the trestle with the two actors on the opposite end. The crew used a 600mm long-focus lens that, when shot at the telephoto end, compressed the image so much that it made it look like the train was right behind them.

(And that is a peak behind the curtains! – Craig)

If you’ve enjoyed these facts, check out Behind-the-Scenes Facts About the Classic Coming of Age Stephen King Adaptation STAND BY ME.

The Monkees Trivia!

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MeTV posted 10 Things You Might Not Know About The Monkees.  Here are three of my favorite facts and my comments on each…

Only Peter Tork and Micky Dolenz appear in every episode of the TV show.

(Interesting.  Don’t you think these days, shows would just shoot scenes earlier to avoid having a star miss appearing in an episode? – Craig)

Micky and Michael both auditioned to play the Fonz on ‘Happy Days.’

(Mickey as the Fonz would have been more slapstick and silliness. Michael had the height to be intimidating and it would have been a different kind of cool.  Ayyyy! – Craig)

‘Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones Ltd.’ is one of the first albums to feature a Moog synthesizer.

(I used to own that album! – Craig)

“The Rock” Movie Trivia and a “Making Of” Documentary!

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Joey Paur at GeekTyrant posted 25 Fun Facts About Michael Bay’s THE ROCK and a Short “Making Of” Documentary.  Here are three of my favorite facts and my comments on each…

Arnold Schwarzenegger was offered the role of Cage’s character, but at the time the script was only eighty pages “with a lot of handwriting and scribbles, and it didn’t seem fully baked.” He said he regrets not taking the role.

(I’m an Arnold fan, but he would have been wrong for this role. – Craig)

Michael Biehn, who has played Navy S.E.A.L.s, or some variation thereof on multiple occasions, was unsure of himself while acting for the first time here against real S.E.A.L.s. He told Bay he was freezing up pretending to be the leader in front of them, as well as in Connery’s presence.

(That would have been intimidating. – Craig)

Michael Bay’s idea for a sequel involves a now-married Goodspeed in possession of the microfilm evidence who finds himself pursued by the government, and with nowhere else to turn, he’s forced to ask Mason for help.

(That would have been a great idea.  Sadly, it will never happen now. – Craig)

If you’ve enjoyed these facts, click over to see the rest and to check out the Making Of The Rock documentary.

The Most Popular Movie for each Year from 1950 On

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Jake Rosen at Mental Floss recently posted The Most Popular Movie for each Year from 1950 On.  Here’s how many I saw and my favorite for each decade.

  • 1950 – 1959:  6 and BEN-HUR (1959) gets the nod.
  • 1960 – 1969: 7 with BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969) coming out on top.
  • 1970 – 1979: 10 (yep, I saw ’em all) and you know that ROCKY (1976) was my favorite.
  • 1980 – 1989: 10 again.  RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (1981) wins.
  • 1990 – 1999: 10 (I’m on a roll.)  TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY is my fav.
  • 2000 – 2009: 6.  PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST (06) gets the nod in the weakest decade so far.
  • 2010 – 2019: 4.  GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY (2014) in a decade when I’ve only seen four of the top ten.

Matthew Childer’s Edgar Allan Poe Art and Trivia!

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In addition to being one fine artist, Matthew Childers is also an Edgar Allan Poe fan.  As such, he recently posted a print he created of Poe (above) as well as 10 Mind-blowing Facts About Edgar Allan Poe.  Although you can see the print here,  it’s available for purchase at Matthew’s site plus you can check out the Edgar Allan Poe trivia… and other pieces of his art.

Stallone’s “Cliffhanger” Trivia!

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Cliffhanger and Cobra are probably the two movies that Stallone fans would most love to see get a sequel.  While I don’t have news of a sequel for either, I can tell you about Derek Draven’s post at ScreenRant: 10 Facts About Cliffhanger You Didn’t Know.

Because almost everyone here is a Stallone fan, you will probably know most if not all of the facts.  Still they’re worth a look.  

“The French Connection” Trivia!

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Matthew Jackson at Mental Floss posted 14 Fascinating Facts About The French Connection.  Reading some of these facts it becomes clear that The French Connection was a longshot to be made let alone win five Academy Awards including Best Picture.  Here are three of my favorite facts and my thoughts.  Check ’em out and then click over for all the facts and details!

THE FRENCH CONNECTION WAS TURNED DOWN BY ALMOST EVERY STUDIO.  (Dick Zanuck at 20th Century Fox said he’d bankroll the film if it could be done for 1.5 million. Luckily for film fans, it could be. – Craig)

GENE HACKMAN WAS NOT THE FIRST CHOICE FOR POPEYE DOYLE.  (The film’s director, William Friedkin, wanted Jackie Gleason (?) or Jimmy Breslin (??) for the lead.  Another star considered was Rod Taylor.  Ultimately it came down to take Hackman as the lead or risk losing the movie.  Friedkin agreed to Hackman. – Craig)

FERNANDO REY WAS CAST BECAUSE OF A MIXUP. (Friedkin told the casting director  “let’s get that French guy that was in Belle de Jour…”  The casting director thought Friedkin was talking about Fernando Rey — but he wasn’t!  Friedkin signed Rey, sight unseen and it wasn’t until they met on the set that Friedkin realized the mistake and it was too late to make a change! – Craig)

The Best of the All-Time “Worst” Movies

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Megan Summers at ScreenRant posted The 10 Best Razzie Winning Movies (According To IMDb).  I thought this was an interesting idea especially after I found three movies on the list that I really like.

Rocky IV won five Razzies for Worst Actor, Worst Director, Worst Supporting Actress, Worst New Star, and Worst Musical Score.  When R4 was released it was my least favorite of the Rocky films.  Over the years my affection for it has grown, especially since R4 played such an important part in making it possible for Creed.

Con Air won  won a special Razzie for Worst Reckless Disregard for Human Life and Public Property.  I loved Con Air.  It was over the top fun and yeah, the ending did involve a plane crash landing in Vegas but did that deserve a special Razzie?  Oh, why not?  

Interview with a Vampire tied for a Razzie in the category for Worst Screen Couple.  The IwaV couple was Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt.  Who did they tie with?  Sly Stallone and Sharon Stone from The Specialist.  Interview with a Vampire is a movie that I have liked more with each viewing.  I’m not alone in that opinion – the movie was a box-office success and earned Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. 

Who was the All-Time Most Evil Dracula?

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Yesterday we looked at the best movie Dracula.  Today we’ll answer who is the most evil Dracula.  The answer is, of course, the real person Dracula was based on: Vlad III aka Vlad the Impaler, the Prince of Wallachia (now known as Romania).

Most folks know that the real-life Vlad III was infamous for killing his enemies by impaling them, but that’s just one of the many evil things he did.  Eli Nixon at Listverse details much more in 10 Fascinating Facts About The Real Dracula.  Normally, with posts like this, I list my three favorite facts, but here there were no favorites.  Vladd III was truly a horrible human being and much worse than any movie Dracula.