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Film Oddities, Inside Jokes and other "Weird"
Occurrences!
Have you ever sat in a theater and been one of the few people
not laughing? Perhaps you didn't get what is known as the
"inside joke." HollyWeird is an ongoing collection
of the casual asides that the filmmakers don't always expect
you to get, and the occasions where Hollywood overlaps itself
and gets all "postmodern." So now, you too, can
impress your friends and loved ones with this vast resource
of totally useless knowledge. Once you come to HollyWeird,
you'll never want to go back! (Do you have any "Weird"
occurrences of your own? Contact Cliff at hollyweird@dvdfile.com!)
Latest "Weird" Sightings :
Cecil B. Demented
Outside of the theater, early in the film, a selection of
film festival titles are seen on the sidewalk. One of the
titles that's visible is In Bad Taste, which is a documentary
about Cecil B. Demented director John Waters.
Ghostbusters II
At the close of his show, World of the Psychic, Venkman (Bill
Murray) is discussing the true nature of aliens, saying, "You
just can't trust them. Occasionally you meet a nice one -
Starman, ET - but usually they turn out to be some kind of
big lizard. Using Starman as an example is funny because Murray
had just co-starred six-months earlier with Starman's main
squeeze, Karen Allen, in Scrooged. In addition to that, ET's
director, Steven Spielberg, actually has a bit of a history
with fellow Ghostbuster Dan Aykroyd, directing the actor in
1941 and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Spielberg,
in turn, made an appearance in Aykroyd's 1980 film The Blues
Brothers.
The Next Best Thing
When arriving at a snooty restaurant for dinner only to be
told they have to wait, Ben (Benjamin Bratt) asks if it would
help if they told them that Harrison Ford was in their party.
It certainly did at the restaurant, but it could have been
confusing explaining why Rupert Everett's father, played by
Josef Summer, seems to be the same guy who starred in Witness
with Harrison Ford in 1985.
What Lies Beneath
When Michelle Pfeiffer first enters her departed daughter's
room for the first time after she has gone away to school,
a small ET doll can be seen on the dresser. E..T's director,
Steven Spielberg, just happened to be What Lies Beneath director
Robert Zemeckis' producer on I Wanna Hold Your Hand, Used
Cars, the Back to the Future Trilogy and Who Framed Roger
Rabbit as well as the director of Zemeckis' screenplay for
1941. Even more interesting is that What Lies Beneath star
Harrison Ford, Spielberg's Indiana Jones, was actually in
E.T. as the school principal, although his role was cut from
the final release.
Demolition Man
After the action moves to the future, Lenina Huxley's (Sandra
Bullock) office can be seen decorated in twentieth century
accessories. One of the items in her office is a poster for
the film Lethal Weapon 3. Both Demolition Man and Lethal Weapon
3 were Joel Silver productions and, greater still, both featured
actor Steve Kahan (the captain from the Lethal Weapon series).
After breaking into the armory, Simon Phoenix (Wesley Snipes)
leans towards a mannequin while grabbing guns and says, "Excuse
me Rambo, I need to borrow this." This is the second Stallone
film to reference his Rambo character. The first was Tango
& Cash. About midway through the film, Stallone's John
Sparton is amazed that actor Arnold Schwarzenegger was actually
elected as President of the United States. This moment was
just another in a long line of back and forth ribbing between
the Planet Hollywood partners, including Schwarzenegger's
mocking of Sly in the film's Twins and Last Action Hero.
Necessary Roughness
Early in the film, a poster can be seen in one of the dorm
rooms for the hit film The Hunt for Red October. Both Necessary
Roughness and Red October were produced by Mace Neufeld and
both featured performances by Senator Fred Dalton Thompson.
Previous Updates :
1941
Spielberg spoofs himself in this film, with a scene in which
a young lady out for an icy swim (listed in the credits as
the "Polar Bear Woman") encounters the Japanese submarine
that will soon terrorize the
American west coast. During this entire sequence, the theme
from "Jaws" appropriately plays in the background. The swimmer
is played by none other than Susan Backlinie, the same actress
who played "Chrissie," the original shark victim in the opening
scene in "Jaws," that this scene is spoofing. (Submitted
by David)
ANALYZE THIS
During chapter 20, The Godfather Dream, Billy Crystal's character
tells DeNiro's gangster patient about a nightmare that he's
having that is an exact duplicate of the scene where Brando
is gunned down in the original GODFATHER. Talking about how
DeNiro's character fumbles the gun and then yells "Papa! Papa!"
DeNiro retorts back, "I was Fredo? I don't think so." DeNiro
was actually the young Brando in THE GODFATHER PART II for
which he won his first Oscar.
ANNIE HALL
Woody's character of Alvie is standing on a street corner
waiting for Diane Keaton's Annie. He is approached by two
buffoon fans and asked for an autograph, and, eventually Alvie
does his best to get these two off of his tail. When Annie
finally shows up Alvie quips, "I'm standing here with the
cast of The Godfather." Both Diane Keaton and the actor playing
the first autograph seeker were in fact in "The Godfather."
While making fun of passersby in Washington Square Park Woody
Allen points to one man and declares him "The winner of the
Truman Capote look-alike contest." The man actually is Truman
Capote. (Submitted by Joseph and Steven)
Any Given Sunday
As Jamie Foxx's quarterback character has dinner at coach
Al Pacino's house, BEN-HUR is seen playing on the television
and introduced into the editing of the film. That, in and
of itself, is not strange until later in the movie when the
football commissioner enters into the film. He's played by
BEN-HUR himself, Charlton Heston.
APOCALYPSE NOW
In honor of the then temporarily-strained relationship between
Frances Ford Coppola and George Lucas over the way the two
men did business (Mr. Lucas failed to give Mr. Coppola "points"
of Star Wars), Harrison Ford's character in APOCALYPSE NOW
is named "Colonel Lucas." Ouch!
ARTHUR
After Dudley Moore and Liza Minnelli's characters meet,
she tells him that he reminds her of one of "Santa's little
helpers." And what does Moore play in SANTA CLAUS THE MOVIE
a few years later? One of Santa's little helpers, of course.
(Submitted by Otis)
THE BACHELOR
As the church full of hopeful brides make their individual
cases to Chris O'Donnell, one remarks that she went to Princeton
University, "The same college as Brooke Shields." That is
indeed true of the unemployed Suddenly Susan actress who also
costars in THE BACHELOR as a near bride.
Bait
Early in the film, Jamie Foxx does an impression of Al Pacino,
his co-star in Any Given Sunday, just one film prior.
BATMAN (1989)
In the first scene at the Gotham Gazette, an illustrator
jokingly draws a picture of "The Bat-Man" which is signed
by Bob Kane. Kane, the creator of Batman was supposed to do
this scene but was unavailable so another actor was hired
but Kane drew the sketch anyway. (Submitted by James Ford)
BOOGIE NIGHTS
At 11:51 you can see the famous Farrah Fawcett Majors nipple
poster on Eddie's wall. With the film taking place in the
seventies, it would only be a few years later, in 1980, that
BOOGIE NIGHTS' Jack Horner, Burt Reynolds, would co-star with
Farrah in the LAWRENCE OF ARABIA of car wreak movies: THE
CANNONBALL RUN.
CABLE GUY
When Chip takes Steven to Medieval Times he jokingly puts
chicken skin on his face and mimics Anthony Hopkins' line
from Silence of the Lambs, "Hello Clarice, it's good to see
you again." (As well as saying the title) Later, at the party,
we meet Steven's mom who turns out to be the mother of Catherine
Martin, the kidnapped girl, in the very same movie, Diane
Baker. (Submitted by James)
A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
When Alex DeLarge is in the record store, a copy of the soundtrack
to Kubrick's 2001:A SPACE ODYSSEY is visible among the titles.
Also, when Alex goes to play some Beethoven on his stereo,
the selection he removes from the player bears the name Gyorergi
Ligetti, who contributed to the soundtracks for Kubrick's
2001 and THE SHINING. Later in the film, the newspaper article
on Alex identifies him as Alexander Burgess, a reference to
author Anthony Burgess, who penned the original novel.
(Submitted by Myke)
COMING TO AMERICA
When Eddie Murphy's African prince hands off a wad of money
he needs to get rid of to a pair of bums at 1:15:00, they
end up being very familiar. They're the Duke brothers (Don
Ameche and Ralph Bellamy), last seen losing everything to
Eddie Murphy in TRADING PLACES by COMING TO AMERICA director
John Landis. Even the TRADING PLACES music plays in the score.
For extra giggles, James Earl Jones delivers some of the best
Darth Vader-ish line throughout the movie. Just close your
eyes and you'll hear it.
Coyote Ugly
While discussing Violet's stage fright as being genetic,
Kevin sarcastically mentions that he had heard about stagefright
DNA on ER, a show where he could have seen Coyote Ugly co-star
Maria Bello during the 1997 season. Maybe he was referring
to the old Elliot Gould sitcom?
DEEP BLUE SEA
The license plate pulled from the shark's teeth in DEEP BLUE
SEA is the same as the one pulled from the shark's belly in
JAWS. (Submitted by Bob)
DESPERADO
When Salma Hayek is going through Antonio Banderas' guitar
case of weapons she find a "crotch gun" with a barrel and
chambers on both sides and comments she doesn't want to know
what it's for. Later that same gun turns up in FROM DUSK TILL
DAWN worn by make-up wizard Tom Savini. Both films are directed
by Robert Rodriguez. Submitted by James
DIRTY HARRY
Early in the film, when Harry crosses the street to go into
the diner before the "Do you feel lucky punk?" robbery, look
behind him. A theater down the street is playing PLAY MISTY
FOR ME, Eastwoodís directorial debut.
DOC HOLLYWOOD
At the end of the movie, Woody Harrelson and Bridget Fonda
are sitting in a diner in LA and Bridget says something like
"Hey, is that a movie star?" and Woody's character says "Nah,
that's just Ted Danson." Harrelson and Danson were, of course,
costars on Cheers at the time. (Submitted by Will Ingersoll)
Evil Dead 2
In A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, inside Johnny Depp's bedroom
there is an Evil Dead poster hanging on his wall. Then in
turn, there is a scene in EVIL DEAD 2: DEAD BY DAWN, when
Ash (Bruce Campbell) has his girlfriend's severed head biting
onto his hand and he can't get it off, he goes to the woodshed,
and we then see a shot from within the shed as he opens the
door. As Ash opens the door you see something hanging above
it that get's hit by the door cause it's hanging a little
too low, and it's none other than Freddy Krueger's glove.
In various bits throughout that scene we see the glove, the
best being when Ash puts his girlfriends head into a vice
then saws it in half with a chainsaw. The camera cuts away
to just a silhouette of the act taking place, and we see tons
of blood splatter up onto the glove, causing it to sway back
and forth. (Submitted by Adam)
FAST TIMES
AT RIDGEMONT HIGH
In a scene beginning at 14:40, when Rat talks to Damone,
you can see that Rat is wearing a tee shirt for the 1980 Robert
Altman disaster POPEYE. In that film, the Commodore was played
by FAST TIME's Mr. Hand, Ray Walston.
FIGHT CLUB
While I received many, many emails reminding me of the movie
marquee displaying Brad Pitt's SEVEN YEARS IN TIBET, sharp
eyes (or listeners to the commentary) will also see the marquees
down the block showing WINGS OF THE DOVE and PEOPLE VS LARRY
FLYNT. All three of the FIGHT CLUB stars are covered in that
town. Due to pressure from the Writers Guild, one of the contributing
screenwriters for FIGHT CLUB, SE7EN creator Andrew Kevin Walker,
was refused a credit on the film. So Fincher simply named
three of the police after him. So as you watch the end credits
you'll see cast listings for Detective Andrew, Detective Kevin
and Detective Walker, giving this valuable contributor the
on-screen credit that the Writers Guild wouldn't allow.
GET SHORTY
John Travolta tells Rene Russo that "you can't make
a Martin Weir (Danny DeVito) into a Mel Gibson" to which
Russo agrees with a smile. Russo would know. She costarred
with Mel Gibson in the third and fourth LETHAL WEAPON films
as well as RANSOM. At the end of the film, Penny Marshall
is shown as the director of the film starring Martin Weir
and Harvey Keitel. Marshall's actual previous film was Renaissance
Man starring Danny DeVito while Keitel previously got Travolta
out of a jam in the film PULP FICTION.
In addition, Elmore Leonard makes in-jokes about his own
work in his books constantly, and GET SHORTY has a good one.
When Chili confronts and throws the bodyguard down the stairs
in the restaurant, he remembers a scene in "some movie with
Clint Eastwood" where the same thing happens. The movie he
is remembering is JOE KIDD, written by - Elmore Leonard. Clint
hurls perennial lout Don Stroud down a flight of stairs to
get to his boss Robert Duvall. The GET SHORTY scene from the
book is in the movie and movie buffs can make their own connections.
Finally, When Gene Hackman is on the telephone complaining
about an actor who will only do one night shoot he's complaining
about himself. In his contract he only shoots at night once
for every movie! (Submitted by James)
HALLOWEEN H20
Scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis' real mother, Janet Leigh,
appears in the film as Jamie Lee's secretary. Leigh is best
known for her iconoclastic performance in Alfred Hitchcock's
PSYCHO. In H20, as a brief exchange between Curtis and Leigh
ends, Leigh is seen walking to her car, the same car that
she was sunk to the bottom of the swamp in after her demise
in PSYCHO. This is accompanied with the familiar strains of
the Bernard Herman famous PSYCHO score.
Hercules
Hercules is standing model for a vase painter, wearing his
weapons and a lion's fur. The lion is no other than Scar from
"The Lion King." (Submitted by Erik)
INDEPENDENCE DAY
How many people have noticed that Jeff Goldblum repeats his
line from Jurassic Park "Must go faster!" in Independence
Day? In Jurassic Park, it's when he's in the back of the Jeep
and they're being chased by the T-Rex. In ID4, it's when he's
in the alien ship with Will Smith and they're trying to get
out of the mother ship before the door closes on them. (Submitted
by John)
LETHAL WEAPON
At 28:35, as Riggs and Murtaugh are getting a hot dog, behind
them is a movie theater and on the marquee is "Lost Boys:
This Year's Hit." Weapon director Richard Donner was originally
going to direct THE LOST BOYS but got involved with LETHAL
WEAPON instead. He did executive produce THE LOST BOYS for
Joel Schumacher and that film was released about five months
after LETHAL WEAPON.
At 1:04:40, in the conversation with Murtaugh and his old
Army buddie, Michael Hunsaker, Hunsaker explains that people
involved with the heroin importation from Vietnam were a company
called Air America. Yep, that's the same Air America that
would be brought to the screen three years later and star
Mel Gibson.
LETHAL WEAPON 2
When the family is sitting down, at 13:11, to watch Rianne's
new commercial, the TV is already on and is showing a promo
for HBO's Tales From The Crypt. Tales was executive produced
by director Richard Donner. The episode being promoted was
called And All Through The House. It was directed by Robert
Zemekis and starred his wife, Mary Ellen Trainor. Trainor
is probably best known as the police psychiatrist in all four
LETHAL WEAPON films.
LETHAL WEAPON 3
During the armored car chase at 11:15 the woman says the
line "Deloris the Road Warrior is dead on your raggedy ass."
This is, of course, a reference to the role that made Mel
Gibson a star. The nurse trying to take Joe Pesci's watch
after he is admitted to the hospital for a "dumdum wound"
at 42:00 is none other than director Richard Donner's wife,
Lauren Shuler-Donner. Later, at 1:36:19, when Pesci sarcastically
say's "Car 54 where are you?" he's referencing the old TV
show starring Fred Gwynne, who had been seen just prior to
LETHAL WEAPON 3 in MY COUSIN VINNY with... Joe Pesci.
Mallrats
On the walls of Brodie's (Jason Lee) room, posters can be
seen for the films Legend and Tremors. Tremors was produced
by James Jacks, the same man who produced Mallrats. The Legend
connection happens because it starred Tom Cruise, who had
acted along side Mr. Svenning, Michael Rooker, in Days of
Thunder, directed by Tony Scott, brother of Legend director
Ridley Scott (That's a mouthful!). Shannon Doherty's Beverly
Hills 90210 days are sufficiently lampooned with her character
in the film at one point being called "Brenda," to which she
angrily replies, "Dick!" and her comic book cover in the open
credits has her in an issue of "New Jersey 07732."
At another point in the film, as our heroes hide out in the
"dirt" mall, Jeremy London briefly picks up a hat with Clerks,
Kevin Smith's previous film, embroidered on it. While talking
about items of clothing, there are two more in Mallrats worth
mentioning. The first is the shirt that Jason Lee's character
wears throughout the film depicting a weird, misshapen head.
That head is actually the faces of three actors who didn't
make it into the film all morphed together. Another shirt,
one for Henry Hudson High School is the actual high school
attended by Mallrats director Kevin Smith and sidekick Jay
Mewes.
MAVERICK
MAVERICK performed as a kind of reunion for a few of director
Richard Donner's former cast members. When the bank is robbed
at about the 27:00 point in the film, there's the obvious
joke of Mel Gibson as Maverick and Danny Glover as the bank
robber looking confused at each other while the LETHAL WEAPON
theme is introduced into the score. Look again though and
you'll see one of the other bank robbers is actually Corey
Feldman, who was directed by Donner in 1985's THE GOONIES.
Later, around the 47:00 mark, as the wagon train is encountered
that was stopped after supposedly being robbed by a band of
Indians, Mary Margaret, the lady who had her wedding dress
stolen, is portrayed by Donner's Lois Lane, Margot Kidder.
Near the end of the film, at chapter 40, when Maverick and
Coop begin their baths a woman comes to check on them and
make sure they're alright. Coop replies with "Yes Mrs. D."
The woman is actually the real Mrs. D, Donner's wife Lauren
Shuler-Donner. MAVERICK also contains a who's who of old Hollywood
western stars and country music performers including Denver
Pyle, Robert Fuller, Burt Remsen, Doug MaClure, Vince Gill,
Kathy Mattea, Clint Black and Waylon Jennings.
THE MAN WHO KNEW
TOO LITTLE
At about an hour into the film, Bill Murray goes into a hotel
lobby and on the TV a movie is playing. The scene has Sigourney
Weaver screaming for help on a rooftop. The film that the
scene is from is 1995's Copycat. Both films shared the same
director, Jon Ameil. (Submitted by Ian)
MOONRAKER
When Bond approaches the secret laboratory after following
Holly Goodhead, he must enter a code for entrance. The code
used? The infamous five notes from CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, which
along with STAR WARS forced the Bond producers to scrap FOR
YOUR EYES ONLY as the intended follow-up to THE SPY WHO LOVED
ME in favor of MOONRAKER, to capitalize off the space film
craze at the time.
MUMFORD
When Loren Dean's Dr. Mumford presents a seal box of goods
that he thinks will help one of his patients, he quickly changes
his mind, but only after piquing the interest his patient.
Doctor and patient disagree about if he should see the contents
of the box until the patient becomes convinced and finishes
a sentence with, "and I can guarantee that looking at the
Lost Ark or whatever you've got in here is not going to mean
diddley to me." The Lost Ark of the Covenant was the centerpiece
of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK with was written for George Lucas
and Steven Spielberg by MUMFORD writer and director Lawrence
Kasdan. This scene can be seen at the 1:18:00 of the movie.
The Muse
Both Cybil Shepherd and director Martin Scorsese play themselves
in Albert Brooks' comedy. The three can actually be tied together
when Brooks co-starred with Shepherd under Scorsese's direction
in the 1976 classic TAXI DRIVER. Making things even weirder,
Brooks' character at one point in the film comments that Scorsese's
probably returned to his home "to do an all female version
of TAXI DRIVER." Stone was also a Scorsese alumni, working
with the master director in the 1995 film CASINO. MUSE co-star
Jeff Bridges is also connected with Shepherd through their
appearances together in the films THE LAST PICTURE SHOW and
its sequel TEXASVILLE. Moving back to Brooks, at a point in
the film he shows up for a meeting with Steven Spielberg.
Spielberg was on of the four directors of the anthology film
TWILIGHT ZONE in 1983, a film where Brooks appears in the
bookend segments.
Mystery, Alaska
On Marla's bedroom wall is a poster for Scream 2, which
featured a small cameo by Heather Graham in the Drew Barrymore
role from the original. Mystery, Alaska director Jay Roach
had actually worked with Graham in a film of his own, Austin
Powers 2.
Natural Born Killers
During chapter 10, while Mickey and Mallory are inside the
motel, Mickey is seen watching various things on the television.
Mallory says to Mickey, "I bet I know what you've been thinking
about." To which Mickey responds, "Yep, I've been thinking
about why they're making all these stupid fucking movies."
The two films he's watching? Midnight Express and Brian De Palma's
Scarface, both of which were written by NBK director Oliver
Stone. That stupid movie Midnight Express even won him his
first Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. Kind of makes
you wonder where Quentin Tarantino is going to fit in a Natural
Born Killers reference.
OUT OF SIGHT
Michael Keaton shows up briefly in OUT OF SIGHT as ATF agent
Ray Nicolette, the same character he played in JACKIE BROWN
about six months earlier. Both films are based on Elmore Leonard
novels and both films also share Samuel L. Jackson, although
with him in completely different roles.
The Perfect Storm
While inside the Andrea Gail, the crew is chatting and Clint
Eastwood's Pale Rider can be seen on the TV in the background,
notable for an appearance by the actor in Perfect Storm director
Wolfgang Peterson's In The Line of Fire seven years earlier.
Later in the film, when Sully is screwing around on-deck,
he quotes his own version of Star Wars, saying, "May the force
be with us." Funny, that just one film prior, Wolfgang Peterson
had directed Air Force One with good old Han Solo, but even
more closely connected when you consider that The Perfect
Storm also co-stars Karen Allen, best known as Marion along
side Harrison Ford in George Lucas' Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Planes, Trains & Automobiles
Early in this John Hughes film, Steve Martin has a foot race
for a cab with a stranger who turns out to be Kevin Bacon,
who was also working with director Hughes in She's Having
a Baby. Later in the film, while Martin's wife lies in bed
alone, waiting for her husband to come home, She's Having
a Baby is actually heard playing on the television.
Platoon
In PLATOON (1986), Sgt. O'Neil, played by John C. McGinley
remarks, "He thinks he's Jesus f&$@in Christ!" regarding Sgt.
Elias, played by Willem Dafoe. Of course, Dafoe ended up playing
Christ two years later in Martin Scorsese's THE LAST TEMPTATION
OF CHRIST (1988).
POLTERGEIST
As the parent smoke a little grass at the beginning of chapter
8, the 1944 Spencer Tracey film A GUY NAMED JOE plays. POLTERGEIST
producer Steven Spielberg would later remake that film years
later as ALWAYS. Spielberg also managed to get in lots of
good plugs for his buddy George Lucas' disappointing STAR
WARS franchise. STAR WARS toys and bedsheets are seen in Robbie's
room throughout and POLTERGEIST score composer Jerry Goldsmith's
name would also have been seen as the score composer on the
ALIEN poster hanging on Robbie's wall, visible at 13:26. While
we're on the ALIEN poster, that film's writer, Dan O'Bannon
would later write the scripts for POLTERGEIST director Tobe
Hooper's disastrous INVADERS FROM MARS and LIFEFORCE.
RAISING ARIZONA
In RAISING ARIZONA, when we see H.I. (Nicholas Cage) at his
9-5 day job, his shirt lets us know he works for Hudsucker
Industries, the setting for another Cohen Brothers movie,
THE HUDSUCKER PROXY. (Contributed by Mark Burton)
RESERVOIR DOGS
When Harvey Kietel first meets with Lawrence Tierney he's
asked how his little thief Alabama is doing and Keitel explains
they've split up. Alabama is the name of Patricia Arquette's
character from TRUE ROMANCE. (Submitted by James)
ROMEO MUST DIE
In order to get the overlapping here we must first establish
all of the players in ROMEO MUST DIE. The film stars Jet Li,
Aaliyah and Delroy Lindo and was produced by Joel Silver.
Early in the film, Li is seen outside of a video store displaying
posters of CONSPIRACY THEORY and TIN CUP. CONSPIRACY THEORY
was also a Silver picture that starred Mel Gibson and was
directed by Richard Donner, the same folks behind LETHAL WEAPON
4's Jet Li's previous movie that also starred Rene Russo.
Complicating matters is Gibson and Russo's pairing in RANSOM,
which also featured Delroy Lindo, as did GET SHORTY, which
again paired him with Russo.
Another moment that is more direct happens when one of Lindo's
cronies yells at Aaliyah's character and categorizes her "Aaliyah
lookin ass." (submitted by George)
LOLITA
In the Stanley Kubrick film "Lolita" from 1962, the main
character Humbert Humbert confronts the artist
Claire Quilty, who is wearing nothing more than a sheet. because
the sheet looks like a toga, Quilty says he is "Spartacus,
here to free the slaves." This is an in-joke reference to
Kubrick's previous film, "Spartacus," which is about a slave
who lead an unsuccessful slave revolt against Rome around
the year 60 B.C.
HARD EIGHT
Towards the end of Hard Eight, Samuel L. Jackson is talking
to Philip Baker Hall's character, Sydney, about how he knows
that he used to gamble in Atlantic City. Well, at one point
he mentions a couple of names of people he used to hang out
with. They're names are Floyd Gondoli and Jimmy Gator. These
are the names of Philip Baker Hall's characters in Paul Thomas
Anderson's other two films Boogie Nights and Magnolia. (submitted
by Omar)
The Saint
As the film draws to a close, Simon Templer (Val Kilmer)
drives away listening to a news broadcast on the car radio.
The voice of the radio newscaster? Original Saint Roger Moore.
SEX AND THE CITY
In episode 3 of disc 1, "Bay of Married Pigs," the episode
closes with the four lead women entering a movie theater for
a girls night out. The two posters outside of the theater
were for QUEST FOR CAMELOT and GODZILLA, the latter starring
Sex star Sarah Jessica Parker's real life hubby, Matthew Broderick.
I hope they weren't going to be seeing either of those two
films.
Silence of the Lambs
Although Silence of the Lambs is an unofficial sequel to
Michael Mann's Manhunter, there are two actors who appear
in both films. More interesting is that both actors ended
up playing different characters in each. Dan Butler, familiar
to many as Bulldog on Frasier, played a fingerprint expert
for the FBI in Manhunter while playing Roden, one of the two
entomologist in Silence. Frankie Faison was Lt. Fisk in Manhunter
yet returned to Silence of the Lambs as Barney, one of Lector's
guards.
THE SIXTH SENSE
Cole Sear, the young boy of THE SIXTH SENSE, is known the
world over for his revelation, "I see dead people" to Bruce
Willis' character. Willis played a character called Cole,
in the movie TWELVE MONKEYS. Living in 1996 (James Cole's
past) he remarks in the days before a plague is to wipe out
most of humanity, "All I see are dead people"! (Contributed
by Keith Gow)
SLEEPY HOLLOW
There's a moment at the very end of SLEEPY HOLLOW where the
Johnny Depp character says to the Christina Ricci character
(sorry--doing this from memory) when they're walking along
the streets of New York, "the Bronx is up, the Battery's down,"
which is a direct quote from "New York, New York," a famous
song from the musical ON THE TOWN. ("New York, New York, a
wonderful town, the Bronx is up and the Battery's down...")
(Submitted by Russell)
STARGATE SG-1
In StarGate SG-1's first episode, the full-length pilot "Children
of the Gods," right at the 30-minute mark into the story.
Capt./Dr. Samantha Carter was instrumental in getting the
StarGate to work from the Earth side, and now has gone through
the StarGate for the first time to help search for Daniel
Jackson. When she gets through the gate and sees the other
side, the first thing she remarks on is the mechanism there
for setting the StarGate's destination. She says, "It took
us fifteen years and 3 supercomputers to MacGyver a system
for the gate on Earth."
Of course, the series' lead, Col. O'Neill, is played by Richard
Dean Anderson...whose most famous role to-date has been "MacGyver,"
the man who could make anything out of a candy bar and a paper
clip. (Submitted by David)
STAR TREK II: THE WRATH
OF KHAN
Trekkers everywhere should be able to identify the space
station Regula 1 as nothing more than the federation offices
of STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE simply turned upside down...
Storm of the Century
When a door won't open, Tim Daly tells his deputy to run
around front, and open the door while Daly waits with the
dangerous criminal. The deputy asks "Alone?" and Daly's character
responds "Do you see Superman around here anywhere?" The joke,
of course, being that Tim Daly does the voice of Superman
on the animated series.I
TANGO & CASH
During the opening, while searching without success for drugs
in a gasoline truck, a state patrol officer looses it and
asks Sylvester Stallone "Who in the fuck do you think you
are?" as another cop offers "He thinks he's Rambo." Stallone's
retort? "Rambo is a pussy!"
They Were Expendable
This borders on the "not only weird" but almost "twilight
zone" - like coincidence: I recently purchased the Warner
Brothers DVD edition of the WW 2 film THEY WERE EXPENDABLE,
starring John Wayne and directed by the legendary John Ford.
On the back of the case there is depicted a small B&W photo
of Wayne and actor Dan Dailey. Unfortunately, this picture
is not from THEY WERE EXPENDABLE but rather from another Ford
directed film, THE WINGS OF EAGLES. However, and this is where
it really crosses over into the weird area, the character
Wayne plays in THAT film is Frank "Spig" Wead, a real life
naval officer who, after being severely wounded and retired
went to work for John Ford as a screenwriter. One of the films
Wead wrote the screenplay for was none other than THEY WERE
EXPENDABLE. (Submitted by Donald)
TRON
As our heroes whisk along on their commandeered solar sailer,
at 1:12:21 you can see the head of Mickey Mouse in the landscape
of the computer world, proving once again that that little
rat has his head in everything!
TRUE LIES
During Jamie Lee Curtis and Arnold Schwarzenegger's escape
from the island at Key West, Curtis comments "I married Rambo."
Sharply attentive viewers will remember that TRUE LIES director
James Cameron co-wrote the screenplay for RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD
PART II.
TWISTER
Near the end of the film, the gas truck that explodes belongs
to Benthic Petroleum, the same company responsible for the
rigs in THE ABYSS and also seen on gas pumps in Cameron's
TERMINATOR 2. A centerpiece of the film is the twister that
tears up a drive-in screen showing Stanley Kubrickís THE SHINING.
Two of the characters in TWISTER are appropriately named Kubrick
and Stanley. The other film on the horror double feature is
Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO. TWISTER star Bill Paxton would
pull shenanigans on PSYCHO star Janet Leigh's daughter, Jamie
Lee Curtis two years prior in the film TRUE LIES. Paxton's
co-star Helen Hunt would next be seen in an Oscar winning
performance in AS GOOD AS IT GETS with fellow Oscar winner
Jack Nicholson, who is seen on the drive in screen in TWISTER
in all his SHINING glory.
2010
When Bowman visits his mother, the nurse at the monitoring
station is reading Time magazine, on the cover, as the American
& Soviet leaders, are pictures of author Arthur C. Clarke
and 2001 director Stanley Kubrick. (Submitted by Mark) Additionally,
a man feeding the pigeons as Roy Scheider talks in front of
the White House is also Arthur C. Clarke. (Submitted by
Mark)
Urban Legend
in Urban Legend, when Damon (Joshua Jackson) and Natalie
(Alicia Witt) go for a drive in Damon's car, he has trouble
starting the car up. One time it starts for a second and dies
again, but during that second, you hear the song "I Don't
Want To Wait," by Paula Cole, the opening theme to Joshua
Jackson's show Dawson's Creek. He smiles and apologizes saying
the car always has trouble starting up. At the end of the
movie, students from a new class talk about the events of
the movie as an Urban Legend. They mentioned one of the people
involved was named Brenda (who was played by Rebecca Gayheart)
and they say that people say she looks like "that girl form
the Noxzema commercial," a sly reference to the commercial
with that actually featured Rebecca Gayheart! (Submitted
by Daniel)
X-FILES: FIGHT THE FUTURE
In the film Independence Day, a character at the cable company
is overheard telling a customer that "I love X-Files, too.
I hope you get to see it." In the X-Files movie, about a half
hour in, Mulder is seen pissing on an ID4 poster, the same
movie that already referenced the show. (Editor: How fitting.)
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