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Big Details

1988 Certificate PG
  • Rated:
  • 70
  • from 21,333 members

More than anything else, 13-year old New Jerseyite Josh (David Moscow) wants to be big. That's the wish he makes at an odd-looking amusement pier fortunetelling machine. The next morning, Josh wakes up-only to discover that he's grown to manhood overnight! (At this point, the part is taken over by Tom Hanks). Still a 13-year-.. Read more

Starring Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, Robert Loggia, John Heard
Director Penny Marshall
Genres Comedy

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Big

More than anything else, 13-year old New Jerseyite Josh (David Moscow) wants to be big. That's the wish he makes at an odd-looking amusement pier fortunetelling machine. The next morning, Josh wakes up-only to discover that he's grown to manhood overnight! (At this point, the part is taken over by Tom Hanks). Still a 13-year-old mentally and emotionally, Josh decides to hide out in New York City until he can figure out what to do next. He lucks into a job with a major toy company run by kid-at-heart McMillan (Robert Loggia). By cannily bringing a child's eye view to McMillan's business, Josh rises to the top-and in process, he falls in love with fellow employee Susan (Elizabeth Perkins). But he's still a kid, and he'd like to go back to his own world and own body. Written by Gary Ross and Anne Spielberg, Big proved a crucial success for budding director Penny Marshall, who'd work harmoniously with Hanks again on the radically different A League of Their Own. The cinematography was by Barry Sonenfeld, who went on to become a director himself with The Addams Family. That Big was heavily reliant upon the input of Tom Hanks and Penny Marshall was proven by the failed attempt to turn the property into a Broadway musical.~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Starring Tom Hanks, Elizabeth Perkins, Robert Loggia, John Heard, Jared Rushton, David Moscow, Mercedes Ruehl, James Eckhouse, Jon Lovitz, Josh Clark, Samantha Larkin, Rockets Redglare, Tracy Reiner, Jamie Tirelli
Director Penny Marshall
Studio 20TH CENTURY FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Run time DVD: 1 hr 40 mins
Certificate Certificate PG
Genres Comedy
Language DVD: English
Hearing-impaired English
Subtitles DVD: Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish
Released DVD: 13 Oct 2003
Production year: 1988
Format DVD
  • Critics' reviews (4) of Big

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  • 4 stars out of 5

    Tom Hanks, winner of consecutive Oscars for best actor for his roles in 1993's Philadelphia and the following year's Forrest Gump, only received an Oscar nomination for this, one of his finest performances to date. He plays a 12-year-old boy transplanted by a carnival wishing contraption into a man's body, and his portrayal of a simple but sincere guy in a cynical world foreshadows his role as Gump. Big may well be a formula fantasy movie, but Penny Marshall's polished direction combined with Hanks's gauche charm make it the best of the spate of body-swap movies turned out by Hollywood in the late 1980s.

    • Radio Times
  • It's no fun being in your early teens, especially if you're none too tall. So thinks Josh Baskin, having been denied a... read more on Time Out

    • Time Out
  • Most helpful member's review of Big

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  • 4 out of 4 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 3 stars

    Big Tom Hanks

    Big is a 1988 comedy film about a teenage boy who is aged to adulthood by a magical fortune-telling machine.A hit with the kids, it’s just a great family comedy.

      • Cornetto from Lancaster
  • Most recent members' review of Big

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  • 4 out of 4 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 3 stars

    Big Tom Hanks

    Big is a 1988 comedy film about a teenage boy who is aged to adulthood by a magical fortune-telling machine.A hit with the kids, it’s just a great family comedy.

      • Cornetto from Lancaster
  • News and features

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    Forrest Gump

    Top 10 - Tom Hanks

    • 15 Sep 2009

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Rating breakdown

21,333 Member ratings
  • 100
2,001
  • 90
1,945
  • 80
4,512
  • 70
4,678
  • 60
4,149
  • 50
1,980
  • 40
1,023
  • 30
535
  • 20
349
  • 10
161

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