The Whopping Movies Cryptogram Quiz

Answer: Little kid grows up to play piano.

"Big" (1988) is a comedy with real heart and lasting charm. A young boy wishes on a boardwalk genie machine that he was big - then wakes up to find himself a full-grown Tom Hanks. A toy company soon realizes the value of having a grown-up child on the design committee. It's one of the rare comedies to do well at the Oscars, and netted Hanks his first Best Oscar nomination.

Answer: Both the title and its cryptogram contain an animal.

Directed by Tim Burton, "Big Fish" (2003) features a man asking his father to tell him the truth behind his fantastical legends. This being a Tim Burton movie, the legends are a vehicle to get straight into visual spectacle. Jumbo the giant catfish is but one of the surprises featured.

Answer: Based on a nonfiction book subtitled "Inside the Doomsday Machine."

"The Big Short" (2015) is a close-up look at the bankers who helped cause the 2008 financial crisis, and an obligatory mention in every college business class I've ever taken. Propelled by an Oscar-winning script, it's one of those slick fictionalized portrayals that reminds us that life is stranger than fiction.

It was also one of the first dramatic roles for Steve Carell of "The Office" fame.

Answer: You're calling this a sports movie? Spare me.

The titular "Big Lebowski" (1998) is a bowler, get it? Actually, there are two Lebowskis: slacker The Dude and the rich Jeffrey Lebowski. The name confusion unwittingly gets The Dude embroiled in a plot more convoluted than - and inspired by - "The Big Sleep."

The unprepossessing Dude walks through the movie in a sweater that fits him like a bath robe, but he's surely one of film's most loved characters. He's inspired a mock religion named "Dudeism," basically a secular Taoism that might aspire to full-blown worship if it weren't so much hassle.

Answer: Its trailer promised "everything 'The Falcon' had and more."

If you don't speak 1930s Californian literary euphemism, the "big sleep" is death. Along with "The Maltese Falcon," "The Big Sleep" (1946) is the movie that codified black-and-white film noir, as well as the best-known screen pairing of Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. It's based on a Raymond Chandler novel, with a screenplay by, among others, William Faulkner (yes that one). A 1978 adaptation, with Robert Mitcham playing P.I. Philip Marlowe, is not as renowned.

The list of the thousand best noirs at "They Shoot Pictures Don't They" includes fifteen movies that would fit this quiz: "The Big Lebowski," both versions of "The Big Sleep," "The Big Bluff," "The Big Carnival" (a.k.a. "Ace in the Hole"), "The Big Clock," "The Big Combo," "The Big Easy," "The Big Frame" (a.k.a. "The Lost Hours"), "The Big Heat," "The Big Knife," "The Big Night," "The Big Risk," "The Big Steal" and "The Bigamist," which I assume means "one who writes the titles for film noirs."

Answer: The only disguise for this FBI agent is unconvincing drag.

"Big Momma's House" (2000) was a comedy vehicle for Martin Lawrence. It neither the first movie to put its lead comedian in a fatsuit ("The Nutty Professor") or in drag ("Mrs. Doubtfire"), nor the last ("Madea" series). It's the kind of comedy destined to sell lots of DVDs and net several sequels but get lambasted by the critics. Roger Ebert's (surprisingly even-handed) review referred to one scene as "the biggest evacuation since we pulled out of Vietnam," and no, he didn't mean it's a war movie.

Answer: Got a sequel 29 years later.

"Big Top Pee-wee" (1988) was an awkward follow-up to the beloved "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" of 1985. The plot follows Paul Reubens' Pee-wee joining the circus in pursuit of a (female) love interest - a far cry from the character's usual fear of the feminine. The sequel lost the involvement of Tim Burton (it would've been the second of three "Big" movies for him), couldn't use Danny Elfman's excellent score, and worst of all, toned Pee-wee down. The New York Times' review at the time complained, "This new, lukewarm, compromised Pee-wee is remarkably unfunny."

The sequel, "Pee-wee's Big Holiday," released in 2016. It was Reuben's last movie role.

Answer: Dir. Samuel Fuller based it on his life experience.

"The Big Red One" is a World War II epic of unusual character: Samuel Fuller was known as a director of B-movies, and "Big Red One" is anything but "The Thin Red Line." Yet the movie premiered at Cannes, and its genre-ish aspects were praised by Roger Ebert: '"A" war movies are about war, but "B" war movies are about soldiers.'

The title comes from the U.S. Army's 16th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, in which Fuller served. For his service, he was heavily decorated, including receiving the Silver Star.

Answer: A tale of matrimony and moussaka.

"My Big Fat Greek Wedding" (2002) is a rom-com that weds bride Nia Vardalos to groom John Corbett. Written by Vardalos, the surprise indie hit cost $6 million to make, but grossed $369 million between the box office and DVD sales. The movie was followed by TV's "My Big Fat Greek Life" (still the bride's life), "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2" (the bride's parents are remarried) and "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3" (the bride's father's ex-mistress's secret grandson is married, stretching what is meant by "My").

For over a decade, the film held an unusual accolade: it was the highest-grossing movie which never achieved the number 1 weekly box office gross. "Sing" overtook it in 2016.

Answer: Proof that bullets can't harm you if you know enough kung fu.

"Big Trouble in Little China" (1986) was one of four collaborations between star Kurt Russell and director John Carpenter. Departing from Carpenter's slow-burn horror flicks like "The Thing" and the "Halloween" series, it's a wacky comedy that throws a chiselled American action hero into a kung-fu movie he doesn't belong in. The studio, in Carpenter's opinion, screwed up the release, making it a commercial flop; Carpenter flatly refused to direct a studio film ever again.

Sci-fi writer Harlan Ellison was a big fan: "a cheerfully blathering live-action cartoon that will give you release from the real pressures of your basically dreary lives."