Based on the book of the same title written by Stephen King, comes a movie adapted and directed by Frank Darabont of Walking Dead fame. Tom Hanks and Michael Clark Duncan star in this gut-wrenching film about prisoners on death row in 1930s Louisiana. Though it’s a powerful movie, it is not without its flaws and harmful stereotypes. (And pro tip, watch this movie on HBO Max.)
The year is 1994 and Tom Hanks is trying to redefine his funny-man image and there’s nothing less funny than AIDS. Join us for the first mainstream Hollywood film about the AIDS epidemic starring Tom Hanks as a gay man who believes he was wrongfully terminated for his disease and Denzel Washington, the homophobic lawyer who decides to defend him.
It’s the 25th anniversary of That Thing You Do! It’s a whirlwind movie about the rise and fall of a fake 1950s pop band that popped right out of the Beatles mold. A bunch of young 90s names including Liv Tyler, Steve Zahn, Tom Everett Scott, and Charlize Theron are all wrangled by a very serious, but likeable Tom Hanks. We both love this movie and it’s a ton of fun so check out the podcast.
Forrest Gump is an artifact of a more innocent age; a time before Tom Hanks learned to make fire. Before Robin Wright made binge-watching a lifestyle. Before Hollywood acknowledged that Pulp Fiction had changed the way audiences engaged with movies. Join us for the podcast to take a trip back in time and find out if this Academy darling still holds up.
Road to Perdition is the only movie we could think of that features Tom Hanks as anything other than a wholesome heroic type. It turns out he’s an honest-to-goodness actor and he can absolutely pull off the Irish gangster dead set on avenging his murdered family, especially when he’s sharing the screen with other talented actors such as Paul Newman and Daniel Craig. Who knew!
Join us for a discussion of Steven Spielberg’s incredibly breezy, semi-biographical movie based on the life of a high-school-aged 1960’s check forger who collected over $4m in cash before being caught by the FBI.
Cast Away defined the survival genre when it came out in 2000 and it’s back again on its 20th anniversary to cap off the year of pure survival, 2020. Join us for the podcast as we discuss the themes of hope, scenes we can only watch through our fingers, and, of course, WILLLLSOOOONNN.
This week marks the 25th anniversary of the release of Apollo 13. It was a movie A.Ron and I loved back then and we were pleasantly surprised to see how well it held up. Join us for a discussion of the film, the real Apollo missions, the future of space exploration, and beyond.
Jim and A.Ron have seen the future, and it is The Circle, and we’re not sure if it’s good. This movie, or the future. They’re both kind of a mess. While extremely well cast and for the most part acted, the basic plot is caught between a cautionary tale, a psychological thriller, and a Young Adult novel, and doesn’t manage to pull any facet off well. But it is legitimately thought provoking. You’ll find the spoiler section for this movie to be positively chocked full of provoked thoughts, but you’ll have to be a Club Member to hear us talk about the tensions between liberty and privacy and our fears for the inevitability of radical transparency.
It’s rare that a disaster movie comes out that isn’t completely over wrought, or sensationalized, much less one that is wholly positive and uplifting, but Sully, directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Tom Hanks at his Tom Hanksiest, is just such a movie. Even our podcast’s automatic pilot system, Jim Jones, was moved by the depiction of the sort of everyday heroism that can save 155 souls, and unite a country in a sense of admiration and gratitude. Plus, we talk crap about new trailers and the unruly elderly audience we enjoyed this film with.