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With September comes "Sully," a biographical drama about airline pilot Chesley Sullenberger's emergency landing on New York's Hudson River. The Sept. 9 film marks the annual shift from summer blockbusters to Oscar hopefuls, from popcorn action to dialogue-driven drama.
"Sully" is also Tom Hanks' 52nd feature film, yet another chapter in one of Hollywood's most successful, storied careers. Hanks has been a cinematic force for four straight decades, proving to be one of the industry's most versatile stars. Whether he's playing a child in an adult's body ("Big," 1988), an intellectually disabled dreamer ("Forrest Gump," 1994) or a rootin'-tootin' cowboy ("Toy Story," 1995), Hanks has established himself as a favorite among both critics and casual moviegoers.
In honor of "Sully," PrettyFamous — an entertainment research site from Graphiq — set out to rank all 51 of Hanks' feature films. While Hanks is the star of most of these movies, the list will also include films where Hanks played a supporting role.
The team used six data points to assign each Hanks flick a Smart Rating on a scale of 0 to 100.
1. Rotten Tomatoes' Critic Tomatometer
2. Rotten Tomatoes' Audience Score
3. Metacritic's Metascore
4. IMDb Rating
5. Gracenote's movie rating
6. U.S. box office performance (inflation-adjusted)
The top of the list includes a mix of Oscar winners and animated features (hint: "There's a snake in my boot!"). Hanks earned a best actor Academy Award for two of the top 10 — both of which were released in the 1990s. History will likely come to judge this decade as Hanks' peak, a 10-year period that included "Philadelphia," "Toy Story," "Apollo 13," "Forrest Gump" and "Saving Private Ryan."
Still, Hanks' portfolio includes a handful of more recent critical and commercial successes, including "Captain Phillips" (2013) and "Bridge of Spies" (2015). No doubt Warner Bros. executives hope "Sully" winds up joining this group, rather than a pile of earlier flops (see "The Ladykillers" or "Larry Crowne").
In a testament to the actor's star power, Tom Hanks films routinely do well in the box office, whether they're critically dismissed or acclaimed. As such, even several films at the bottom of the list will nonetheless be commercial successes (see "Angels & Demons" or "The Da Vinci Code").
Let's start with Tom Hanks' worst film, then count up to the best of the best.
