The Circle
B (out of 5) Emma Watson is barely surviving in a crappy temp job when her friend calls her up and tells her that she has gotten her an interview at the Googlesque communications… Continue reading
Tag Archive: Tom Hanks
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Everything Is Copy
BBBBB (out of 5) Nora Ephron died in 2012 at the age of 71 of leukemia, and the shocking news of her death was compounded by the revelation that her illness was something she… Continue reading
My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2
BB (out of 5) It’s been thirteen years since a charming, independently produced comedy about an ethnic wedding became the most profitable film of all time, and so much has changed: the adorable… Continue reading
Bridge Of Spies
BBBB (out of 5) It’s the height of the Cold War, and Tom Hanks plays a insurance lawyer who gets an unusual request from his boss: an enemy agent (Mark Rylance) has been caught and… Continue reading
Larry Crowne
0.5 (out of 5) A film so disastrous it has to be seen to be believed. Tom Hanks is a longtime employee at a Walmart-like store who is devastated when he gets fired due… Continue reading
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
BBB (out of 5) Moments of hilarious spontaneity almost overcome a weak script in this delightful romantic comedy. Nia Vardalos plays Toula, a geeky Chicago waitress who works at her father’s Greek restaurant until… Continue reading
Toy Story 3
BBB.5 (out of 5) In 1995 the Pixar studio set off a cinematic revolution when they premiered the first-ever fully computer animated feature-length film, a modern classic that received explosive critical acclaim and… Continue reading
Cloud Atlas
BB.5 (out of 5) A scientist in the late nineteenth century is beset by illness while on an ocean voyage; a composer in England in the 1930s becomes assistant to a cantankerous legend… Continue reading
The Simpsons Movie
BB.5 (out of 5) Television’s longest running sitcom, and one of the warmest, wittiest skewerings of popular American culture, gets its shot at the silver screen with this lovely adventure which basically plays… Continue reading
Joe Versus The Volcano
BB.5 (out of 5) Oscar-winning screenwriter John Patrick Shanley (Moonstruck) makes an ill-conceived directorial debut with this forgettable comedy. Tom Hanks plays a corporate drone who finds out from his doctor that he… Continue reading
Punchline
BBB (out of 5) Sally Field gives a spirited performance as a bored housewife who realizes that her observations on suburban living make for great standup fare. She pursues a career in the field… Continue reading
Captain Phillips
BBBB (out of 5) A freighter off the shores of Somalia is overtaken by armed pirates in this fact-based story starring a superb Tom Hanks as the titular leader of the vessel. Paul Greengrass… Continue reading
Saving Mr. Banks
BB.5 (out of 5) When Mary Poppins was released in 1964 it quickly became the most successful box office hit of all time and won five Academy Awards, making a superstar of its… Continue reading
Big
BBB.5 (out of 5) A thirteen year-old kid is tired of being bossed around by his parents, told he’s too short to go on rides and constantly given chores to do, so like… Continue reading
A League Of Their Own
BBBB (out of 5) With most able-bodied men off fighting in the trenches during World War II, professional baseball team owners turn to creating a women’s league in order to keep the game… Continue reading
Connie And Carla
BB.5 (out of 5) Two friends since childhood (Nia Vardalos, who also wrote the script, and Toni Collette), live for the day when they’ll fulfill their big dreams of making it to the… Continue reading
Where The Wild Things Are
BB (out of 5) A young boy gets tired of being ignored by his overworked single mother (Catherine Keener) and his mean older sister. After deciding he’s had enough (he’s actually a bit… Continue reading
Parkland
BB (out of 5) Released for the fiftieth anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and a more unimportant movie could not possibly have been made on the subject. It covers… Continue reading
Saving Private Ryan
BBBB (out of 5) The first half hour of Steven Spielberg’s excellent film is one of the best war movies ever made. Perfect editing, sound design and realistic photography draw you in and… Continue reading
Catch Me If You Can
BBBB (out of 5) For almost three years in the sixties, high school student Frank Abagnale, Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio) traveled the world masquerading as a Pan-Am pilot, a doctor and a lawyer, cashing… Continue reading
The Terminal
BB.5 (out of 5) Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks) flies into New York city’s JFK airport from the fictional nation of Krakhozia with very little command of the English language and the desire to… Continue reading
That Thing You Do!
BBBB (out of 5) Tom Hanks makes a notable directorial debut with this brilliantly edited, perfectly cast musical comedy. The story centres around a group of four friends in the sixties who form… Continue reading
Angels & Demons
B.5 (out of 5) The success of the first film adaptation of a Dan Brown novel meant a sequel couldn’t be too far behind, and here it is, quickly produced and thoroughly inferior… Continue reading
The DaVinci Code
BBB.5 (out of 5) Is anyone else here amazed that a millennial-old institution is having its very foundations shaken by a Barnes & Noble Must-Read and a movie by Ron Howard, director of… Continue reading
Apollo 13
BBBBB (out of 5) Ron Howard’s best film as director is this gripping account of the failed Apollo 13 mission that thankfully never claimed the lives of its astronauts but threatened to on… Continue reading
Splash
BBBB.5 (out of 5) One of Ron Howard’s best movies and a wonderful opportunity to see Daryl Hannah at her most charming. She plays a mermaid who wanders out of the sea and straight… Continue reading
The Polar Express
BB.5 (out of 5) If you can handle how creepy it is, you might find it heartwarming: to begin with, Tom Hanks plays everybody in the movie (creepy), including the young boy, the father,… Continue reading
Forrest Gump
BBB (out of 5) Tom Hanks stars as a charming simpleton who manages to experience all the important events of the last half of the twentieth century without even realizing it: meeting Elvis and… Continue reading
Cast Away
BBBB (out of 5) Tom Hanks‘ amazing performance is the best reason to watch this excellent drama. The second of two films Robert Zemeckis made in the year 2000 (the other being What… Continue reading
You’ve Got Mail
BBB.5 (out of 5) Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan reunite with their Sleepless In Seattle director Nora Ephron in a remake of The Shop Around The Corner (which was also remade in musical form as… Continue reading
Sleepless In Seattle
BBBB.5 (out of 5) You could hardly do better in the romantic comedy department than this wonderfully original and witty film. Meg Ryan hears a recently widowed man (Tom Hanks) talking to a late… Continue reading
The Celluloid Closet
BBBBB (out of 5) Great documentary from Academy Award-winning directors Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein (Common Threads: Stories From The Quilt) about the history of homosexuality in Hollywood cinema. Featuring interviews with Susan… Continue reading
The Bonfire Of The Vanities
BB (out of 5) Brian DePalma makes a huge mess of Tom Wolfe’s extremely popular bestselling novel, but what probably marks this film as such a famous bomb were the circumstances surrounding it… Continue reading
The Ant Bully
BBB (out of 5) If you’re the member of the audience who laughs at lines like “I said cross your heart, not your butt!” being said by a child to an ant, you’ll… Continue reading
The Green Mile
BBB (out of 5) Beautifully filmed story that never really achieves what it’s going after. Tom Hanks gives a kindly and powerful performance as a prison warden in the death-row cellblock of a Southern… Continue reading
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
B (out of 5) Extremely annoyed is how you’ll feel from the opening of this execrable movie, a false and cloying attempt at feel-good post-9/11 drama that is surprisingly made by the director… Continue reading
Charlie Wilson’s War
BB.5 (out of 5) A minor Texas congressman (Tom Hanks) finds himself inspired by a gutsy society dame (Julia Roberts) to get involved in post-Soviet invaded Afghanistan and help the country defend itself… Continue reading
Philadelphia
BBB.5 (out of 5) A big-budget Hollywood film finally tackles the issue of AIDS for the first time; brave, yes, but it’s still just another Hollywood movie where gay men only hug so… Continue reading
Road To Perdition
BBB.5 (out of 5) Should be called Road To Pretentious; it’s so perfectly photographed and brilliantly art-directed within an inch of its life that it makes for the most shameless Oscar-baiting of the… Continue reading
The Ladykillers (2004)
BBB.5 (out of 5) Hilarious remake of the Alec Guinness classic has been reset by those crafty Coen Brothers in modern-day Mississippi. Irma P. Hall steals the show as a traditional, God-fearing, church-going widow… Continue reading
Cars
BBBB (out of 5) While the story doesn’t reach the brilliance of Toy Story or Monsters, Inc., this animated film from the multi-talents at Pixar is among their most beautiful, and manages some… Continue reading
Toy Story 2
BBBBB (out of 5) Excellent sequel that fully matches the quality of its predecessor. Buzz Lightyear and Woody are back at it again, protecting the world of toys from those who would do… Continue reading
Toy Story
BBBBB (out of 5) The first fully computer-animated feature film is a hilarious tale of friendship and adventure that is actually more notable for its writing than its technical wizardry. The idea here… Continue reading