What movie is this where all the old actors from old action film get together in a single movie and blow up lots of stuff? Which is the one where Brad Pitt plays death? And remember that movie where Tom Hanks’s best friend is a volleyball? Wait, what was that one movie where that girl was terminally ill but she got married anyway? What’s the name of the Tom Holland/Mark Wahlberg movie that came out recently?
It can be beyond aggravating when you have the name of a movie on the tip of your tongue but just can’t seem to get it out. However, there’s a site that can take the things you do remember about the movie and use them to find the name you’re thinking of.
It’s scary-accurate, and it’s one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a long time. So how do you you find the name of a movie?
Find any movie with What Is My Movie, even if you forgot the name
A site called simply “What is my movie?” was created to showcase some next-level fuzzy search and deep search technology. It was developed by Finnish startup Valossa, a company that was founded by computer science researchers and engineers from Finland’s University of Oulu.
“We aspire to create a new, descriptive way of searching video content,” the team said on its website. “Our technology understands the contents of video files itself. Ranging from text to pattern recognition, we reach down into data that has not been searchable in the past.”
The site continues, “Whatismymovie.com has been developed by the tech team of Valossa that has its roots in the Computer Science and Engineering research conducted at the University of Oulu. We have an extensive research background on automatic content recognition and video data analysis. The demonstrations on this site have been developed for research purposes and Proof of Concept for the industry. Deep Content technology has also been piloted with the broadcasters for TV content.”
What is my movie is crazy scary-accurate
The group’s “Deep Content” technology analyzes video content in ways that typical search engines cannot, and it uses that data to deliver impressive matches even when the search terms provided at very vague.
I had a whole lot of fun testing out the site’s tech. Impressively, I have yet to stump it.
Since Valossa’s tech digs deep into the video content itself, you can even use quotes to find the movie you’re looking for.
How to find the name of a movie by a scene?
Another awesome feature is you can even describe elements of a specific scene and the results are always on point.
It’s a hugely useful site. It also just so happens to be an impressive showcase for Valossa’s tech. You can check it out right here. Can you stump it?
Different ways of searching to name that movie you’re thinking of
You can even get more granular with your searching as you progress. If you just remember actors, you can search “actor based matches”. For those who remember a handful of words from the title, the “title based matches” are great. For example, if you type in A River into the search bar, you’ll get A River Runs Through It, Where the River Runs Black, All The Rivers Run, and more options.
There are also “director based matches”, “general matches” and “traditional search” you can opt for to better narrow down your guesses. Also, you can also search with your Amazon Alexa device. Turning on that skill is simple. If you enable the Valossa Movie Finder skill, you’ll be able to ask Alexa your movie-related questions to better find your answers. This is great for anyone who uses the Echo frequently.
This article was originally published on March 18th, 2016, and has been updated.