Big (1988)
90%RT Audience Score: 82%
Awards & Nominations: NA
Refreshingly sweet and undeniably funny, Big is a showcase for Tom Hanks, who dives into his role and infuses it with charm and surprising poignancy.
Big is a movie that will make you laugh, cry, and wish you could be a kid again. Tom Hanks delivers a performance that is both hilarious and heartwarming, making you believe that he really is a 12-year-old boy trapped in a man’s body. The film is a perfect mix of comedy and drama, with a message that will resonate with audiences of all ages. Whether you’re watching it for the first time or the hundredth, Big is a classic that never gets old. So grab some popcorn, sit back, and enjoy the ride!
Production Company(ies)
Wildbear Entertainment, National Geographic
Distributor
20th Century Fox
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
MPAA / Certificate
TV-PG
Year of Release
1988
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Stereo Dolby Digital
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Aspect ratio:16:9 HD
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Runtime:1h 44m
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Language(s):
-
Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Jun 3, 1988 Original
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 5, 1999
Genre(s)
Comedy/Fantasy
Keyword(s)
starring Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, Robert Loggia, John Heard, Jared Rushton, David Moscow, directed by Penny Marshall, written by Gary Ross and Anne Spielberg, comedy, fantasy, box office performance, budget, reviewed by Duane Byrge, Kathleen Carroll, Victoria Mather, Keith Phipps, Gerald Clarke, Desmond Ryan, PG rating, produced by James L Brooks and Robert Greenhut, MacMillen Toy Company, wish, New York City, promotion, testing new toys, romantic interest, pressure, living as an adult, simple, former life as a boy
Worldwide gross: $114,968,896
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): NA
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): NA
US/Canada gross: $114,968,774
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend:
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): NA
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): NA
Production budget ranking: NA
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): NA
ROI to date (est.): NA
ROI ranking: NA
Elizabeth Perkins – Susan
Robert Loggia – MacMillan
John Heard – Paul
Jared Rushton – Billy
David Moscow – Young Josh
Director(s)
Penny Marshall
Writer(s)
Gary Ross, Anne Spielberg
Producer(s)
James L. Brooks, Robert Greenhut
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
NA
Academy Awards
Oscar Nominees
All Critics (78) | Top Critics (20) | Fresh (76) | Rotten (2)
Director Penny Marshall doesn’t hammer any themes or satire into the film; she, quite shrewdly, keeps Big likeably small. The comedy is natural and unforced, in no small part because of Hanks’ wonderfully slapstick performance.
December 26, 2018
Duane Byrge
Hollywood Reporter
TOP CRITIC
The film succeeds largely because of the splendid performance of Tom Hanks — who is irresistibly funny as “big” Josh.
July 28, 2015 | Rating: 3.5/4
Kathleen Carroll
New York Daily News
TOP CRITIC
Tom Hanks is marvellously child-like as Josh, all restless energy, innocence and real pleasure in the liberation that being grown-up allows him.
December 25, 2014 | Rating: 3/5
Victoria Mather
Daily Telegraph (UK)
TOP CRITIC
A funny, bittersweet film that opens as a cautionary tale about growing up too fast, but deepens into a movie about the unplumbable gulf between childhood and adulthood.
December 16, 2013 | Rating: 4/5
Keith Phipps
The Dissolve
TOP CRITIC
A delightful comedy-fantasy.
August 2, 2013
Gerald Clarke
TIME Magazine
TOP CRITIC
Penny Marshall brings a logic to the premise that is sustained through most of the movie. And where the other movies snickered at the sexual possibilities in the idea, she faces up to them with both candor and taste.
August 2, 2013 | Rating: 3/4
Desmond Ryan
Philadelphia Inquirer
TOP CRITIC
Big is not laugh-out-loud farce. Instead it’s a funny take on a situation that is potentially serious. [Full review in Spanish]
July 7, 2022
Rene Jordan
El Nuevo Herald (Miami)
[Tom Hanks] put his all into this roll to make it believable.
March 29, 2022
Nathan Paige
Call and Post (Cleveland)
Full of exquisite moments that help the film become both continually hilarious and unforgettably unique.
June 28, 2021 | Rating: 9/10
Mike Massie
Gone With The Twins
Oh, this movie. It’s not sad, but it makes me tear up every single time without fail. It’s delightfully 80s and Tom Hanks is an adorable heartbreaker.
October 24, 2018
Lindsay Pugh
Woman in Revolt
What makes this all work, of course, is Hanks himself, who brings remarkable authenticity and simplicity to the role. He makes being a kid seem as wonderful as it was, and as scary and as confusing too.
August 23, 2016
Cathy Burke
United Press International
Hanks, as a stranger in a strange land, gives us equal portions of laughs and insights into the worlds of both adults and adolescents. Big also offers up a very funny satire of corporate ladder climbing.
April 3, 2016 | Rating: A-
James Plath
Family Home Theater…
Plot
Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper are both brilliant physicists working at Cal Tech in Pasadena, California. They are colleagues, best friends, and roommates, although in all capacities their relationship is always tested primarily by Sheldon’s regimented, deeply eccentric, and non-conventional ways. They are also friends with their Cal Tech colleagues mechanical engineer Howard Wolowitz and astrophysicist Rajesh Koothrappali. The foursome spend their time working on their individual work projects, playing video games, watching science-fiction movies, or reading comic books. As they are self-professed nerds, all have little or no luck with women. When Penny, a pretty woman and an aspiring actress from Omaha, moves into the apartment across the hall from Leonard and Sheldon’s, Leonard has another aspiration in life, namely to get Penny to be his girlfriend.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Tom Hanks delivers a “wonderfully slapstick performance” in Big, according to Fresh Kernels.
Penny-Marshall.jpg
