These Are Some Of The Worst Movies Tom Hanks Ever Did

Tom Hanks is one of the greatest actors of his generation, and beyond his dramatic talents there is something special about him that just clicks with the audience in a unique way. Many of us have been watching Tom Hanks movies our entire lives, and we connect with him in a special way as we’ve seen him in classic films such as “Big,” “Forrest Gump,” “Saving Private Ryan,” “Cast Away,” and countless other amazing performances.

Over four decades into his career, Hanks is still starring in great movies, and it sometimes seems like everything he touches turns to gold. However, if we take a closer look at his career, you’ll see that we remember all of the great films and conveniently forget about the bad ones. Hanks definitely has good quality control with his career, with far more good films than poor ones, but there are still some clunkers that snuck in, especially early on in his career. Read on for four of Tom Hanks weakest outings.

He Knows You’re Alone

In 1981, Tom Hanks made his film debut in “He Knows You’re Alone.” You probably haven’t heard of it, and there’s a reason for that, because it quite frankly is not very good. It’s a totally shameless ripoff of Halloween, right down to the music of it, and it adds very little to the genre to make it stand out. It did add one thing, though, and that is Tom Hanks.

Hanks’ character, who has his doubts about the stalking that the protagonist claims to be a victim of, was supposed to be killed off, but because the producers of the film were so impressed with Hanks, they felt his character should stay alive. It may not have been an illustrious beginning for Hanks, but his talent was apparent from day one.

The Man With One Red Shoe

Another little known Tom Hanks film is “The Man With One Red Shoe,” which came out in 1985. By that time, Hanks was already a star, having been in “Bosom Buddies,” “Splash,” and “Bachelor Party.” However, this remake of a 1972 French spy comedy failed to connect with audiences and was a box office disappointment.

Critics didn’t like it much either, and Roger Ebert wrote in his one star review, “If The Man with One Red Shoe had been funny, it wouldn't have mattered that it was a witless remake. But it is not funny.” Hanks was a big name at this point, but unlike the 90s when he struck gold with nearly every film, his 80s period was much more hit and miss.

The Circle

After the 1990s and early 2000s golden age of Tom Hanks, his career began to return to being more hit and miss starting with “The Da Vinci Code” in 2006. He still made many great films after this, and he never faltered as an actor, but a number of his films did not live up to their promise, and “The Circle” is a perfect example of that. 

“The Circle” seemed good on paper, with Dave Eggers adapting his own techno-thriller novel of the same name, a cast that includes Emma Watson and John Boyega, and director James Ponsoldt at the helm after a slew of critically acclaimed films. However, critics deemed this to be a disaster, and at 16% on Rotten Tomatoes it is tied for Hanks’ worst reviewed film. 

The Da Vinci Code

You can debate when the Golden Age of Tom Hanks’ career began, perhaps with “Big” in 1988 or maybe much later with “Philadelphia” in 1993, or possible somewhere in between, but there’s little arguing that it ended with “The Da Vinci Code” in 2006. At 25% on Rotten Tomatoes, it was Hanks’ worst review film in over 15 years, and even those who would argue that it’s an entertaining genre piece would still admit that it is merely serviceable and not up to the high standard Hanks set for himself.

This was the first of three films where Hanks played Dan Brown’s famous character Robert Langdon, and the films seemed to get worse and worse and were some of the few in Hanks’ career where it seemed like he was in it more for the money than for the art. At the time of its release, the controversy surrounding the film got all of the attention as many groups claimed to be offended, but now that over a decade has passed it is clear that the film’s mediocrity is the most offensive thing about it.