A Trio of Actors Trivia Quiz

Answer: Donnie Brasco

This crime drama was directed by Mike Newell and was based on a book by Joseph D. Pistone, an FBI agent, detailing his infiltration of a crime family while using the alias of Donnie Brasco. The film adaptation starred Johnny Depp as the title character with Al Pacino as the man who is fooled by him and allows him into the crime organisation.

Anne Heche plays Pistone's wife while Madsen and Kirby portray other members of the Mafia 'family'. The real life Pistone was hired to help the actors with their characters.

Answer: Natural Born Killers

Oliver Stone was the director of this crime thriller which also starred Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones and Juliette Lewis.

Harrelson and Lewis play a couple, both of whom have suffered from abusive childhoods, who set out on a murderous spree across Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona. Even the detective in charge of finding the couple has 'issues', and the death toll soon mounts up. The pair are glorified by the media, notably by Wayne Gale (Downey) the host of a 'real crime' show. Few characters survive the film, which purports to highlight the public's fascination with mass murderers and true crime depictions on television.

Answer: As Good as it Gets

If I'd mentioned Jack Nicholson, you'd probably have recognised this one even more quickly. Classed as a 'romantic comedy-drama', Nicholson portrays a writer of romantic fiction who suffers from OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder). Among his foibles is eating breakfast at the same restaurant (and table) every day where he is served by the same waitress, played by Helen Hunt.

Life becomes more complicated when Nicholson's gay neighbour (Kinnear), an artist, is robbed and badly injured, meaning Nicholson has to look after the neighbour's dog. He forms an attachment to the dog, and to the waitress, and the film ends on a hopeful note as the two of them begin a tentative relationship. Cuba Gooding Jr. plays the artist's agent.

Answer: Stargate

This science fiction film spawned a franchise across various media including television, video games and books. The film was directed by Roland Emmerich who also wrote it in collaboration with Dean Devlin.

The plot involves the discovery of a device which opens a wormhole to an unknown planet. The language on the device is deciphered by a linguist, played by James Spader, while Viveca Lindfors is the leader of what becomes known as the Stargate project. Kurt Russell plays a special forces officer and is among the characters who meet the ancient Egyptian god Ra (Davidson) when they travel through the wormhole.

Answer: Shakespeare in Love

This film is described as a romantic comedy and stars Ralph Fiennes as William Shakespeare and Gwyneth Paltrow as the woman with whom he falls in love. Their romantic involvement, and the arising complications, provide the inspiration for Shakespeare to create one of his best known plays - 'Romeo and Juliet'.

Other actors include Colin Firth as Lord Wessex, Geoffrey Rush as Philip Henslowe, a real historical theatre owner, and Tom Wilkinson. Dame Judi Dench plays Queen Elizabeth I while other actors include Ben Affleck, Jim Carter and Rupert Everett as Christopher Marlowe.

Answer: Home Alone

This comedy stars a young Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McAllister, who is accidentally left behind when his family leave for a Christmas holiday in France. Two thieves, played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern, realise that only Kevin is at home and break into the property. Kevin has set up a series of traps, which the thieves set off and is helped by his neighbour to capture them and get them arrested.

Meanwhile, Kevin's parents (O'Hara and John Heard) have belatedly noticed his absence and his mother arrives home in time for Christmas, aided by a musician played by John Candy.

Answer: The Waterboy

The script for this film was created by Adam Sandler and Tim Herlihy, with Sandler playing the character Bobby Boucher Jr., the water boy of the title. Having been the man who supplies water to the players of the University of Louisiana football team for several years, he is unceremoniously dismissed. Bobby takes on the same role at a rival team, known as the Mud Dogs. The coach (Winkler) discovers Bobby has talent as a footballer and attempts to persuade his mother (Bates) to let him play.

Although she refuses, Bobby plays anyway and is a big success, allowing him to find his childhood love, Vicki (Balk). Although Bobby's mother continues to put obstacles in his way, she eventually relents, accepting that it's her own fear of being abandoned that is causing her to keep him from fulfilling his dreams. All eventually ends well.

Answer: Practical Magic

The film was adapted from a novel by Alice Hoffman with Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman in the leading roles. They play sisters in a family of witches, cursed by an ancestress so that any man with whom they fall in love is doomed to meet an early death. The sisters have already lost their parents, due to the curse, and have been raised by their maternal aunts, played by Weist and Channing.

With the help of the aunts' magic, Sally (Bullock) falls in love and has two daughters before her husband falls victim to the curse. The other sister, Gillian (Kidman), flits from lover to lover which brings her into contact with a dangerous man, played by Goran Visnjic, who the sisters end up killing. Aidan Quinn plays the policeman sent to investigate the murder - he falls in love with Sally. With the use of some 'practical magic' the complications are resolved and the curse is lifted for good.

Answer: Independence Day

Inspired by the success of 'Stargate', Roland Emmerich got together with Dean Devlin to create another blockbuster science fiction film in 'Independence Day'.

The premise of the film is that Earth has been attacked by aliens who have targeted and destroyed numerous large cities, killing millions of humans in the process. A counter attack is led by the US President (Pullman) who escaped the carnage on Air Force One, and assembles a force of pilots and other experts. Will Smith plays a US Marine pilot while Randy Quaid plays a former, now retired, pilot. Jeff Goldblum is also in the film playing a computer expert who is able to create a computer code to disrupt the signals from the extra-terrestrials and eventually defeat them. Judd Hirsch plays his father.

Answer: Jurassic Park

Directed by Steven Spielberg and based on a book by Michael Crichton this was the film that created a new franchise with several sequels. Crichton himself co-wrote the script along with David Koepp.

The plot involves the creation of a dinosaur park with cloned versions of long extinct creatures. The park is owned by a wealthy businessman (Attenborough) with Bob Peck playing the warden in charge of the park. After one of the exhibits, a velociraptor, kills its handler safety inspections need to be carried out. This brings Jeff Goldblum, Sam Neill and Laura Dern to the island where the park is located. A combination of a rogue employee, who happens to be in charge of the computers which control the security fencing, and a tropical storm leads to mayhem and a mounting death toll.