Sparked by end of year lists and God knows what else, potentially boredom, people are beginning to wonder whether the beloved actor Tom Hanks has ever really been in a good movie.
Yes, he’s been in numerous classic movies, notably, romcoms like Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail, but his breakout role was in Forrest Gump, but people on Twitter appear to be discussing whether Tom Hanks has had a good filmography or just a prolific one and after an end of year list from Vulture, Will Leitch and Tom Grierson ranked all of the movies that Tom Hanks has ever been in.
Some would suggest that Tom Hanks might be an adaptable performer, but he does tend to recreate a version of the same person, well-intentioned, everyman, in every movie and this tweet seemed to be the match that lit the fire, which has continued to rage for several days.
Of course, no one’s arguing that every single film that Tom Hanks has played a role in is perfect, there’s, after all, He Knows You’re Alone, Tom Hank’s film debut which was also a horror movie that knocked off Halloween very clearly.
But this star turns in films like A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood, about Mr Rogers, which came out last year – A League of their Own, and of course, Cast Away, which would suggest he’s a fantastic performer who’s been in several splendid movies.
People disagreed, as they’re likely to do on Twitter, to varying degrees.
Some pointed out that great movies can also be entertaining and that they don’t have to be great in the most pretentious sense of the word.
Perhaps it’s not a bad idea. After all, if two people can’t decide on whether Toy Story was a good film or not, then maybe all of these discussions won’t lead us anywhere particularly useful.
Many of his movies were great, some were better than others though, and he’s pretty much just himself in all of his films.
He has an extremely unique voice and presence and I’ve enjoyed most of his movies, he’s a fantastic performer, but in my view, his role in Philadelphia was his best career performance, but even then, I believe Denzel Washington’s performance was even better and more Oscar-worthy.
Nonetheless, Tom Hanks has starred in many amazing films and many have been critically acclaimed and Saving Private Ryan transformed the genre of war films and to think this is not a fantastic movie would be daft, but Philadelphia was a hugely influential movie.
Here’s the debate though. Tom Hanks has starred in some really good movies – yes – end of debate!
