Late to finding Zoltar! A review of Big

Scotty: See that girl over there in the red? Say “hi” to her and she’s yours. She’ll have her legs around you so tight you’ll be begging for mercy. 

Josh: Well, I’ll stay away from her, then. 

The things you learn from other people, I tell you what.

See, I was under the impression that (with the exception of Toy Story) Tom Hanks was only a serious actor obsessed with wars. See: Forrest Gump, Philadelphia, Saving Private Ryan, Apollo 13… Da Vinci Code (which, I guess, was also sort of a comedy). Sure, there was Sleepless in Seattle which I have seen, but I try to forget about that movie so I don’t count it in his repertoire.

But now people are telling me that Tom Hanks is actually a great comedic actor and that’s where he got his start? You’re kidding!

(They weren’t kidding.)

Anyway, I saw Big for the first time last weekend and it was WEIRD for the following reasons:

1. I’ve only seen Elizabeth Perkins in Weeds (and she is the best part of that damn show, no wonder it’s gone downhill).
2. I’ve only seen Penny Marshall in KMart commercials.
3. John Heard is the dad in Home Alone and then also from the Sopranos.
4. Robert Loggia is from Scarface. What?!
5. Also… um… it was a really cute movie but is no one else bothered by the fact that technically Susan had sex with a 13-year-old? I would have been super pissed about that if that had been me. And, I mean, wouldn’t it have been at least a little obvious…you know…while they were…. you know? Whatever. I guess that’s why I will never make it big in the toy industry.

I liked this movie, I thought it was very cute and funny and I think it stands up well to the test of time. I think I like it more now than I would have at a younger age because it seems like it’s more a movie for people who are growing up or “grown up” but still have that desire to be a kid again, rather than being a movie for kids. I did have weird, creepy feelings about the relationship between Tom Hanks and Elizabeth Perkins. I wouldn’t say that it ruined the movie for me at all, but it definitely left an odd taste in my mouth at the end. Maybe if I was younger I wouldn’t have thought that much about it but I have trouble getting past that now. Perhaps I’m just too damaged.

One more thing that made my night– this happened:

Yeah. That happened.

I gasped. Like I said above, I *loved* her in Weeds so I was tickled that she even pays attention to Twitter.

Face palm moment: See above regarding Tom Hanks’s comedies. I think everyone hates me.

Favorite part: The entire piano scene in FAO Schwarz. Too bad the FAO Schwarz closed in Kansas City, otherwise I would have driven right over to play.

The “I missed that in pop culture trivia” moment: There’s not a lot but I guess now I understand all references to Zoltar.

Regrettable tardiness scale (out of 10): Kevin (and his step dad, who watched it with us) thinks this is one of the best 80s comedies. I liked it… but I guess I just didn’t feel exactly the same. I’d probably put it around 3 or 4 out of 10. Glad I saw it and I’ll probably watch it again if it’s on TV, but I’m not sure I’ll go out of my way to watch it.

Post script: I think Kevin likes this movie so much that he hates me now for not liking it at much as he does. He thinks that if I would have seen it at a young age I would have absolutely loved it. Actually, he just said to me, “I’m just warning you…. if you do what you did to Big to Karate Kid…I don’t know what I’ll do. But it won’t be good.” Am I just way over-analyzing these movies? How do I get past that? What do you think?