The film Tom Hanks admitted was “not a very good movie”
Arguably, despite the veil of a marketable persona, a genuinely nice Hollywood celebrity is hard to come by, yet with the American actor Tom Hanks, movie fans may have just found one. Rising to industry prominence in the 1980s, Hanks quickly became a household name thanks to collaborations with the likes of Steven Spielberg, Jonathan Demme, Ron Howard, Brian De Palma and Robert Zemeckis.
Throughout such collaborations, Hanks helped to create some of the most beloved movies of all time, including Saving Private Ryan, Forrest Gump and Philadelphia. Winning two Academy Awards for his efforts, Hanks is considered among the very best actors in modern Hollywood, even if he doesn’t think much of his own filmography, once stating: “I’ve made a ton of movies and four of them are pretty good, I think”.
Continuing in his self-deprecating speech, he added, “Movie-making is very hard work over a very long period of time that consists of so many moments of joy slapped up against an equal number of feelings of self-loathing…It is the greatest job in the world and the most confounding of labours that I know of”.
Exactly which movie Hanks is referring to when he talks about four “pretty good” films is unclear, but some of his highest-rated releases include Toy Story, Saving Private Ryan, Philadelphia and The Green Mile, providing some insight into the flicks he might be hinting at.
One movie that is certainly not on the shortlist is the 1985 comedy The Man with One Red Shoe, a film Hanks admitted was bad in an interview with Playboy from back in 1989. When asked to give a mini-review of the film, Hanks stated: “Not a very good movie. It doesn’t have any real, clear focus to it. It isn’t about anything particularly that you can honestly understand. It made no money at all”.
Helmed by Stan Dragoti, the movie, which starred Hanks in the lead role, told the story of a man who is randomly chosen as the target of a CIA surveillance operation. An entirely forgettable movie, The Man with One Red Shoe is only made memorable by its cast, which included Hanks, Carrie Fisher, Dabney Coleman, Lori Singer and Jim Belushi.
Take a look at the trailer for The Man with One Red Shoe below, and decide for yourself whether it is indeed one of Hanks’ worst-ever movies.
Never Miss A Scene
The Far Out Film Newsletter
All the latest film news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.