Familiar places and faces...

[Free For All]

I was just cable-surfing and came across the movie "Prelude To A Kiss". I had forgotten that some scenes were filmed in the Green Mill, a well-known club in Chicago. In fact, there's a long scene between Meg Ryan and Alec Baldwin in the club where you can clearly see the owner, Dave Jemilo in the background. Not a great movie, but it's fun to see familiar places like that. If I remember correctly there are at least a couple other movies that used the Mill; "V.I. Warchowski" (ugh) and an older one one, I think it was called "The Thief" w/James Caan. I think they actually "blew up" the club in that one.

I also have seen many musician friends in movies, usually in the background (For The Boys, Finding Forrester).

So, anyone have any "brush with greatness" or "famliar locales in movies" stories?

[Jazzmoose]

I remember a movie from the midseventies, I believe it was Freebie and the Bean or something like that, that was filmed in San Francisco about the time I was living there that totally held my attention simply because most of the movie was filmed at different spots that I visited at least once a week. I can't tell you what the movie was about now, but I still remember a scene involving Embarcaddero Center...

[Free For All]

Of course for anyone from Chicago, The Blues Brothers was full of familiar places. I still can't believe they were allowed to drive through Daley Plaza (around the Picasso) like they did. Another movie with lots of great Chicago shots was Only The Lonely w/John Candy and Maureen O'Hara.

I remember Freebie and the Bean! James Caan and Alan Arkin, right? I remember seeing that in high school- kind of dark and pretty funny. One of my favorite San Francisco movies is Bullitt- maybe the best chase scene of all time. I wanted that Mustang bad!

I worked as a projectionist in a movie theatre all through high school. It was a great job even though I had to see movies like "Benji" a million times.

Edited July 27, 2003 by Free For All

[Jazzmoose]

I worked as a projectionist in a movie theatre all through high school. It was a great job even though I had to see movies like "Benji" a million times.

Man, and I thought the summer job I had cleaning dog kennels was rough!

[jacman]

since i've spent the last 43 years living in and around the Las Vegas Valley. i love to watch C.S.I. and try figure out where the fuck they filmed some of the scenes. the arial shots of The Strip are correct, but as for the rest of the show...SoCal.

[Dan Gould]

Something Wildwith Melanie Griffith and Jeff Daniels was filmed in Tallahassee when I was a student at Florida State. It was very cool the first time the Tallahassee theater audience spotted the scenes that were filmed there, and I was quite shocked to recognize a Poli-Sci professor as an extra in the first few frames of the reunion scene.

[BruceH]

I love Pacific Grove, but I don't think I can face watching Turner and Hooch just for the scenery of the town in some backgrounds. Hanks sure has come up in the world, hasn't he? Does anyone know if the scenes of downtown Erie, Pennsylvania in That Thing You Do were actually filmed in the real Erie?

The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973), probably Mitchum's best late-career movie, has a lot of the real flavor of seventies Boston and environs in it.

Groundhog Day, the very likeable Bill Murray movie, is supposed to take place in the small town of Punxatawny, PA (I'm not sure of the spelling) but was actually filmed in Woodstock, Illinois. In some scenes you can actually see a storefront that has the town name in it. Seems like a heck of a nice town anyway, though I've never been there.

One of my favorite small towns of all time, Ferndale, CA, is in two movies that I know of: Outbreak (they called it 'Cedar Creek' in the movie), and the maligned and/or ignored Jim Carrey film The Majestic. If you don't like The Majestic, don't hold it against Ferndale; it's really a nice place. More of a village than a town. Eventually I think every town, city, village, and hamlet in the country will be used in a movie.

Edited July 27, 2003 by BruceH

[Jazzmoose]

Pacific Grove? Now I'm drooling, thinking of an Archie's burger...

[Big Wheel]

A good friend of my takes up the entire frame for about a second in "Wild Things." An extra who got lucky.

Quite a few films have been shot in Miami, where I grew up. I recognized quite a lot in "There's Something About Mary"--one scene is filmed in a plaza right across the street from my dad's office building. The Birdcage also has a lot of familiar stuff. Also, I've been to Seaside, Florida, the Panhandle town where The Truman Show was filmed. Weird place.

[bertrand]

In A Few Good Men, Tom Cruise walks right in front of the apartment building in D.C. where I lived at the time (The Allen park, 20th Street, N.W., in Adams Morgan) [or that I had just moved out of, depending on when it was filmed].

Bertrand.

[vibes]

I don't really care for Jackie Chan movies, but I always like seeing the parts that are filmed in Hong Kong. I could say the same for most movies filmed in Hong Kong - I've lived in or walked by most of the places I see, which is always fun.

[jacknife]

Rodney Dangerfield's Back To School was filmed partly at the UW-Madison where I went to school and still live. This movie has a connection for me as I think I took school about as serious as this movie did!

[Matthew]

I live in an area where the streets are constantly being closed for filming the standard "White Middle-class Home Scenes" in movies. "Father of the Bride I & II", "Twleve Days in October", and many more. Kevin Costner was a big hit with the locals, signing autographs, etc. But, it all gets old fast. Kleig lights at 2:00 a.m. is not an enjoyable experience.

[Noj]

BETTER OFF DEAD--two dollars! The carwash Lane Meyer drives the paperboy through is the same one I've had my car washed at for years here in Burbank.

BACK TO THE FUTURE--Near the beginning, Marty skateboards past Burbank's first Burger King way back in '85.