BIG | Jacquie Kubin reviews, Family, Blu-ray | DONNE TEMPO
BIG
Big (20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, $34.98). What child doesn’t wish to be big? To be big enough to ride the twisting roller coasters was my son’s wish.
A son who is now, alas, big enough to do just that.The film follows the exploits of 12-year-old Josh Baskins who finds his family slightly embarrassing at the local town carnival, where he is trying to impress the girl. Adding to a camera happy mom and dad, when he tries to get on the roller coaster with the girl, he doesn’t meet the height requirement.
Certain death-by-humiliation for any pre-adolescent boy trying to impress the babes.
Feeling as one would feel after such an experience, Josh walks over to a fortune telling carnival booth machine “Zoltar Speaks” and wishes that he could be … big. His wish is granted (so says the little card), only when Josh steps away, her realizes the machine is not plugged in – setting up the magical interference that propels our story.
Following his wish making, Josh wakes up not 12, but 35, and being chased from his house by a hysterical mother who sees not her son but an intruder. His much more worldly best friend, Billy (Jared Rushton) helps him out after an incredibly amusing rendition of the song Shimmy Shimmy Coco Bop proves that this man is actually his best friend.
Hanks now known brilliance as an actor sparks to life in scenes where he very much becomes a scared child trapped in the aggressive, and violent world he finds himself in.≈
Through his tribulations, and triumphs, Josh, brings “redemption through innocence” to the adult people, many with childish behaviors that he meets. In this pre-internet era, he is able to get a job based on his computer skills, advanced due to his less than stellar social standing amongst his peers.
Working in the MacMillan Toy Company he meets the tough but beautiful Susan (Elizabeth Perkins) who is presently scheming for company advancement along with her co-worker Paul (John Heard) whose creativeness has been lost in the bottom of his three martini lunch.
Josh’s understanding of what kids play with, and his honesty as to what and why some toys are lame, quickly endears Josh to the company president, Mr. MacMillan (Robert Loggia).
The “piano dance” featuring Loggia and Hanks creates one of films and movie histories most endearing clips. Coming across a larger than life piano, which actually did exist at the New York City FAO Schwartz toy story, Josh and Macmillan, dance, using their feet to play the piano, through grade school piano classics Heart and Soul and Chopsticks.
The joy that the characters, and actors, experienced in this childlike moment is so beautifully captured by Hanks and Loggia as to burn into this generation’s collective memory.
The films conflict comes when Josh realizes that though he is a successful business man now wearing tailored suits making a six-figure salary he is a child. A child that while he has fallen in very adult love with Susan, still misses his mother and his best friend.
And the decision to reverse his wish and return to a life yet lived.
The goods: The film looks good in the hi-def format and presents a worthy addition to any film fans collection. The disc includes both the remastered theatrical and extended cuts.
Additionally, the movie enjoys many iconic film moments and a few movie firsts for its crew”
It is lead actor Tom Hanks, who plays Josh Baskins, first dramatic film role following his more comedic roles in the long running television show “Bosom Buddies,” and then films such as “Splash” and “The Bachelor Party” (1984) and “The Money pit” (1986) and it earns him his first Academy Award Nomination.
BIG is the movie that propelled Hanks to such films as “Philadelphia” (1993), “Forest Gump” (1994), back-to-back movies that he won Best Actor Oscars for (only the second actor to achieve such a feat, the first being Spencer Tracy for “Captain’s Courageous (1937) and “Boys Town” (1938).
It is director Penny Marshall, who was best known for her role as Laverne in the television series “Laverne & Shirley,” first Academy Award nominated film (her directorial film debut was in 1986 Jumpin Jack Flash with Whoopie Goldberg), catapulting her into film history as the first female director of a film that grossed in excess of $100 million.
BIG led to Marshall directing other iconic films including “A League of Their Own” (1992) also starring Hanks and “Awakenings” (1990), “Renaissance Man” (1994), “The Preacher’s Wife” (1996), and “Riding in Cars with Boys” (2001). Marshall continues to direct, produce and act.
The bads: Nahh, its all good. Well almost all. With some older films, the remastering really makes the colors pop giving the viewer a true hi-def experience. Unfortunately BIG is not one of those films. Buy this not on blu-ray expecting a hi-def experience that will leave you saying WOW! but because your film collection deserves to include this classic film. And it looks o.k.
The mandatory extras: The Blu Ray version adds nothing new to the extras available on the DVD release, but they are:
The Audio Commentary that has screenwriters Anne Spielberg (yes, sister of Steven but a talent in her own right) and Gary Ross offer a commentary that is not new material, but audio cuts from the cassette recording that the writers made while working out the original story. The story of Anne pulling out the tape recorder to memorialize their first writing session is oft told in the extras.
The commentary is somewhat interesting, but actually it is a bit of a drudge. DVD producer Peter Vantrella tries to inject some present day comments, but really would it have been that hard to get Ross and Spielberg to come back and offer something new? (It is interesting to note that Ross is the son of Arthur Ross who created the Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954).)
Featurettes include fifty minutes of viewing in three chunks. “BIG Beginnings,” “Chemistry of a Classic,” and “The Work of Play.”
Worth watching are “BIG Beginnings” and “Chemistry of a Classic.” Both feature Penny Marshall, Ross, Spielberg and producer Brooks, along with the films actors, Elizabeth Perkins, Robert Loggia, David Moscow (Josh as a child), and Jared Rushton, who played Billy Josh’s best friend, providing present day commentary.
Having caught the AMC series “Backstory” on “BIG” (2001) it was fun to watch again including archival material of Hanks and the over-the-top studio release party.
Founding things out are deleted scenes, which you can see in the extended version and the theatrical trailers.
— By Jacquie Kubin