Tom Hanks....

NuggetBrain

....sucks.*Flees*

temerityjane

Oh, Nugget.Nugget, Nugget, Nugget.Don't you see? Hating Tom Hanks doesn't hurt me. It hurts YOU, Nugget.It hurts YOU.

kdcwedding

Uh oh.

NuggetBrain

I heard Tom Hanks made the baby Jesus cry.

ac_in_dc

I heard that God smites you if you say bad things about Tom Hanks.

mandapanda78

I heard Tom Hanks made the baby Jesus cry. With his moving performance in Cast Away?

temerityjane

Oh, sure, poke fun if you want, people. But the Tom Hanks Theory of Life is SOUND.It is SOUND.

crfische

I believe it to be true. When Chuck Norris needs blackup, he calls Tom Hanks.

NuggetBrain

Chuck Norris is possibly the world's most awesome being ever.

temerityjane

You all obviously missed my incredible demonstration a month or so ago, pegging a girl as a young, super sheltered, home schooled, 3x a week church goer, dead on, only with knowing how she felt about Tom Hanks.Tom and I are going to have the last laugh, people.

torontobride17

"sucks". Agreed. I od'd on him awile ago. Somewhere between "Apollo 13" and whatever he did afterwards (was it Forest Gump??) I just came to loathe him.

temerityjane

torontobride,You... loathe... Tom Hanks?Very interesting.

crfische

TJ, I told you. I'm a believer. Toronto. This doesn't look good for you, buddy.

temerityjane

Glad to have you on the team, crfische. Though I may speak of the Tom Hanks Theory in joking tones on P&E, it has yet to fail me. Not one time.

sarah0725

I went through a period of Tom Hanks fatigue, sort of starting right after Saving Private Ryan, when it seemed like all he wanted to do was make big, bloated, Oscar-hungry movies that didn't actually win any Oscars. I also loathe anything connected with Dan Brown, and so Tom Hanks' involvement on that front rankles me. But I really liked when he was putting that care package for the troops together with Stephen Colbert. The man can be funny when he wants.Is this enough to predict my entire personality?

torontobride17

I will defend my Tom Hanks loathing 'til the end of time. I thought I'd slit my throat (or someone's) if I had to hear about how life was like a box of chocolates one more time.

mandapanda78

I may not love every Tom Hanks movie, or feel compelled to go see something just because he's in it, but he seems like the kind of guy I'd want to invite over for dinner. My FI and I often come up with fantasy dinner party guest lists, and Tom's always on them.

torontobride17

Is George Clooney on this fictional dinner list? Because I think he should be.

temerityjane

torontobride, there's definitely something wrong with you!

temerityjane

sarah - I'd say you sound pretty average, though I do imagine you had a fair amount of standard teenage angst in your youth.

MissIntentional

big was amazing.

salt78

I like The Money Pit and Big Tom Hanks, but beyond that I think he pretty much sucks.

temerityjane

But salt, does he suck as an actor or as a person?

sarah0725

Ah, so is the secret whether or not you think he is a good person? I've missed previous explanations of the Tom Hanks theory.As a person, I think he is probably one of the nicest guys in Hollywood. As an actor, he seems to be drawn to lots of lame or maudlin films of late.

temerityjane

sarah, usually, you just say to someone "What is your opinion of Tom Hanks?"Some people will say stuff about his movies, some people will say stuff about him, some people will say stuff about both.

mrsLesGrossman

The ending isn't pretty- TJ will spontaneously combust because her theory failed.   

temerityjane

MrsE - My theory never fails.

tidetravel

I have only heard reference to the Tom Hanks theory; never the theory itself.  That being said, I can't really think of a movie that he's done that I hadn't liked.  Except Road to Perdition.  I didn't get that one.

mrsLesGrossman

I have to disagree with you on that.  You keep trying to make it work and your rules constantly change to suit your opinion of the moment.  I am therefor challenging the Tom Hanks Theory until the manifesto is in writing. 

temerityjane

MrsE, in general, the theory isn't meant to be used as I have been, though extrapolating has usually been pretty accurate.The very basis of the Tom Hanks theory - the portion which does not fail:You ask someone, "What is your opinion of Tom Hanks?"There are many acceptable answers, such as,"Love him and his movies."or"I liked a couple of his movies, he's all right."or"Not into the movies, but Tom Hanks isn't a bad guy or anything."The theory itself is not about Tom Hanks movies. It's about Tom Hanks and your feelings towards the man.I stand by the fact that there is NO GOOD REASON to have an active dislike or hatred of Tom Hanks. You can not care for his movies, you can not give a crap one way or the other. But if someone says, "Tom Hanks? I EFFING HATE TOM HANKS!" with some kind of seething rage, well...The Tom Hanks Theory is designed for people like me, who attract crazy but seem unable to weed it out due to inability to read people at all. Sometimes you meet someone, they seem cool, you strike up a friendship and they turn out to be a psychopath. Anyone who ACTIVELY DISLIKES Tom Hanks is likely one of those crazies.Because there is NO GOOD REASON to dislike Tom Hanks.

sarah0725

I think I understand where you're going with this, if it's kind of a personal thing for you.My way to judge whether I'm going to like a person is to tell them that I've always been bothered by centaurs, because I wonder what their internal organs must be like, since they have both the trunk of a human and the trunk of a horse. Do they have all the internal organs of both? Or is something else going on?If the person runs with it, and starts thinking about how we could dissect a centaur, or what evidence we might have to answer the question, or any other such response, they're the kind of person I can be close with. If they just tell me centaurs aren't real, or give me a funny look, there's no way it's going to work.