149. Larry Crowne

What can I say? I love Tom Hanks! Julia Roberts isn't bad either. Still not as good as Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks but oh well.

So Larry Crowne is about a regular Joe named Larry who works at U-Mart. He is an excellent employee who works hard and has repeatedly won the employee of the month. Like many Americans, Larry goes into work one day to find out that he has been downsized. The reason the company gave is that Larry doesn't have a college education.

Without a job, Larry is forced to change his lifestyle and ultimately his life. He enrolls in classes at the local community college where he meets a burntout college professor (Julia Roberts) who teachs communications/speech classes and a group of zany friends.

The movie was pretty entertaining. You never knew what Larry's friends were going to talk him into doing next. Plus, Larry's neighbor is played by Cedric the Entertainer so you know that's going to make you laugh.

Final Verdict: Worth the money to see it at the theatre. Probably worth owning.

115. Cast Away

             Everyone knows how amazing Tom Hanks is. He IS the best actor of my generation. He can handle every kind of role ranging from Comedy to Romance to Dramatic. In Cast Away Tom Hanks is shining. Im really surprised that people dont mention this role more often as one of the best of all time.

WILSON!!!!!!!!!

           Hanks plays Chuck Nolan a FedEx employee who travels all over the world to help train FedEx shipping plants everywhere. On what such trip Nolan finds himself in a plane  wreck which he survives only to find himself stranded on a deserted Island. On this Island he fights to survive. To find food. To make fire. To island made dental care. Also to fight losing his sanity. Thanks to a little volleyball friend named Wilson.
              What Hanks does with this role is amazing. He tacked on weight to film the beginning scenes of the movie. Took 9 months off, lost ALL that weight and then some to film the scenes of him stranded on the Island. There is a large chunk of the movie where hardly any dialogue is even spoken. Yet you are captivated by this movie. Absolutely amazing.

Final Verdict: Worth Owning.

102. Catch Me if You Can

Tom Hanks. Steven Spielberg. Leonardo DiCaprio. How can a movie featuring all three of these great movie men go wrong? Then throw in a sprinkle of Christopher "Two mice fell into a bucket of cream" Walken and you get absolute movie magic.
CMIYC is the true story of Frank Abagnale Jr who as a teenager become one of the most wanted by the FBI for cashing in millions of fake checks.  The story revolves around a cat and mouse race of Abagnale, played by DiCaprio, and The FBI that is tracking him all over the world played Hanks. Along the way our young Frank Jr poses as a Airline Pilot, a Lawyer AND a doctor. He gets engaged, he gets caught, he escapes and ultimately finds redemption.

I got you!

From a movie stand point CMIYC is a total knock out. Everything from the script, the acting, the musical score and cinematography everything hits on 100%. A great great movie. There is really nothing bad to say about this movie. It was everything from Action to Comedy.

Final Verdict: Worth Owning. 100%.

97. I am Legend

Great movie. Great actor. Great effects. All around great time.  I actually haven’t watched this movie in a few years so I was excited to pop it in. Here are some thoughts from me having watched it for the first time in a few years.

   Will Smith is a stud. How many actors can carry an entire movie basically by themselves? Tom Hanks can as proved in Cast Away.  Smith does it here and does tremendously. I love Smith, one of my favorite actors.

    Lot scarier than I remembered. Their are some really intense parts of this movie! I forgot how crazy it gets.

      Willow Smith has a small cameo as Will Smith’s daughter in the movie. Sadly, she did not whip her hair. That was disappointing.

       Finally, how sad is this movie? There are some real tear jerking and depressing moments! I wish Smith will go back to making comedy movies and take a break from all the depressing work like Happyness and Seven Pounds. But I don’t remember this movie being this sad! 

Final Verdict: WORTH OWNING!

1.Sleepless in Seattle

Me picking the first movie!

First thought was that it could have been worse. It’s not one of my movies, it is one of my wife’s but it could have been way worse (see previous post!).  The magical movie box (previous post) is proving that it is the boss. It chooses. It showed that while I am going to have to watch one of my wife’s movies first, it could have been way way way way worse!

notice the thrill on my face.

So, I drew Sleepless in Seattle. It’s the classic movie of a widower (Tom Hanks) whose son calls a nationwide radio talk show and tells the world his dad needs a new wife. Then the journey to love begins. So many things are running through my head right now. The movie came out in 1993. I was junior in High School! I think I have seen this movie one time--maybe.  Don’t get me wrong, I love me some Tom Hanks. Less than a year after this movie is released Hanks gave us Forrest Gump! I’m a big fan of both Joe vs the Volcano and You’ve Got mail. But something about this one I don’t like as much.

I think the thing that bugs me is that there is no interaction between Hanks and Ryan at all until the very middle (for like a second) and not again until the very end. The best part of the Hanks/Ryan combo is the chemistry between them. So to me this movie isn’t as good as the others because it lacks that element. Not too mention HOW UNBELIEVABLY UNREALISTIC this movie is!  Now, movies aren’t meant to be 100% realistic all the time—I know that. There are no Jedi in real life, there is no asteroid heading to earth and I’m pretty sure there are no magical gnomes riding around in cars. With that said, there is no way a 9 yr old can fly across country by himself?!??! Really?? No one, at either airport, checked this story out? The kid spent all day asking strange ladies if they were Annie and no once got suspicious?  This is too far for me. Plus the movie drags a bit in the middle.  Lots of conversation, very little “action” you would say but hey I’m not a critic. So ultimately I have no decision on if I should own this movie or not. That is my wife’s choice; she paid the 5 dollars for it. But for me, its no You’ve Got Mail! 

Other Tidbits

-Rosie O’Donnell plays a straight woman who’s married to a guy named Rick

-David Hyde Peirce plays a small role in the movie. Pre-Frasier fame.

-Bill Pullman is still a horrible actor.

-Best and funniest scene to me, where I actually laughed out loud, was the scene where he calls and asks Victoria out on a date. That was great Hanks!