Favourite Tom Hanks movie

Just wondering what is your favourite Tom Hanks movies?

Mine are:

Forrest Gump
Big

Moved to the Actors, Awards, & Directors forum.

Ah I loved Philadelphia Big Saving Private Ryan Green Mile The Man With One Red Shoe and Splash!

Just naming a few!

Didnt Tom Hanks play as an angel and Meg Ryan was the only one that could see him? I liked that movie just cant think of the name of it?

Joe Versus the Volcano is my favorite and The Money Pit is a major guilty pleasure. I like Hanks a lot, especially as an 80's everyman. He hasn't done much worthwhile stuff lately and his hair has gotten weird, but I enjoyed Catch Me if You Can and he was hilarious in his little Simpsons Movie cameo.



The angel movie LT is thinking of is probably City of Angels with Nicholas Cage, but I've never seen it

I'd have to start with A League of Their Own bcause that's the film that convinced me that Hanks wasn't just another 20-something pretty boy that were peopling a lot of mindless "comedies" back then. Hanks had to go a looooong way to live down his "Bosom Buddies" image with me. But there he was in League, not in every shot, probably not even in most of the shots, overweight to play the part, and acting every bit like a one-time competent coach gone to the bottle and trying to make the best of a situation he didn't like.

After that, I saw him in Philadelphia and discovered he was a really good actor. That was easily his best film ever, although Forest Gump was good, too. Gump losses points to Philadelphia to me because of the heavy reliance on special effects and the fact that the Gump of the movie is not the Gump of the book. That and the unnessary added scene of his mom having sex with the principle to get the kid in school. But Hanks did a good job in it and I applaud his acting ability. After those three hits, I quit avoiding Big and found it to be better than I expected.

However, I've been a little disapointed with Hanks' recent roles. I appreciate his total effort and the fact that Castaway had to be a one-man show, but I never could work up any feeling for Wilson at all and I was ready for him to make that raft long before he got started on it. I also kept thinking through the movie, "Wouldn't it be funny if the one package he didn't open and brought back to the world for delivery had contained a top-of-the-line batteries-included waterproof telephone-radio transmitter capable of reaching any land, air, or sea number around the world via it's satellight hookup?"

Road to Perdition was an OK film, but it left me asking what Hanks really contributed to that role. Newman could have played it just as well or better at Hanks age. So could several other actors when they were Hanks' age.

And I guess I'm the one person in the world who didn't like Saving Pvt. Ryan--not even Hanks' role, or maybe especially Hanks' role because I expected more of him than of the others in that film.

PS: went back and looked at some of the earlier postings and saw a listing for The Green Mile. That, too, was a good role and a great performance by Hanks because not everyone could have made that character believable.

I like Joe Versus the Volcano quite a bit (and I think Catch Me If You Can is damn-near perfect given the type of film it wants to be) but for me the best Tom Hanks film is and always will be Forrest Gump. I find it hard to imagine ever again feeling the way I did when I first saw that film. It evokes just about every emotion there is at one point or another and a good half dozen scenes give me goosebumps every time I watch it. It really embodies the old cliche; "I laughed, I cried..."

My top 5 fave:


5. A League Of Their Pwn
It's ironic that, a game mostly associated with male players, a film which focuses on the women's first professional entry into the sport, would be the one that, for me, truly captures the feeling which best reflects of why this sport is truly an American pasttime. That the purpose of a game is, no matter how the political world events may be turbulently transpiring, we all can just escape for a little while, catch a ballgame & hopefully return into the real world with our spirits a little higher & our perspectives a little bit clearer.
Because,
as we all know by now,
there is no crying in baseball.




4. Saving Private Ryan
Tom Hanks.
Stephen Spielberg.
World War II stuff.
You do the math.



3. Forrest Gump
After watching this film, I was so inspired, that I decided, on a whim, to go running all the way across the country. However, by the time I got to the end of my block, I got so devastatingly winded, & I was weezing so desperately for air, that I thought for sure, my left lung had collapsed in on itself.
So, instead, I just reminded myself that "stupid is as stupid does", & went back into my house & ate an entire "box of chawk-letts".
Which, of course, is what life is kinda like.




2. Road To Perdition
Road To Perdition is a quality film that addresses an area of the mobster life that rarely gets any notice from most movies from this genre: the relationship of a gangster with his kid(s) when the child is at the age in which the the parent's influence is most strongest & begins to crystalize in the kid's identity. Just this one aspect of the mafia lifestyle is enough to open a new set of ideas for future movies plotlines that focus on those in the world of organized crime.
Tom Hanks wanders out of his standard role to play an assasin who, along with his only survivng son, is on the run from the crime syndicate which he formerly called home. A life & death experience which reveals that there's a difference between the blood that is spilled for a mob-family & the blood that is shared between a real family.




1. Big
In this movie, Tom Hanks isn't really big.
He's just actin' like someone who is.
At least, big enough to kiss a girl without getting any cooties.
And in the process,
learns about love, responsibility 'n' stuff.

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Right now, all I'm wearing is a mustard-stained wife-beater T-shirt, no pants & a massive sombrero.

Here's mine:

The Burbs
Forrest Gump
Saving Private Ryan
The Green Mile
The Polar Express

There is an existing Hanks thread, HERE.

I think my top ten would still be...



1. Joe versus the Volcano
2. That Thing You Do!
3. Toy Story
4. Toy Story 3
5. Big
6. Philadelphia
7. Apollo 13
8. Catch Me If You Can
9. Bridge of Spies
10. The 'Burbs

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

My favorite Tom Hanks films are Forrest Gump, Cast Away, Big, Sleepless in Seattle, and The Green Mile.

So many to choose from

Forest Gump
The Terminal
Cast Away
The Green Mile

The Burbs was another one of my favourite great movie and funny.

Only one person listed Splash? Come on. His co-star in Splash Daryl Hannah was really sweet back in her day. Like, in Blade Runner. She looks totally different to how she used to look compared to now.

Before:



Now:


When I learnt that was her in the Kill Bill movies, I'm just like, whoa. Though she's aged gracefully.

Big or The Green Mile.

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something witty goes here......

The Godfather and Godfather II were all about a gangster and his kids. If you read the book, you should remember an unusual father-son scene with Luca Brasi when he confronts his newborn son (via his relationship with a prostitute) and the midwife who just delivered the baby. Not wanting to bring anyone like himself into the world, Brasi accompanies the midwife and the baby down to the basement of the building, holds open the furnace door and has the woman throw the baby into the flames. The midwife, telling the story, says maybe if she had thought to pinch the baby and make it cry, Brasi would have been moved enough to spare the child.

In Somebody Up There Likes Me, Paul Newman is a street tough and gang-member lashing out at his abusive father prior to becoming Rocky Graciano.

In The Dark Past, Lee J. Cobb helps gangster William Holden resolve some crippling elements in his relationship with his gangster father. It's a great film and a great study of a father-son relationship.

In the very good Detective Story, Kirk Douglas becomes a tough cop in part to make up for the fact that his abusive father was a thug. James Cagney has a bad relationship with his policeman father but a loving relationship with his mom in Public Enemy. And who can forget Cagney's mama's boy dependency on his street-tough mom in White Heat? And look at the short but juicy interplay between gangster Humphrey Bogart and his mom Majorie Main in Dead End--it says a lot about that relationship in just two scenes.

Then, of course, there have been several films about Ma Barker and her outlaw boys. There are probably others, but I can't think of them now.

I'm not a massive Hanks fan but here we go...

Top Ten

Catch Me If You Can (Spielberg, 2002)
Forrest Gump (Zemeckis, 1994)
Sleepless In Seattle (Ephron, 1993)
Big (Marshall, 1988)
Toy Story (Lasseter, 1995)
Road To Perdition (Mendes, 2002)
Charlie Wilson's War (Nichols, 2007)
Saving Private Ryan (Spielberg, 1998)
Philadelphia (Demme, 1993)
Toy Story 2 (Lasseter, 1999)

Def Forrest Gump

Coming onto this thread I only had one movie in mind: Forrest Gump. Then I read the thread and realized all the other sweet movies he's in. Gump is still tops.

1. Forrest Gump
2. Saving Private Ryan
3. Road to Perdition
4. The Green Mile
5. Catch Me If You Can

Great actor.

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Cast Away