Tom Hanks is considered one of the best actors on the planet today and rightfully so. He has been in some of the most legendary roles and movies in cinema history. On top of all of this, he is a two-time Academy Award winner…so by no means does he take off a movie and not put his all into it. It seems every movie he makes is pure gold, which makes you really look forward to any movie he is part of.
Hanks was not part of any big time movies for a while, so many wondered when the next big film would come. It seemed after “Toy Story 3” he was part of critically acclaimed movies and did a lot of behind the scenes work. Yet he was not part of a juicy role that could put him back on the map as one of cinema’s best.
Then “Captain Phillips” was born. The movie was beloved by critics, all claiming that the movie itself was great but Hanks’ performance was great as always. It seems that Hanks has fallen into great actor hell. He is so good in everything he is part of, even the bad stuff, that he is not respected when he does well in movies anymore.
Hanks was brilliant as the title character for the movie, yet he was overlooked by the Academy and not given a Best Actor nomination. Hilariously however, the movie Captain Phillips is nominated for Best Picture . While it is not expected to win, the fact that the movie is nominated yet Hanks is not literally makes no sense.
The movie was basically great because of Hanks. Being that he was the title character, he was part of virtually every scene. Meaning if the movie was good, it was because of Hanks and how well he did with his role as the Captain. While the script was well done, it was really not a creative script write-up. The movie was based on a true story . Therefore, the writing is not something that makes the movie stand-out. You can’t create something that was already there.
So here we are, with a movie based on a true story nominated yet the man who made the movie worth a damn is not nominated. Does that make sense? Most feel it does not.
Some say that the people nominated in the Best Actor category are deserving, so Hanks just got passed over due to better talent. This is understandable in theory, but keep in mind that the Best Picture category expanded in the past to fit in random movies for nomination.
Yet we cannot possibly add another nominee if needed? That does seem a bit odd.
Some wonder why Hanks was passed over for Matthew McConaughey and Bruce Dern. While both played their parts well, some wonder if they were truly better than Hanks. Matthew would be getting his first Oscar if he won, and many are happy just to see him nominated. Meanwhile Bruce was nominated unexpectedly to some for “Nebraska” that seemed did not do well in the box office and seemed to only hit in certain theaters for a while. It was a similar story to “The Reader” from a few years back that seemed to be liked by critics, but few actually saw the movie.
Some believe that Hanks was robbed. The two-time Oscar winner clearly did well as the Captain. Some point to the last scene in the movie to prove how amazing Tom Hanks did in the movie. The whole movie had tremendous acting throughout, but this was clearly a Hanks masterpiece. The end however, is where the acting hits high level. So take a look and decide for yourself. Was Hanks robbed or was he simply overlooked for better actors this time?