Tricky Movie Trivia and Movie Reviews

Continuity errors happen in every film, because it’s difficult to make sure every little detail is perfect. Superbad is no exception; it had a lot of them. Here are just some of those Superbad trivia gems:

• McLovin’s wound, which resulted from being punched in the liquor store, is seen at first on the side of his face under the stem of his glasses. Later, it appears on the front of his cheek.

• A red chair at the end of the table disappears and reappears while Seth and Evan eat lunch.

• You can see it’s getting dark when Evan and Seth are in the store, because car lights and streetlights come on. But when they come out of the store, the sun is out.

• After Seth gets hit by the guy’s car in the store parking lot, the “open” sign seen behind the car owner changes from off to on from one shot to the next.

• Fogell’s fake I.D. signature is spelled “McLovin” when he shows it to Seth and Evan, but when it’s seen again in the store, it’s spelled “McLoving.”

• Seth has blood on his jeans at the party, but it’s gone when he sees the officers after the party. It then reappears when he gets to the next party.

• The dent on the detergent bottle that Evan holds in his left hand disappears and reappears while he and Seth argue.

• The cops run the red light on James Street twice on their way to the bar.

• The policemen and dispatcher on the intercom say that the cop car number is 98, but the number on the car is actually 96.

I hope you enjoyed this Superbad trivia!

If you haven’t done so already, take our Superbad and other Seth Rogen films movie trivia quiz and read our Superbad movie review.

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The Enchanted Cottage is probably one of the best romantic movies you’ve never seen.

Set in 1942 and released in 1945, the film uses WWII as the backdrop for a fairy-tale-like story of two ugly ducklings who find love. Even if you don’t like fantasy movies, you’ll probably like this one. And if you like romantic classic movies, this is one you won’t want to miss.

Beautiful Dorothy McGuire (Claudia in Gentleman’s Agreement) plays Laura Pennington, who’s considered homely by just about everyone she runs across in the movie. It’s a testament to McGuire’s acting skill (with a little credit thrown in for the make-up man) that she pulls off being so unattractive. And speaking of the make-up man, he worked overtime turning Robert Young’s (Father Knows Best, Marcus Welby, M.D.) Oliver Bradford into a character who could have been right at home in an episode of The Twilight Zone.

What makes this film so special is its power to evoke emotion. If you’ve ever been on the outside of anything, you’ll feel a kindred spirit with Laura Pennington as she sits in the war-time canteen while everyone dances but her. The same holds true for Oliver Bradford’s struggle with his war injury and resulting disfigurement. Young makes you understand just how frustrated his character must be.

The two unfortunates are joined by Herbert Marshall as blind composer and piano player Major John Hillgrove. It’s through his metaphorical eyes that we’re given clues on how to view the film, and maybe even life itself. When his character explains how he only truly learned to see after he lost his actual sight, you begin to understand the depth of the story.

Hillgrove’s blindness isn’t the only reference to sight in the movie. In fact, the idea that sight is relative is at the heart of the story. Although they retain their physical sight, Oliver and Laura begin to see each other through new eyes, which is a revelation for both of them. This new vision — created by love — is then challenged by the outside world. Oliver and Laura almost succumb to other people’s vision of them, but in the end, they decide that the only view of life that matters to them is their own.

This movie has not been released on DVD, but it’s available on VHS. Also, occasionally American Movie Classics (AMC) plays it, along with an introductory conversation by Robert Osborn and Whoopi Goldberg. If your cable system has On Demand, you also might be able to find it there.

The Enchanted Cottage cast

• Dorothy McGuire: Laura Pennington

• Robert Young: Oliver Bradford

• Herbert Marshall: Major John Hillgrove

• Mildred Natwick: Mrs. Abigail Minnett

• Spring Byington: Violet Price

• Hillary Brooke: Beatrice Alexander

• Richard Gaines: Frederick “Freddy” Price

• Alec Englander: Danny “Taxi” Stanton

• Robert Clarke: Marine Corporal

• Eden Nicholas: Soldier

Movie trivia

• Composer Roy Webb was nominated for the “Best Score, Comedy or Drama” Academy Award for The Enchanted Cottage, but didn’t win. In addition to the score, he wrote the piano concerto Herbert Marshall plays in the film, which was also played at a live Hollywood Bowl concert in 1945.

• Dorothy McGuire died of heart disease on September 13, 2001 at the age of 85. She leaves behind a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which is located at 6933 Hollywood Boulevard.

I hope you enjoyed this classic movie review! To be updated whenever there’s a new movie review or movie trivia quiz, please subscribe using the free subscription options in the sidebar.

More Tricky Movie Trivia classic movie reviews:

• To Kill a Mockingbird
• My Man Godfrey
• Now, Voyager
• All About Eve
• Born Yesterday

What better way could there be for a movie trivia blog to pay tribute to handsome and talented Heath Ledger than to offer up some facts on his short life and career?

• Heath and his sister Kate were named after the two main characters in Wuthering Heights. He also had two half-sisters, Olivia Ledger and Ashleigh Bell.

• He was named one of People‘s “50 Most Beautiful People” in 2001. (And he was beautiful!)

• He was of Irish and Scottish ancestry, but was born in Australia, where he attended the private, all-boys school Guildford Grammar.

• Three of his films were screened at the 2005 Venice Film Festival: Brokeback Mountain , The Brothers Grimm and Casanova.

• Most of his wardrobe was designed by his friend Shem.

• He met Michelle Williams on the set of Brokeback Mountain. She gave birth to Heath’s daughter Matilda Rose Ledger on October 28, 2005. Heath and Michelle were engaged, but they ended their engagement in September 2007.

• Jake Gyllenhaal is Matilda’s godfather.

• Heath plays The Joker in the Batman film The Dark Knight, which is scheduled for U.S. release on July 18, 2008. He was the first non-American actor to portray The Joker. He was going to star in Baz Luhrmann’s pre-WWII movie, but backed out to play The Joker.

• He was chosen by Empire Magazine in 2007 as #79 of the “100 Sexiest Movie Stars in the World.”

• Heath was nominated for “Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role” Academy Award in 2006 but was passed over. But he did win, however, the Australian Film Institute’s “News Limited Readers’ Choice” and “International” awards that year.

• Now that he has passed on, people who profess to represent God are saying publicly that Heath deserved his untimely death because he played a homosexual in a movie. Someday they may realize that hate is hate, even if you choose to call it God’s will.

We say a reluctant good-bye to Heath Ledger. Thanks for everything you gave us. We’ll miss you.

Tags: Heath Ledger, movies, movie trivia

If you’re a fan of the “f” word, you’re going to love Superbad.

No self-respecting Superbad movie review would be complete without mentioning that the “f” word was used 186 times — and the unrated version of the movie was only 118 minutes long (114 for the rated version). That’s an average of approximately 1.6 uses of the word per minute.

But even if you don’t like to hear the “f” word sprayed around like water out of an open fire hydrant, there’s plenty to like about this movie. And you don’t even have to be in high school. Actually, writers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg were younger than that when they wrote the movie; they were only 13. That’s probably what made the movie so appealing to me. (Although, I like all Seth Rogen movies.) I sure wouldn’t want to be that young again, but it’s fun to be taken there again for two hours or so.

If I had to reduce the movie to an elevator pitch (a description that can be heard in the time it takes to go on an elevator ride), here’s how it would play out: “Three alcohol-obsessed boys go on a local road trip to find said alcohol and get girls. Hilarity ensues.”

But if I were to describe it for grown-ups who might want to watch the movie, I would add some details you probably wouldn’t expect if you only heard the elevator pitch: There’s a beating heart at the center of Superbad. Main characters Seth, Evan and Fogell (aka McLovin), two of which are named after writers Rogen and Goldberg, alternate between being obnoxious teenagers and semi-enlightened beings. This vacillation elevates the movie above being just an f-bomb-filled, trashy-talkfest. The characters’ going back and forth between doing the right thing and very wrong things makes it a lot like life. Hey, there are a lot of supposed adults out in the world who don’t have these kids’ grasp on the fact that they need to take some responsibility for their behavior.

But don’t let me make the movie seem too high-tone; it’s not. It wasn’t meant to be. It was meant to be just a funny teenage movie with a lot of cussing and plenty of laughs. And in that, it succeeded.

Movie trivia

• Filming locations (all in California):

* California State University, Northridge (parking lot scene)
* Los Angeles
* Culver City
* El Segundo High School, El Segundo
* Glendale (convenience store)

• Explicit drawings of penises used in the film were drawn by David Goldberg, Evan Goldberg’s brother. Seth Rogen also used another family member in the movie: When the characters of Seth and Evan are running from the police through people’s backyards, Seth Rogen’s father Mark Rogen appears as the baseball-bat-wielding dad.

Watch trailers for the movie at the official Sony Pictures Superbad Web site

I hope you enjoyed this movie review. Be sure to take our movie trivia quiz about Superbad and other Seth Rogen films. (We’ve already given you one of the answers in this movie review!)

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Source: Wikipedia
I can’t help but think of Now, Voyager as one of the original chick flicks. It has all the components that make Lifetime movies so popular: forbidden romance, an ugly duckling who turns into an elegant swan, an oppressive mother who is eventually put in her place and a backdrop of the high-class world of wealth.

But Now, Voyager is a world apart from the chick flicks of today. It set the bar high when it came out in 1942. Part of the reason for that was its star, Bette Davis. Never better, she fully embodied the character of the bespectacled, caterpillar-browed Charlotte Vale who appeared early in the film. Many beautiful actresses have allowed themselves to be made ugly for movie roles, but few have achieved the transformation as well as Bette Davis did in this movie.

But looks are only part of the story. Our ugly duckling is so oppressed, you can’t help but squirm a little as you watch her. This causes you to root for her right from the start. Her transformation is amazing to watch, because she changes more than just her external appearance — that’s the easy part. You actually watch her become a full person as the film moves on. As is often the case in real life, that doesn’t come easily. And when a man and his troubled child come along who are struggling, too, their effort to preserve the strip of territory that belongs just to them is believable and compelling. The realistic way this mutual effort survives against all obstacles is what keeps the movie from sinking into being maudlin. You don’t actually stand up and cheer at the end; the experience is more low-key and satisfying than that. Instead, you’re left with the quiet feeling that with determination, strength and love; anything is possible.

Movie trivia from Now, Voyager

• Max Steiner and Now, Voyager won the 1943 Oscar for Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture. Bette Davis was nominated for the Best Actress in a Leading Role Oscar, but lost to Greer Garson for Mrs. Miniver. Gladys Cooper was nominated as Best Actress in a Supporting Role but lost to Teresa Wright for Mrs. Miniver.

• The movie title is based on these two lines from the Walt Whitman poem, “The Untold Want” from Songs of Parting: “The untold want, by life and land ne’er granted. Now, Voyager, sail thou forth, to seek and find.

• Claude Rains turned down the role of Dr. Jaquith because he said it was too small. So, the part was increased to lure him and he was paid the princely sum of $5,000 a week for six weeks’ work.

• When Voyager was released in October 1942, the critics’ movie reviews were mixed but the public loved it. In fact, it was the biggest box office hit of Bette Davis’s career.

• The movie was based on the book by Olive Higgins Prouty, which was the third of four books about the wealthy Vale family. The screenplay stuck pretty close to the story in the novel, except that in the book Charlotte goes to the Mediterranean on her cruise, not to South America.

• Director Hall B. Wallis made five other films besides Now, Voyager in 1942:
  • Casablanca
  • Air Force
  • Desperate Journey
  • Princess O’Rourke
  • Watch on the Rhine.

I hope you enjoyed this movie review! To be updated whenever there’s a new movie review or movie trivia quiz, please subscribe using the free subscription options in the sidebar.

More Tricky Movie Trivia classic movie reviews:

• To Kill a Mockingbird
• My Man Godfrey
• The Enchanted Cottage
• All About Eve
• Born Yesterday

You might also be interested in our trivia quiz about famous movie quotes from Bette Davis movies.