Tom Hanks Says He’s Only Made 4 Good Movies
As far as Tom Hanks is concerned he has only four good movies though he stopped short of actually listing which ones were on that list.
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Tom Hanks has only four movies that are “pretty good,” which is a pretty divisive statement that would no doubt create an internet frenzy of love for one of Hollywood’s favorite actors and a lot of hate for the person saying it. But what if the actor himself is the utterer of that statement?
What if the actor that rises above the rest, like Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and George Clooney, says his decades-long career comes down to less than a handful of films? In an interview with People Magazine, Hanks told the publication that he only has four movies that he thinks are above the line for what he believes is “pretty good.”
The interview celebrates the upcoming book Tom Hanks is releasing in May of next year, following the making of a fictional comic book film and the source material that inspired it, titled The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece. While he talks about the process, he confesses that “no one knows how a movie is made–though everyone thinks they do” but after nearly four decades in the movie business, he still finds himself amazed at the process.
That is when he drops the bomb that he has made many movies, four of which are “pretty good”, and he is awestruck at seeing the “flicker of an idea” come alive on the movie screen.
When thinking about the stars of the nineties, movie fans point to Brad Pitt, Will Smith, and of course, Tom Hanks. His movies defined a decade with such iconic roles in Forrest Gump, A League of Their Own, and Apollo 13; he also anchored a Toy Story franchise that reinvigorated an animated genre that seemed to be slowing down and won back-to-back Best Actor Academy Awards for Philidelphia and Forrest Gump. What movies does he include on the list of his four worthy films for the “pretty good” label?
While he doesn’t offer any examples of the films that he would include, one can start to guess, and the list almost certainly would have to include his Academy Award winners in Philidelphia and Forrest Gump, but what other two would he include?
Older fans of Tom Hanks would point to his early work in Big, Turner & Hooch, and Splash, while cases could be made for his 90s run of great films in Saving Private Ryan with Vin Diesel and Toy Story with Tim Allen, or his turn of the century hit, Cast Away. He has worked with some of Hollywood’s biggest talents in many of those films, including Stephen Spielberg, Ron Howard, and Robert Zemeckis.
Tom Hanks has become one of the leading faces of the film industry and one of the most trusted stars to launch any film to as close as anyone can get to a guaranteed blockbuster.
While he may think he only has four films that are worthy of the title “pretty good,” the fact that he has been nominated for Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor in six films (Big, Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, Saving Private Ryan, Cast Away, and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood) means that we as fans can argue for a long time over the merits of his statement.
