Monday Trivia, No. 90 (Johanna wins!)

Æon Flux, CarsDistant Drums, The Fifth ElementThe Green Berets, Gremlins 2: The New BatchHelen of Troy, Howard the Duck, JunoThe Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, MadagascarPT 109, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Reservoir DogsStar Wars, The Star Wars Holiday SpecialThem!, Under the Tuscan Sun.

This is a partial list. The complete list would be somewhere between 175 and 225 entries long, depending on exactly how one compiles the list (such as the extent to which one includes episodes of television shows; I’ve included The Star Wars Holiday Special because it seems directly related to Star Wars and was a one-off thing but otherwise stuck to major motion pictures released by Hollywood-ish studios).

Burt Likko

Pseudonymous Portlander. Homebrewer. Atheist. Recovering litigator. Recovering Republican. Recovering Catholic. Recovering divorcé. Recovering Former Editor-in-Chief of Ordinary Times. House Likko's Words: Scite Verum. Colite Iusticia. Vivere Con Gaudium.

22 Comments

  1. I have no idea what the answer is, but I’ll say I’ve never seen the Star Wars Christmas special. In fact, I’d never even heard of it until I read this post.

      • The story goes that Lucas himself bought up ever single copy and destroyed them all.

          • A thumbnail description can be found here (don’t worry too much about the site name; it’s a mostly-SFW nerd site) where it is #1 on the list:

            http://www.toplessrobot.com/2011/12/the_16_worst_christmas_specials_of_all_time_1.php?page=2

            Could any other special have topped this list, other than this strange artifact of the Star Wars craze? Not on this website. And with good reason; this is the pinnacle of ludicrousness. Wookies talking in incomprehensible Wookese for long, long minutes at a stretch. Bea Arthur. Han Solo hugging pretty much everything in sight. Art Carney delivering Wookie Porn. An obviously high Princess Leia, who’s singing…something. And Luke Skywalker video-phoning in a performance in which he looks like he’s just had his car accident that morning. All this, and the first appearance of Boba Fett…sort of. And my god, it goes on. Just on and on. And on. Forget about the Life-Day plot, because it was laser-thin–this was just a terrible 70s variety special with Star Wars wrapping. Granted, nobody cared that it sucked when it first came out, because it was Star Wars after all–and no one really cares that it sucks now, seeing as how millions of fans own it on bootleg videotape. Love it, loathe it, or probably both–this is utter holiday ridiculousness that just can’t be ignored.

    • This is as good a guess as any. I have been trying to find a throughline on these and I can’t so far.

      I didn’t notice any actors who appeared in all (they’d have to be an older actor to have been in all these – I took a movie with a small cast – Reservoir Dogs – and sort of searched out from there.) Nor a common writer/director etc.

      The mix of CGI and live-action films in the list makes it unlikely the common element is in production like cinematography/effects, or studio that put it out.

      They vary widely in subject matter, quality/reputation and awards received, as well as box-office take.

    • This is actually a really good guess as it could potentially have reached nearly every movie I listed. Johanna got the right answer below, but I wanted to recognize Kolohe’s cleverness.

    • Your correct response has deprived me of the opportunity to post pictures for clues, which I was ready to parse out over the week.

      Your Tuesday clue would have been:
      Gator

      Your Wednesday clue would have been:
      Wilhelm

      Your Thursday clue would have been:
      Scream

      Your Friday clue would have been:
      Gator-Kills-Soldier-Who-Screams

      Truth: did you know about the Wilhelm scream all on your own? I thought this was some nice inside baseball for the industry.

      So congratulations!

      • You can girl out of Hollyweird but you can’t take the Hollyweird outta the girl. I studied film and recalled it but did have to look up the name as what I recalled was related to the first image you posted.

        • Ugh not only can I not type today but evidently I am posting as the better actor of the family. Should say you can take the girl out.

          • “For this reason a person will leave the gravatar and another the disqus id, and the two shall become one login”

      • I get the Kaiser and the Munch, what what’s the gator about?

          • That makes more sense. I googled “UF Wilhelm” (the mascot is named Albert) and all I found was a veterinary scholarship fund.

          • Right. The “Wilhelm scream” was recorded for a man being eaten by an alligator. So. You’d have got:

            1. An alligator
            2. A man named Wilhelm
            3. The Scream
            4. The actual image of the man being eaten by the alligator in the movie.

Comments are closed.