1988
Directed by Penny Marshall
Is it possible to watch this film and not fall in love with Tom Hanks? I think this is a great comedy. I also think we should all band together and not make the relationship between Susan and Josh gross. It's sweet...kind of.
Twelve year old Josh Baskin is told he is too small to ride the Ring of Fire at a carnival. He encounters a weird fortune telling machine behind some of the other rides and wishes to be big. He gets his wish and wakes up as a thirty year old man. He gets a job at a toy company, gets a cool apartment, and meets a really great woman. Basically, he is better than at adulting than I am and he's twelve. I am not thirty yet, so I still have time to be as cool as him (I do know how to play Heart and Soul already).
So like I said, Hanks couldn't be any more lovable in this role. I think it would have been easy to have a twelve year old male character be horrible, because really, who wasn't horrible at twelve? But Josh is a great character; I found myself wanting him to succeed as an adult as much as I wanted him to become a child again.
Just a great, heart warming comedy. Oh and it is directed by a woman! Get it girl.
RATING: ****-
Interesting Facts:
David Moscow, who played Young Josh, would film every grown up scene. Tom Hanks would then study how he acted and imitate him.
Penny Marshall is the first female director to direct a movie that grossed over $100 million. Hurray!
Oh dear, I'm afraid we disagree on this one.. The clue is the dread words 'heart warming'.
ReplyDeleteSad that isn't it? What's wrong with you having your heart warmed? But it's a pretty reliable truism that the words 'heart warming' when applied to a film, almost always means nauseatingly cute kids, or, in this case, a grown up trying to be cute.. and (In my opinion) failing..
No, sorry, a big miss for me.
Ooo I am interested in what you will think of Little Miss Sunshine. Yeah the enjoyment of the film kind of hinges on if you think Tom Hanks is annoying or not...
DeleteIntensely annoying.
ReplyDeleteHave we done 'little Miss Sunshine' yet? Sorry, daft question, I sometimes forget you do this chronologically .. so, even if it is in the book .. nowhere near it yet.
Anyway, for LMS, which i think is great .. the kids are not intended to be cute, perfect little specimens of lovable little scampdom. They, like the rest of the family, are slightly flawed misfits, with real characteristics, real problems. You know, what we normally call 'people', not some nauseating cut out versions of some advertising agency view of an 'ideal family'. OK, Dad wants them to be like that .. perhaps thinks he / they are .. but they are not. Which is rather the point of the film .. well, to me anyway. I bet Josh's mum things kids in beauty pageants are 'real cute .. LMS shows us just how vile (and well creepy) they are.
When was LMS? early 2000's? So at the rate you are going at the moment, if it IS in the book (you use), we will hit it sometime next week, so hopefully, we can come back to this one.
Oh, just to sure you got the point .. Tom Hanks .. no thanks.
Haha I agree with everything you said. I love that movie. Was it taken out of other editions? That's upsetting.
DeleteI'm not sure.. I hope not.
ReplyDeleteLet us look forward to it coming up .. If I haven't already said my bit about it here.
This movie was so much fun! I loved the whole idea and just enjoyed the ride. :)
ReplyDeleteIt was just so much fun.
DeleteI agree. Great movie! It was very easy to screw it up making the boy too insufferable or too stupid but it came out perfect. It's a bit sad how he ends up losing some of his sweet innocence toward the end of his life as "an adult". He had to turn back for dear sanity but what about all of us? Why can't we go back, too? Oh, how I wish I had the opportunity to live again my adolescence and have the opportunity to straight up certain things.
ReplyDeleteLife is all wrong! It's during adolescence that we most desperately need the experience of adulthood and it's during adulthood that we need the innocence of a child. All wrong, I tell you!
Well put! I would tell myself to stop being so weird all the time, but I doubt I would have listened.
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