Q&A with the Movie Mom

Posted on September 5, 2009 at 8:00 am

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!

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10 Replies to “Q&A with the Movie Mom”

  1. Hi, I used to check this movie out from the library when I was a little girl, around the year 1990. (So i’m assuming this movie was made in the 80’s) This is a live action movie, and an adult male is the lead, who i’m assuming is supposed to be playing the role of a little boy. The little boy is afraid to be in his room, and he starts singing a song and as he’s singing these “monsters” start to come out from everywhere in his room. Almost as if he is imagining it.. (The monsters are other big costumed people…) I can picture him dancing around with the monsters while he is singing. There might be a bad storm out the bedroom window. I cannot for the life of me think of the title of this movie, or even the song that he sings in it, but I think the letter W is in there somewhere. It’s like “wibbly, wobbly, whoobly, wuzzly” Something like that either in the title of the movie, or in the song he sings. If you could help me out it would be greatly appreciated, I can’t stop thinking about this! I also can’t wait to go and watch it again! Thanks a bunch!

  2. I’m trying to remember a movie I watched in the early 90s. It’s about these kids (I think there are 3 and the oldest is a girl about 13) and they are going on these little adventures and keep running into their mom but she is disguised as different characters and the kids don’t recognize her. One scenario they run into her is maybe a traveling circus or something. The mom might be dressed up as a clown or some sort of circus director. They keep learning lessons from her and by the end, I think they get back home and are so happy to see their own mom again. It’s killing me. Please help me!

  3. Hi there,
    I really hope you can help me with this movie. When I was a little girl in the mid 90s, I watched this children’s movie (non-animated) on TV. I cannot remember the title for the life of me, but I know it involved a girl and boy as the protagonists.
    At the beginning of the movie, the girl, with magical powers (I think), shows the boy a water fountain (could be a lake too). She tells him to jump in it. As soon as he jumps into it, he would emerge into another world. But in order to go back to his world from the new world, he needs to find the location of that water fountain he originally came out from. I think the movie revolves him trying to find that fountain to go back to his world.
    The story ends with that girl with magical powers telling him to jump into the original fountain. He does jump into it, and emerges in his own world.
    I really hope you can help me, this movie made me feel alive when I was a kid. Have a good day hun 🙂

  4. Oh, Claire, I am sorry I don’t know this one! Maybe one of the other visitors to the site will recognize it. If you remember anything else, let me know.

  5. HI
    I need your help! I am looking for the name of a film I watched probably about 20 years ago. All I can remember about this film is that it involved a young girl/boy who ran away and lived in a museum ar art gallery and there was a very grand fountain in the museum/art gallery with money in that they were trying to take (for a good reason). It may have been Jodi Foster but not sure.
    Hope you can help

  6. One of my favorites, based on one of my favorite books! It’s “From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.” There are actually two versions, one with Ingrid Bergman and one with Lauren Bacall.

  7. hello
    i am looking for the name of a movie where a woman is disguised as a man. she goes in this group and doesnt tell them she is a woman, wat i can remember is the way they find out she is a woman… she gets captured by a tribe and her rescuers reach in time to see some tribal people rip her shirt of to reveal breast.. they are ofcourse in shock to find out she is a woman… can anyone please tell me the name os this movie

  8. HI
    I need your help! I am looking for the name of a film that i seen 9-10 years ago….Its a comedy movie..its about two male kids(one black and one white)who i think live in africa……one of the scene shows how they used to spit on the mud and then make a paste ball out of this and put it on a stick or twig and throw it like a sling shot……another scene show that when one of the friends when big is in jail…..he uses a chewing gum and put it on a ruler and shoots it on someone hair…….later these friends reunite when their now grown men and they have to save some lady in africa……i think there also a scene when they are young, one friend is being bullied by some big guys to shoot his friend whith a sling shot….he has to shoot sumthing on his friends head….and later the target friend wets his pants

  9. I am trying to remember the name of a movie I saw about 6 or 7 years ago. It was about a little girl that was seperated from her parents (I believe this may have been in New Zealand and she is part of a Maori tribe, or it could be another South Pacific tribe) Her parents may have been killed. But it turns out that she is actually the granddaughter of the leader of this tribe. It’s not The Whale Rider…I know it has a similar storyline. I would appreciate any help. I’m pretty sure this was a G or PG rating. Very sweet movie.

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