Category: Trivia

The All Time Best Movie Cameos

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Coming Soon posted their choices for The 10 Best Movie Cameos.  Using just their choices, here are my top three plus four movie cameos that would have made my list!

A Whole Slew of Alfred Hitchcock Films
Before Stan Lee was appearing in every Marvel movie, Alfred Hitchcock was inserting himself into the background of almost all his films. An older man with an instantly recognizable look, it’s clear to see why Marvel hopped on the opportunity to steal one of Hitchcock’s signature moves.

Pulp Fiction
Christopher Walken is one of the most beloved and praised actors of the back half of the 20th century, so his appearance in Pulp Fiction deserves some recognition for combining one of the most-respected actors and one of the most-revered films. He’s only on-screen for one scene, but it’s a scene that continues to be pored over.

Tropic Thunder
Tom Cruise wearing extensive prosthetics and wearing an unrecognizable getup makes for (easily) one of the best cameos ever. It’s unclear why or how this role came to be, but we welcome it wholeheartedly (and long for the once-rumored spinoff film about his character).

Now for my favorite cameos that didn’t make their list…

Staying Alive: Director Sly Stallone appears just for seconds as he and Tony Manero (John Travolta) bump into each other while walking down a busy sidewalk.

Young Frankenstein: Gene Hackman goes uncredited in one of the funniest scenes in one of the funniest movies of all time.

Glengarry Glen Ross: Alec Baldwin shows up for a memorable scene that sets up everything to follow.  ABC – Always Be Closing.

Zombieland: Bill Murray.  Need I say more?

John Carpenter’s “They Live” Trivia

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Matthew Jackson and Mental Floss present 10 Killer Facts About They Live.  Here are three of my favorites…

1. THEY LIVE WAS INSPIRED BY A COMIC BOOK ADAPTATION OF A SHORT STORY.
They Live is an adaptation of Ray Nelson’s science fiction short story “Eight O’Clock in the Morning,” which was originally published in the 1960s. But John Carpenter’s more direct inspiration was an Eclipse Comics adaptation of Nelson’s story, which he stumbled across in the mid-1980s. Intrigued by the idea of aliens enslaving humanity, Carpenter then sought out the original prose work.

“‘Eight O’Clock in the Morning is’ a D.O.A.-type of story, in which a man is put in a trance by a stage hypnotist,” Carpenter told Starlog in 1988. “When he awakens, he realizes that the entire human race has been hypnotized, and that alien creatures are controlling humanity. He has only until eight o’clock in the morning to solve the problem.”

Though Carpenter liked the idea of the entire populace being controlled subliminally by an alien menace, he wasn’t too keen on the hypnotism idea. He bought the rights to the story and began adapting it, changing hypnotism to the very 1980s notion of Americans being controlled via subliminal messaging.

3. JOHN CARPENTER WROTE THEY LIVE UNDER AN ALIAS.
Carpenter has always been a multi-hyphenate kind of filmmaker, directing, writing, producing and scoring his movies. But by the time They Live came around, he’d grown a little disillusioned with the idea of continuing to have his name plastered absolutely everywhere. With that in mind, he decided that he’d use a pseudonym for They Live’s screenplay credit.

“It was a reaction to seeing my name all over these movies,” Carpenter explained to Entertainment Weekly in 2012. “I think the height of it was Christine. It was like, John Carpenter’s Christine, directed by John Carpenter, music by John Carpenter … what an egotist!”

Carpenter chose the pseudonym Frank Armitage, which is a character from H.P. Lovecraft’s story “The Dunwich Horror,” which he picked “just because I love Lovecraft.”

5. THEY LIVE’S MOST FAMOUS LINE CAME FROM RODDY PIPER.

Even if you’ve never seen They Live, you’ve probably heard someone at some point in your life say: “I have come here to chew bubble gum and kick ass, and I’m all out of bubble gum.” Ever since Nada delivered that line in the film, it’s maintained a life even beyond They Live, becoming one of the most popular and frequently quoted lines in all of pop culture. According to Carpenter, the line came straight from Piper, who kept a notebook full of quips like that to use in his wrestling promos.

“Traveling all around the country wrestling different people, those guys come up with a lot of stuff to hype matches in interviews. They have to come up with one-liners. Roddy had a book full of them that he carried with him,” Carpenter explained. “He’d sit on a plane and come up with these things. He gave me the book when I was writing the script and that was the best one in there. I think he was wrestling Playboy Buddy Rose and he may have said the line then.”

According to Piper, the line actually didn’t enter the picture until the day they shot the scene, but either way both men agree that he wrote it.

“Them!” Trivia

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Mark Mancini and Mental Floss present 11 Fun Facts About Them!.  I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve watched Them! over the years.  I’m happy to report it still holds up.  When I was a kid, I loved that Matt Dillon, Spock and Daniel Boone all had roles, heck it still brings a smile to my face.  And now without further adieu, here are three of my favorite facts…

4. LEONARD NIMOY MAKES AN APPEARANCE.
In one brief scene, future Star Trek star Leonard Nimoy plays an Army man who receives a message about an alleged “ant-shaped UFO” sighting over Texas. He then proceeds to poke fun at the Lone Star State, because, as everybody knows, insectile space vessels are highly illogical.

10. THE MOVIE WAS A SURPRISE HIT.
Studio head Jack L. Warner predicted that Them!, with its far-fetched plot, wouldn’t fare well at the box office. So imagine his surprise when it raked in more than $2.2 million—enough to make the picture one of the studio’s highest-grossing films of 1954.

11. THEM! LANDED FESS PARKER THE ROLE OF TV’S DAVY CROCKETT.
When Walt Disney went to see Them!, he had a specific objective in mind: Scout a potential Davy Crockett. At the time, Disney was developing a new television series that would chronicle the life and times of the iconic frontiersman, and James Arness, who plays an FBI agent in Them!, was on the short list of candidates for the role. Yet as the sci-fi thriller unfolded, it was actor Fess Parker who grabbed Disney’s attention. Director Gordon Douglas had hired Parker to portray the pilot who ends up in a psych ward after an aerial encounter with a gargantuan flying ant. And while his character only appears in one scene, the performance impressed Disney so much that the struggling actor was soon cast as Crockett.

Area 51 Trivia

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Claudia Dimuro and Mental Floss present 10 Out of This World Facts About Area 51.  Here are three of my favorites…

10. IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO SNEAK INTO AREA 51 WITHOUT BEING SPOTTED—AND USE OF DEADLY FORCE IS AUTHORIZED IF ANYONE TRIES TO EVADE SECURITY.
Given the intense nature of its secrecy, it comes as no surprise that Area 51 is heavily guarded. Pilots who purposefully fly into the restricted air zone can face court-martial, dishonorable discharge, and a stint in the can. The land is patrolled by “cammo dudes,” men wearing camouflage that have been seen driving around the area keeping an eye out for pesky civilians looking to break into the area. But truth-seekers, beware: Signs placed outside the area warn that Area 51 security is authorized to use deadly force on anyone looking to sneak onto the property.

7. FORMER AREA 51 EMPLOYEES WHO WERE SWORN TO SECRECY ARE OPENING UP ABOUT THEIR WORK THERE.
Some former employees who were once sworn to secrecy about what happened at Area 51 are now free to share their stories. One Area 51 veteran, James Noce, recalled handling various mishaps that were accidentally exposed to the public eye—for example, the crash of a secret aircraft that was witnessed by a police officer and a vacationing family. The family had taken photos; Noce confiscated the film from their camera and told the family and the deputy not to mention the crash to anyone.

Noce recounted how there was no official documentation stating he worked at Area 51, and that his salary was paid in cash. He also confirmed that he never saw any alien activity at the site.

1. AREA 51’S EXISTENCE WASN’T OFFICIALLY ACKNOWLEDGED BY THE U.S. GOVERNMENT UNTIL 2013.
Although it was chosen as a site to test aircraft in 1955, the government did not acknowledge that Area 51 even existed until 2013. According to CNN, maps and other documents created by the CIA were released thanks to Jeffrey T. Richelson, a senior fellow at the National Security Archives, who was granted access to the documents under the Freedom of Information Act. Unfortunately, the papers made no mention of little green men running around the facility.

The 10 Best Movie Monologues

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Coming Soon posted their choices for The 10 Best Movie Monologues and it got me thinking.  Movie monologues are rare, but when we happen to get a good one, they’re memorable and fun.  Sometimes they’re what we remember most from the movie.

I looked at Coming Soon’s list and picked my top three movie monologues, listed my rationale for choosing each and added one that they left out and my rationale for including it.

Blade Runner (1982) That ending monologue. Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner is a lot of great things, but this final showdown-turned-speech might be one of the best parts.  (I couldn’t agree more.  Hauer’s monologue made the movie for me.  I’ve thought a lot about Blade Runner over the years and it always comes down to how that scene was the soul of the movie. – Craig)

Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) A gripping drama with an all-star cast, Glengarry Glen Ross is a monologue showcase for the ages. No wonder so many aspiring actors take a page from this David Mamet script.  (I remember watching GGR for the first time and the scene with Alec Baldwin’s monologue had me smiling from ear to ear.  That scene set everything in motion. – Craig)

Pulp Fiction (1994) Samuel L. Jackson still appears in plenty of films well into the 2010s, but he was just getting started back in the early 90s. His iconic monologue in Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction helped solidify his status as a true movie star. (The monologue that made Samuel L. Jackson a star.  “Say ‘What’ again!”  – Craig)

I was tempted to find a spot for Robert Shaw from Jaws and Gregory Peck from To Kill a Mockingbird, but ultimately felt that the other monologues slightly edged them out.  I would not have been surprised to find entries for Henry Fonda in 12 Angry Men, Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men, or Clint Eastwood from Dirty Harry.

Stallone’s monologue from Rocky Balboa should have made the list.  It became an inspirational quote / meme for so many folks and it came from Stallone.  Nuff Said.

“Avengers: Endgame” Trivia

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Film School Rejects posted 57 Things We Learned from the Avengers: Endgame Commentary.  Here are three of my favorites…

7. The Russos praise the writers for crafting dialogue that continually feels true to the character speaking it. “If you find yourself having your character say something anybody in the room could have said then it’s time to go back to the drawing board.”

20. Some online have clearly been unhappy with Thor’s (Chris Hemsworth) descent into depression and weight gain, but the filmmakers love it. They praise his performance as it’s difficult to portray pathos and humor simultaneously, but they also think it’s a fantastic balance of comedy and sadness that work to build emotion. “What’s great about this character is we commit to it, and he doesn’t change by the end of the film.”

28. “This is, as declared by himself on set, Robert Redford’s last movie role.” The legendary actor declared this was his final acting performance the day he arrived for filming.

50 Facts About the Apollo 11 Moon Landing

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In honor of the mission to put the first man on the moon’s 50th anniversary, Mental Floss posted 50 Facts About the Apollo 11 Moon Landing.  Here are three of my favorites…

3. THE APOLLO 11 ASTRONAUTS WERE ODDLY CALM DURING LIFTOFF.
The average resting heart rate of an adult human is somewhere between 60 and 100 beats per minute (bpm), depending on the individual’s age, size, heart conditions, and other factors. Throw a little excitement into the mix and one’s heart is likely to beat much faster. Yet the Apollo 11 astronauts, whose heart rates were monitored throughout the expedition, remained surprisingly normal. At liftoff, Armstrong was the most excited of the bunch with a rate of 110 bpm. Collins, meanwhile, was clocked at 99, while a clearly calm Aldrin logged a rate of just 88 bpm.

32. ARMSTRONG AND ALDRIN HAD TO BE CAREFUL NOT TO LOCK THEMSELVES OUT OF THE MODULE.
If their heart rates were any indication, Armstrong and Aldrin were pretty calm, cool, and collected when they landed on the Moon. And it’s a good thing: Had they been overwhelmed by the cosmic wonder of it all, they could have easily locked themselves out of their lunar module, as Eagle’s door had no outer handle.

45. ARMSTRONG, ALDRIN, AND COLLINS WERE QUARANTINED FOR MORE THAN TWO WEEKS UPON THEIR RETURN TO EARTH.
On July 24, the Apollo 11 crew reentered Earth’s atmosphere and splashed down into the Pacific Ocean after more than a week in space. In order to ensure the men hadn’t brought back any sort of weird Moon diseases or other microbes, Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins were quickly placed into a mobile quarantine unit, which was then transported to the NASA Lunar Receiving Laboratory at Houston’s Johnson Space Center. They were released from quarantine on August 10, 1969.

Things Learned from Tim Burton’s ‘Batman’ Commentary

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Film School Rejects presents 26 Things We Learned from Tim Burton’s ‘Batman’ Commentary.  Here are three of my favorites and some of my thoughts at the end…

3.  People expected him to take a goofy tone with the film, “but that was the furthest thing from my mind.” He wasn’t a big comic book fan, but he loved Batman and the psychology of the character meaning he knew he wanted to stay true to that idea.

5.  He met with numerous actors for the title role who fit the traditional “square-jawed” and heroic look, but he eventually realized “there’s a reason why a guy dresses up as a bat, he’s trying to create a menacing persona.” Michael Keaton has the crazy eyes, but physically he’s someone who would need costuming to make him seem scarier.

24.  He took older films like The Man Who Laughs (1928), vampire movies, and the work of Val Lewton as inspirations for Batman.

I wasn’t a fan of Michael Keaton being cast as Batman.  I get now why Burton went with MK after reading #5 above.

The 50 Best Zombie Movies of All Time

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Jim Vorel at Paste came up with his list of The 50 Best Zombie Movies of All Time.  Vorel’s list is a good one.  Here’s his top ten and mine (using just the films on his list).

The 50 Best Zombie Movies of All Time

Jim Vorel

Craig

10.  Dawn of the Dead (2004) 

10.  Day of the Dead (1985)

09.  Zombi 2 (1979) 

09. Planet Terror (2007)

08.  Night of the Living Dead (1968)

08.  28 Weeks Later (2007)

07.  Evil Dead 2 (1987) 

07.  Shaun of the Dead (2004) 

06.  Shaun of the Dead (2004) 

06. Zombieland (2009)

05.  Day of the Dead (1985) 

05. Dawn of the Dead (2004)

04.  28 Days Later (2002)

04. Train to Busan (2016)

03.  Re-Animator (1985) 

03. 28 Days Later (2002) 

02.  Return of the Living Dead (1985) 

02. World War Z (2013)

01.  Dawn of the Dead (1978) 

01.  Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Although it didn’t make the list, I’d have added The Crazies.

“Alfred Hitchcock Presents” Trivia

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Jake Rossen and Mental Floss present 10 Facts About Alfred Hitchcock Presents.  I love AHP… especially the half hour episodes.  Here are my top three facts from a very good list…

5. IT COULD HAVE BEEN TITLED HENRY SLESAR PRESENTS.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents drew primarily from published short stories it optioned from writers. One such author, Henry Slesar, was a frequent contributor to Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, the monthly short story collection that had the director’s endorsement. When producer Norman Lloyd realized the prolific Slesar and three other authors had a story in the magazine every month, he invited all four of them out to California for a meeting about writing teleplays based on their stories. According to Lloyd, only Slesar showed up. This was because the other three writers were all his pseudonyms. Slesar ended up writing 55 scripts for the series, the most of any contributor.

3. HITCHCOCK’S DIRECT INVOLVEMENT IN THE SERIES WAS VERY LIMITED.
In style and substance, Alfred Hitchcock Presents shares a lot in common with Hitchcock’s films, particularly the scheming characters with murder on the mind in 1948’s Rope and 1951’s Strangers on a Train. Despite the Hitchcock aesthetic, his direct involvement in the show was limited. Because he was so busy with his movie career, he was convinced by MCA executive Lew Wasserman that lending his name and likeness to the series would not take up much of his time. Producers and frequent Hitchcock collaborators Joan Harrison and Norman Lloyd handled most of the production chores, though Hitchcock did direct 17 episodes over the course of the series. The director later said his supervision of the show extended to delivering “fatherly words of advice without trying to usurp their position.”

Viewers, however, seemed to infer he wrote and directed much of what they saw, sending fan letters to the director stating as much. While his effort was not as significant as they believed, it proved to be lucrative. Hitchcock drew a reported $129,000 per episode from CBS and sponsor Bristol-Myers.

8. ONE EPISODE WAS DEEMED TOO GRUESOME TO AIR.
While none of the criminal deeds depicted in Alfred Hitchcock Presents were explicit, one episode in season 7 written by Psycho author Robert Bloch inferred something so disturbing that it was kept off the air by NBC. (Spoilers follow.) In “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice,” a boy who dreams of becoming a magician is coerced into murdering his stage idol by the performer’s cheating spouse. She convinces him to do it by telling the boy—who is none too quick of mind—that he will absorb her husband’s “powers” once the deed is done. He believes it, and proceeds to saw her in half despite not having much of an idea about how the illusion is actually supposed to work. At the conclusion, Hitchcock makes a characteristically grim observation that the scheming widow must be “beside herself.” The episode later ran in syndication.

The 50 Best Sports Movies of All Time

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Tim Grierson & Will Leitch and Vulture.com present The 50 Best Sports Movies of All Time.  I’m happy to report that Creed came in at #28 and Rocky at #3.

The list is a good one, but I’d have included The Set-up, Requiem for a Heavyweight and a couple more from the Rocky series and Paradise Alley. (Would you expect any less?)

Here’s what Grierson and Leitch said about Rocky and Creed:

28. Creed (2015)
The Rocky series had run out of gas several times by the time Ryan Coogler got together with his Fruitvale Station star Michael B. Jordan to inject the whole franchise with adrenaline and soul … and even liven up old Rock himself in the process. The best scenes of Creed aren’t even about boxing at all, as we see young Adonis Creed struggle with his identity, his purpose in life, and the power of his feelings for a young, hearing-impaired musician (played wonderfully by Tessa Thompson). Putting Rocky Balboa in the Paulie role is a brilliant idea, and the relationship between the young boxer and his trainer works … and even manages to transcend the whole 40-year-old enterprise.

3. Rocky (1976)
Roger Ebert famously wrote, in his initial review of Rocky, that Sylvester Stallone reminded him of a young Brando, and while that classification hasn’t, uh, aged so well, you can understand what he was thinking. Before all the sequels, before the montage sequences, before Stallone became a muscled, chiseled ode to misguided masculinity, he was just a guy who wanted to tell a story about a past-his-prime palooka who met a girl and then suddenly finally got his chance at the big time. This is a big hokey underdog story, but it’s told with a grit and realism that matches the era; Rocky’s just a good-hearted schmo from the neighborhood who doesn’t have the stomach to break thumbs for the mob but isn’t sure what else the world has for him either. But he’s got heart, kid. This series is more than 40 years old now, but, as Creed showed, this story remains eternal. It’s probably going to outlive us all. Even Stallone.

27 Things We Learned from Brian Helgeland’s ‘Payback’ Commentary

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Rob Hunter and Film School Rejects present 27 Things We Learned from Brian Helgeland’s ‘Payback’ Commentary.  But first some background…

Payback is one of the very rare films that has more than one version available.  Brian Helgeland was fired from the film when he refused to make changes ordered by the studio.  The studio then ordered additional scenes changing the tone and ending of the film.  That version was released to great success both theatrically and on video/dvd.  And thanks to the video/dvd market, Helgeland was able to have his version released and it was also successful.  I have both versions in my collection and like both.

With all that said, here are my three favorites from Helgeland’s commentary:

12. He was in post-production on this film the night of the Academy Awards, and having been nominated for his L.A. Confidential (1997) script he really hoped he would be named the winner. “I knew that they were getting close to finally removing me off this movie,” and he thought winning the Oscar would mean they couldn’t fire him. He won, Sean Connery tussled his hair backstage while congratulating him, and that was his Sunday night. “And on Tuesday I got fired. So much for the magic of an Academy Award.”

13. Walter Matthau handed him his Oscar. Matthau starred in Charley Varrick (1973). The restaurant scene at 32:53 was filmed in a place called Varricks.

17. An early teaser strung together the film’s funnier scenes, and both audiences and the studio responded favorably. He protested and was told by the marketing department that “what it is is one thing, and selling it is another thing.” The studio clearly wished the movie “was more like our trailer, and I didn’t know it at first but it became this struggle for what the heart of the movie was about.” Re-shoots began leaning heavily toward the teaser’s tone, and the writing was on the wall.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Toughest Characters

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Sid Natividad and ScreenRant take a look at Arnold Schwarzenegger’s toughest characters.  Here are his rankings and mine: 

Natividad

Zablo

10. Ray Owens (The Last Stand)

10. Ben Richards (The Running Man)

09. Emil Rottmayer (Escape Plan)

09. Ray Owens (The Last Stand)

08. Jack Slater (The Last Action Hero)

08. Jack Slater (The Last Action Hero)

07. Ben Richards (The Running Man)

07. Dennis Quaid (Total Recall)

06. Dennis Quaid (Total Recall)

06. Emil Rottmayer (Escape Plan)

05. Harry Tasker (True Lies)

05. Harry Tasker (True Lies)

04. John Matrix (Commando)

04. John Matrix (Commando)

03. Conan (Conan the Barbarian)

03. Conan (Conan the Barbarian)

02. Dutch Schaefer (Predator)

02. Dutch Schaefer (Predator)

01. T-800 (Terminator 2)

01. T-800 (Terminator 2)

I would have also included John Wharton from Sabotage in the 6th spot had he been on Natividad’s list.

Source: ScreenRant.