Tom Hanks Reflected On The Idea Of "Hating Movies" And He Makes A Really Great Point

There are two things I'm incredibly precious about — Tom Hanks and my love for Tom Hanks movies.

Forrest Gump, Cast Away, Toy Story, Big, and the rest of his award-winning filmography have put the 66-year-old filmmaker in a league of his own.

So when Tom admitted that he actually disliked some of his movies — I was incredibly conflicted. A quick way to get into a heated debate with me: unfairly criticize the filmworks of Mr. Hanks.

CBS / Via media.giphy.com

Cloud Atlas is a great movie! Fight me.

Much to my dismay, the two-time Academy Award winner revealed he's not a fan of all his movies while discussing his career and his new book, The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece, with The New Yorker.

“OK, let’s admit this: We all have seen movies that we hate. I have been in some movies that I hate. You have seen some of my movies and you hate them,” he said.

I'm not convinced Tom's made a movie worthy of being hated, even by him. But, when he went to discuss how disliked films can become fan favorites — I was reminded why the Asteroid City actor is a Hollywood heavyweight.

Do you remember the 1996 movie, That Thing You Do! written and directed by Tom Hanks?

Tom talked about how that movie, which was not one of his most famous films in comparison, but his personal favorite, gradually became more popular and a cult classic over the years. “I loved making that movie. I loved writing it, I loved being with it. I love all the people in it," he said.

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"When it came out, it was completely dismissed by the first wave of vox populi," he added. "It didn’t do great business. It hung around for a while, was viewed as being some sort of odd, kinda quasi-ripoff of nine other different movies and a nice little stroll down memory lane.”

"Now the same exact publications that dismissed it in their initial review called it 'Tom Hanks’s cult classic, That Thing You Do!' So now it’s a cult classic. What was the difference between those two things? The answer is time.”

I'll admit, Tom brings up an interesting point. Only time can tell if a film has the power to remain relevant years after it leaves the cultural zeitgeist and collects dust on a shelf of Blu-ray movies.

“There’s no way to tell, because the process is so slow. And so specific. You can only have faith and hope—and what’s bigger than faith and hope? You have to trust the entire process to collaborators who you hope are working at the absolute top of their game farther down the line.”

So what I gathered from Tom was that if you miraculously aren't a fan of any of his movies (which is physically impossible), give it another watch. It just might grow on you. And if it doesn't, you have no soul.

PBS SoCal / Via giphy.com

What's your favorite (or least favorite) Tom Hanks movie?

Let me know in the comments.