“On the day that Hurricane Katrina hits New Orleans, elderly Daisy Williams (nee Fuller) is on her deathbed in a New Orleans hospital. At her side is her adult daughter, Caroline. Daisy asks Caroline to read to her aloud the diary of Daisy’s lifelong friend, Benjamin Button. Benjamin’s diary recounts his entire extraordinary life, the primary unusual aspect of which was his aging backwards, being diagnosed with several aging diseases at birth and thus given little chance of survival, but who does survive and gets younger with time. Abandoned by his biological father, Thomas Button, after Benjamin’s biological mother died in childbirth, Benjamin was raised by Queenie, a black woman and caregiver at a seniors home. Daisy’s grandmother was a resident at that home, which is where she first met Benjamin. Although separated through the years, Daisy and Benjamin remain in contact throughout their lives, reconnecting in their forties when in age they finally match up. Some of the revelations in Benjamin’s diary are difficult for Caroline to read, especially as it relates to the time past this reconnection between Benjamin and Daisy, when Daisy gets older and Benjamin grows younger into his childhood years. Written by Huggo”

• Director: David Fincher
• Release Date: 25 December 2008 (USA)
• Run Time: 166 min
• Country: USA
• Genre: Drama , Fantasy , Mystery , Romance
• MPAA: Rated PG-13 for brief war violence, sexual content, language and smoking.

Tagline: Life isn't measured in minutes, but in moments

Trivia: When Daisy grew up and met Benjamin for the second time, she talked about “Kismet”, an English word of Arabic origin that means “predestined fate” and “fortune/destiny, as foretold by Providence”.

Goofs: Continuity: When Benjamin first makes tea for the channel swimmer in the glass mugs, the level of liquid fluctuates with each camera shot.

“It’s 2035 A.D., where robots are everyday objects and are programmed to live alongside humans. Detective Del Spooner is called out to investigate the apparent suicide of the scientist behind these robots, Dr. Alfred Lanning. Spooner suspects that the death might not be a suicide, but the result of one of the robots. All robots are programmed by three laws, but Spooner starts to wonder if a robot can in fact feel emotions, and possibly murder. But if Spooner’s suspicions are true, he is going to have a hard time convincing everyone. Written by Film_Fan”

• Director: Alex Proyas
• Release Date: 16 July 2004 (USA)
• Run Time: 115 min
• Country: USA , Germany
• Genre: Action , Mystery , Sci-Fi , Thriller
• MPAA: Rated PG-13 for intense stylized action, and some brief partial nudity.

Tagline: What will you do with yours?

Trivia: According to the newscast, Dr. Alfred Lanning was born in 1971 and was 64 when he was murdered. Interesting enough, he was the same age at the time as the actor who played him, James Cromwell.

Goofs: Errors in geography: The story takes place in Chicago, but right before the scene of Spooner and John getting drinks in a bar, the sign next door to the bar suggests, in Chinese, that the place is in Canada.

“Two men wake up at opposite sides of a dirty, disused bathroom, chained by their ankles to pipes. Between them lies a dead man loosely clutching a hand-held tape player and a handgun. Each finds a tape the perfect fit for the player in their back pocket. They play the tapes. One is threatened, the other isn’t. But they have a task: One must kill the other by 6:00, or his wife and daughter will die. They find hacksaws in a toilet, and try to cut the chains, but it doesn’t work. They are the two newest victims of the Jigsaw Killer. In a flashback, we learn of Amanda, a girl who falls victim to the Jigsaw Killer. On her head is a mask, which is hooked into her lower jaw. There is a timer on it. Only one key will unlock it, and that key is in the digestive tract of her cell mate who lies paralyzed on the opposite side of the room. If she doesn’t unlock the mask in time, her lower jaw will be ripped wide open. She survives, but her cell mate doesn’t. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn of more victims, and of the nearly-successful capture of the Jigsaw Killer, who doesn’t actually kill his victims. Instead, he finds ways to make them kill either themselves, or each other, and he thinks the entire ‘game’ out perfectly, with no other ways out. Or so it would seem. Written by Aurabesh corrected by Paul P”

• Director: James Wan
• Release Date: 29 October 2004 (USA)
• Run Time: 103 min
• Country: USA , Australia
• Genre: Horror , Mystery , Thriller
• MPAA: Rated R for strong grisly violence and language. (edited for re-rating; originally NC-17)

Tagline: Death is a shortcut (Denmark)

Trivia: Director James Wan took a gamble and took no “up front” salary for the movie and opted for a percentage instead.

Goofs: Continuity: When Dr. Gordon empties the contents of the envelope into his hand, the Dictaphone cassette is not visible clearly from the first camera angle, but is visible in the next.

“”

• Director: David Yates
• Release Date: 15 July 2009 (USA)
• Country: UK , USA
• Genre: Adventure , Fantasy , Mystery , Romance
• MPAA: Rated PG for scary images, some violence, language and mild sensuality.

Tagline: Once again I must ask too much of you, Harry

Trivia: Alarn Horn, President and Chief Operating Officer of Warner Bros. stated that due to “repercussions of the writers’ strike” they were offered “new windows of opportunity that we (Warner Bros.) wanted to take advantage of.” The film?s release date was then moved from November 21, 2008 to July of 2009.

Goofs: Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In the book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, one of the Gryffindor Quidditch players’ name is Demelza Robins, however, in the movie, the back of her Quidditch robes says Robbins with 2 b’s instead of one.

“Brandon and Philip are two young men who share a New York apartment. They consider themselves intellectually superior to their friend David Kentley and as a consequence decide to murder him. Together they strangle David with a rope and placing the body in an old chest, they proceed to hold a small party. The guests include David’s father, his fianc?e Janet and their old schoolteacher Rupert from whom they mistakenly took their ideas. As Brandon becomes increasingly more daring, Rupert begins to suspect. Written by Col Needham {col@imdb.com}”

• Director: Alfred Hitchcock
• Release Date: 28 August 1948 (USA)
• Run Time: 80 min
• Country: USA
• Genre: Crime , Mystery , Thriller

Tagline: The guest who's dead on time

Trivia: Director Cameo: [Alfred Hitchcock]His profile appears on a neon sign visible through the apartment window approximately 55 minutes into the movie. The neon sign advertises “Reduco,” the same fictional weight-loss product that Hitchcock advertised in his famous newspaper ad cameo in Lifeboat (1944). Some sources indicate that he also appears walking down the street during the opening credits.

Goofs: Revealing mistakes: As Brandon and Philip walk back to the kitchen after finding the rope, the frame over the doorway into the hall can be seen separating. Since each reel was filmed in one continuous take, sets had to be moved out of the way during the shot, allowing the camera to follow the actors between rooms. (A similar mistake is visible in the tracking shot out of Bob Rusk’s house in Frenzy (1972).)

“Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse move into an apartment in a building with a bad reputation. They discover that their neighbours are a very friendly elderly couple named Roman and Minnie Castevet, and Guy begins to spend a lot of time with them. Strange things start to happen: a woman Rosemary meets in the washroom dies a mysterious death, Rosemary has strange dreams and hears strange noises and Guy becomes remote and distant. Then Rosemary falls pregnant and begins to suspect that her neighbours have special plans for her child. Written by Goth {brooks@odie.ee.wits.ac.za}”

• Director: Roman Polanski
• Release Date: 12 June 1968 (USA)
• Run Time: 136 min
• Country: USA
• Genre: Horror , Mystery , Romance , Thriller

Tagline: Pray for Rosemary's Baby

Trivia: Entertainment Weekly voted this the tenth scariest film of all time.

Goofs: Revealing mistakes: When Rosemary and Guy come back from dinner at the Castevet’s and they are in the bedroom, Guy untucks his shirt twice.

“Frederick Manion (Ben Gazzara), a lieutenant in the army, is arrested for the murder of a bartender, Barney Quill. He claims, in his defense, that the victim had raped and beaten up his wife Laura (Lee Remick). Although Laura supports her husband’s story, the police surgeon can find no evidence that she has been raped. Manion is defended by Paul Biegler (James Stewart), a rather humble small-town lawyer. During the course of interviews, Biegler discovers that Manion is violently possessive and jealous, and also that his wife has a reputation for giving her favors to other men. Biegler realizes that the prosecution will try to make the court believe that Laura was the lover of the bartender and than Manion killed him and beat her up when he discovered them together. Manion pleads “not guilty” and Biegler, who knows that his case is weak, sets his assistants to try to find a witness who will save Manion. Written by alfiehitchie”

• Director: Otto Preminger
• Release Date: 1 July 1959 (USA)
• Run Time: 160 min
• Country: USA
• Genre: Crime , Drama , Mystery

Trivia: Shooting was completed in just two months.

Goofs: Crew or equipment visible: Shadow of cameraman visible when Biegler asks the Thunder Bay Inn receptionist to page Mary Pilant

“In 2027, as humankind faces the likelihood of its own extinction, a disillusioned government agent agrees to help transport and protect a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea where her child’s birth may help scientists to save the future of mankind. Written by IMDb Editors”

• Director: Alfonso Cuarón
• Release Date: 5 January 2007 (USA)
• Run Time: 109 min
• Country: Japan , UK , USA
• Genre: Adventure , Mystery , Sci-Fi , Thriller
• MPAA: Rated R for strong violence, language, some drug use and brief nudity.

Tagline: No children. No future. No hope.

Trivia: In the Bexhill tower block scene, Theo is wearing a London 2012 Olympics fleece.

Goofs: Crew or equipment visible: In the climactic 6-minute battle shot, just before Theo enters the hallway where he finds Kee, the camera is briefly visible in the reflection of a window.

“An unknown and lethal virus has wiped out five billion people in 1996. Only 1% of the population has survived by the year 2035, and is forced to live underground. A convict (James Cole) reluctantly volunteers to be sent back in time to 1996 to gather information about the origin of the epidemic (who he’s told was spread by a mysterious “Army of the Twelve Monkeys”) and locate the virus before it mutates so that scientists can study it. Unfortunately Cole is mistakenly sent to 1990, six years earlier than expected, and is arrested and locked up in a mental institution, where he meets Dr. Kathryn Railly, a psychiatrist, and Jeffrey Goines, the insane son of a famous scientist and virus expert. Written by Giancarlo Cairella {vertigo@imdb.com}”

• Director: Terry Gilliam
• Release Date: 5 January 1996 (USA)
• Run Time: 129 min
• Country: USA
• Genre: Mystery , Sci-Fi , Thriller
• MPAA: Rated R for violence and language.

Tagline: The future is history.

Trivia: Terry Gilliam gave Bruce Willis a list of “Willis acting clich?s” not to be used during the film, including the “steely blue eyes look”.

Goofs: Revealing mistakes: In the first surface scene, the bear shot is reversed and, thus, it manages to completely inhale the condensation of its breath.

“An American scientific expedition to the frozen wastes of the Antarctic is interrupted by a group of seemingly mad Norwegians pursuing and shooting a dog. The helicopter pursuing the dog crashes leaving no explanation for the chase. During the night, the dog mutates and attacks other dogs in the cage and members of the team that investigate. The team soon realises that an alien life-form with the ability to take over other bodies is on the loose and they don’t know who may already have been taken over. Written by Goth {brooks@odie.ee.wits.ac.za}”

• Director: John Carpenter
• Release Date: 25 June 1982 (USA)
• Run Time: 109 min
• Country: USA
• Genre: Horror , Mystery , Sci-Fi , Thriller

Tagline: Man is The Warmest Place to Hide.

Trivia: In the close up shot of the United States National Science Institute Station 4 sign, a ‘Smokey the Bear’ sign can be seen.

Goofs: Continuity: When Macready and the doctor go off to check the Norwegian base, it is said they should only take about an hour to get there, and it is light when they leave. However, there is a night-time scene set at the American base in-between the time it takes for Mac to arrive at the Norwegian base, even though it is daylight when he arrives there.