Movie Mom Q&A

Movie Mom Q&A

Posted on June 5, 2010 at 8:00 am

Thanks to everyone for these great questions!I am trying to remember the name of this movie but for the life of me I can’t. The basics are the boy was kidnapped on the way to school and at first they blamed the handyman because they found bloody underwear in his tool box but it wasn’t him. The cop would never give up and I believe it was a couple years later and he found him. I can see the last couple minutes of the movie. He is driving home with him and there ends up being a huge police escort and the mom is on the way home from the store and there is a crowd in front of her apartment building, when she realizes what is going on she drops her groceries and starts to run.I love that movie. “Without a Trace” with Kate Nelligan and Judd Hirsch.I once saw a trailer for a film a few years ago, I’m not sure how many years ago exactly, possibly 5, but I could be wrong. After seeing the trailer I remember that the film looked interesting and that I wanted to see it. It must have flown under my radar when it was released however, and by then I had forgotten what it was called. Here is what I remember from the trailer:The story was about a guy who rents an apartment, one above an old store-front I think. After moving in, he discovers that the building is haunted by the ghost of the girl who used to live there. At first the ghost girl tries to haunt him and scare him out of the apartment, but when the two get to know each other, romance develops between them. Together they try to solve the mystery of how she was murdered. I believe the film was a romantic comedy with a light-hearted take on the afterlife. That’s all I can remember, I know it’s not much to go on, and I can’t even guarantee that any of what I’ve said is correct.Perhaps I am going crazy and have imagined this entire film, if so, someone should pitch it to a studio in better words than I can put together. I think it would be a really interesting film. Kind of like a light-hearted version of Patrick Swayze’s Ghost only with a romance between the ghost and the psychic instead.I hope you can help me, thank you very much regardless!You’re not crazy! It’s “Just Like Heaven” with Reese Witherspoon. Hiya, I’ve seen a Russian movie on an Ethihad flight this January. It was about the – fictive – Russian soccer national team and was pretty funny, though it had a quite absurd humor. Main characters were the team’s coach and his personal assistant. The coach’s cleaning woman locks herself in one scene up in his office and whilst she was “freed”, a locker almost stroke the coach’s assistant to death. There was also a very superstitious team assistant who always spit in the best player’s shoes. The film seemed quite modern, probably 2000 and onwards. I’d be so glad if you could help me to identify this movie! Thanks, ChristopherHi, Chris! That movie is “Igra” (“The Game”) by Aleksandr Rogozhkin (2008)I only saw part one of this two part made for TV movie but the story so far is. Set in early 20th century in Arab desert. English woman/girl rides into desert gets taken by desert people who sell her to kings harem. In the mean time English soldier with desert blood goes looking for her and finds she is in kings harem and only way to get in is to become a Enoch. He gets a fake job done and enters into the kings harem. Meanwhile she is picked out by king for a night and she is made ready by the other ladies all decked out in jewels and outfits and makeup etc but the last shot is of her being carried in a chair up high in a demure nightie and hair down and looking all virginal. As the shot pans by her you see him in the guard of honor? as a Enoch. so ends part one. hope you can help as I would love to find the movie and see the second part. Thanks.I believe you are thinking of a 1986 two-part miniseries called “Harem.” It stars Nancy Travis. I hope that is it!The plot: Mother struggling to support young daughter; over the years the mother becomes very successful in the restaurant business; enter a sleazy love interest who also is romantically involved with the grown, selfish daughter. I know it is NOT “Imitation of Life.” Any thoughts?That’s “Mildred Pierce” with Joan Crawford’s Oscar-winning performance. The movie is about time travelers who travel back in time to witness disasters. They are found out by a man and his daughter who attempt to stop the disaster from happening, or at least limit the number of people who die in the disaster. Don’t remember who was in it. Thanks.That is “Grand Tour: Disaster in Time” with Jeff Daniels.Can you please tell me the name of the Rom-Com….I just remember its plot…there was a doctor (I think dentist) who is supposed to have some lucky charm…so every girl with whom he sleeps gets the man of her life…he also had a friend who was a plastic surgeon…I have seen that movie but today when i was telling my friend about it i was am not able to recall it…Thanks.That movie is “Good Luck Chuck” with Dane Cook and Jessica Alba.OK so there’s this movie i believe its from the 80’s. It’s about a young couple who get stranded on an island and I think that there were Indians on that island but can’t remember. Years go by and they never get rescued and they have a child. Time flies by again and the boy (I think it was a boy) is about 4 yrs old and eats some kind of poisonous type of fruit and dies on their small boat they were building to leave the island. In the end they both (parents) eat the fruits too and they all die. I thought it was called “Blue Moon” but can’t seem to find it. Please help.That is “The Blue Lagoon” with Brooke Shields.I’m trying to find out the movie title where popular detectives are being killed off. Kojak (Telly Savalas) is killed with a poison lollipop. McCloud and his horse are covered in cement. Columbo (Peter Falk) is in it too. Thanks.I believe you are thinking of “Murder Can Hurt You,” a parody of all of the television detectives of the 1970’s. I am looking for a movie that came on tv years ago. the movies was about some scientists shrunk themselves and then took a journey inside the human body. I hope that you can find it what is the title and what year.That movie is “Fantastic Voyage” (1966).This was a movie about 4 children who lose their mother and they try to hide it from the system hoping to keep their family together. The oldest daughter has an attraction to a well-to-do bachelor. He eventually gets sick and the 2nd daughter treats him with natural medicine by putting him in the bath-tub and smothering him with steaming onions. Then the older daughter marries this bachelor who is way older then her. I saw this movie in the late 60’s I believe.That is “Where the Lilies Bloom,” based on the classic YA novel.About a year ago, movie, on TV. A guy had a couple million dollars in a European bank. Another man, a look-alike, plotted to go to the bank in person and have the money transferred to his account. To get the information he needed to be a credible impostor, he hired a beautiful woman to hustle man one and find out as much personal ID information as she could.They fell in love, yet she followed through begrudgingly. Man one, deeply in love, was demolished at finding of her involvement, and they separated sadly. Of her own love for him, she ended up killing the impostor she was hired for. In the final scene, a most-moving scene, they met in an open city square and tenuously approached, and were reunited.I believe you are thinking of “Deception” with Hugh Jackman and Ewan MacGregor.I’m trying to get the name of an old black and white movie of Barbara Stanwyck. I thought it was called ” A Man of Her Own” Anyway she is a young woman, pregnant , unmarried, on a train. She goes into the bathroom and meets another young pregnant woman who is married and also pregnant, who is traveling to meet her in-laws for the first time. This woman takes off her ring to wash her hands. Barbara asks if she can try it on.There is a train wreck. A lot of people are killed. Barbara wakes up in an mansion,of the married woman’s husband’s family and they mistake her for their new daughter-in-law.She tries to tell them the truth…I hope you can help me find this good old movie. Thanks, CherylYou almost had it right! It’s “No Man of Her Own.” I love that movie. But avoid the awful remake called “Mrs. Winterbourne” with Shirley MacLaine and Rikki Lake!What is the name of the movie about a young boy whose father is in the Navy. He and his mother move, I think to New Mexico. Boy meets tom boy girl. Getting to know each other they dare to touch a dead bloated cow. Girl goes first runs up and touches the cow and runs back. Boy runs up and trips and runs head first into the stomach of this bloated cow. Would appreciate any help. Thank you.That’s “Red Sky at Morning” with Richard Thomas — great movie and great book.My sister told me about a film set in France – she thinks it only has one name. It is about a cleaning lady who paints beautiful pictures at home. Her employer unexpectedly visits her and sees the paintings and is surprised when she tells him she is the artist.That is “Seraphine.” It is based on a true story.Two men kidnap a little girl and then they come to care for her. There is a song in the movie, “When Sarah Smiles.”The movie is “Savannah Smiles” and the song is “When Savannah Smiles.” I remember watching a movie with my dad when i was younger. It was an old comedy about a sportswriter that wrote a book about fishing and camping etc. He did not really know how to do any of these things and when he was forced to go on a trip with a girl..he had to read his own book to try and learn how to fish etc. I remember him trying to cast the line at “10” and release at “2.” What is the name of this movie?I love that movie! “Man’s Favorite Sport?” with Rock Hudson and Paula Prentiss. Hi, I’m looking for a movie. I don’t remember the name but it was about a school with arrogant and disrespectful students like they discriminate others.The black side and the white side.Then there come a teacher who wants to help them but she lost her husband because of that but help these students. I don’t remember the name but I think it was a true story called written or it had something about written in it. Please help me, thanks.That is “Freedom Writers” with Hillary Swank.When I was a kid, I saw a movie about a teenage white boy and a teenage black girl who were both going to expensive private schools. I believe he went to an all boys school and she went to an all girls school but the schools were close together. She was from another country which was having a lot of political problems at the time and her father was like the president, I think. They sent her to Australia for education and safety. Anyway, the two fell in love and lost their virginity to each other. They were both kind of outcasts from their peers. It ended with her having to go back to her country where it showed a mob of irate people attacking the car she was in. The boy, who had been sending her letters, never heard from her again. The movie was made in the 80’s but set in or around the 50’s. Do you know the name of it? Thank you for your time.That is Flirting, a great film, with Thandie Newton, Noah Taylor, and an early appearance by Nicole Kidman as the girl’s schoolmate.

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Q&As

Movie Mom Q&A

Posted on March 31, 2010 at 8:00 am

Q: Movie begins in black and white in a small, conservative town with an “Ozzie & Harriet”-type family and a drug store/soda fountain owner who receives a beautiful book about contemporary painting which begins to show color. He begins to paint and grows to love it. The town is incensed by his contemporary work except for the “Harriett” wife who is drawn to it. He paints her in the nude and they fall in love. Little by little, as people become aware of beauty (beginning with high school kids) things turn into color. Everything turns out beautifully in the end.
Answer: That movie is “Pleasantville” with Reese Witherspoon and Tobey Maguire. Enjoy!
Q: I saw a movie about some boys who went up into an alien ship where there was a male and female alien that knew everything about earth based on TV shows. I remember the aliens were ugly with long skinny mouths with lips on the end. They quoted TV shows and the male sang a song that sounded like a Little Richard song, “All around the world, rock n roll is what they play”. In the end, apparently they were kids taking the family spaceship for a joy ride when big daddy alien showed up. I think it was an 80’s flick.
Answer: That’s “Explorers” with Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix.
Q: The main characters’ wife and child were killed in the beginning and he was injured and the assailants were looking for him. He ended up in an apartment building where he stayed while recovering. He bought and old car and armor plated it his self. He got to know three neighbors in the apartment building, a pretty girl; a young man who had several body piercings (I think he was gay); and a heavy set young man who I think sang opera. The three of them were quite close and tried to get to know him. When they invited him over for spaghetti dinner and a killer (I believe he was Russian) his assailants hired showed up. He burned the man with the spaghetti water. Later more showed up and they tortured the young man with the piercings by ripping them through his flesh to find out were the man they were hunting was. What is the name of this movie and who played the main character?
Answer: That’s “The Punisher” with Thomas Jane.
Q: I am looking for the name of a movie, recent in the last couple of years about, I think, a journalist or maybe a photographer that is kidnapped while covering a war or something and his wife goes to try and rescue him. I think I would recognize the actors especially the wife but for the life of me I do not know the name of the movie. I remember seeing the previews and thinking that I would like to see but never did and now I have no idea what the name of the movie is or who starred in it. Can you help me based on such little information? Thank you.
Answer: That is “Harrison’s Flowers” with Andie McDowell. Thanks for writing!
Q: I watched a movie earlier this week and it was a Farrah Fawcett movie about a German woman who married a Jew in the late 60’s. Her Jewish husband told her that there are Nazis that are in politics and were criminal that were not punished for their crimes. This woman (played by Farrah Fawcett) exposes these men fearlessly and traveled to Brazil to do it.
Answer: That is “Nazi Hunter: The Beate Klarsfeld Story.”
Q: I’m trying to find the name of a movie from the 80’s about a young man in NYC who has a long bizarre weekend with all kinds of awful things happening to him. I recall he was chased by a mob at one point. On Monday morning he is back in his “real” world leaving him and the audience exhausted. I want to say the title had the word “time” in it too. Can you help? Thanks!
Answer: You are thinking of “After Hours” with Griffin Dunne.
Q: There is a movie with scenes from “Alice in Wonderland” but it is for adults. I think the word “Dream” is in the title.
Answer: I believe you are thinking of a movie called “Dreamchild.”
Q: The movie was a suspense/horror film about a group of people (probably around 10) who are sent to a deserted town/island to work for what i think was some sort of “secret” government job. The first scene i remember is everyone walking around this town with its fake people, cars, stores, and streets. They got to this one shop, i believe it was a toy store. There seemed to be an on going thing with clocks or time. They entered the shop and someone triggered one of those traps where one thing leads to another (the ball dropping on a tiny seesaw, lunching something in the air, to hit a balloon that pops..and so forth) I think a radio went off and that started it all. Anyway, after all the popping, rolling and falling… a tub of liquid nitrogen falls on one of the girls and she basically breaks to pieces in front of the rest of the group.
The next scene I remember is they are in a building where they all stay. They were in a lunchroom setting and again with time… the clock stuck that magical number and everyone passed out. When everyone woke up…someone was dead.
The movie goes on like that until there are 2 ppl left. In the end it’s a women and a man. She figures out it’s him and they chase each other with guns and end up outside (factory/city setting) to I think holding pools for water? Anyway she shoots him while they are in the water. And that’s really all I can remember. I have been trying to find this movie for a long time! Please help me! Thanks!
Answer: That movie is “Mindhunters” with Val Kilmer.
Q: The plot is: The main character left matches, key and some other things that are not valuable. In fact, he traveled by time machine before he died. Someone was after his life so he left those things in helping him to escape from the killer.
Answer: That movie is “Paycheck” with Ben Affleck.
Q: I remember an old movie 40s – 60s, in which a little boy is confessing to a priest that he thinks he killed his best friend (a little girl). The movie unfolds in the “so tell me what happened” style and had something to do with the little boy’s perception that God was mad at them for daring to visit each other’s Church. (One was Catholic and the other was Jewish?) The movie has a happy ending as it turns out the friend is not really dead.
Answer: One of my favorites and the dearest little film. It is called “Hand in Hand” and it is a lovely British film which unfortunately has never been released on DVD or video. I hope some day it will be available.
Q: Can you help me find the name of an old movie? I’m sure it was in B&W and very, very old, maybe late 30’s – early 40’s? A lighthearted comedy drama? It was about a spinster who ran a shoe repair shop for her drunken father. She’s jealous of her younger sisters finding happiness in marriage, she doesn’t want to end up an old spinster. She ends up marrying her fathers weak-willed and shy assistant and she wears the pants. One scene has the father staggering home drunk and he falls through an open trap door on the pavement.
Answer: I love that movie! It’s the wonderful 1954 David Lean film “Hobson’s Choice” with Charles Laughton and John Mills. There is a beautiful Criterion DVD edition.

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For Your Netflix Queue Q&As

Ask Amy’s Recommendation

Posted on March 17, 2010 at 11:46 am

I am thrilled and honored to be mentioned in today’s Ask Amy column. A parent wrote in about 9 and 10 year olds who had seen the very R-rated “The Hangover” multiple times. Amy Dickenson wisely suggested an honest and thoughtful response:

This presents a “teachable moment” for your kids and their friends. When other kids mention that they’ve been allowed to see or do something you don’t allow in your family, you can say, “Well, that’s an R-rated movie. R-rated means it’s really for grown-ups, not kids.”

I agree with you that “The Hangover” is highly inappropriate for children. I don’t know why parents aren’t more careful with the media their children consume, but your primary interest should be toward creating and maintaining the ethic and atmosphere in your own home. Nell Minow (“The Movie Mom”) is my favorite arbiter of what media are appropriate for kids. Her television and movie reviews can be found on blog.beliefnet.com/moviemom.

I agree with Amy that one of the most important lessons a parent can teach is that “everybody else is doing it” never works. Kids may struggle with limits — it is part of the job description for anyone who is in the process of growing up. But they respect our efforts to keep them safe. This “teachable moment” shows them more than what R-rated means. It shows them how we as adults make choices with integrity.

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Media Appearances Parenting

The Worst of 2009

Posted on January 21, 2010 at 8:00 am

New York Magazine has a great compendium of the worst movies of last year and they were nice enough to ask me for my choices.

All About Steve was the worst movie of the year. The films that made me feel I could hear my brain cells melt as I watched were Next Day Air, I Love You, Beth Cooper, Old Dogs, and Miss March.

As always, there were some on other lists I wished I had included like “Law Abiding Citizen” and “The Ugly Truth.” As always, there were some on other lists that I actually enjoyed like “Paper Hearts” and “Away We Go.” And it wouldn’t be a worst list if it didn’t have some contrarian provocateurs who just like to go after the big movies that are on everyone else’s ten best lists — there were some votes for “Precious,” “Up in the Air,” and “Avatar.”
It is one of the perverse pleasures of the job that I get to see more truly awful films than most people. But if you saw something truly terrible this year, I’d be glad to hear about it.

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Media Appearances
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