FILM 1942: BEVERLY HILLS COP

FILM 1942: BEVERLY HILLS COP

TRIVIA: Eddie Murphy, John Ashton, and Judge Reinhold improvised most of their comic lines. Literally hundreds of takes were ruined by cast members, actors, or the director laughing during shooting. During the "super-cops" monologue, Ashton is pinching his face hard and looking down in apparent frustration. He is actually laughing. Reinhold put his hand in his pocket and pinched his thigh really hard, trying to prevent himself from laughing.

Axel Foley's T-shirt is from Mumford, a real-life Detroit-area school one of the filmmakers attended. When the film came out, the school got orders for the shirts from customers all over the world.

During his tirade at the Beverly Palms Hotel, Axel pretends to be writing an article called "Michael Jackson: Sitting on Top of the World" for Rolling Stone magazine. In real life, Playboy ran an article called "Eddie Murphy: Sitting on Top of the World."

According to Steven Berkoff in a UK newspaper interview, Sylvester Stallone quit the film because of disagreements about the orange juice for his trailer.

Damon Wayans' film debut.

Trying to find Foley and Rosewood, the LAPD use a "satellite tracking system" At the time it was, made up to advance the plot. It was invented later, an ancestor of the modern-day Global Positioning System (GPS). 

Included among the American Film Institute's 2000 list of the Top 100 Funniest American Movies.

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.

DIRECTOR CAMEO: (Martin Brest): the clerk who checks Axel out of the hotel at the end of the movie.

FILM 1888: BLUE STEEL

FILM 1888: BLUE STEEL

TRIVIA: Tom Sizemore's film debut.

In Germany, it was distributed as "a film from Oliver Stone", even though Stone was only one of the movie's producers.

Despite the lack of financial success, the performances of Jamie Lee Curtis and Ron Silver received acclaim.

FILM 1882: ROBOCOP

FILM 1882: ROBOCOP

TRIVIA: It was discovered that when in full RoboCop costume, Peter Weller could not fit properly into the police car as he was too bulky. That's why most shots of him show him exiting the car or preparing to get into it. For shots where he actually needed to be in the car, he only wore the top part of the costume and sat in his underwear. However, to maintain the illusion that RoboCop wears the entire suit while inside a car, most shots show his robotic feet exiting the car first.

Some 25 years later, an internet rumor began to get funding for a RoboCop statue to be placed in Detroit. Peter Weller himself created a public service announcement to support the proposal. Eventually, a Kickstarter campaign was created and proved successful, as the 12 foot statue is now in production.

The RoboCop suit was so hot and heavy that Peter Weller was losing 3 lbs a day from water loss. Eventually, an air conditioner was installed in the suit.

In Sacramento, California, a robbery suspect fled into a darkened movie theatre to escape pursuing police. He became so engrossed in the movie playing on screen (RoboCop), that he failed to notice that police had evacuated all other patrons from the theatre. When the lights flipped on, the stunned man was taken into custody.

Paul Verhoeven and Rob Bottin clashed repeatedly before and during production over the design and make-up of the RoboCop character. What they argued most about was the scene where Murphy takes off his helmet. Bottin wanted the scene to be filmed in a darkened area, fearing that harsh light would reveal too much of the make-up effects; Verhoeven wanted the scene to be filmed as brightly as possible, citing that director of photography Jost Vacano would be able to light it properly without revealing anything. Verhoeven got his way and Bottin refused to talk to him any further for the remainder of production. However, at the premiere, both men were so impressed with how the scene had turned out, that they instantly forgave each other. Bottin, who had even vowed to never again work with Verhoeven, happily accepted the offer to work on Verhoeven's next project, Total Recall (1990).

Nancy Allen first arrived on set when Paul Verhoeven was shooting the deliberately cheesy sitcom "It's Not My Problem" which appears on television screens throughout the film. Allen was initially horrified to think that she had signed on to make a film with an incompetent director.

Because the hands of the RoboCop suit were made of foam rubber, the car keys would bounce off of Peter Weller's hand every time he attempted to catch them. The production took up to 50 takes and an entire day's worth of filming before finally getting the shot right.

On the DVD Ray Wise explains that he and Kurtwood Smith ended up being too close to an explosion which caused pieces of glass to be embedded into Ray's face. He received an additional stunt pay for this mishap as per the studio. Ray then jokingly states that he devised ways where he would be as close to the explosions as possible to gain extra money.

RoboCop's first Directive, "Serve the public trust", was inspired by a fortune cookie.

After Peter Weller complained about the costume during the first few days of filming, the role of RoboCop was offered to Lance Henriksen, who turned down because of time conflicts - Henriksen was also considered for the title role in The Terminator (1984) (before the cyborg was decided for to be large and bulky and Arnold Schwarzenegger was brought on), and finally got to play a robot in Aliens (1986) (see also trivia for The Terminator (1984)).

Paul Verhoeven's first American film.

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.

DIRECTOR TRADEMARK: Paul Verhoeven: [in-movie fake commercials] Several fake advertisements are featured throughout the movie: The Family Heart Center (a medical center specializing in artificial heart transplants), Nukem (a futuristic Battleship-like board game), and the 6000 SUX - the primary vehicle that Clarence Boddicker and his gang use.

FILM 1813: VIRTUOSITY

FILM 1813: VIRTUOSITY

TRIVIA: Kaley Cuoco's film debut.

Denzel Washington took a role in the film because his son asked him to do so.

Amongst the names of serial killers shown in Sid 6.7's personality profile are David Koresh, Thomas McIlvane, Frederick Cowan, William Bonin, Harvey Glatman, Peter Kuten, William Bryan Cruse, Charles Whitmore, Aileen Carol Wournos, Peter Sutcliffe, Kenneth McDuff, Jesse James, Dr. Glennon Engleman, Harvey Carignan, Dr. Geza de Kaplany, Norman Selby, Juan Peron, Winnie Ruth Judd, Matthew Grimes, Augosto Pinoche, Carl Panzram, Abu Nidal, Ted Bundy, Wesley Allan Dodd, Roger Dale Stafford, Elizabeth Borden, Mark Essex, Billy the Kid, Lynette Fromme, Larry Eyler, Clem Henderson, David Hendricks, Coral Eugene Watts, William McDonald, Richard Trenton Chase, Sirhan Sirhan, Josef Mengele, Ed Kemper, Edward Leonski, John Collins, Julian Knight, John Haigh, Carlton Gary, Vaughn Greenwood, Nicolae Ceausescu, Randy Kraft, Miguel Rivera, Dean Allen Corli, William Suff, Werner Boost, Thierry Paulin, Richard Trenton Chase, David Burke, Donald Harvey, Vernon Butts, Bruno Hauptman, Ralph Jerome Selz, John Duffy, Carl Weiss, Gerald Eugene Stano, Benito Mussolini, Paul Calden, Richard Farley, Ian Brady, Joseph Harris, Hiro Hito, Lynwood C. Drake, Saddam Hussein, Gilles De Rais, Herman Mudgett, Donald Nielson, Robert R. Diaz, and Joe Ball.

Michael Douglas was originally cast as Parker Barnes.

The Star Trek (1966) episode shown briefly is "The Enemy Within", an episode about Captain Kirk being split into good and evil sides by the transporter.

Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe would later go on to star in American Gangster(2007) together.

The music video of "The Photograph Kills" by Russell Crowe & 30 Odd Foot of Grunts was filmed on the set of the film between scenes, which Russell Crowe appears in the music video in costume and in character as Sid 6.7 and the music videos features inserts from the film itself. The song is featured in the film. 

FILM 1651: DIRTY HARRY

TRIVIA: In 1972, a copycat crime took place in the state of Victoria in Australia, in which two men kidnapped a teacher and six pupils at gunpoint and demanded a 1 million dollar ransom. The state government agreed to pay, but the children managed to escape and the kidnappers were subsequently jailed. One of them was called Eastwood.

After Clint Eastwood and Don Siegel came on board the project, they hired writer Dean Riesner to work on the script. In his first rewrite, the bank robbery scene ends with Harry not pointing the gun at the robber, but placing it against his own temple. He pulls the trigger, laughs and then walks away. Eastwood and Siegel both felt this was too extreme, even for Harry Callahan.

The movie's line "You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?" was voted as the #51 movie quote by the American Film Institute (out of 100).

Serial killer Scorpio was loosely based on the Zodiac killer, who used to taunt police and media with notes about his crimes, in one of which he threatened to hijack a school bus full of children. The role of Harry Callahan was loosely based on real life detective David Toschi who was the chief investigator in the Zodiac case.

When Clint Eastwood approached Don Siegel to offer him the directing job, Eastwood gave Siegel four drafts of the script, one of which was written by Terrence Malick. In Malick's script, he had altered Scorpio from being a mindless psychopath killing only because he likes it, to being a vigilante who killed wealthy criminals who had escaped justice. Siegel didn't like Malick's script, but Eastwood did, and Malick's ideas formed the basis for the sequel, Magnum Force (1973).

In September 1981, a case occurred in Germany, under circumstances quite similar to the Barbara Jane Mackle case: A ten-year-old girl, Ursula Hermann, was buried alive in a box fitted with ventilation, lighting and sanitary systems to be held for ransom. The girl suffocated in her prison within 48 hours of her abduction because autumn leaves had clogged up the ventilation duct. Twenty seven years later, a couple was arrested and tried for kidnapping and murder on circumstantial evidence. According to the Daily Mail, the couple were inspired by the scene in which Scorpio kidnaps a girl and places her in an underground box.

In a 2009 poll for MTV News, the character of Harry Callahan was voted the "Greatest Movie Badass of All-Time." Dirty Harry beat other movie icons like Rambo, Ellen Ripley and John McClane to the top spot.

Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.

FILM 1626: THE HEAT 

TRIVIA: The guy Mullins (Melissa McCarthy) makes out with in the bar scene is McCarthy's real-life husband, Ben Falcone.

The guy Mullins (Melissa McCarthy) makes out with in the bar scene is McCarthy's real-life husband, Ben Falcone.

Ashburn's yearbook is Sandra Bullock's actual 1982 yearbook from Washington-Lee High School in Arlington, Virginia. The art department digitally manipulated Bullock's picture to include glasses and braces, neither of which she had in her original high school senior portrait. They also took out all the signatures within the book.

FILM 1589: SOLACE 

TRIVIA: The script for this movie was originally picked up by New Line Cinema, with the intention to rewrite it as a sequel to Se7en (1995), tentatively titled Ei8ht. The main character was supposed to be Se7en's Detective William Somerset who had acquired psychic powers. This idea was dropped after Se7en director David Fincher reacted negatively to the idea, after which it was produced as a stand-alone film.

FILM 1566: ZOOTOPIA

TRIVIA: Originally, the film revolved around Nick Wilde (voiced by Jason Bateman). However, test audiences reported that they had a hard time connecting with him emotionally and instead found themselves drawn to Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin), so the story was changed.

Animators decided upon Judy's purple eye color because they thought the rest of her gray fur markings were too dull, particularly for a main character. Purple was chosen to represent her energetic and optimistic personality.

Nick Wilde's design is heavily based on the title character of Disney's Robin Hood (1973) (who is also a fox).

The pirated DVDs that Duke Weaselton is selling are movies with word plays to other Walt Disney Animation Studio features. Examples are: "Pig Hero 6" (Big Hero 6 (2014)), "Floatzen" (Frozen (2013)), "Wrangled" (Tangled (2010)), "Wreck-It Rhino" (Wreck-It Ralph (2012)), "Meowana" (the upcoming Moana (2016)), and "Giraffic" (the upcoming Gigantic (2018)).

There are numerous sight gags consisting of animal versions of common human brand names, including, Lucky Chomps (Lucky Charms cereal), Urban Snoutfitters (Urban Outfitters clothes shops), Zuber (ride hailing service Uber), Pawpsicle (Popsicle frozen pops), Lemming Bros. Bank (erstwhile Lehman Bros.), Trader Doe's (Trader Joe's food stores), Mousy's (Macy's department store), Moustercharge (MasterCard credit cards), Furs National Bank (instead of First), Targoat (Target), Catsio (Casio), MuzzleTime (FaceTime), and Hoof Locker (Foot Locker), among others.

HIDDEN MICKEY: If you look closely at Clawhauser's spots, you will see a hidden Mickey Mouse on his cheeks.

The horn heard when Judy Hopps leaves her hometown and again when she arrives in Zootopia is the horn from the Monorail at Disney Parks. The SkyTram in the rainforest zone is a reference to the Skyway that ferried guests from Fantasyland to Tomorrowland in Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom. The Sky Buckets were removed from Disneyland in 1994 and from the Magic Kingdom in 1999.

Chief Bogo, when chastising Judy for having unrealistic dreams of becoming a "real cop" tells her that they aren't living "in a cartoon world where you sing a little song and all your dreams come true" before telling her to "let it go." This is an obviously self-referential nod to the large body of prior Disney animated classics, which frequently feature heroes seeking to fulfill lofty dreams, singing, and wishing, particularly the mega-hit Frozen (2013) whose feature song was the anthem "Let it Go" by Idina Menzel.

Judy's two obnoxious next-door neighbors, who can constantly be heard to tell each other to shut up, are a reference to the infamous "shut up little man" recordings. The tapes were a pre-internet viral sensation where a pair of next-door neighbor male roommates were captured on audio arguing incessantly, often ending with the pair screaming at each other to shut up.

In Doug the Ram's night howler lab he is talking on the phone when he hears a knock at the door and says, "Walter and Jessie are here so I'm leaving now..." Walter and Jessie are the names of the two main characters in the American television drug drama Breaking Bad. Doug also wears a yellow boiler suit, as do Walter and Jessie in the later seasons of the drug drama.