Guys Think Girls Can't Name These Movies. Prove Them Wrong!
- by Joshua Laurent
- – on
- in Movies and TV
There's a name for movies that most women enjoy. We call them "chick flicks." There really isn't an equivalent label for men, but that's probably just because there isn't a word that means movie that rhymes with a word for male. Even though there is no label, we can certainly recognize a movie that was made with a male audience in mind.
If there's more than three explosions in a movie, it was probably made for guys. If there's a bunch of girls in bikinis that serve no purpose other than to be in bikinis, it was probably made for guys. If it can only communicate sadness and joy through the metaphor of sports, it's probably made for guys.
But, we also think that thought process is unfair. Just because it's achingly clear The Notebook was written and then made into a movie with a female audience in mind doesn't mean that a guy can't enjoy it. Conversely, it's a little bit off to suggest just because a movie was made with a guy in mind, a woman can't enjoy it just as much.
We're going to show our quiz-takers pictures from typical male-driven movies and we want them to identify the film and prove to the males out there that women also know "guy flicks."
What popular movie is this photo from?
If you run down the cast list of this movie it reads like a who's who of actors at the time, although it's a little suspect these days: Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, Corbin Bernsen and Wesley Snipes. In a world that has been full of baseball comedies, this one didn't stray from the formula of underdogs trying to overcome, but for some reason this one just completely clicked. Proving lightning doesn't strike twice, there was a sequel made and it didn't do even a fraction as well
What popular movie is this photo from?
This was one of those movies that just kind of snuck up on people and became a giant hit. So big in fact, that one horrible sequel wasn't enough, so they made two. Essentially the story is about four friends who go to Las Vegas for a bachelor party and wake up the next morning only to find the groom is gone. They're forced to retrace their steps, kind of like a slightly more adult version of Dude, Where's My Car?
What popular movie is this photo from?
This movie was originally a play, which explains why there are so few changes of scenery in the movie. More than half the film takes place in a dingy courtroom, where Tom Cruise is a military lawyer trying to find out what happened surrounding the death of a soldier. He suspects that this soldier was ordered to be harshly dealt with by a superior, played by Jack Nicholson. This was the film that yielded the well-known line, "You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!"
What popular movie is this photo from?
While it seems to have calmed down a little bit in the last year or two, there was a good decade where it seemed like if you didn't want anybody to know who you were when appearing on a webcam -- like if you were on Twitch -- you'd put on one of these masks that were brought back into the mainstream because of this film that starred Natalie Portman. In case you've wondered, the mask is a tribute to Guy Fawkes. You can look up who he is in history.
What popular movie is this photo from?
When people think of Ryan Reynolds in the realm of superhero movies, it is more likely that they think of the Deadpool movies instead of this one which kind of flew under the radar and hasn't been spun-off into 101 other films. Probably the most lasting thing that came out of this film was the marriage between Reynolds and Blake Lively. If you're looking for a couple to follow on social media who don't take themselves too seriously, we urge you to follow Reynolds and Lively.
What popular movie is this photo from?
True, this is a staged photo that really didn't take place in the movie, it should still be enough to give you the name of the movie. Now, there were technically five movies in the entire series, including the final which was a TV movie and featured only two members of the original cast, neither pictured here. One of the funnier parts of these movies is that the kids were recast in every film so they'd always be the same age.
What popular movie is this photo from?
This photo shows probably the most well-known moment in any combat film that isn't a military movie. Ralph Macchio is show off his crane technique, about to win the All-Valley Karate Tournament. This comes on the heels of one of the greatest movie montages of all time, with the greatest movie montage song, "You're the Best" playing while Macchio's character, Daniel Larusso, makes his way through the tourney. He recently reprised his role, 30 years later, in YouTube's first scripted series.
What popular movie is this photo from?
The photo that you're viewing is from the sequel to the movie, the original of which came out in the mid-1980s and featured a killer synth-pop soundtrack. We don't remember if the soundtrack was as good in this 1990s film, but it did star Jonathan Brandeis who looked like he was on his way to being the next big thing. Unfortunately, after a series of flops, he became less marketable, fell into a depression and end up taking his own life.
What popular movie is this photo from?
This is another one of those movies on the list that was nominated for and won a ton of awards the year it came out. It yielded one of the most quoted lines of all time: "If you build it, he will come." Anybody, man or woman, who skips this film because they're not into baseball is really missing an American classic that has very little to do with baseball and more to do with following that little voice inside of you.
What popular movie is this photo from?
This is Bruce Willis in the original film that transformed him from a TV star -- he played a wise cracking detective on the show Moonlighting -- into a movie star. His breakout character of John McLaine, the former police officer somewhat type-casted Willis into similar roles through his career. He was still able to keep the comedic edge, but it was almost always found in action roles. This movie for which he is best known had many, many sequels.
What popular movie is this photo from?
For anybody under the age of 40, this scene probably makes the little hairs on your arm stand up. This is right at the moment when 8-year-old Carol Ann touches a TV set on the snowy channel (ask your parents about the pre-digital age), look back at her mother and says the classic line, "They're here!" This movie was rated PG and is cited as one of the reasons that Motion Picture Association of America invented the PG-13 rating shortly thereafter.
What popular movie is this photo from?
While it's certainly a stretch to call this a horror film, we've always seen most horror films designed for the male viewer. After all, how many chick flicks usually feature an axe-wielding psycho or young, scantily clad girls getting exterminated? But, we'll skip those and present this "horror" film instead. If you grew up anytime from about 1985 onward, this is a classic Halloween film that can be found making the rounds on cable. It stars Bette Midler and Sarah Jessica Parker.
What popular movie is this photo from?
This should be an easy one for a woman, man, or anybody who has seen any movies in the last few years. This photo comes from one of the highest grossing horror movies of all time. This is one of those movies that tells a heck of a story, and while it is very direct, there is a lot of subtext as the plot unfolds matter-of-factly. If you've seen this movie about a guy visiting his girlfriend's family, we're sure you asked, "Did that just happen?" more than once.
What popular movie is this photo from?
There are obscure superhero movies, then there is the superhero movie that most people give credit to bringing back the superhero movie. In all reality it probably also rescued Robert Downey Jr.'s career. It's hard to believe that he was the same goofball in 1980s movies like Weird Science who went on to become this superhero. Since the original movie came out, he's dawned his mask and cape for plenty of spin-off films in the last decade.
What popular movie is this photo from?
If you're a fan of Star Wars, this will probably be an easy question. If you don't know your Star Wars films, this is like the carnival game where you throw a dart at the wall of balloons. You hope that you get it, but it really is just luck and not skill. This was Daisy Ridley's first foray into the Star Wars universe and while some diehard fans didn't like the idea of of a female protagonist, we think she knocked it out of the park.
What popular movie is this photo from?
If you instantly know where this photo is from, you instantly know which photo we couldn't show you. It didn't take much more than this scene to make Sharon Stone a household name although we're hard-pressed to remember any of her other roles or the last time we saw her. The film was about Stone, who was a novel writer who a police detective played by Michael Douglas thinks may be using her job as a cover for actually taking someone's life.
What popular movie is this photo from?
"There's no crying in baseball!" may be one of Tom Hanks most quoted lines from all of his films, but what was the name of the film he said it. In this movie, directed by usual chick-flick director Garry Marshall's sister Penny (who you may remember from Laverne & Shirley), this film had a lot of star power beyond just Tom Hanks. It also featured Madonna, Rosie O'Donnell, Geena Davis and ironically, Penny Marshall put her own brother in the film as an actor.
What popular movie is this photo from?
While it's hard to grow up without seeing this movie at least once, very few people realize that this was based on a short story by Stephen King. The same anthology of short stories also yielded The Shawshank Redemption so it was obviously not horror and great stuff. The premise of this film is simple. A guy looks back on his time that he and a few of his buddies went on a journey to see a corpse 20 miles away.
What popular movie is this photo from?
If you're a big fan of people who have no idea how to act with a decent southern accent, we strongly urge you to watch this film and completely enjoy the way that Sandra Bullock completely chokes all over her voice. It sounds like she's trying her best Elvis impression. Aside from that, this is a pretty good movie based on the true story of Michael Oher, who went on to play professional football. Tim McGraw is also in the movie as Oher's adoptive father.
What popular movie is this photo from?
While Robin Williams was nominated for an academy award several times, he only won once, for portraying a down-on-his-luck therapist in this movie who tries to help whiz kid Matt Damon. Speaking of Damon, he wrote the screenplay for this film with this equally-unknown-at-the-time buddy Ben Affleck. They were fast-tracked to superstardom when they won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. After also working together in a couple of Kevin Smith films, the duo decided it was best to go their separate ways.
What popular movie is this photo from?
If you're looking for commitment to a part, look no further than Tom Hanks playing the character of a FedEx manager who is part of a plane crash into the ocean and ends up on deserted island. Hanks filmed the first half of the film, then production was suspended for six months so Hanks could let a scraggly, messy beard grow, allow his hair to grow and really start to look like he'd been stranded for a long time. And his best friend is a volleyball.
What popular movie is this photo from?
This movie was nominated for and won a boatload of awards when it came out. At its core, it's just a buddy road movie about two brothers getting to know each other on the road. Of course when you basically take Tom Cruise's character from Wall Street and pair him with Dustin Hoffman as a severely autistic man, it's going to mean a lot more than that. If you're watching this film with your man, see if you can see a tear or two toward the end of the movie.
What popular movie is this photo from?
"Say hello to my little friend!" And with that famous movie line, Al Pacino became a made man in films for the next several decades to come. In this film (as in many that would come down the road) he played an Italian gangster with mafia ties. His career had many parallels with Robert De Niro and for years people clamored for the two to appear on-screen together. When they finally did, in the film Heat, it was pretty much a letdown for fans.
What popular movie is this photo from?
This is a Coen Brothers movie that people completely love or hate, probably even more so that Raising Arizona. We'll reserve judgment by not telling you which camp we're in. The movie features Jeff Bridges playing a character called "The Dude" and John Goodman as his gun-toting best friend. There's kidnapping, a lot of bowling and an old-Hollywood style song and dance routine. As with most of their movies, quotable lines popped up with the most popular here probably being "The Dude abides."
What popular movie is this photo from?
This is probably in almost every guy and girl's Top 10 list of movies that came out of the 1980s. We've read rumors that they are making a sequel and if Tom Cruise can still be prancing around at nearly the age of 60 in the Mission Impossible films, why can't he also play a fighter pilot at the same age, right? Val Kilmer was his main adversary in this film, and we really hope if there is a sequel, they bring him back, too.
What popular movie is this photo from?
If we showed you the hero of the movie, it would just be too easy, so we'll show you the villain, played by Javier Bardem. We'll provide two clues that should be enough to at least guess based on the answer we provide. First is that the movie is from a long-running series of movies featuring the same main character. Second is that the theme songs always are a big deal in this movie franchise and this one was sung by Adele.
What popular movie is this photo from?
You can have Jack Nicholson as the Joker from the original Batman movie in the 1980s. We'll take the late Heath Ledger as the Joker in the 2008 version of this Batman film. Ledger was building himself a pretty sweet career. Few people know that there was even talk that he would have eventually had his own Joker movie had he not accidentally met his end. Sadly, we will never know.
What popular movie is this photo from?
There was a time when Jim Carrey was box office gold. It was right around the time that Adam Sandler was box office gold, too. The mid-1990s were a strange time indeed. While Carrey was doing well with The Mask, Liar Liar and a handful of other goofy films, he made headlines in being the first actor to ever get $20 million to be in a movie, for his title character. A tiny bit of trivia is that this is the only movie directed by Ben Stiller.
What popular movie is this photo from?
We're going to classify this movie, probably the most classic Christmas film ever made, as a guy flick. It's really about a decent guy who, because of his decency, doesn't end up following his boyhood dreams and thinks he's always settling for the things he has. Considering ending it all one Christmas Eve after a string of bad luck, he's shown what the world would be like if he hadn't been a part of it. And remember, every time a bell rings, and angel gets its wings.
What popular movie is this photo from?
This movie is one of the most clever we've seen in the last 20 years because of how it is told. The movie is told in reverse order, from scene to scene, so as the viewer, you have no idea what's happening when a new scene starts, but based on what unfolds, you figure out how they got to the previous scene. They tell it this way because Guy Ritchie's main character has no short-term memory. He's always foggy, so they made the audience somewhat foggy. It's a great technique.
What popular movie is this photo from?
Now, seriously, this should have worked. This should have been one of the hugest movies of all time when it came to the under 18 male demographic but for some reason it flopped. It had Michael Jordan, the Looney Tunes and a ton of cameos from actors like Bill Murray so dad could tolerate sitting through the movies when he brought his son to see it. Except, dad didn't bring the son and this outer space basketball adventure flopped badly.
What popular movie is this photo from?
If you've got a boyfriend or husband and he isn't crying by the end of this movie, which is based on a true story, than you don't have a human, you have a robot. If you want to make him cry even more, in real life, the guy who is the main character ended up doing time in prison about 10 years after this movie was made on securities fraud. It kind of hurt his motivational speaking career a bit.
What popular movie is this photo from?
With a lot of these movies, we're providing clues that include the most popular line from the film. Without a doubt, this film's quotable classic has to be, "You're killing me, Smalls!" Say that in any office and every guy under 40 years old will immediately scream the title of the movie. So if you're taking this quiz in an office when you should be working, try it and yell it out. We'll wait ... Ok, you're back. Were we correct or were we correct?
What popular movie is this photo from?
If you recognize this actor, Carl Weathers, it's probably as Apollo Creed in the Rocky movies. He tended to get typecast as the tough guy for plenty of years after the Rocky movies, but Adam Sandler brought him back to star as a one-handed golf pro in this film. While Sandler's string of movies were certainly comedies, it didn't take too many of them to realize he was catering to a male audience, mainly one that was between the ages of 12 and 16.
What popular movie is this photo from?
You didn't think we could get through a list of guy movies without having two Adam Sandler movies, did you? This comes from his 1990s streak of popular movies. The premise of this one is that his rich father paid off his teachers and principals through the years and he never really earned his high school diploma. So, he goes back to kindergarten and gets to go back up through the grades. It's a weak premise, but for some reason, it works.