Articles tagged "tom hanks"

Film Review

Angels & Demons

by Todd R. Ramlow

[15.May.09] :. A Harvard professor is an unlikely candidate for the hero of a summer blockbuster, and Angels & Demons demonstrates exactly why. The film is filled with talk, talk, talk.

Recent Film reviews

News

Tom Hanks shows he still knows how to make a splash

by John Anderson [Newsday (MCT)]

[11.May.09] :. Tom Hanks must have done something heinous in his life, right? Something awful? Nasty? Unspeakable? Unprintable? Something he wouldn’t tell his mother? No? Cheated on his taxes? Stole a...

PopWire

The PopMatters Summer 2009 Movie Preview Feature

Summer of Same: May 2009

by Bill Gibron

[27.Apr.09] :. May's titles include the fourth films in two aging franchises, more Pixar perfection, and the reboot of a TV series from 40 years ago. And they say there are no new ideas.

The PopMatters Summer 2009 Movie Preview

Decade-Dense: The 60 Most Memorable Films of 1999 Feature

Part 5: Toy Story 2 to Titus (November - December 1999)

by PopMatters Staff

[27.Mar.09] :. On this final day of PopMatters' 1999 overview, awards season hype gives way to pure acting prowess and definitive directorial flair.

Decade-Dense: The 60 Most Memorable Films of 1999

Film DVD Review

Charlie Wilson’s War

by Christian Toto

[24.Apr.08] :. Sorkin's signature dialogue -- smart, rapid fire chatter that packs a punch -- makes this the most engaging poli-sci class you'll ever attend.

Recent DVD reviews

PopMatters Picks: The Best TV, Film, and DVD of 2007 Feature

Performance Art: The Best Acting of 2007 - Male

by PopMatters Staff

[9.Jan.08] :. From the tender and eerie precision of Sam Riley's depiction of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis in Control to yet another superlative performance by Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood, PopMatters highlights the best male actors of 2007.

PopMatters Picks: The Best TV, Film, and DVD of 2007

Charlie Wilson’s War

by Cynthia Fuchs

[21.Dec.07] :. Like The West Wing, Charlie Wilson's War is leftish and glib, entertaining and exasperating, and written by Aaron Sorkin.

Taking it personally: ‘The War’ hits home

by Eric Mink [St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MCT)]

[27.Sep.07] :. Dec. 8, 1941, Camp Claiborne, La. My dearest Ethel: You undoubtedly want to know what’s been going on in the past day. Naturally, with Japan’s declaration of war, there was a lot of...

Ken Burns’ Arithmetic of War: ‘The War’ Premieres Tonight

by Cynthia Fuchs

[21.Sep.07] :. To its credit, The War considers the terrible effects of difference. But even as it argues that representations can make differences, it also exemplifies how limited vision can reinforce them.

That Thing You Do! - The Directors Cut (1996)

by Marc Calderaro

[18.Jun.07] :. That Thing You Do!, the movie, is humorous and entertaining. Skip the annoying extras, and you'll actually enjoy it.

Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006)

by Brian Holcomb

[10.Jan.07] :. In Chris Paine’s witty and very partisan documentary, we are presented with the sad but familiar tale of corporate greed and corruption shaping our daily lives -- shaping it without our support, but with our apathy.

The Da Vinci Code (2006)

by Marc Acherman

[12.Nov.06] :. If religion, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, is the fashionable substitute for belief, then The Da Vinci Code, judging by author Dan Brown’s quasi religious following, has asserted itself as the fashionable substitute for religion

The Da Vinci Code

by Cynthia Fuchs

[19.May.06] :. In straining to make its spaces and secrets 'scary', Da Vinci literalizes thoughts and dreams, and abandons mystery and nuance.

Toy Story: 10th Anniversary Edition (1995)

by Jesse Hassenger

[5.Oct.05] :. Ten years on, much of Pixar's Toy Story, the first computer-animated feature film, is as sweet and smart as ever.

The Terminal (2004)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[6.Dec.04] :. The saga of Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks) is an apt reflection of what might be termed a global fear.

The Polar Express (2004)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[11.Nov.04] :. It's part Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, and part Terry Gilliam's Brazil, that is, just this side of sinister.

The Ladykillers (2004)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[8.Sep.04] :. Pious, earnest, and broadly drawn, Marva is the first black character in a Coen brothers movie to occupy center stage.

The Terminal (2004)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[17.Jun.04] :. Viktor is pronounced 'unacceptable', a man without nation, identity, or status.

A League of Their Own (1992)

by Jesse Hassenger

[19.Apr.04] :. A League of Their Own is an engagingly old fashioned and family-friendly comedy.

The Ladykillers (2004)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[26.Mar.04] :. Pious, earnest, and broadly drawn, Marva is the first black character in a Coen brothers movie to occupy center stage. For a minute, anyway.

Catch Me If You Can (2002)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[26.Dec.02] :. Steven Spielberg's zippy new film is about the kind of 'truth' that might only be apprehended in its telling.

Punchline (1988)

by Valerie Franch

[9.Aug.02] :. Explores a dark side of stand-up comedy, but relies on stereotypes rather than shedding new light on the subject.

Road to Perdition (2002)

by Cynthia Fuchs

[12.Jul.02] :. The perfectly grim surface evokes eons of pain, as well as a highly stylized contemporary sensibility, not so much cynical as skeptical and self-aware.

Toy Story 2 (1999)

by Jonathan Beller

Hey kids, if you haven’t seen Toy Story 2, better hurry so that you can find out what your toys are doing when you’re not watching. And maybe you’ll learn to show your toys a...

Toy Story 2 (1999)

by P. Nelson Reinsch

Near the end of the film The Matrix, Neo (Keanu Reeves) begins to understand his own power. When he realizes that everything he is seeing is a computer program, the payoff shot for this knowledge shows the screen filled with the 1s and 0s which make up the objects and people previously seen. The shot is stunning, and lays bare not only the program within the film's narrative universe, but also the computer work necessary to create the effects in The Matrix.

The Green Mile (1999)

by Cynthia Fuchs

ound dogs baying, wildflowers bending to the wind, angry white men in shirt-sleeves carrying shotguns, a swatch of cloth clinging to a tree branch. The details are all a little too familiar. You know you're looking at yet another recreation of the scary Old American South, specifically, you're looking at the set up for a lynching. This first scene of Frank Darabont's The Green Mile...

The Green Mile (1999)

by Mark Reiter

It's not news to anyone that Steven King screen adaptations get tossed into two categories: absolute crap (Maximum Overdrive, Cujo, Pet Cemetery, et. al.) and important American cinema (Stanley Kubrick's The Shining and Frank Darabont's previous King adaptation, The Shawshank Redemption).

Cast Away (2000)

by Isaac Kerson

Cast Away, the new movie directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Tom Hanks, follows the life of Chuck Noland (Hanks), an over-achieving efficiency expert for FedEx who is stranded on a...