If I asked you what job you had four years ago, you could probably tell me. Hell, you could probably tell me who you were dating/ married to, what kind of dog you had and what kind of car you drove too. These basic facts are burned into your brain, but what about the most important things? What about all the movies you saw and all the ones that obsessively advertised at you but didn't earn your business? Could you remember all of them?
Luckily, you don't need to speculate. The heroes here at Cinema Blend have devised a quiz to help you figure out just how many movies you remember from four years ago. As a reminder, four years ago was 2010, a perfectly passable twelve month chunk that gave us such favorites as Toy Story 3, Black Swan, The King's Speech, The Social Network and my personal favorite, The Town. No doubt you remember all of those gems, but what about some of the widely advertised films that didn't quite do Yogi Bear-level business? Let's find out.
Are you ready? Then without further ado, let's cruise past 2004, 2008 and 2009 in order to guess that movie, 2010 edition.
We'll give you release dates, cast lists, still images and more. You try and figure the name in your brain, then flip to the next page for the answer.
Round #1
Release Date: August 20, 2010
Worldwide Box Office: $49,830,607
Stars: Jason Bateman, Jennifer Aniston, Jeff Goldblum, Patrick Wilson
Plot: Pissed off that his long-time best friend Jennifer Aniston doesn't want him to inseminate her, Jason Bateman decides to replace Patrick Wilson's sperm for his own in a drunken haze of bad decisions. Once the child is quite a bit older, he lets her know what's up and surprise, surprise, she's a little pissed off about it.
Excerpt From CB's Review: The premise behind ____is ludicrous, but its central relationship feels achingly familiar and real; some good performances and snappy jokes aren't quite enough to save an aimless script and obvious plot points, but there are far more good surprises here than bad.\_
This movie's title is a hard sell on the plot in two words.
Round #2
Release Date: May 14, 2010
Worldwide Box Office: $21,570,263
Stars: Common, Queen Latifah, Paula Patton
Plot: A physical therapist who has never had a ton of luck with money and her hot, gold-digging sister meet a professional basketball player. The hot sister soon latches onto the New Jersey Nets star, but when he gets injured, it's the other sister who has to tend to his wounds, emotional and physical if you know what I'm saying. A game of back-and-forth commences until he finally picks the sister you thought he would be with the entire time. I think. Or maybe it's the other sister. I don't know what you think.
Excerpt From CB's Review: If the sports setting was included as a way to draw in male viewers, it's a total failure, but sports-loving women who identify with Latifah's character may appreciate it. Hamri's direction does little to enliven those sports scenes, and she leans way too hard on easy montages and broad comic moments to keep the film moving.
This movie's name is a really dumb pun on one of the character's names.
Round #3
Release Date: July 23, 2010
Worldwide Box Office: $27,293,743
Stars: Selena Gomez, John Corbett, Ginnifer Goodwin, Joey King
Plot: Selena Gomez and Joey King's family is wildly in debt. The girls spend the ensuing days coming up with a series of wild schemes to alleviate the money problems. Along the way, they get up to all sorts of shenanigans and misadventures, adding to their sisterly bond and solving a whole host of issues along the way.
Excerpt From CB's Review: The film soon begins to feel episodic instead of like one continuous plot. This would be fine if executed well, but, instead, all of the vignettes seem to follow the same pattern. 1) **is being a rambunctious free spirit, 2) Someone gets upset about _***being a rambunctious free spirit 3) Someone has a heart-to-heart with \_*about growing up, being responsible and learning to mature.\_
This film was an adaptation of a beloved children's series.
Round #4
Release Date: January 8, 2010
Worldwide Box Office: $32,607,316
Stars: Amy Adams, Matthew Goode, Adam Scott
Plot: Irritated with her boyfriend for not being more proactive about their future and completely unwilling to take that for the sign it is, Amy Adams heads to Ireland to do the deed herself. Of course, she meets a man along the way and suddenly starts thinking maybe he would be a better call.
Excerpt From CB's Review: It's at least not blatantly misogynistic or quite as ridiculous as others of its kind, but _ commits what might be an even bigger offense toward audiences in need of an escape from January doldrums: it's horribly unfunny.
This movie takes its name after the specific date of an Irish tradition.
Round #5
Release Date: October 8, 2010
Worldwide Box Office: $105,648,706
Stars: Katherine Heigl, Josh Duhamel, Josh Lucas
Plot: Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel hate each other on account of a blind date that went disastrously wrong. Despite this, their chosen as co-guardians to take care of their friends' child in the event that they die. Of course, they do, in a car crash, and Heigl and Duhamel must move in together to play house and convince a social worker they're enough of a ragtag family to make the arrangement work.
Excerpt From CB's Review: There are bones of something worth saving in ___, which might have succeeded with different actors, a script relying on less hackneyed comedic situations, or even an extra dose of realism in its soft-lit, Crate and Barrel world._
Remember when we all briefly thought Katherine Heigl was going to be the next Julia Roberts? Whomp. Whomp. Whomp.
Round #6
Release Date: December 17, 2010
Worldwide Box Office: $48,668,907
Stars: Jack Nicholson, Reese Witherspoon, Owen Wilson and Paul Rudd
Plot: This one is really complicated, but I'll do my best to be brief. Paul Rudd is a mess because his girlfriend broke up with him and he's being investigated by the federal government thanks to some shadiness at a business owned by his dad. Reese Witherspoon is pissed off because she didn't make the US Olympic team, and she starts dating Owen Wilson, who pitches for the Nationals. Their lives all intersect in strange, funny and heartfelt ways.
Excerpt From CB's Review: The little flashes of brilliance keep ____from collapsing under its own excess, but they also suggest the frustrating prospect of something better. How can a writer smart enough to write the extended courtship scene between George and Lisa also not realize the Nicholson character is totally superfluous?\_
At one point, more than a few people thought this movie had real Oscar potential. Then it came out and was only pretty decent.
Round #7
Release Date: November 24, 2010
Worldwide Box Office: $89,519,773
Stars: Cher, Christina Aguilera, Eric Dane, Cam Gigandet
Plot: A small town Iowa girl moves out to Los Angeles to become a famous actress and singer. Of course, it doesn't work out for her immediately; so, she takes a job as a waitress in a burlesque club. In between serving customers, she works on her dance moves and eventually auditions to replace one of the girls who leaves to have a baby. There's also a side plot about the club having problems paying its bills.
Excerpt From CB's Review: *__* is a glitzy tribute to two of the greatest divas ever. That plot point alone should have helped its gyrating, gay-friendly ass shimmy into cult status almost immediately. Unfortunately, it's just really not that good
This movie has a stacked cast. Kristen Bell, Alan Cumming and Julianne Hough are all involved too.
Round #8
Release Date: November 12, 2010
Worldwide Box Office: $66,821,036
Stars: Eric Balfour, Scottie Thompson, Donald Faison, Brittany Daniel
Plot: Alien space ships suddenly show up in Los Angeles, ruing a bachelor party and more importantly, sucking people up like vacuum cleaners. The cast spends most of the film's runtime desperately trying to avoid getting sucked up. Eventually, they find themselves face to face with the aliens, and that sets in motion one of the oddest final sequences in the history of the motion picture industry.
Excerpt From CB's Review: The first act sucks. The second act sucks even more. And the third act, through sheer unstoppable suck momentum, builds and builds like a sick avalanche of devastating putrescence until man, woman and child alike are all devoured by its gaping suck hole.
The visual effects are great, especially given the budget size, but they're not enough to overcome how shallow and illogical the script is.
Round #9
Release Date: April 30, 2010
Worldwide Box Office: $36,236,710
Stars: Brendan Fraser, Brooke Shields, Matt Prokop
Plot: Brendan Fraser and his boss Ken Jeong are trying to cut down a forest in Oregon to clear space for a residential community and a large mall with a forest theme. The animals, of course, want no part of losing their home; so, they band together and start causing all sorts of mischief to disrupt the development plans in truly bizarre but not quite humorous ways. To truly appreciate that lack of humor, you should know the whole knocking down a forest to create a forest-themed mall is the funniest idea in this whole mess.
Excerpt From CB's Review: It's not as if the producers made grape Kool-Aid when most people would have preferred cherry; it's as if they swapped out the sugar for baking powder and salt.
I think the most infuriating aspect of this movie is that there are a ton of brilliant comedic actors who were cast and given almost no lines to work with at all.
Round #10
Release Date: November 10, 2010
Worldwide Box Office: $60,040,976
Stars: Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, Jeff Goldblum, Diane Keaton, Patrick Wilson
Plot: Rachel McAdams is a news producer who has inherited a mess of a morning show. Everyone hates each other. The ratings are terrible, and the product seems unfixable. So, she fires the co-anchor and brings in a bitter and angry Harrison Ford who still can't believe he's not broadcasting real news anymore. Alongside Diane Keaton, they build an uneasy chemistry and start to turn things around.
Excerpt From CB's Review: As sunny as the title suggests, **\__** is a sharp and endearing take on the workplace comedy, anchored by veteran Roger Michell's sure-handed direction and a luminous lead performance from Rachel McAdams, proving once again what a great and underappreciated comedic talent she is._
This movie is seriously good. It's the best movie on this list. Once you're done taking the quiz, go out and rent it, if you haven't seen it before.
Round #11
Release Date: December 22, 2010
Worldwide Box Office: $20,529,194
Stars: Garrett Hedlund, Leighton Meester, Gwyneth Paltrow, Tim McGraw
Plot: Gwyneth Paltrow is a mess of a country singer. She got drunk and fell off stage while she was pregnant, which caused a miscarriage, public backlash and a trip to rehab. Despite being married to Tim McGraw, she's having an affair with another country singer, played by Garrett Hedlund, although he's more into Leighton Meester, who has huge potential as a country star.
Excerpt From CB's Review: At best, _**\_**_, with its endless number of betrayals and affairs, could be called a soap opera, but it lacks the self-awareness required for it to be an entertaining one. Though the film does have its bright spots, it also doesn't have the attention span to hold on to them and never gives the audience a reason to care about any of these characters._
You would need to pay me a lot of money to get back on this emotional rollercoaster.
Round #12
Release Date: October 15, 2010
Worldwide Box Office: $105,197,635
Stars: Matt Damon, Cecile de France, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jay Mohr
Plot: Matt Damon plays a medium who hates his profession. Cecile de France plays a French journalist who underwent a near death experience. Their lives, alongside those of two twin boys, interconnect in very strange ways that criss-cross continents and major world events, the significance of which seems to hold some larger meaning. There are also some twins and a heroin addict involved.
Excerpt From CB's Review: Telling three stories linked only vaguely by the notion of death, Peter Morgan's screenplay jumps around a lot of ideas about grief and longing but never really uncovers any of them, and Eastwood's muted direction brings nothing out of the script or the actors, despite the raw emotions on display here.
This movie offends me because it seems convinced that people really do have "gifts" that allow them to contact the dead. It's like The Mentalist, except the exact opposite.
Round #13
Release Date: September 24, 2010
Worldwide Box Office: $32,005,248
Stars: Kristen Bell, Sigourney Weaver, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kristin Chenoweth
Plot: Kristen Bell returns home for her brother's wedding, only to freak out when she realizes he's marrying some b-word she went to high school with. Furious, she decides to sabotage the wedding. Meanwhile, Kristen Bell's mother gets all pissy too when she finds out that the bride's aunt is some b-word she went to high school with. Shenanigans ensue, much to the annoyance of all the men who just want to get over it and move on.
Excerpt From CB's Review: It's over-the-top when it should be subtle and underwhelming when it should be outrageous. It completely wastes all its good ideas and bookends them between miserable retreads and blatant morality plays. Either go for it, or show a little tact.
This movie's title is a play on what you might say to your enemy when unexpectedly seeing them.
Round #14
Release Date: October 1, 2010
Worldwide Box Office: $28,189,979
Stars: Renee Zellweger, Ian McShane, Bradley Cooper
Plot: This movie was delayed a stupid number of times and didn't wind up getting released until years after it was completed. A social worker rescues a girl from an abusive home, but spoiler alert, it turns out she's a demon child who just wants to suck the fun (and life) out of everything around her. The terror begins almost immediately, and it continues until the last moment.
Excerpt From CB's Review: **\__** is a roller coaster of a movie. Work with me here. Parts of it are scary. Parts of it only seem scary. Parts of it are wooden and mechanical. But the only thing about it that makes my stomach sick is Renee Zellweger's jaw._
This movie is not as horrible as advertised, though I probably wouldn't say it's good. Good is a strong word. Passable is probably more in the right ballpark.
Round #15
Release Date: December 29, 2010
Worldwide Box Office: $12,355,734
Stars: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams
Plot: Probably the most soul-sucking, emotionally depressing one hour and fifty-two minutes I've ever spent in my entire life. The film follows a seemingly mismatched couple, played by Gosling and Williams, whose marriage is slowly falling apart. He's a high school drop out. She's a pre-med student. Later, he's a painter and she's a nurse. They're horrifically unhappy, and this movie is obsessed with showing us how unhappy.
Excerpt From CB's Review: It's well known that 50% of first marriages end in divorce, but did you know that 67% of second marriages and 74% of third marriages end the same way? It's this reality that writer/director Derek Cianfrance brilliantly shows us in his film **__**.
This movie is good on a lot of technical levels. It's just not enjoyable. At all.
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