Movies starring Tom Hanks

The Ladykillers is an interesting concoction - a faithful update of the original Ealing comedy cooked in vat of Coen Brothers' seasoning. Even though this is based on the 1955 British film of the same name, those unfamiliar with The Ladykillers' p...

A dozen years ago, the prospect of a romantic comedy starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts - two of the most bankable actors of the late-'90s and early-'00s - would have created waves of anticipation. In 2011, this second collaboration between the t...

I’ve long since given up asking the question “Why?” when it comes to filmmakers turning to foreign language films for the storylines of new English-language films. Sometimes, in fact, the results can be quite satisfactory – take the 2022 r...

News of the World, based on the 2016 novel by Paulette Jiles, is a road trip Western where the genre serves less as the focus than as a backdrop to the relationship between the paternalistic Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd (Tom Hanks) and the 10-y...

Some will argue that a film, being essentially a means of entertainment, can do little to change a national consciousness. Others, citing the power of the medium, will claim that motion pictures possess this rare and extraordinary ability. These ...

The Polar Express is cinematic magic - a delightful tale guaranteed to enthrall viewers of all ages. Does that sound like advertising hype, or the words of a publicist? Perhaps, but it's a reflection of how strongly this film pulled me under its ...

If one looks back at U.S. history during the 1970s, the importance of The Washington Post immediately becomes clear. The paper, which began the decade as just another local daily with little national prominence, concluded it as an important b...

Tom Hanks as a cold-blooded hit man? Say it ain't so, Forrest! Over the course of his illustrious career, which is well into its third decade, Hanks has played a cross-dresser, a man infatuated by a mermaid, the manager of a women's baseball te...

For an author of long-form fiction, the writing process isn't merely technical. As absurd as it might seem, the writer bonds with his or her characters to the point where they can become as "real" as any flesh-and-blood person. This is especially t...

Devastating. If, for some reason, I was asked to write a one-word review of Saving Private Ryan, that would be the term I would use. As was true of director Steven Spielberg's other masterpiece, Schindler's List, the impact of this motion pic...