Tom Hanks is busy promoting his second movie of the year following thinks four of his movies are "pretty good." While he might have been making a cheeky joke, fans have been debating which of his movies they could be, which is a tough task considering he has been in 80 movies.
Five of those movies were collaborations with one of the greatest filmmakers ever, Steven Spielberg, and together they have made some all-time classics. Between an epic cat-and-mouse thriller, a bombastic war thriller, and a heartwarming comedy, it's hard to believe that Hanks thinks at least one of these isn't "pretty good."
The Post (2017) - 7.2
The Post is the most recent collaboration between the actor and director, but it hopefully won't be the last, as it was their worst received film by general audiences. However, it's a testament to how great of a team they are, as it's still a very accomplished drama that's just as touching as Spielberg's best releases, and Hanks' performance is just as powerful as ever.
Spotlight that came a couple of years earlier, it stands on its own as a solid and compelling drama.
The Terminal (2004) - 7.4
The director and actor seemingly got into a great and consistent rhythm of releasing a movie every couple of years, as The Terminal marked their third collaboration in six years. And following a couple of heavy-handed dramas, the 2004 release was a much more lighthearted affair. While Spielberg's movies have always been sentimental, the director turned the schmaltz all the way up to 11 with The Terminal.
The movie is almost like a fantasy in an airport, as that's certainly the only way anything in the film could make any sense. Whether it's a fake middle-eastern country, the worst-written female character in cinematic history, or the main character turning an airport into his own personal sandbox, the film is utterly ridiculous, but it's all so much fun, too.
Bridge Of Spies (2015) - 7.6
Bridge of Spies was Hanks and Spielberg's reunion movie, as they hadn't worked on a film together in 11 years. And, once again, they are both at the absolute top of their games. The 2015 spy thriller is based on a true story, as it follows a defense attorney (Hanks), who defends a KGB spy (Mark Rylance) in the U.S. courts. It's then negotiated that the spy will be traded for a U.S. Air Force pilot who is being held captive.
While Hanks is the main character in the movie, and it's yet another great performance of his, Rylance steals the show. The movie was his breakthrough role, and there hadn't been such a surprisingly great ing role since Christoph Waltz in Bourne.
Catch Me If You Can (2002) - 8.1
Spielberg has directed so many classics that perfectly mix comedy and drama that tend to be based on larger-than-life true stories, and a cat-and-mouse chase movie on a global scale, as it follows 16-year-old Frank William Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio) cashing fraudulent checks all over the world. Hanks plays the FBI agent chasing Frank, the impatient Carl Hanratty, and it's like seeing a ing of the torch watching a two-time Academy Award winner on-screen with a then very young DiCaprio.
The movie takes a lot of liberties with the source material, such as Frank infrequently visiting his father, as the autobiography it's based on reveals that his father died not long after he ran away from home. However, it's all done to make audiences feel overwhelmed with joy, sadness, grief, excitement, and a million other feelings that Spielberg can so easily squeeze out of the audience like a wet sponge.
Saving Private Ryan (1998) - 8.6
Saving Private Ryan was the first collaboration between Hanks and Spielberg, which is surprising given that it was released in 1998, decades after the two have been long established in the movie industry. However, it was worth the wait, as the war film was on a scale that not even Spielberg had worked on before. And though Hanks had starred in dramas before, he had never been so thrust into such a physically demanding role, but he totally pulled it off.
Hanks vanished into the role more than he ever had before, as people didn't see the comedy actor from in the midst of the terrors of war. While everything Hanks and Spielberg worked on together since has ranged from very good to great, there's no beating the bombastic war epic.
