PG-13 for grating boyishness, uncomfortable love story, graphic depiction of job market
Sometimes it’s nice to see the catty, bickering movie critics of this world set aside their differences and just rail on something together. After making his directorial debut with 1996′s way-too-charming-and-adorable That Thing You Do!, witness the reviews Tom Hanks earned for his sophomore effort:
“An exercise in terrible, pointless filmmaking.†– The Austin Chronicle
“Blinding schmaltz.†– Slant Magazine
“Insipid mid-recession fable in which every honest laugh and emotion has been sanitized out of the equation.†-Variety
“I doubt this script could be salvaged by any actor, any director.†-Chicago Tribune
“Alarmingly, depressingly out of touch.†-Rolling Stone
“Doomed by its tone of hopelessly contrived Hollywood sincerity.†-LA Times
“So blithely nondescript as to carry no real weight.†-Village Voice
And my favorite:
“Just lays there like road kill.†– New York Observer
Ten points to any person who can come up with a profession in which “just lays there like road kill†would not be an utterly soul-crushing performance review.—Ben Orlin
