Movie Mom Q & A

Posted on August 16, 2010 at 3:52 pm

Thanks for the great questions!An American romantic film in which a female high school principal falls for a Mexican handyman working at the school. In a whirlwind romance she goes to Mexico with him where(I think) she gets married on impulse. Back at the school she goes through a period of self doubt but, in the end, true love prevails. Any clues?? Many thanks for your help. That is “Crazy from the Heart” with Reuben Blades and Christine Lahti.I am trying to find the name of an old black&white comedy movie that has a genie in it i can’t remember a lot about it. I think the movie started off with 3 or 4 men trying to start a small band playing music in the streets for money. They eventually enlisted in to the military services to get some money, there was a genie lamp that was thrown out in the rubbish that one of the men owned and was eventually melted down and was turned into a button which was stiched on to a military uniform. That’s “Alf’s Button.” There’s also a sequel, “Alf’s Button Afloat.” There was a family movie from the early 80’s where the daughter had some medical condition (heart or lungs??) so the family, consisting of the parents and the 2 children (boy and girl) moved into the wilderness mountains and encountered and battled wilderness hazards like raccoons and bears. It was a great movie I would love to watch with my niece. My friend and fellow critic Dustin Putman reminds me that is “The Adventures of the Wilderness Family.” I believe it was a 1980’s movie. A couple that lives under high tension wires has new neighbors move in. The new neighbors are “swingers”. This is a COMEDY movie. The “straight” neighbor ends up putting the “swingers” airplane (or fancy car) in the swamp. I am thinking it may have been one of the Saturday Night Live people that starred in the movie. Just can’t remember any of the stars at all. Been driving us crazy for 3 days! You have a good memory! That’s “Neighbors” with Dan Ackroyd.I don’t have much info at all. so this will be tricky. I remember seeing it somewhere in the late 70’s early 80’s maybe and I thought the name of the movie had the word NOVEMBER in it. It was a love story. It was on the late, late movie. I know this is a tough one. I am pretty sure you are thinking of the bittersweet Sandy Dennis love story called “Sweet November” (remade with Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron), about a woman who takes a lover for just one month and then moves on to another one the following month. Looking for the name of an old movie, maybe even a black and white. Starred a famous man and women about some sort of love affair, maybe forbidden, but in the end he comes to her and she is on the couch, hiding the fact that she can no longer walk. That’s a classic! “An Affair to Remember” with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. There are also earlier and later versions (“Love Affair” with Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer, and “Love Affair” again with Warren Beatty and Annette Bening), but the one with Cary Grant is the best known.Help! I saw a movie (not “Forever Young”) but it was about two brothers running from the police, sometime in the 40’s or 50’s, one guy had kidney disease, they were frozen and defrosted some 40 years later. one of the guys was getting married and he looks up his wife. it is so much like “Forever Young” but it is not. I cant remember any of the actors. Any clue? I love that movie! It’s “Late for Dinner” with Peter Berg and Marcia Gay Harden. They are actually brothers-in-law. Enjoy!No idea of who was in it. I think it was an 80’s B SciFi movie. The “scientists” developed a computer/recorder that could “tape” thoughts. The key to identify it was that one of the characters made a loop of the tape to experience repeated sexual experiences and died. That is “Brainstorm” with Natalie Wood (her last film) and Christopher Walken.The film is based in the US is in black and white. It is in the 1930’s and a group of men have a still to make illegal whisky. There is a raid by agents and an agent gets killed by one of the group. I am not sure but I think the lead was James Stewart. He is arrested, sent to prison and more or less spends the rest of his life there but during his later years he comes up with a new design for a light-weight rifle. The rifle gets produced, he eventually gets out of prison and they all live happily ever after. Corny but a good film and I can’t remember the name of it. You have a good memory! That movie is “Carbine Williams” with Jimmy Stewart, based on a true story.I saw this movie and only remember bits and pieces and I am trying to find the title. I can’t remember any big star names. The male lead might be the most famous. I’d guess it was made 2000-2005, or maybe a few years on either side.The best part of the movie was the main male character hitting on some attractive blonde (who I have never seen elsewhere – maybe an Australian actress) on an airplane near the beginning of the movie. The blonde replies something to the effect that “I am out of your league. I am so far out of your league that when someone in your league turns on a light bulb, my league doesn’t see it for 3 days.” Something like that. Of course, they two get together by the end of the movie.The movie is like a cross between Indiana Jones, American Treasure and League of Extraordinary Gentleman. The male lead is some kind of expert in arcane something. He has been chosen by some secret society to help find something and somehow save the world from the evil doers before they find it. The blonde is there to protect him, although he doesn’t know it at the start. You are thinking of “The Librarian: Quest for the Spear.” She says, “I am out of your league, I’m so out of your league, that if your league exploded, I wouldn’t hear about it for three days. So let us go on in a companionable silence shall we?”What is the name of the movie with a teenage girl that sees a white owl all of the time, and then her baby sibling gets taken and she has to go to this foreign land to get him back, and there are clocks everywhere like she’s running out of time? That is “Labyrinth” (1986) with Jennifer Connelly. Great film!What’s the name of that movie, that was made in the 80’s where this little boy mixed up peanut butter and cobwebs and put it in his hair and the next day his hair was really long? That’s “The Peanut Butter Solution,” made in 1985.Old b/w movie about a pair of candle sticks and the saying “life is to give and not to take.” “Les Miserables”A guy comes out of his house and starts to sing about being in love and the whole time he is singing he is jumping up and down like a rabbit all over town. He never stops jumping, even meeting people in the town, shaking their hand and still singing about being in love. Jumping non-stop for over 3 minutes. It has always stuck with me. But I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the movie. The actor may be Donald O’Connor, but I’m not sure. Please help. That’s Bobby Van in the unforgettable “Take Me to Broadway” number from “Small Town Girl.” Enjoy!I saw this movie several years ago on either HBO, Showtime, etc. It was about a single mother who was overly obsessed with her teenage son but she ends up sneaking around with her neighbor who was a little person. I think it has “neighbor” somewhere in the title. Thanks for any help you can give. That is one of the stories in “Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her” with Kathy Baker. Great film.I watched a Japanese animation movie 10 years ago. I’m trying to find it now, unfortunately I can’t remember the title. It was a children’s movie (for maybe a 5 to 10 year old?). If I remember correctly, there was no speech. The soundtrack consisted of only classical music. The main character was a boy who played a flute and lived in a sort of magical world. It reminds me of “Fantasia.” If you could help me find it, I would be very grateful! My fellow critic and friend Mark Jenkins says he thinks you are remembering a Chinese film called “The Cowboy’s Flute.” I am trying to find the name of a movie where a father takes his family from their home to the Amazon to start a new life. He creates a incredible home, garden and ice machine which gets destroyed by natives. That’s “The Mosquito Coast” with Harrison Ford.What was the name of the movie starring Kirk Douglas that involved a trapped miner named “Leo?” That is “Ace in the Hole” (sometimes known as “The Big Carnival”). Terrific film directed by Billy Wilder.

Related Tags:

 

Q&As

16 Replies to “Movie Mom Q & A”

  1. Hi!
    My sister recently reminded me of a movie we watched when we were little, but this is all she can remember from it: it was about sea monsters, and they were different colors, and they had necklaces that made them invisible to people, and one of the sea creatures was selfish and ate all the seaweed. and at one point there was a storm and one of the sea monsters lost their necklace. and it came in a pink case? when only VCRs existed…

  2. Okay i have been looking for this movie for awhile and i haven’t been able to locate it because i don’t remember the name if you could help me out…
    It starts off with a boy and his mother there on a greyhound bus and the mother gets off the bus at a stop but before she does she makes him promise to never talk to strangers and i think she dies or someone kills her but the boy didn’t notice because he fell asleep and when he wakes up he’s alone and continues his life never speaking to anyone because he promised his mom and the towns people think he’s mute until one day he talks? if you can please help me with the name of this movie i would appreciate it

  3. im trying to figure out the title to this movie, all i can really remmember is this man kills this teen girl then either the girl and the guy has to re-live her last day or death every day over and over. i cant remm if its him or her. it was a really good movie and its killing me to know the name of it

  4. I suddenly remembered a movie that I saw when I was little. All I remember is that there a little boy who got sent to live with his grandpa(?)and he is given or finds a special wooden flute, he goes out into a big field/forest and the flute either summons magical creatures or transports him to a magical land. I am dying to know what movie it is!

  5. I have been looking for a movie for years, about two sisters who run away from there spaceship while parked on the moon. They land somewhere in the west. Texas maybe, the oldest ends up falling for a boy and in the end decides to stay behind. I remember something about her hair changing colors. IT was in the last 80s that I remember watching this!
    Please help me!

  6. I have been trying to find the name of this movie for the past two years. Its about a girl in a small town living with her mother who gets accepted to a fancy music school. The mom ends up losing the house and has to secretly live with her daughter in the dorm room. She also gets a job at a local coffee shop. The mom falls in love with one of the teachers, and the girl uses the old classic italian song as her final grade. She sings it traditionally at first then puts a modern twist on it with dancing and a quicker beat. Please please help me. I loved this movie.

  7. Ok…..so this is a movie that I saw as a young kid in the 80’s…..I remember dudes dressed in bird outfits—maybe chickens, armed with guns. They were stopping cars, looking for a boy & his mother. At some point, the bad guys (maybe mercenaries, or government peeps, dressed in camouflage)track the woman and the boy out in the woods, to the crazy uncle’s house. This part of the movie takes place in the woods, with bridges that run in the trees. The bad guys are able to track the mom and her son because they put a tracker (old school, red light that blinked) under their car. In the end, the uncle dies, but I think the mom and the kid live. Any ideas?

  8. I have a dear Eldery friend who is not doing well. She keeps telling me about this movie she wants to see before her last day. It has something to do with Will the Circle Be Unbroken and the Carter family. But all I can find are documentaries on the Carter family. All she remembers specifically is: it’s in black and white, there is a mother who passes away and the little girl runs after the hurse? I’m not into older movies and I’m having a lot of trouble trying to figure out what it is. Any ideas?

  9. Im looking for the title of a movie i saw long ago. its about a women that was taken by a indain tribe, she had red hair and i think a bible. anyway her husband was very mean and went looking for her with an army. the women excapes back to her husband and then goes back to the indian. whats the name of it? its driving me crazy!

  10. My dad used to watch this movie all the time back in the 80’s. The only thing I can remember is it’s about a ann and his family who move somewhere remote and they wind up rigging up their own modern conveniences. In the only scene I really remember, they’re having a party inside the house and the man goes to a handmade tap to get a glass of water for a guest and a fish comes out. Can you help me?

  11. Hi i remembered a while ago that when i was a little girl i saw a movie about three orphans where there parents might have been dead or left them? but each kid was able to make a wish and choose which kind of parents they wanted? thats all i could remember but if you could please help me out i would appreciate it

  12. I’m trying to figure out the name of a movie I seen quite a few years ago. I’m not for certain but I think that doogie howser guy is one of the main characters. It’s about a family (husband, wife and baby) who travels across the country driving to visit family at christmas time and they get stuck in the mountains in the snow and have no choice but to leave their truck and walk through the mountains for help. For days they struggle to live and no one can find them. But they end up surviving along with the baby but they end up losing their feet to frost bite. Can anyone help me remember the name of that movie

    1. Hi, Michelle! That’s “Snowbound: The Jim and Jennifer Stolpa Story.” Thanks for a great question!

Comments are closed.

THE MOVIE MOM® is a registered trademark of Nell Minow. Use of the mark without express consent from Nell Minow constitutes trademark infringement and unfair competition in violation of federal and state laws. All material © Nell Minow 1995-2024, all rights reserved, and no use or republication is permitted without explicit permission. This site hosts Nell Minow’s Movie Mom® archive, with material that originally appeared on Yahoo! Movies, Beliefnet, and other sources. Much of her new material can be found at Rogerebert.com, Huffington Post, and WheretoWatch. Her books include The Movie Mom’s Guide to Family Movies and 101 Must-See Movie Moments, and she can be heard each week on radio stations across the country.

Website Designed by Max LaZebnik