I just heard Streets of Philadelphia on radio, which made me think of movies where Tom Hanks is in a leading role. I could not think of one I’ve seen where he was not convincing in the role.
I think he is one of the very best actors we’ve seen. Disagree?
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He definitely has range.
He gets compared to Jimmy Stewart a good bit, justifiably so. Stewart also had that “average joe” vibe that he could adjust to a surprising variety of roles.
I’d definitely rank him high personally, and I think he would fit into anyone’s top ten to twenty list without arguments about him belonging.
That being said, his style of acting doesn’t always work for everyone. He gets complaints about being bland even when a role is gritty, though I tend to think that’s more from his habit of playing just under the threshold life emoting. Like in Green mile and road to perdition, he never quite breaks loose all the way. But, he did do that in castaway; so we know he’s capable of a spittle flying, scenery chewing performance. It’s just that he uses it sparingly. And not everyone enjoys a restrained performance, which is perfectly fine.
I also think he holds up well even in his older roles, even when they aren’t as great as it was at the time. Bosom buddies, as an example of that. Great show at the time, and his chatter character worked well then. But it wouldn’t work nowadays. However, his work in the role was solid and holds up despite the almost painful writing.
Sure. But, in more of a plug-n-play sorta way.
Thought process: If it’s a Tom Hanks movie, then it’ll be enjoyable in a vanilla ice cream sort of way. Few people would reject, out of hand, vanilla ice cream. Unless they’re Tom Hanks intolerant… but now im strangling this metaphor.
True great actor? Stage & screen, sings & dances, transforms the medium where every they show up.
I think I understand male actors better, so that list is longer.
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Daniel Day Lewis
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Christopher Walken
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Gary Oldman
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Denzel Washington
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Philip Seymour Hoffman
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David Strathairn
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Mark Rylance
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Jim Carrey
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Ian McKellen
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Viola Davis
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Lupita Nyong’o
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Jennifer Lawrence
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Frances McDormand
Edit: how did I miss Alan Rickman!
Nail on the head. I know I’m gonna enjoy a Tom Hanks movie, and he was really great in some roles, but if Frances McDormand is on the ticket my socks are gonna be blown off. That woman is art to watch.
Edit: Willem Dafoe and Olivia Coleman also. There are obviously loads more but they all really excite me to see in a movie.
Yeah, but I feel like a lot of it is because of the roles he chooses and the career he cultivates. Hanks can play bigger roles, but you can tell he picked more restrained roles after making the transition from comedy to drama.
I also feel like he never had a legitimate down time in his career which would require him to play against type to bring in audiences. A lot of great performances come from actors making their comeback, something that Tom Hanks never needed to do.
IMO: Brand Tom Hanks was established with Big (1988!) and solidified with A League of Their Own (1993). From then on, he’s basically a hit factory.
The biggest departure for him, that I saw, was the Road to Perdition (2002). Not exactly off-brand, but a risk. It was excellent.
I saved this comment bscauae it’s a gpod list, and i think you’re right when you say"true great actor = stage & screen, sings & dances"
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He plays a good “everyman” I think.
He’s one of the greats, I agree. Plus he has no rape/sexual assault allegations or abusive behaviour on-set over a 40+ year career, so that gives him a 900% boost in my estimation.
He plays a lot of ‘safe’ characters. That is, characters that don’t require him to dig deep into his own capacity for human depravity or whatever, and I think this gives people the impression that he’s not in the same league as your De Niros or Pacinos. But I have never watched a film of his where he didn’t completely sell the performance to me, even if the movie itself was shite. He’s content and secure enough to not need to take roles that require him flay his psyche on-screen, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I love watching those intense performances of course, but he isn’t any less a master of his craft just because he has other focuses. It’s like guitar virtuosos such as Steve Vai, who can play just about anything with superhuman levels of skill, speed and precision, versus someone like BB King, who plays stuff that a beginner guitarist could use as great training material. No one, including Steve Vai, would say BB King is a lesser guitarist or musician because his music doesn’t require 12 fingers on each hand to play. Tom Hanks is the BB King of this tortured analogy, and someone like Gary Oldman is Steve Vai. Both great, but there’s more to it than mere ‘spectacle’.
I would love to see him to something more dark and evil, if only once. If Robin Williams can play a serial killer, and can play it well, Tom Hanks would absolutely smash that shit. Especially now that he’s an older fella; I think he could get away with a lot more without damaging his ‘brand’. I wanna see him be a serial killing, necrophilic, EVE Online-playing demonic monster.
As an EVE player, this shook me. Also you write well.
He has a warm humanity about him I’ve always liked. Yes.
I mean, he’s no Tom Cruise, Keanu Reeves, Nicholas Cage or Adam Sandler, but he’s pretty good!
I’m not sure any of the actors you listed has played a variety of different kinds of roles convincingly comparable to TH repertoire.
I think you might have missed the sarcasm in that post, probably because it was incredibly subtle and nuanced, much like the performances of Tom Cruise, Nicholas Cage, and Adam Sandler.
Lemmy users not take the obvious bait challenge, level impossible.
Incredible stuff, really.
I fucking hate Tom Cruise. That fish fucker.
I think you’re thinking of the Deep.
But, I can see the similarities. Secrets and lies inside a single building committed to world domination. Of markets.
I gotta hand it to Vaughn Snooze tho. He played himself really, really well in Magnolia.
I’ll be honest, I don’t know what any of that means. I was referring to the rumor that Tom Cruise has been spotted buying fish at markets and taking it into the bathroom and exiting the bathroom without the fish.
I’d never heard that rumour. But, I took it an ran with it. As rumours go.
It was a reference to The Boys, a graphic novel and TV series about superheroes behaving badly.
The Deep (basically Aquaman) can speak to sea animals and has a sexual relationship with an octopus. He’s also a weak, go-along-to-get-along, hegemon-appeasing sycophant.
Now, knowing that, I’m reasonably certain that I havent sold anyone on the Boys as a show. And, my apologies because it might take you a while to forget.
But, if Dom Fruze is seen entering a bathroom with an octopus and exiting without out it… you heard it here first.
Adam Sandler fucked it up for me. Waterboy and SNL, eh, mindless dumb fun I guess. Then he goes and does Punch Drunk Love, for some reason that one really hit with me. And since then… I don’t think he’s ever come close to that and every time I watch something with him I just think: damn bro…
Most of his roles are just “the affable Tom Hanks guy” or “doofus Tom Hanks guy”. Even Philadelphia is “affable Tom Hanks dude, but gay!” And then they throw this stock character into an unexpected situation (Affable dude meets pretty lady! Affable dude is stranded on an island! Affable dude gets hijacked! Affable dude regresses in age! Affable dude gets AIDS!) Even when he’s cast in a biopic, it’s the same character (Let’s dress him up as Mister Rogers — they’re both likable guys.) Tom Hanks is shorthand for “you already know this character”.
As little as I care for Tom Cruise, there was a time when he proved he could actually act by doing “Born on the Fourth of July” and “Interview With A Vampire” for example. Actually disappearing into character and not leaning on a type. (Of course that changed later as he settled into the Mission Impossible/John Grisham dude who has a scene running down a street in every film now).
I’m glad someone mentioned Tom Cruise. I can’t stand him as a person or anything but he knocks it out of the park in every role he takes. Dude is a professional who clearly takes his job seriously and gives a 110% performance every single time. I’m not even a fan of his movies but I can acknowledge they’re well made movies.
There are a lot of “true great actors” so I’m not sure I understand the question.
He is very good though.
For me a great actor is one who convinces you regardless of the type of role they play. I think the spread of roles TH has played convincingly is up amongst the best.
No.
There is one that he wasn’t so great in. But he was working with very bad material.
I’ve watch that … it’s something and Tom Hanks is awful
I’d say he’s one of the top 20% of all time. Basically the only things I’d fault him for was being in mazes and monsters, a shitty d&d scare flick. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazes_and_Monsters
Other than that, and it’s been a hell of a career with many, many highs - my favs prob being Castaway and The Green Mile… I don’t fault him for it, it was a bizarre trend of bullshit and he didn’t carry it forward.
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Yes
Yeah i think he’s a hack never saw him act well in anything ever
