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Big on DVD (1988)

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Average rating: 70%
1113416192047
3.5
from 6,415 members
 
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: 100 mins
Certificate: PG
Collections: 100 Eighties Greats
User collections: The Greatest Films of the 80's..., My collection, Young Starters, best bad films of all time., Dvds that have been censored/shortened in the U.K, Feel Good Flicks, For all the 80's children., My top Tens from the Eighties, Great Movies - some old, some new but all classics !!!!, Guilty pleasures
Genres: Comedy
Languages: English
Hearing-impaired: English
Subtitles: Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish
Released: 13/10/2003

Brief synopsis of Big

In Penny Marshall's charming comedy, a 13-year-old boy named Josh (David Moscow) wants, more than anything else, to be "big." And when he makes a wish in a carnival booth, his dreams come true--he becomes a 30-year-old man (Tom Hanks), though his mind and spirit remain that of a child. Since he can't really go to school looking like an adult, and his mother doesn't know him in his new guise, Josh heads with his pal Billy (Jared Rushton) to New York, where they proceed to goof off, play around, and act like the kids they are. But when Billy leaves, Josh is subjected to the encroaching needs and responsibilities of adulthood, and he quickly discovers both the pleasures and the problems of being grown-up.

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Critics Reviews

Rating of 4 stars out of 5 Radio Times

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.

Time Out

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 www.timeout.com

Rating of 2 
	  stars out of 4 Halliwell's Film Guide

Magic fun, better done than it has been since Turnabout (qv) in 1940.

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Members Reviews

Reviews Voted Most Helpful

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Rated - 3 starsBIG recommended

BigNoelfromthesouth from Evesham [Highly rated reviewer] , 20/06/2008

a small time gangster makes it big in the illegal arms trade known as `big` which stands for `bint in guns` and become the slightly bemused ringleader. when a deal goes amiss hanks loses his cool and finds love in the strangest place in the world, america. meanwhile his `mate` small finds trouble in the same place when he finds the body of a dead monkey in his garage. after this the mystery ensues as the film pits hanks against himself in a violent climax where hanks dies, but alternatively he survivies

  7 out of 7 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 3 starsBig Tom Hanks

Cornetto from Lancaster [Highly rated reviewer] , 10/04/2007

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.

  2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 5 starsAn old classic

Ally Woodward from Newport , 18/07/2005

This film really reminds me of my childhood, Tom Hanks plays a child who wishes he was bigger, he visits a fayre, makes a wish and becomes an adult (to his complete surprise!)

He then has to overcome the problems with an adult life, money, love and much much more, well worth the watch, especially good to watch on a sunday afternoon!

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
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Rated - 5 starsA film for all

A customer from England , 13/07/2004

Very good viewing

It was better than i expected

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Most Recent Reviews

Rated - 3 starsBig Tom Hanks

Cornetto from Lancaster [Highly rated reviewer] , 10/04/2007

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.

  2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
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* * * This review contains spoilers * * *

Rated - 3 starsBIG recommended

BigNoelfromthesouth from Evesham [Highly rated reviewer] , 20/06/2008

a small time gangster makes it big in the illegal arms trade known as `big` which stands for `bint in guns` and become the slightly bemused ringleader. when a deal goes amiss hanks loses his cool and finds love in the strangest place in the world, america. meanwhile his `mate` small finds trouble in the same place when he finds the body of a dead monkey in his garage. after this the mystery ensues as the film pits hanks against himself in a violent climax where hanks dies, but alternatively he survivies

  7 out of 7 people found this review helpful
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