That Thing You Do! (1996)

Hear me out. I know so many people will tell me it's crazy to list this cheesy movie as one of my favorites. And in a way I agree. With so many phenomenal movies out there, why pick one like this? The answer: because it's fun. I love serious movies. Some of my favorites are very serious. But the main goal of a movie is to be entertaining, and if I just want to watch something that's going to let me have fun and escape the world for two hours, I rarely have to look further than this often overlooked masterpiece. We've all come to expect greatness from Tom Hanks, and in his directorial debut, he certainly delivers, both onscreen and behind the curtain. I firmly believe that Steve Zahn is a comedic goldmine, worthy of far more accolades than he gets, and this is his best work. The songs are catchy and reminiscent of the 60s charm they are intended to represent. It's just a great movie to have fun and sing along to. I maintain that some movies don't need to be any more than that.

Tom Hanks is a real steamroller who goes well and mighty. He did many great movies and he seems to do no wrong. Yet, here he seemed to be all correct again, with this funny little film of a young band getting famous and then falling apart due to several factors all gotten together at one place. Here, the story seems to be OK, yes, as a drummer I do support all those technical difficulties the band encountered and all those conflicts they had. Yes, the studio / TV / gig routines are shown pretty well. Yes, the band seems to be very real, they play as if the actors play all their parts themselves. Yes, Liv Tyler and Charlize Theron are gorgeous sexy ladies. Yes, the band is a very funny gang often. And then, many NO's follow. No, the characters do not endear or grab you by their struggles or triumphs. No, the love line does not seem to be deep or decent. No, the final conflict does not smack of being real and mundane. It seems that Hanks tried very hard to slide along the surface without diving any deeper. There is no deep slant drilling of main heroes, there's only some sweet light slight tiny touches upon their psyche. This is a light little teen comedy with a very large chunk of certain shallowness and naivety, seemingly all coming from blurred recollections of Mr. Hanks himself. Oh, and I am sorry but does Mr. Zahn not irritate with his character all through. This obvious shallowness of all four main heroes seems extremely annoying, and this fluffy-puffy sweetness of Liv's Faye leaves nothing but a cloy of too sweet candy. Where Hanks succeeded is in biting certain sides of TV / cinema routine. Where he fails is depicting band's true evolution. And oh, all those jazz sentiments, they are so out of place that one can only rub their eyes in utter shock. Yeah, the overall feeling of very lightweight teen pop comedy never left me. It was nice, it was sweet. Decent or deep it was not. My rating - 7 Nice try, but not more

With this movie Tom Hanks proves he can not only act amazingly well but also write and direct a movie. "That thing you do!" is a great movie that has feeling and doesn't drag on. The fact that there are not to many known actors in this movie actually makes it more enjoyable because the viewer can concentrate more in the actual plot and everything that's going on rather than a specific acting performance. The soundtrack is one of the best cinematic elements in the movie and it really is one of the most enjoyable soundtracks I have heard so far. The acting is by all actors is just great and the chemistry is just right. Also the audience experiences again how many feelings and emotions Tom Hanks can portray with his face alone. All in all "That thing you do!" is a very enjoyable movie that just flies by and that every music fan should see. Also I would've given it an 8.5 but that is unfortunately not possible.

Feces! Smear it all over your face! I do not take this movie seriously. I do not respect the real effort put forward to make this movie and this movie was more than one person's labor of love and here I am squatting over it preparing to empty my bowels upon the film, metaphorically. What kind of dump will it be? A loose stool? Something solid and meaty? Brown soup? It's a mystery, nah I'll just tell you, it's gonna be foamy diarrhea like I'm getting over a bad cold or maybe I should eat more fiber. I bet you thought this was going to be a movie review, well pal, this is America and I can and will use figurative language to express my disdain through the imagery of sh*t. Don't forget to wipe.