Diva's Movies In Other Words 2 Quiz

Answer: Chicago

Richard Gere is Billy Finn, the slickest lawyer in Chicago who turns the defendants into legends. The movie also stars Catherine Zeta-Jones as the nightclub seductress Velma Kelly, and Renee Zellweger as Roxie Hart, who is seeking fame and fortune. Except there is room in Chicago for only ONE legend! So, who's it gonna be? Wait and see.

Answer: Gone With The Wind

In 2003, 1939 was voted the "Best Year Ever For Movies" by the same people who do the judging for the Oscars. A lot of classics came out that year ("Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" and "The Wizard Of Oz" to mention but two others). This Best Picture Oscar winner stars Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh (a virtual unknown British actress at the time). Hattie McDaniel won Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars and was not even allowed in the building to accept her award because she was black and this was 1939. Okay, now to tell you about the movie itself.

It is set right in the middle of the Civil War and in Atlanta. Scarlett O'Hara does whatever she has to do to survive, including marrying men she does not really love. She also helps her kin give birth and take charge of Tara (the O'Hara Estate) when her parents die.

She meets a cad through all of this named Rhett Butler, whom she falls madly in love with (and he with her). They have a child named Bonnie who dies and that really divides the two when the tragedy should have brought them closer.

A classic! If you have never seen it, do so and you'll thank me.

Answer: Hanging Up

This was Walter Matthau's last film. He died around the release in 2000. Meg Ryan plays Eve, the do-it-all woman. She has a successful career as a party planner. She's also a loving wife, mother, sister and dutiful daughter to Lou (Matthau). Lou is admitted into the hospital due to memory loss. Eve enlists the help of her older sister Georgia (Diane Keaton) who's a magazine mogul and baby sister Maddy (Lisa Kudrow) who's a soap opera star.

She even goes to her mother, played by Cloris Leachman, who abandoned them years before! Finally Eve decides sometimes you just have to disconnect. Hang up!

Answer: Moonstruck

Cher won a Best Actress Oscar in 1987 for her portrayal of Loretta Casotrini, a widow who agrees to remarry. It's to a man whom she does not love, but will be financially secure with, Johnny Cammareri (played by Danny Aiello). One problem is that she falls for his brother Ronny (Nicolas Cage).

The other is her parents. She has a very outspoken mother who is being pursued by a teacher and a father who is having an affair. Talk about your role models. Via Italia!

Answer: Freaky Friday

Many versions of this book have made it to movie in one form or another. There was a whole string of them in the 1980's which included "Vice Versa", "Like Father Like Son" and "18 Again". They all had this premise of waking up in your parents' shoes and them in yours.

The two who switch then spend the rest of the movie trying to cope with the idea of having to live this other person's life. A life that is not as easy as they first thought it was. In 2003 Jamie Lee Curtis and Lindsay Lohan play two who switch after a night of Chinese food and bickering.

The moral of all of these movies seems to be the same: don't judge another's life until you've lived it. Don't take each other for granted.

Answer: The Quick And The Dead

This 1995 film is a tale in which Gene Hackman (an Old West bad guy) brings all the supposed "fastest guns in the west" together to watch them all kill each other in a shooting contest. Of course Herod (Hackman), plans on killing the last man standing. Except a stranger comes into town among the gunslingers that changes things for everyone. Sharon Stone is one of the gunslingers; she is in the town of Redemption looking for her father's killer. Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio are also in it. Sam Raimi directs this movie.

Answer: Coming To America

An all star cast in this 5 star comedy. Eddie Murphy plays Akeem, the prince of a small country, who ventures to New York in search of a queen. When I say "all star cast", I mean it. Besides Eddie Murphy, here is a list of just some of the stars in this 1988 flick: Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones, Shari Headley, Eriq La Salle, Louie Anderson, Cuba Gooding jr., John Amos, Samuel L. Jackson, Don Ameche. Also all of the dance sequences were carefully choreographed by "American Idol" judge and 1980's pop queen Paula Abdul!

Answer: Joe Versus The Volcano

This is the first pairing of Tom Hanks and Mag Ryan. Tom plays Joe Banks, Joe works in very drab surroundings and is having the life sucked out of him. At his desk he fantasizes about a more exciting life. He goes to a doctor that diagnoses him with "Brain Cloud"! It's fatal but he'll be okay for at least a few more months. Millionaire Harvey Graynamore (Lloyd Bridges) hears of this and offers Joe a proposal: The people of a remote pacific island need a human sacrifice to offer the Gods. Why not live like a king for a few months and then jump into the volcano? What the millionaire does not tell Joe is that he is offering Joe as a sacrifice to gain permission to mine the island for rare minerals. Joe accepts and falls for three very different women (all played by Meg Ryan).

There are a "lava" laughs in this movie!

Answer: Follow That Dream

Elvis plays Toby Kwimper, a slow-witted guy who means well. It ends up that Toby, his dad (played by Arthur O'Connell) and an extended family including twins all start a fishing business. Along the way there is a sultry social worker, a couple of gangsters and a court case that threatens to tear the family apart. What's a guy to do? Save the day of course by accidently thwarting the gangsters who he does not know plan to kill him. Also, it would not be an Elvis flick if he did not get the girl played by Anne Helm.

Answer: Fire Down Below

Steven Seagal is Marshal Jack Taggart, an EPA agent who delivers his own brand of environmental justice to toxic polluters of a Kentucky mining town in this 1997 film.

Answer: Urban Cowboy

Bud (John Travolta) and Sissy (Debra Winger) are a rough and tumble couple trying to make it in Houston, Texas. After a couple of dates they marry. Well, less than a week goes by and they are calling it quits. They then spend the rest of the movie trying to make the other jealous by shacking up with other people. Isn't love grand?

Answer: Once Upon A Time In Mexico

This 2003 release has an amazing cast that includes Antonio Banderas(El Mariachi), Salma Hayek (Carolina), Johnny Depp (Sands), Mickey Rourke (Billy), Cheech Marin (Belini), Enrique Iglesias (Lorenzo), and the wicked Willem Dafoe (Barillo) to name a few.

The plot has some twists and turns that the viewers should enjoy. Okay, here we go: a hitman named El Mariachi gets involved in a plot to help prevent a coup d'etat (an overthrowing of a government). Along the way there are run ins with CIA, FBI, a corrupt Mexican General and former foes. Great on-the-edge-of-your-seat action.

Answer: Big

Penny Marshall directed this 1988 film with Tom Hanks and Elizabeth Perkins. 13 year old Josh wants nothing else but to be big. So he makes a wish at a carnival wishing booth. His wish comes true and he wakes up as a 35 year old man (Hanks). His mind and spirit remain that of a child.

He jets off to New York with his best friend named Billy. They have lots of fun. In the end though, Josh realizes that it is no easier to be a grown up than it is to be a kid.

Answer: Men At Work

Emilio Estevez directed and starred in this movie along with his brother, Charlie Sheen. This is the first movie to star them together. They play two sanitation engineers who find a body in the trash that belongs to a political candidate. As it turns out the more they find out about the dead politician the more trouble they find themselves in. Along the way they uncover an illegal toxic dumping operation and torture their two rival co-workers. All they really want to do is kick back, drink some beer, watch some women and catch a few waves in this 1990 comedy. Is that so much to ask?

Answer: Leaving Las Vegas

A critically acclaimed film of 1995. It stars Nicolas Cage as Ben, a former movie mogul who loses everything thanks to alcoholism. He goes to Las Vegas to drink himself to death. There he meets Sera (Elizabeth Shue), a prostitute. They accept each other (faults and all).

They don't try to change each other and they fall in love. A great supporting cast for this film. Some include Julian Lennon, Laurie Metcalf, French Stewart, Steven Weber and Richard Lewis.