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Big

Big

List Price: $14.98
Your Price: $11.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Hanks's charm is the icing on the cake for this film
Review: This film is great fun but with a serious message. While telling the fantasy story about a boy who grows from twelve to thirty overnight it also tells us something about the problems we all experience over a few years while growing up. It's also a satire of the ridiculous corporate system that operates in large companies where employees are appointed 'Vice Presidents' and have a 'Xerox room'. Hanks is well-cast in the main role, bringing just the right balance of humour and pathos. I shudder to think what would have happened if Robin Williams had got hold of the same material. The highlight of the film is where Hanks and his boss dance on a giant set of piano keys playing jolly tunes.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Pretty Good, for a Tom Hanks Movie
Review: This movie's pretty good, considering it's a Tom Hanks flick. The story is quite charming, and the rendition of "Heart and Soul" on the big floor keyboard is one of the most memorable movie moments of all-time. This is probably the best Hanks movie ever; and it's certainly his best role. If you like him, you'll love this movie.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: This is the real Tom Hanks
Review: I went to high school with Tom Hanks (even was in Drama classes with him) and this is the real deal. Indeed, the Tom I remember probably didn't even have to act very much for this movie. (He's obviously grown up a bit since this was filmed).

Anyhow, this a charming film. The real message for most of us is to try to look at the world - at least on occasion - with the eyes of a child. See the absurdities and laugh at what is genuinely funny. And, most of all, eat those minature corn cobs just like a big corn on the cob.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Hanks best performance
Review: Still my all time favorite Tom Hanks movie, this movie really is magical. It takes a really great actor to pull off this kind of switch, adolescent boy becomes a man after wishing he was "big". The story is masterfully written and expertly acted.
Hanks is able to pull off getting a job, getting promoted and finding a beautiful girl friend, but like many of us "real adults" we find that being a man isn't always what it is cracked up to be. Loneliness and frustration set in and we know something is wrong with our world. Hanks portrays the struggle in a way that comes across as real and when he tells his girlfriend that he is "just a kid", well the humor is doubly ironic.
Both an entertaining movie for adults and kids, a good family library film, highly recommended.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: just simply excellent
Review: i love this movie. i've loved it since i first saw it. it's a pleasant film to watch and gives us a great story about who is a grown-up and who still acts like a kid. everybody should see this film.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Charming fantasy
Review: Tom Hanks is terrific in this film. He plays Josh Baskin, a twelve-year-old boy who has been transformed physically into an adult. He projects the awkwardness and innocence of youth well and is supported by a good screenplay that makes the most of this fantastic situation. Screenwriters Gary Ross and Anne Spielberg had the inspiration to place this naive, goodhearted character among the competitive, cut-throat yuppies on the staff of a major toy company. Josh's insights into what appeals to kids (after all, he really is one) allows him to advance rapidly, much to the dismay of his coworkers, who see in his every action the same kind of manipulation and scheming that enabled them to reach their positions. The juxtaposition makes Josh seem like the real grown-up and provides an interesting opportunity to appreciate how important it is to hang on to some of our more child-like qualities as we grow older.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Pretty Funny
Review: This is a funny little movie in which Tom Hanks plays a boy named Josh that wished to be big (hence the title) There are quite a few very funny moments that involve Josh getting a job, dating, and dealing with sex. This is a rather entertaining movie and a good example of classic Tom Hanks comedy

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Keeper
Review: "Big" is one of those movies you want to keep in your DVD Collection -- especially if you have a family. The story is well-told and the performances top notch. If there is such a thing as a flawless movie, then "Big" is it. I will warn you, though, that the film includes some profanity, such as the f-word, b...s..., a-hole, etc. I am not a fuddy-duddy, but I am trying to raise my children to be fuddy-duddies! If you show this wonderful, classic film to kids, be prepared to react to the language. Better yet, watch it without your kids!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Big
Review: One day Josh Baskin was at the fair he wanted to go on a ride, but he was little short to go on the ride so he walked to a machine called the Zeltar Machince. The machine makes wishes so Josh made a wish to be big. Then when went to sleep the next he was as big as a grown up. His mother thinks his son ran away from home, but what really happened was Josh's best friend Billy helped him by telling him to hide out in New York City. While Josh was in New York City he gets a job for a toy company called MacMillin Toys, and tries to find the Zeltar Machine. When he does he wishes to get small and he's small again. Then the move ends as a happy ending.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Child-like innocence was never quite as believable as this
Review: This is the Tom Hanks you've probably forgotten. You now know him as the serious, dramatic, critical darling of reviewers and the Academy Awards. This is the Tom Hanks who first got notice from the Oscars back in the late 80s, and he is no less spectacular than the Hanks of Saving Private Ryan, Philadelphia, Apollo 13, or Castaway.

Young Josh, who actually is young in the beginning of the film, longs for the day when he will be an adult--"big." In an odd tempting of fate, his wish is granted, and he wakes up as Hanks. Hanks, still holding the mind and emotions of the young teen Josh, must now make it in the world as an adult, despite the fact he is anything but.

For his acting challenge, the adult becomes a child, and experiences all the awkwardness of that child becoming the adult he in fact already is. Of course, his boyish good looks make the visible factor already easy for the audience to believe, but it is the mindset of wonderment, innocence, matter-of-factness, and uneasiness which brings the "young" Josh to life.

Some of the most memorable moments of film from this time period come from Big. The FAO Schwartz scenes involving an oversized keyboard, and the eating of baby corn ears immediately come to mind. Directed by Penny Marshall, Tom Hanks easily convinced us of an impossible scenario, and pulled on our heartstrings while doing it. The most telling scene of his complete ability to achieve 'youth' is when he finds himself completely alone in a seedy motel, frightened out of his mind, crying himself to sleep to drown out the noise of the scary city outside the thin door. Amazing!

This is a sweet charmer of a film, and this performance is right up there with the best of his catalogue, as well as Marshall's. Make this a part of your permanent collection.


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