Tom Hanks won rave reviews for his Oscar nominated performance (1988, Best Actor) as a twelve-year-old boy trapped inside a thirty-year-old body in director Penny Marhsall’s winning comedy.
At a carnival, young Josh Barkin (Hanks) wishes he was big – only to awake the next morning and discover he is! With the help of his friend Billy, Josh lands a job at a toy company. There, his inner wisdom enables him to successfully predict what children want to buy, making the awestruck, naive Josh irresistable to a beautiful ladder-climbing colleague (Elizabeth Perkins). But the more he experiences being an adult, the more Josh longs for the simple joys of childhood.
Cast: Tom Hanks, John Heard, Elizabeth Perkins, Robert Loggia
Director: Penny Marshall
Running Time: 100 mins
Rating: (PG) Parental Guidance is recommended for younger viewers,
7 Comments
Tom Hanks proved himself a great actor in any kind of movie. He is
lighthearted and funny. Tom looks so young in this film. The movie made
me laugh and cry. If you haven’t seen this yet, rent it next time.
I just love this movie and fun and full of laughter. I have seen this movie at least 6 times.
Great Classic movie!! I remember my brother watching this everyday in the school holidays as a kid
this was a great movie to watch. I still have my DVD with me and my
kids find it funny to watch. A 12 year old trapped inside of a 30 year
old.
This is a fab kids and adults movie…it takes you back to when you were
a kid, and imagine having the ultimate job as a kid – testing toys!!!
really funny! Tom Hanks is great (as per usual even though this was just the beginning of his career)
When a boy wishes to be big at a magic wish machine, he wakes up the
next morning and finds himself in an adult body literally overnight.
This charming, sweet, hilarious gem of a film works because Tom Hanks
makes you believe he actually is a small boy in the body of an adult.
The
interesting trick of what makes the story appealing is not so much the
magic that the boy gets his wish to be “big.” It’s that once he is in an
adult, he has to navigate the adult world with the mind of a child and
ultimately realises that he is missing something if he makes the leap
from boy to man without going through all the fun and the struggle in
between.
I loved this movie when it first came out, but possibly enjoyed it even
more last week when we hired the dvd for our kids aged 5, 7 and 8 to
watch.
It operates on two levels, and appeals equally to chidlren and parents.
My daughter is now trying to learn Heart and Soul on the piano – one of the tunes they played with their feet!
An excellent movie for fostering fun and imagination – I thoroughly recommend it!