I am looking for 90s or 2000 American TV series about spies or secret agent family. The main characters were the father, mother, two daughters and a son. I remember that the younger daughter's name could be Ruby - she had long dark hair with a fringe, and on that fringe she had a a bold blonde highlight. They all knew martial arts. If anybody remembers that series please help me.
Answered general questions about movies, TV and more
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Looking for three short films I saw once. One was about a homeless man who wanted to get arrested, so he can go to an island for six months where he would be warm and kept well-fed. At first, he refuses to pay at a restaurant and is thrown out. Then he tries to steal someone's umbrella but gets away with it. The end of the skit has him being arrested when he tells a cop that questions him about what he's doing, and he responds that he's not doing anything. The second is about an elderly man who invited some of his elderly colleagues to his house and says that he found the fountain of youth. To prove it, he takes a dead flower and puts it in a pitcher of water and it becomes a fresh flower again. The man also warns about what would happen if they drank the water. The third is about a woman who works with scientists who create a time machine and bring a cro-magnon boy into the future that the woman cares for. At the end, the woman decides to go back to the past with the boy she took care of.
Answer: You're right about the third story, "The Ugly Little Boy." The first story is O. Henry's "The Cop and the Anthem," and the third is Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment." The last story was part of a segment of 1963 movie, "Twice Told Tales." Starring Vincent Price, a variation of the original story. Also a variation of O. Henry story was made into a 1978 cartoon, "A Pink Christmas." Starring the Pink Panther.
"The Cop and the Anthem" is part of the anthology movie O. Henry's Full House.
Answer: The last one is probably The Ugly Little Boy (1977), based on a story by Isaac Asimov.
All answers are correct. Thanks.
I am trying to remember a specific movie that I had seen on Youtube that I can't remember the name of now. It is an Asian action B film from the early 2000s or late 90s that involves 5 men that have dealings with the mafia. The opening scene is a title for the movie on a black screen with gun shots that go off in the background while you can hear someone running away I believe that you can see a Raiders football poster in the opening scene when one of the characters decides to hide behind a wall. At the ending of the movie the 5 men meet up in a restaurant to conclude their dealings with one another and head off on their own ways. Two leave in cars and the other walks down the back alley of the restaurant while the opening song playing in the background as he walks off into the night. The film received some awards or at least was nominated for them. I know it's not much to go off but I would really appreciate it if someone could find out what the name of the film I am remembering is.
Answer: I found out what movie it was after days of searching. Its called "The Mission" (1999).
There was a movie with Nicholas Cage in it. In the movie, his mom is lying in the hospital and is about to die. Just before she dies, she wants Nick to promise her that he'll never get married. When he refuses, she tells him why she doesn't want him to get married. When Nick's mom finally dies, he screams at the top of his voice that he promises to never marry.
Answer: Honeymoon in Vegas. Sarah Jessica Parker plays his girlfriend, who pushes him to get married. He gives in and they head to Vegas, but still has that fear of breaking his promise to his mom. When he loses a fortune in poker, a mobster offers to forget the money if he lets Sarah go on a date with him. Nicholas then realises how much he loves her and the chase is on to get her back. A romantic comedy. In most of the scenes there is a reference to Elvis Presley.
I remember a cartoon we used to have on VHS back when I was a kid. So the cartoon would have been from sometime in the 80's or at very latest the early 90's. I think it might have been Japanese, but I'm not sure. I just remember there was either a light pink or baby-blue creature that I wanna say was a dragon (I can't remember what color it was)... but it would float on the water. The only comparison I can make is that it kind of looked like a "Lapras" from "Pokemon." I wanna say it was a movie, but it honestly could have just been a few back-to-back episodes of a series on the tape we had. Does this ring anyone's bell? I've been curious about it for years, because I have memories of watching it, but can't remember what it's called.
Answer: Just a suggestion for you to review. "Serendipity the Pink Dragon." It's a Japanese anime show from 1983 and only lasted 1 season. An English dubbed version was released on VHS in 1989. Here's the intro scene. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PbSIsDRiuTw.
Yeah, I stumbled onto a rip of the movie on YouTube not long after I submitted the question. I also looked at the cover art online, and it seemed a little familiar. I'm a solid 75% sure that's it.
Answer: Just an update: While visiting my mother, I was able to confirm 100% that it was "Serendipity: The Pink Dragon." Showed her a picture of the cover and she said she definitely remembered us having it based on the cover image.
Answer: I'm about 75% sure it was "Serendipity: The Pink Dragon." But there's a small chance it could be something else, so if there's any other answers that fit the bill, please let me know.
I remember watching part of a movie on TV when I was about five or six years old I was old enough to read because the movie had subtitles. All I remember is a mom and two kids get off a train somewhere, and she speaks in a different language to an officer. It had subtitles and I remember the man tells the lady that she can keep only one of her children and the other one has to go. She keeps saying that she can't choose and to not make her choose. I remember some men come and threaten to take away both of her kids but at the last minute she tells them to take her daughter. A soldier then takes her little girl away screaming and crying. I remember the scene was pretty scary and I didn't watch anymore of the movie after this. So does anyone know what this movie was called?
Answer: You're describing "Sophie's Choice" (1982) where Meryl Streep, Sophie, is sent to Auschwitz with her children and has to choose which child will be sent to the children's camp and which one will die. She chooses her daughter to die and the soldiers take her away.
Trying to think of a movie that I saw many years ago. Mid 90s maybe, I can't remember anything about it aside from a scene where the villains possibly hijacked a school bus full of school kids, and they stop and at one point the villain tells one of the kids to take his glasses off and the kid replies "but I need my glasses to see." Very vague I know, sorry I don't have any more.
Answer: It's from a movie called They've Taken Our Children: The Chowchilla Kidnapping. The movie is also called Vanished Without a Trace. Https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105576/.
Answer: There is a TV movie from 1996 called "Sudden Terror: The Hijacking of School Bus #17." One man hijacks a bus full of special needs students and there are a few students who wear glasses. I tried to skim through it to see if I could find a scene about taking off the glasses, I didn't find it but I might have missed it.
This is a story that my class read in middle/junior high school, and we watched a movie or TV show that was based on it. A boy is friends with a middle-aged or elderly woman. She might be an older relative. She is either mentally handicapped or very socially awkward and quirky. One of her quirks is never getting out of bed on the thirteenth of the month. At one point, she allows the boy to drink alcoholic beverages. The woman's two sisters decide that she and the boy should not be friends any more. I think it takes place in the 1800s, or at least before the 1960s.
Answer: This is "A Christmas Memory" by Truman Capote. It takes place in the 1930s. First published in 1956.
Answer: It was also a 1994 TV-Movie, with Henry Winkler, Swoosie Kurtz and Katherine Hepburn. Its setting was Christmas in New Orleans during the 1930's.
Only saw the trailer for this twice but never the actual movie. The trailer is about a mom and daughter who become bounty hunters. They are in a fast food place, and they tell a male employee that they've come to arrest him, but he laughs thinking they're joking.
Answer: In 1980, there was a movie titled, "The Hunter," based on real life bounty hunter, Ralph "Papa" Thorson. "The Huntress," which started as a TV-Movie sequel, was about him being killed chasing a bounty, which left his widow and daughter to run the business. FYI, "The Hunter" was Steve McQueen's last film before he died.
I remember seeing part of a movie years ago and I'd like to revisit it. It had a TV movie feel. I remember a woman in a gallery or museum, following a man around trying to catch sight of him (I think he had picked up a glove she dropped?) and she eventually followed him outside. He was in his car, and I think he was holding the glove out the window. She got in his car, and they started fooling around, the scene cut to his place, they had obviously had sex, and she was nosing around his stuff, and found a medical letter which revealed he had recently been diagnosed with VD. She is horrified, and I'm pretty sure he appeared and killed her. Any ideas?
Answer: That's Brian DePalma's "Dressed to Kill." An erotic thriller about a crazed slasher. Starring Michael Caine, Angie Dickinson and Nancy Allen.
Why is it that recent movie adaptations of old TV shows (specifically Starsky and Hutch, Baywatch and 21 Jump Street) were turned into parodies? Why weren't any of them played straight?
Answer: Because the filmmakers of today view therm as parodies. I admit the writing and directing style is not as sophisticated as today's work, but they told good fun stories. Back then they tried to keep costs down by any means necessary.
Answer: It hedges bets in case the action doesn't work, studio can claim they meant for this all along. Also the Mission Impossible films are played straight.
Answer: I'm not claiming to know the definitive answer, but I suspect it is for the same reason there have been remakes of old movies: Hollywood is out of ideas for original movies, tries to keep a steady supply of releases to make money, and it is easier/quicker. Playing them "straight" would require creating a new, meaningful story which is much more demanding than "making fun" of something already done. Moreover, the old TV shows turned into movies probably will do better (make a higher profit) if the audience is not largely limited to the older generation who may have watched the old TV shows. Presumably, the younger generation doesn't find old TV shows appealing and may even already make fun of them. Others do not even know what the TV shows were about, so making a contemporary version would not have the same meaning (or nostalgia) for those viewers. Comedy is something all generations can enjoy... or find more interesting than a lame story about old TV characters who have been forgotten.
I'd concur with this - it's the "four quadrant" idea: movies which appeal to both male and female audiences, and both over - and under-25s. An action-comedy has broader appeal than a pure action/drama, and especially given the three examples referenced are viewed as somewhat cheesy throwbacks now, regardless of the appeal at the time, it makes sense to take a more light hearted approach. Miami Vice is once example that was played straight which could have been ripe for mockery - it got mixed reviews and didn't set the box office aflame.
I saw an old black and white movie back in the early seventies on a late, late show that involved a woman going to the hospital for a face lift. I remember two scenes vividly: one where the doctor and his team cut, then peel off her face, and a scene where a woman (the same?) wakes up with surgical clamps and forceps still attached to her face, and she is confused and frightened, calling for a nurse's help. Anybody have an idea what was the title of this old movie?
Answer: Sounds like the 1960 French film "Les Yeux sans visage" (Eyes Without a Face). The American release version was named "The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus."
I'm trying to remember a movie I watched in 1987-88 either on TV or VHS where a lead character danced to a song by himself in a bedroom. He was jamming laying on the bed. I'm thinking a Motown song and a bratpack actor. But not sure because I can't find anywhere on Google or YouTube. Help! Thanks.
Answer: I believe it's from the movie, "St. Elmo's Fire." Andrew McCarthy does a "Risky Business" dance in his room. I haven't seen the full movie for awhile, but I remember seeing the scene in the "Man in Motion" music video.
What movie has a police sting to catch criminals by inviting them to a Yankees meet and greet, a man and his son are late, the cop feels sorry for him and tells him to get lost?
Answer: "Sea of Love" (1989) staring Al Pacino. The "meet the Yankees" is the opening scene. After the sting, the man and his little boy show up and Pacino (Detective Keller) doesn't want to arrest him in front of his boy. He tells him they're all booked up and flashes his badge as he gets in the car to give the man a hint.
I've noticed that, on a few sitcom TV shows, a mother character will become pregnant again - and the show is cancelled that season or the following season. A few examples are "Boy Meets World" (Cory's mother), "Grounded For Life", "Dharma and Greg" (Dharma's mother), "The Jeff Foxworthy Show", and the original run of "Roseanne." Is there some reason for this?
Answer: It could just be coincidental. It could also be a way of changing things up for the show without having to commit to it long term. TV shows often introduce drastic changes in their narrative when nearing the end of their run, such as characters moving away, dying, or getting married in order to help provide a sense of closure, or tug on the viewers' heartstrings.
There is a movie about a girl who is raised by the murderer who killed her parents in a car accident. Then she married him, I am not sure about the marriage part. I am trying to find this movie, can anybody please help me?
Answer: If the girl had a younger brother and the man had a physician/addict wife, it is probably The Glass House (2001?). The man made sexual advances towards the girl and set her up to look guilty and making false reports, but there was no marriage.
What is the name of a Woody Allen movie containing a bird and a snail? I saw a few scenes in this over 20 years ago but don't really remember the film.
Answer: Broadway Danny Rose (1984)?
I've noticed that in some TV shows, District Attorneys have the authority to investigate cases and make arrests - that's not the case in real life, is it?
Answer: The answer depends on jurisdiction and such things as the statutorily defined duties of the District Attorney (DA), population, amount of criminal activity in the area and resources. I can provide a partial answer using general information about DAs in U.S. counties. The DA is the elected prosecutor and known as The Chief Law Enforcement Officer. The DA is usually quite busy deciding whether to prosecute and, if so, trying the case in court. Both of these depend on whether there is sufficient evidence to go to trial and get a conviction. The DA usually relies on police to investigate crimes and acquire evidence, but it is the prosecutor's (DA's) ultimate responsibility to investigate criminal activity - so the DA could investigate/participate in collecting evidence. Almost anyone can make what is known as a citizen's arrest. The police are armed/better prepared to make arrests and there's little reason for a DA to risk injury/death by making arrests. In movies, it's all about drama.
What is the name of the movie about children who are at summer camp pretending to be Indians and cowboys?
Answer: I can only think of one movie about kids at a summer camp and there was a counselor for an Apache Tribe: The Rainbow Tribe. I doubt this is what you are looking for, but no-one else has given any suggestions.
I saw a movie years ago that had two main characters and there were background plots of someone stealing from (I think) the mafia and a serial killer on the loose. I think they ended up at a motel together and the twist at the end was that the one you thought was the killer was the thief and vice versa. I was sure it was called hatchet man but I can't seem to find anything about it.
Answer: Sounds like NATURE OF THE BEAST Starring Eric Roberts and Lance Hendrickson.
That's the one! Thank you.
Glad I could help. That's actually one of my favorite movies.
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Answer: There was a 1990s TV movie, which later became a series, titled "Undercover." It was about two parents trying to raise a family while being secret agents.