I‘m going to do something a little bit different with this series today. After playing around on Flikchart for a little while this morning, I started ranking all the Tom Hanks movies and I was shocked to discover how many Tom Hanks movies I’ve not seen.
Now, while The ‘burbs and Saving Private Ryan are obvious great classics, are there any of these movies in the following list I’ve not seen that are really must see pictures (in chronological order)?
The Man with One Red Shoe
Nothing in Common
Every Time We Say Goodbye
Punchline
The Bonfire of the Vanities
Radio Flyer
The Polar Express
The Great Buck Howard
Angels & Demons
I’ve seen The Man With One Red Shoe and Punchline of those and I wouldn’t call either a ‘must see’. It’s been over a decade since I’ve seen them to be honest though. I can remember finding Punchline quite interesting (a drama about comedians – Funny People anyone?), especially as it’s one of Hanks’ earliest dramatic roles, but I think it’s a bit sappy if I remember correctly. I remember very little about The Man With One Red Shoe, except that I found it quite funny when I was about 12 when I last saw it.
Yeah, as I was watching Funny People, I was thinking about Punch Line even though I hadn’t seen it – but funny that I remember seeing the trailer back in the 80s pretty clearly.
Funny People got really, REALLY bogged down in the last 45 minutes or so. Actually because of it, I think that movie overall was pretty bad.
DEFINITELY watch Punchline, Hanks is excellent in it, and with co-stars like Sally Field and John Goodman, you really can’t go wrong. Radio Flyer, Hanks is basically the narrator and Frodo is really the lead.
Can’t say much for the others; either I didn’t see them or don’t consider them “must see.”
Angels & Demons = bleh. Don’t waste your time.
Punchline ain’t no prize, but it has its moments, I still remember bits and pieces, particularly John Goodman’s Mr. Mom type. A better later-era Sally Field flick would be the underrated SOAPDISH, but then we are away from Hanks at that point.
I do dig me some early era Hanks though. Lots of great stuff when he was doing no-big-deal comedies.
eh, Volunteers is terrible. Bachelor Party is mediocre (barely). Do love some Dragnet and The burbs though.
Stay clear of “Bonfire Of The Vanities”. Not only is it bad, it’s boring. I re-watched it awhile ago after reading “The Devil’s Candy” (the book about the making of the film and everything that went wrong), but I still couldn’t find anything interesting about it (OK, except for that great long opening shot). The book is a pretty amazing read though.
“Bachelor Party” isn’t very good in many many ways, yet it has some really funny moments (mostly due to Hanks). And that scene near the end where the fight in the movie theatre parallels the one on screen is quite impressive.
And don’t forget “Splash” among his early films. I haven’t seen it in decades, but I think it would mostly hold up. And of course “Big”.
Big and The Burbs are awesome beyond the nostalgia factor, Dragnet is almost there, but I imagine a lot of his other comedies that I loved at the time (when I was about 10) probably don’t hold up to much now i.e. Turner and Hooch, The Money Pit, Joe Versus the Volcano. Looking back at his movies makes me remember how much of a fan I was of his comedies back in the day, it was quite a shock when he moved onto Philadelphia etc. and left comedy behind for the most part.
Hey Andrew,
Just wanted to point out it’s Flickchart (not Flikchart).
Also, anyone can rank their favorite Tom Hanks films at:
http://www.flickchart.com/?actor=Tom+Hanks
Thanks!
-Nathan
Co-Founder, Flickchart
My favorite of those is The Man With One Red Shoe, which is a fun flick. I would say watch that. It’s not an epic, but it’s a good movie.