Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful movie filled with heart
Review: Forrest Gump is one of the greatest films of all time. This movie has everything, drama, war, comedy, action, and acting. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, (who also directed Cast Away and the Back to the Future trilogy) and starring Tom Hanks, this movie went on to win numerous academy awards, and created one of the most memorable characters of all time. Everyone knows how it's a story of a [mentally restricted] man going through life in the 50's - 80's, but it's all very enjoyable. Hands down this is Tom Hanks best performance, and no one should pass this movie up. It should be viewed, and enjoyed by everyone
Rating:
Summary: STILL MY ALL-TIME FAVORITE MOVIE!
Review: First let me say that I'm not going to get worked-up over Tom Hanks' portrayal of a mentally retarded character. Forrest was not retarded. While he was not the sharpest tool in the shed, his IQ was not more than two standards deviations below the mean. Besides, Mr. Hanks is an actor, and he was merely acting according to the way the author wrote the character, the way the director directed the character, and his own interpretation of both.This is an exceptional movie--still my all-time favorite. I haven't actually watched it in a while, but when I do, I'm moved every time. How can one not be moved by a character so ingenuous, so resilient, and so good? How can one not be moved by such an incredible story, so skillfully directed? Bad things sometimes happen to good people. "It happens," as Forrest said. Someone once said that "life is ten percent what happens and 90 percent how I react to it." Never has this truth been so accurately portrayed as in this wonderful movie, "Forrest Gump." "Is he smart, or is he . . . like me?" That scene clinched the Oscar for Tom Hanks, and I still can't watch it without getting a big lump in my throat and tears in my eyes. Tom Hanks is the best, most versatile actor of our time, and never has he been more brilliant than he was in this movie. No one with a pulse can watch this movie and not be moved by it--perhaps even changed. I could not recommend any movie more highly.
Rating:
Summary: Still an Important Movie After All These Years
Review: I won't repeat the other reviewer comments here, but this is what this movie meant for me: It's a story of two lives, Forrest Gump's and Jenny's. Forrest's life despite his shortcomings lead to nothing short of spectacular meetings, events, and coincidences that mark our history. Jenny's life is more painful, full of soul searching and bitterness. Jenny doesn't love Forrest the way he loves her, but in the end, she gives him the greatest love that any women can give a man, her son. This movie is also about unconditional love, Forrest being a simple being, doesn't carry the preconceptions that normal adults have. He is not bothered that his friend Bubba is black, or his friend Captain Dan is crippled, or his girlfriend was abused. He IS SIMPLE, he loves and he cares, unconditionally. Other adults grow up to question things, try to analyze everything, why war? why not war? etc. And yet, it is Forrest's simple being that coincidentally leads him to fortune, meetings with presidents, athletic achievemenets, the sort of things that all adults covet.(how ironic) Forrest Gump just IS, a simple minded person able to love and give love. Forrest does not judge, evaluate, or analyze people or situations, to him it just IS, and he just makes the best of it. Shouldn't that be an important lesson for all us grown - ups?
"Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you'll get." Like Forrest said at the foot of the staircase, after asking Jenny to marry him..... "I'm not a smart man, but I know what love is..." WOW! go see the movie!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Best Picture Winner of 1994.
Review: "Forrest Gump" is a movie that won the Best Picture Oscar for 1994. I remember seeing it when it first came out in the theaters and now I am glad to own it on the DVD. Tom Hanks (Oscar-winner) is Forrest Gump, a non-intelligent, but an innocent man, who was a runner, a college football player, a soldier in Vietnam, a ping pong player, and a shrimp boat captain. It was from the mid-1950s to the early-1980s and it is based on a novel. "Forrest Gump" is one of the best and most important movies of the 1990s. Good thing, Robert Zemeckis won the Best Director Oscar.
Rating: 
Summary: Dishonest is as dishonest does.
Review: Even Roger Ebert (a smart critic even when you don't agree with him) is taken in by this ... visual and emotional trickery. But then he also describes Kevin Costner as "an intelligent actor". Luckily, this film reaches the apex of its tastelessness early on, when Forrest's disingenuous voice-over narration accompanies actual footage of George Wallace getting gunned down. At least the producers avoid (though only just) treating us to the same for the Kennedy brothers. Presumably George Wallace, as a redneck, doesn't deserve the privacy accorded to Boston bluebloods. The film constantly pokes fun at people and institutions - Black Panthers, hippies, drug addicts, the mentally retarded, the Army, war, the Presidency, and so on - without staying anywhere long enough to develop any redeeming satirical bite; staying just long enough to get the ... laugh and move on. Hanks is a great technician, as are his helpers, who cannot resist, for example, yet another chance to do the blue-screen trick with Gary Sinise's legs. And so far from "rubbing my eyes at the realism" of the anti-war rally scene (as Ebert says), by this time all I could say was "another damn trick". But that's what American movie-making is mostly about these days: one-liners and digital tricks. Add to this dish a ... layer of bare-facedly ... sentimentality, and you have "Forrest Gump" - a cinematic and emotional Bill of Goods.
Rating:
Summary: A True American Movie Masterpiece
Review: This is a truely amazing and magical movie and most people wonder why. It makes you feel good inside. Forrest Gump makes his way into all of our hearts by weaving himself into real American events so that we can relate to him. An innocent man sitting on a bench telling the story of his life. He may not be all there, but he touches all of our hearts. The music adds to the film a lot, being timed in with what's going on. It tells the tale of a man's life, and how he changed America. Tom Hanks brings so much to the role of Forrest, being able to express many emotions and feelings. The DVD is really good, great everything. I wouldn't even think about complaining at all. Forrest Gump is a role model for all things good, and shouldn't be missed by anyone.
Rating:
Summary: No Wonder it got an Oscar
Review: What a total performance Tom Hanks gave in this movie. I am so amazed at his acting skills. From Big, to Sleepless, to Gump to Apollo 13, Cast Away and The Green Mile.
This will go down as one of his best works, and is a must have for any DVD collector.
Rating: 
Summary: It makes me cry: Gump as bizarro-Schwarzenegger
Review: Why is it that Forrest Gump makes my cry while George Bailey's Christmas epiphany does nothing? At some level, I realize that I'm being manipulated and played as a chump. By reclaiming the symbols and events from an American history that I'm vaguely familiar with, Zemeckis has tampered directly with my brain. I know this but I still cry when Forrest's best friend Bubba dies... or when his mother dies... or when his true love dies. Jenny was Forrest's true love. They grew up together and her life was a shadow of his. It seems that the story of her wayward life provides the negative space for the luminence of Forrest's puritanical life style. Despite this analysis, she's not the villain of the story. She's the victim. The villain is her father. It seems that the abuses that Jenny suffers at a young age set her on the path of self destruction. Despite his best efforts, Forrest only becomes a protector and father figure when it's too late. Is the message that fathers can't protect their children or that parents can be the cause of much pain? Does this make me cry? It should but it doesn't. Sally Field plays Forrest's mother. She always believes in Forrest's future and ability and makes considerable sacrifices to ensure that her son recieves an appropriate education. She stays at home to raise her son and supports all of his initiatives: playing football, joining the army, buying a shrimp boat, etc. Is the message that the value of mothers lies only in the succes of their children and that they should sacrifice their own aspirations for those of their children? Does this make me cry? It should but it doesn't. Forrest is a dim witted southerner. Despite his limitations he attains every accolade of success that American society offers: he's an All American football player, a war hero, an entrepreneur, he meets the President several times, and he is featured on the cover of the National Examiner. Really, Gump is the bizarro-Schwarzenegger. He's a contradiction. His best friend is Bubba- a dim witted black southerner. Is the message that a white southerner having an African American best friend is a contradiction? Does this make me cry? It should but it doesn't. I cry because I've been programmed to. Zemeckis marks the time of the movie with the occurrence of political events and assasinations. He uses these events to invoke emotional responses i.e., JFK Dead = Me Sad. Zemeckis also makes use of common narrative archetypes that invoke an emotional response i.e., Mother Dying = Me Sad; Jenny Dying = Orphan = Me Sad. Only the addition of a debtor's prison and a momma deer being shot by a hunter could complete this sensory assault. The brilliance of this movie isn't its politcal message but the manipulation of my programmed responses... ...it still make me cry. PS- Forrest Gump also features an early performance by Haley Joel Osment. Time can only tell if appearing as a replicant in the Spielberg picture AI will elevate his career the way Blade Runner did for Rutger Hauer and Sean Young.
Rating: 
Summary: This Movie Gets Old
Review: The first time I saw this movie I thought it was funny and good to watch. I like and respect all the actors in this movie, and I think this movie was the pivotal point in Tom Hanks acting career, in which he became very diverse and a multi-dimensional actor.
I bought this movie thinking I would enjoy it again and again, but some how I find this movie very annoying now. It lost its charm after the first time I saw it. Maybe Forrest is too unbelievably stupid or too lucky.
Rating:
Summary: I never get tired of this movie
Review: Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump is endearing, interesting, and amusing. Watching Forrest go through life, inadvertantly participating in and making history, makes for a wonderful story. Sally Field, Robin Wright, and Gary Sinese also give great performances. The second disk of features is a real treat. We get an extended behind the scenes glimpse of how the many special effects were created, from erasing Gary Sinese's legs to inserting Tom Hanks into newsreel footage. The FX are a big part of what makes this movie so memorable, and getting to see how they were created is fascinating.
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