What Was Your Favorite Tom Hanks Performance in a Film?

[DM72]

4 minutes ago, Momma There Goes That Man said:

 

What does that have to do with anything? And Marlon Brando had to have a a lot of makeup work and stuffed his gums with cotton balls to look like Vito Corleone. Didn't seem to matter much that he wasn't really a 70 year old Italian man

 

Leo looks like he's wearing a mask. You can't say that about Brando as Vito Corleone.

[Going Commando]

One thing Tom Hanks does better than Leo is pick his roles.  He's not quite as consistent and selective as Clooney and Pitt are.  But there are very few dogs in his filmography, and again, there was an 8 year stretch from 1992 to 2000 where every movie he made was gold.  DiCaprio has given a lot of transcendent performances in inferior films, and some of his "classic" films like the Aviator and Catch Me If You Can don't hold up.  The Departed is a little shakier than I remember it being too.  

 

I'm just going to come out and say it, the Departed is the only legitimately good film Leo made with Scorsese.  Wolf of Wall Street, Gangs of New York, the Aviator, and Shutter Island all sucked.  The performances that DiCaprio and Daniel Day Lewis gave in them are what makes them memorable/watchable, as they cover up for Scorsese being an awful story teller.  Body of Lies and J Edgar were misses too despite the fact that he and Russell Crowe were outstanding in Body of Lies and Ridley Scott and Clint Eastwood are normally such strong directors.  It's weird.  DiCaprio is kind of like the anti-Jeff Bridges in that his performances tend to become the narrative focus of the movies themselves.  He needs to do more work with master story tellers like David O Russell and the Cohen Brothers.

 

I completely agree that DiCaprio is a more talented and versatile actor than Hanks.  But his films haven't been better.

[Going Commando]

20 minutes ago, Momma There Goes That Man said:

They absolutely can. Not this his weren't deserving but it's a flawed system. 

 

One win can be a fluke where the Academy got it wrong that year.  Two is not.  The greatest actors of their generation receive incredible scrutiny when they are nominated for what would be their second best actor award.  They get judged on a curve and truly have to give genius performances to get them.  Usually several genius performances before they are finally recognized again.  Every actor with two best actor wins is one of the greatest in the history of cinema.  Here is the entire list:

 

- Daniel Day Lewis: My Left Foot, There Will Be Blood, Lincoln

- Jack Nicholson: One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest, As Good As it Gets

- Spencer Tracy: Captains Courageous, Boys Town

- Marlon Brando: On the Waterfront, Godfather

- Dustin Hoffman: Kramer vs Kramer, Rain Man

- Gary Cooper: High Noon, Sergeant York

- Tom Hanks: Forrest Gump, Philadelphia

- Fredric March: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Best Years of Our Lives

- Sean Penn: Mystic River, Milk

 

By any objective measure, that is a list of nine of the 20-25 greatest lead actors of all time.  And within that list itself, Penn was way better than most of them.

 

Penn should have three best actor Oscars too.  He should have won in '96 for Dead Man Walking instead of Nicolas ****ing Cage for Leaving Las Vegas.  The mid 90's were weird.

[DM72]

Nicholas Cage won an Oscar? That, I didn't know.

 

I thought he was good in World Trade Center though.

[Momma There Goes That Man]

Hanks has made film great choices and I think the success and quality of his movies helps us remember his acting better as well. 

 

I completely disagree on the Leo movies though. The only true duds I would call in his arsenal are Body of Lies and J Edgar. I think Body of Lies is enjoyable it just didn't stick the landing. Something was off. 

 

I think Blood Diamond, Inception, Gangs, Aviator, Catch Me if You Can, The Revanant, Django and Shutter Island are all fantastic performances in great movies. I've always had issues with the Departed being overrated but he shines in that movie. I know i'm forgetting a few as well. I don't know, I'd put that body of work up against Hanks at a similar stage of his career, mostly thru 2000. Given Leo another 20 years to bang out more classics like Hanks has since then. 

 

 

8 minutes ago, stevemcqueen1 said:

Penn should have three best actor Oscars too.  He should have won in '96 for Dead Man Walking instead of Nicolas ****ing Cage for Leaving Las Vegas.  The mid 90's were weird.

 

I agree with everything you wrote. Still, Mystic River was an unfathomably easy win for him. His best competition was Jack Sparrow. It's not even fair. Also, I'd have given Rourke the award in 09. Thought it was a better performance and movie. 

 

I still wouldn't put Penn on any top 5 list though or call him his generation's Brando

[Going Commando]

The Revenant is a masterpiece and Inception is one of the best films in its genre.  Django Unchained is pretty good too, not great.  Titanic is a classic.  He carries Blood Diamond, otherwise that movie would be pretty bad.  Same for Wolf of Wallstreet, Aviator, and Gangs of New York.  The problem is that Scorsese can't tell a story, so his movies are a bunch of beautifully shot messes with no point/narrative thrust that waste a lot of great and iconic performances.  Shutter Island was painful.  I don't think a "great" director has ever gotten such a talented cast and ****ed up a film as much as Scorsese did with that one.

 

Gatsby and Romeo and Juliet are misunderstood and extremely underrated though.  They are works of squee genius.  The Quick and the Dead is a classic too.

[Ron78]

While I don't completely agree with the order, I think AMC's ranking of the 50 greatest actors is more in line with reality than some of the extremeskins posters:

 

http://www.amc.com/movie-guide/the-50-greatest-actors-of-all-time

 

DiCaprio didn't even make their list, which I think is appropriate.  Christian Bale didn't either, which I think is a definite miss.

[Sticksboi05]

Going by Academy Awards is funny. Those are the same people who voted Dances with Wolves over GoodFellas for Best Picture. Scorsese wins for his like 4th or 5th best film.