Oscar Sweeps? You gotta be kidding!

Rating: 2/10 (27 February 2018)

Despite never having an urge to see this film, I decided to because I wanted to complete the AFI's Top 100 List of Films. It's film that you almost can't ignore; from the media saturation of the "Life is like a box of chocolates" analogy to the endless proliferation of Bubba Gump chain restaurants.
The story itself is not really that bad, but the way it plays out is just a pile-up of clichés. From the initial story framing flashback told to a procession of people waiting at the same bus stop as this self-absorbed bumpkin to the endless barrage of pop tunes of the day. The constant music was more excessive than a Scorsese film, a different song every 30 seconds. However, unlike Scorsese, the songs jumped around time periods despite the chronological order of events. One minute it's a song from '69, the next it's from '65.
Then there were the Presidents: They expect us to believe that this man could actually meet three successive presidents. They did a great job with inserting Forrest into the scenes with them, but WHY did they do such a crummy job with the voice-overs? For most, these are iconic voices and for a film with this kind of budget, it's inexcusable that they couldn't do a better job. Let's not even get into what he says and does to these presidents!
The ping-pong marathon and the endless running scenes were really hard to stomach. I get that they were elements of the story but again, they were taken to a ridiculous level. With all that running, I thought he should have been in better shape. Maybe Hanks learned a lesson from this for Cast Away, (a MUCH better film, btw) when he took a break in filming in order to lose all that weight to reflect his time on the island. The Midnight Cowboy routine in the streets of NYC was truly cringe-worthy. And even the stupidest person in the world would not jump off an unmanned boat, or would he? Later, when it crashes into the dock, it was not funny, just pathetic. Then there was his clueless and endless devotion to Jenny. When she wanted to jump to her death, I was cheering for her just so she could get out of this God awful movie.
Believe it or not, I am not a hard-hearted person by any means. I love a movie that can choke me up or even give me a good cry, and sometimes it doesn't take much. But I felt nothing like that here. The only part of this film I liked was the ALWAYS wonderful Sally Field. I might have felt sad in her final scene but her brave face and acceptance of her fate transformed the scene into something victorious. And I'm a recent convert to Tom Hanks who has done some incredible work in other films, but IMO, his Oscars for this and Philadelphia were wasted.