One of my all time favorites.

Just perfect...

As Good As It Gets

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Inspired by the success of The Beatles, a group of friends try to make it big on the music scene in the mid-1960s in this film written and directed by Tom Hanks. The Academy Award nominated title song is very catchy (and probably should have won the Oscar over 'Evita') and some of the band's other tunes are decent, yet the biggest sell-point here is all the parallels to The Beatles, including a similar involvement in the motion picture industry; the film is very cleverly done in this regard. There are less hurdles than one might expect though as the band rise upwards. Their first manager (who meets them in a rundown van) seems a little fishy, but turns out to have a heart of gold, and same goes twice over for their second manager, played by Hanks himself, who lectures them about treating their girlfriends right and so forth. In short, everyone is a little too pure at heart for the film to have any real edge; there is no producer trying to sell them short as in 'The Harder They Come' and all the messages about not letting fame get to their heads are fairly simplistic. Still, there is much to enjoy in the music and genuine 1960s ambiance that Hanks manages to recreate as writer-director, plus a running gag involving their misspelled band name is funny each time. This is an undeniably pleasant look at the music industry of yesteryear even if it lack a bit as a drama.

A Pennsylvania band scores a hit in 1964 and rides the star-making machinery as long as it can, with lots of help from its manager (Tom Hanks).There is nothing really new here. A cast of fresh-faced kids (and a young Liv Tyler), rising up in stardom, and stumbling along the way. We all know what happens if we let fame get to our heads and we leave our friends behind.What makes this film stand out is the catchy tune. Even though they play it a dozen times throughout the film, it never really gets old. Had the song been not as good, the film would drag and certainly would not having the staying power it does. (Not unlike "Eddie and the Cruisers", which is very much anchored by its "Dark Side" song.)

REally liked this movie because it told a STORY and had CHARACTERS! No one gets shot, beat up, murdered, and it requires no special effects. It's a well thought out script with a beginning, a middle and end like they are supposed to have. Great characters all around. Different people, different stories behind them. Tom Hanks as usual was great. I think one of the best things about Tom Hanks is his willingness to be part of an ensemble cast - and he is so good at that. The guys in the band were all great. Specially liked Steve Zahn who was hilarious. Lots of fun at concerts and on stage performance with the band. Also thought Liv Tyler was magnificent. Great performance by her and as always, quite beautiful. I'd like to see more movies like this that rely on character, script, and story, rather than the digital effects department.

I had seen this movie a number of years ago but didn't remember much about it, so I saw it again today on DVD from my public library. I was a college Freshman in 1963/64, when the Beatles were first gaining popularity on this side of the pond, and this movie fairly accurately recreates that period, the way people dressed, and how teenagers reacted when seeing their pop idols live in concert.The story grabs hold of a theme I am very fond of pondering, both in real life and in fiction stories. That theme is the relative randomness of our lives, the things that happen, and then how we react to those random events. If we look at random events in our own lives, we can see how certain unexpected things shaped who we are today.In this movie a group of high school friends like to make music, one of them writes songs and is the featured singer. He has written "That Thing You Do" and they are about to perform it in a local small-potatoes contest. But the drummer, horsing around by showing the bass player how to jump over parking meters, falls and breaks his arm right before the contest.Now that is the "random event", and it leads them to ask another guy in town, who is a good drummer, to sit in for that one gig, so that they will still have a chance to win the competition. Then comes the rest of the influence of that "random event", the drummer own his own (this is important) decides to beat out a much faster tempo. It is this faster tempo that makes "That Thing You Do" a hit with the audience, attracts the attention of an agent, gets them a record, gets them a contract, puts them on tour, and has their hit rise towards the top of the charts.If their original drummer had not broken his arm, they would have just remained an ordinary band. Well as the story progresses they experience all the growing pains of sudden fame, and conflicting priorities among the members of the group. Tom Hanks directed, has a part as a record label agent, and he even wrote many of the songs. Tom Everett Scott who was in his mid-20s is very good as the replacement drummer, Guy Patterson. Liv Tyler, still a teenager was Faye Dolan who ended up traveling with the band. Her boyfriend was Johnathon Schaech as Jimmy who wrote the song and sang lead vocals. Steve Zahn was the crazy member Lenny, and Ethan Embry, also a teenager, was T. B. Player the unreliable bass player. Another teenager just starting her career was Charlize Theron as Tina in a fairly small part, as a flaky girlfriend who dumps Guy after an appointment with a handsome dentist. Plus young Giovanni Ribisi as Chad , the original drummer who breaks his arm.All in all a fairly pleasant movie.