CMT Answer Update: Hey we're back from a year and a half break! These answer pages will be along at sporadic intervals, but should be more than every 18 months. One thing I'll try to do with corrections from now on is as they come in, update the original pages where the error occurred, so I don't keep getting the same blunder corrected (you won't believe how many people wrote to correct me on the Trading Places - orange juice screwup.) Anyhow, if you do come across anything mistakes or want to add anything, as noted above make sure to write in. Now let's get to some Q&A!
CMT Answer: I'm pretty sure you are referring to Tattoo in "The Man With the Golden Gun". The Roger Moore - 007 flick was released in 1974, and featured Englishman Christopher Lee in the titular role as the assassin Scaramanga who always gets his target, for the price of a cool million. What a classic name for a villian. Scaramanga.
Anyhow, Bond is on to Scaramanga's game when a golden bullet shows up at the Secret Service HQ in London, with '007' on it. He hunts down both Scaramanga and his sidekick Nick Nack, who was portrayed by little person Herve Villechaize, best known as Tattoo from the TV show "Fantasy Island". Herve would fit the mini-French henchman part of your question, just not the guy who actually kills for the million. He unfortunately committed suicide in 1993. .
CMT Answer: I answer this question back in an older Q&A page here.
Note: We've got all of our old Q&A pages indexed on handy-to-use questions only pages. Here's the first one with links to later pages as well. .
CMT Answer: It depends on what you use to define 'popular'.
Is it: 1) Unadjusted (meaning not taking inflation into account) gross? If so, the answer is hands down "Titanic". The 1997 behemoth amassed more than $600 million in the U.S box-office, and another $1.2 billion abroad, coming up on almost two-freaking-billion in box-office receipts alone. You then have dvd, tv-deals, soundtracks, and the like to add in as well.
2) Adjusted gross? This gets a little more tricky. Depending on your source of information, "Gone With the Wind" or Star Wars" may come out on top. The trick is that back in the day, movies were re-released for theatrical runs much more often than they are now. However, their box-office tallies weren't often broken apart by release year, but simply lumped together. For example, "Gone With the Wind" might have been released 8 or 10 or more times since its 1939 release, say every 5 years or so for the following 40 years from release. Each time the relative value of a movie ticket changes, but the totals are all lumped together. So if you say the box-office take for it was $100 million (and box-office was not tracked as strictly back then as now), but try to adjust for inflation based on 1939 prices, the domestic total suddenly becomes mega-huge. That said, I would still say GWTW probably beats "Titanic" if proper inflation was to be taken into account, but the fact is no one really knows. What we do know is movies back then were relatively much more popular than they are now, and people were paying relatively more to go see them.
3) Total Oscars? Well then you have "Ben-Hur" and "Titanic" tied at 11 each, both taking Best Picture and Best Director. "Ben-Hur" did get Best Actor and Best Supporting actor, however, whereas Titanic had a couple more technical awards (poor Leo, not even a nomination).
4) Best liked by the common, net-dwelling, movie fan? Then you're looking at IMDB as a source, which has tens of thousands of user ratings for the most popular movies. In this case then, "The Godfather" takes the cake with an average of 9.1 / 10 on over 135,000 votes. "Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" was also briefly at the top spot during its release but has since slipped to #12. That said, there are those that question the way IMDB compiles it statistics and feel that LOTR:FOTR (or another) should still be at #1.
5) Best recent movie reviewed by film critics? In this case you turn to RottenTomatoes.com. This treasure of a web-site compiles movie critic reviews from around the printed and electronic page and compiles them in one easy-to-access site. If a movie gets a 60% or better score from a critic, it is counted 'fresh', else it is 'rotten'. From a RottenTomatoes point of view, "Toy Story 2" is on the top of the heap, with 105 critics giving it a staggering 100% fresh. Not even one critic, from the list RottenTomatoes compiled, gave the movie less than a 60% score. Most Impressive.
6) My opinion? If you take 'popular' and flip it around somehow so it means 'best', then it's "The Empire Strikes Back". Can't beat it.
Well, this is a long answer to a short question, but I hope it helps. .
CMT Answer: That was Kelly LeBrock, of Steven-Seagal-wife, and "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful" fame. The 80's fashion model made an impact with her film debut in the Gene Wilder comedy "The Woman In Red" in 1984, and followed up as every 80's nerd's dream girl the next year in "Weird Science". She then made "Hard to Kill" in 1990 with then-husband Steven Seagal, but it has basically been all downhill career-wise since then. .
CMT Answer: The movie you are after is 1985's "Vision Quest", which starred Matthew Modine and featuerd a musical appearance by Madonna! How can you top that! Here is the IMDB page. It was a minor 80's classic- one correction to your recollection is Modine was trying to lose weight, not gain it, in order to fight the state champ. .
CMT Answer: It came out in 1981 (I'm guessing this is really what you're after. It will have been 'made' in the year - two years before this). For this kind of basic movie info, you can always find it very easily at IMDB, located here: http://www.imdb.com. . .
I have a friend who asked, claims to know, and I need to find out without giving up and asking her. -David
And you can see more pirate-licious quotes from the movie here. .
Someone in a movie used a tool called a retriever to pull a ball out of his nose. What movie and who was it? -Tom
CMT Answer: The closest I can think of is Arnold Schwarzenegger using the little doo-dad to pull the implant out through his nose in "Total Recall". I don't ever remember it specifically being called a 'retriever', and didn't find any reference on the web to match it. However, that would be my best guess, especially because I don't think too many movies features any kind of implement specifically designed to pull things out of someone's nose.
If any other reader knows a better answer, send in the details! . .
What was the name of Cash's sister in the movie, "Tango and Cash"? -Tracy Anderson
CMT Answer: That would be Katherine 'Kiki' Cash, played by none other than Desperate Housewife Teri Hatcher. She played a stripper / dancer (I'll go with dancer since you don't actually see her naked). As a side note, best Jack Palance line of the movie for my money is "Two little mice... so much damage." . .
