The Hype

Rating: Null/10 (15 October 2004)

The hype said this movie would change you forever. The movie is unique in that it evokes laughter and tears at the same time and you feel both swelling up inside you and you literally honestly really don't know which will win out and come out first.
The trivia section for this movie is ripe with clues that some people don't seem to get - but without getting them it's a mystery what people see in the movie. That a song called Blowin' in the Wind was written by Bob Dylan but the performer in the movie uses the stage name Bobbie Dylan - would this scene have any value, make any sense, if we didn't know that? It's clear that to some nuggets like this were pure revelation.
As a keeper it's weak. You start to see where the story line is 'just a bit too thin', but this is the second Oscar in a row for Hanks (after Philadelphia) and no offense to the easily offended Hoffman, but this one takes a lot more work and talent than tilting one's head to the side and insisting there are 246 toothpicks on the floor when you really don't have a clue.
Was released twice in the same year and cleaned up both times; won six of its possible thirteen Oscars; Hans Zimmer is good and his music was no exception in The Lion King, but it's a shame one can't give awards to all who are deserving: Silvestri's work on this one is some of the best of the past ten years.