96. Tom Hanks (Philadelphia)

96. With Tom Hanks, I am of the thought that his films are worth watching, if he himself is not the end-all-of-everything. He is a very good actor-one of my favorites, but he is not the best working actor, as some of mainstream America would insist upon, nor is he the reincarnation of my beloved Jimmy Stewart. Instead he is a talented man who recognizes a good script when it comes along, and takes ahold of it. Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan, Big, Catch Me If You Can, and Cast Away-they are all excellent movies, well worth anyone's time. It is odd that he won his two Oscars for performances in films that I don't like at all. One of them ( Forrest Gump) was a waste of an Oscar that could have gone to some far worthier nominees (one of which will show up later in this countdown, so I won't spoil the surprise over whom I would have gone with). The other, well, that one he should have had hands-down.

Philadelphia, after careful consideration, is my least favorite film on this list, but the performance isn't to be missed. Hanks plays a former high-flyer who has contracted AIDs, and must deal with bigotry and failing health all the while a court case is being held to argue whether his job dismissal was legal. The film is a shlock of stereotypes from the mustache-twisting Jason Robards to the cookie-cutter lover Antonio Banderas to the homophobic Denzel Washington (people often say he should have been nominated for this, but I consider it one of his least performances). The saving grace (aside from that fantastic Bruce Springsteen ballad) is Hanks, so moving as a man trying to find grace in a life that insists of robbing him of it, as a man balancing frustration with a need for something more. His painful opera scene is the killer, but its the entire persona he creates that really captures the life of this man. It's my favorite of all his work, and really shows what a fine actor can do with a fine role-create greatness.

A Hanks marathon? So many selections! If it were up to me, I'd begin with a dose of Big, to start the ball rolling, showing how he'd gone from sitcom hack to legitimate actor, then role into Philadelphia, and then move on to the survivalist motions of Cast Away (but fast forward through Helen Hunt).