VividSimon Simply Perfect

Grimerlana Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

denis888 Tom Hanks is a real steamroller who goes well and mighty. He did many great movies and he seems to do no wrong. Yet, here he seemed to be all correct again, with this funny little film of a young band getting famous and then falling apart due to several factors all gotten together at one place. Here, the story seems to be OK, yes, as a drummer I do support all those technical difficulties the band encountered and all those conflicts they had. Yes, the studio / TV / gig routines are shown pretty well. Yes, the band seems to be very real, they play as if the actors play all their parts themselves. Yes, Liv Tyler and Charlize Theron are gorgeous sexy ladies. Yes, the band is a very funny gang often. And then, many NO's follow. No, the characters do not endear or grab you by their struggles or triumphs. No, the love line does not seem to be deep or decent. No, the final conflict does not smack of being real and mundane. It seems that Hanks tried very hard to slide along the surface without diving any deeper. There is no deep slant drilling of main heroes, there's only some sweet light slight tiny touches upon their psyche. This is a light little teen comedy with a very large chunk of certain shallowness and naivety, seemingly all coming from blurred recollections of Mr. Hanks himself. Oh, and I am sorry but does Mr. Zahn not irritate with his character all through. This obvious shallowness of all four main heroes seems extremely annoying, and this fluffy-puffy sweetness of Liv's Faye leaves nothing but a cloy of too sweet candy. Where Hanks succeeded is in biting certain sides of TV / cinema routine. Where he fails is depicting band's true evolution. And oh, all those jazz sentiments, they are so out of place that one can only rub their eyes in utter shock. Yeah, the overall feeling of very lightweight teen pop comedy never left me. It was nice, it was sweet. Decent or deep it was not. My rating - 7 Nice try, but not more

Hitchcoc What a nice movie. There was a time when a garage band could put together a hit, find someone to listen to it, and get on the charts. Here, a group called the Oneders (pronounced Wonders) writes and performs a song and manages to get noticed by a record producer, played by Tom Hanks. Soon, they find themselves on a band competition where the emcee announces them as the o-need-era. When the achieve a reasonable success, they face the challenges that many bands did, artistic direction. One of the undermines things be not taking the whole thing seriously, and the women in their lives cause other issues. Their lack of experience in the big, bad world is also an issue. How far can they go with what they have. This is a quiet, charming story that focuses in on the lives of these everyday guys.

Mr-Fusion The title song for "That Thing You Do!" is so infectious that, even if the movie had nothing else to do, it still boasts a teflon song. For as often as its played through the course of the movie (and in your head after the credits roll), it's one weapons-grade toe-tapper. But that's not all the movie has to offer; far from it. There's a can-do optimism permeating this thing from start to finish, not to mention a sense of playfulness. And you can't help but be swept right along with the band on their meteoric rise to the big time (not even their implosion is enough to sour things). Talk about hitting it out of the park for a first-time directing gig, this is about as well-engineered a feel-good movie gets. The cast is great, the pacing's snappy and it all adds up to one very entertaining movie.8/10

gavin6942 A Pennsylvania band scores a hit in 1964 and rides the star-making machinery as long as it can, with lots of help from its manager (Tom Hanks).There is nothing really new here. A cast of fresh-faced kids (and a young Liv Tyler), rising up in stardom, and stumbling along the way. We all know what happens if we let fame get to our heads and we leave our friends behind.What makes this film stand out is the catchy tune. Even though they play it a dozen times throughout the film, it never really gets old. Had the song been not as good, the film would drag and certainly would not having the staying power it does. (Not unlike "Eddie and the Cruisers", which is very much anchored by its "Dark Side" song.)