Q&A with the Movie Mom

Q: A reader at a Intelligence hide out is sent out for lunch. When he returns everybody has been killed. Now the killers are after him. He carjacks a lady and hides out at her place…Movie title?
Answer: That is “Three Days of the Condor” with Robert Redford.
Q: In the movie Big, with Tom Hanks, before he get’s “big,” he is playing a computer game in his room. It is interactive, and he types in things like, “brake glass with hammer.” I have heard that this game is real, so do you know what it is called?
Answer: Some people believe that it is Colossal Cave Adventure, but others think that it was just inspired by that game but made up for the movie.
Q: The plot entails a kid who is plagued by 3 bullies – 2 boys and a girl. He enlists the help of a retired magician. In one scene, it is Halloween and the bullies are dressed up as a mummy, vampire etc and are chasing the kids. The magician’s dog steps on the “mummy”s bandage and he trips down some stairs. At the end, the bullies are arrested along with an old lady who was controlling them.
Answer: I think that’s “Spooky House” with Ben Kingsley. I hope that’s it!
Q: About 6-8 months ago I rented a movie with the description of a man who goes on the rampage after his entire family is killed at a waterfront family gathering. I didn’t know the actor playing the lead role, but loved the movie….it wasn’t until I took the movie back that I realized that the movie I had seen was in the wrong “rental envelope”. Does anyone out there recognize this scenario….I also remember that his wife and son died last, being run down on a pier/deck leading out into the water. Thanks.
Answer: That’s “The Punisher” with Thomas Jane.
Q: I watched a movie about 20 years ago about a sea creature that turned out to be an old rock quarry shovel/excavator. The excavator was sitting at the bottom of a water filled quarry. It was attached to a windmill on shore by chains and when the wind would blow the sea weed covered excavator would lift out of the water. In the movie the lake was drained and the true identity of the “monster” was discovered. Any help locating this movie would be greatly appreciated!
Answer: That movie is called “The Quest” (sometimes called “Frog Dreaming”) and stars Henry Thomas of “E.T.”
Q: The movie deals with a couple whose next door neighbor (a black policeman) harasses them.
Answer: That movie is “Lakeview Terrace” with Samuel L. Jackson.
Q: There is a movie that I cannot for the life of me remember the title to. I only remember bits and pieces about it. There is a house by a lake that the former owners are able to converse with the current owners only through the mailbox. They live in different times so they are unable to meet. I believe that it is a love story. I hope you can help me!
Answer: Hi, Kimberly! That is “The Lake House” with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock.
Q: Hi I’m looking for a movie based at a high school and this guy who raced for money and at the end he had to race against time in a 57 Chevy as a bet to get the money to save his school. Can you help me?
Answer: That movie is “Catch Me if You Can” with Matt Lattanzi. Thanks for writing!
Q: I’m looking for a movie that came out I think in the past 15 years or so. The scene I remember best was a group of people in a restaurant, and when the girl realized they were going to EAT the lobsters, she “liberated” them and it was hilarious. She asked someone later, “Why would you want to eat someone’s pet?” I think she was mentally challenged or had some social adjustment issue, and she had been in a school, but the school closed and she was sent to live with her (reluctant) brother. She learned to get along in society, got a crush on her brother, found out that wasn’t appropriate, and starting liking another man, if I remember rightly. I think she had an obsession with things being in a particular order.
Answer: You are thinking of “Molly” with Elisabeth Shue. Thanks for writing!
Q: I saw a movie in this time frame of a gal that was a stewardess, she was dating 3 guys and they all happened to be named Mike. That is all I remember. thanks
Answer: You remembered the important part! That movie is called “Three Guys Named Mike,” with Jane Wyman and Van Johnson.

Q: Does anyone know the name of a film (70’s-80′) Its about two super powers USA v Russia. Where they no longer fight normal battles, they fight each other in 2 giant mech type robots. With super fit guys controlling them.
Answer: That movie is “Robot Jox.”
Q: There is this children’s movie that I absolutely LOVED when I was little, but I can’t for the life of me remember the name of it. It was about this little boy who finds this big present with a red bow has floated into his living room. He opens it and it’s a car of some sort, I think? He gets in and is transported to a cartoon-like setting….There is a dog with a giant clock in his chest and two kings (one of numbers and one of letters) who can never agree with one another. Thanks a million!
Answer: A great movie based on one of my favorite books! “The Phantom Tollbooth.” Enjoy!
Q: What is the name of the movie that was produced 15 or so years ago about a woman music professor who goes to Appalachia in the early 1900’s to record the folk music of the locals before it became lost forever? Thank you.
Answer: I love that film. It is “Songcatcher” with Emmy Rossum and Janet McTeer.
Q: Looking for movie title about several French nuns visiting and raising funds in(New York State I think) for a hospital (maybe a children’s hosp.) Post WWI or WWII, nuns are hosted by a man who does a little singing, may play a singer in the movie or composes jingles but doesn’t play a big part, may be a singer in real life. I think this movie was made in the 40’s. Saw it on TCM.
Answer: That lovely movie is “Come to the Stable” with Loretta Young and Celeste Holm.

Q: I cannot remember the title of a movie I saw maybe 10 years ago. It was about a chance encounter of a young man and a girl while traveling on a train. They really clicked and talked and talked through the night as they waited for their separate trains to continue their travels in separate directions. I think the story took place in Vienna. They agreed to meet again one year later. I think there was a sequel to this story. If you could find the titles, that wold be great! Thanks in advance.
Answer: I love those films! “Before Sunrise” and “Before Sunset” with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy.
Q: I am trying to remember the name of a movie I saw on t.v. about 2/3 years ago. it was a family film, maybe made for t.v.?? It was about two young girls approx 12-14 years old. One girl was new in town, the other girl was an outcast, whose mother’s boyfriend beat her. They go on an adventure to a mountain, searching for gold that a miner (who was actually a woman disguised as a man) had hidden there years ago. The outcast girl had a secret hideaway in the cave on the mountain to escape from her abusive home. In the end the truth about her abuser comes out, and the two girls are saved from him. They wind up with gold from an unknown benefactor at the end. One girl’s name, I think may have been Jodi. The only actor I recognized was the guy who played the sheriff. It was a nice family movie about friendship and prejudices. I would like to share this movie with my granddaughters, if it is available on dvd. But, for the life of me, I cannot remember the name or the year of the film, or even any names of the actors in it. Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
Answer: That movie is “Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain” with Anna Chlumsky and Christina Ricci. It is not yet available on DVD, I am sorry to say, but I hope it will be soon.
Q: The movie was about the tobacco industry. Was about a man who left and then came back maybe Reynolds Tobacco. Lead actor was also in many westerns I believe. He’s love interest father was big in tobacco but the woman who helped and loved him was a fallen woman.
Answer: Sounds like “Bright Leaf” with Gary Cooper.
Q: When my sister and I were growing up, we used to watch a movie that we are now having trouble identifying. All we remember of it now is a scene where a child and a monster were singing “Slient Night” while walking through a kind of foggy, barren landscape with bubbling mud pits. It was live action and would have been made in the 80’s or at the earliest, late 70’s.
Answer: That is “The Monster’s Christmas,” a made-for-television movie from 1981.
Thanks to everyone for these great questions!