Forrest Gump Reviews

A very refreshing feel-good movie that is always entertaining and compelling, even if sometimes it is sentimental and seems a bit vague about its purpose. If you are able to overlook its flaws, you will find it a captivating story of innocence and optimism.

A nice enough concept, fairly well pulled off but is mainly crushed by its own sentimentality and heavy handed emotional manipulation (not to mention ham-fisted politics). Good revision for your 20th century American history exam, otherwise watch Big Fish instead.

Epic in scope and triumphant in spirit, Forrest Gump is a larger-than-life piece of film-making, that scored home an impressive 6 Oscars in 1995, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor in a Leading Role.

It revolves around the eventful and remarkable life of a mentally, and for some time physically challenged man, who looks at the world through very unique and innocent eyes, as he becomes part of some of the key events that shaped America as a nation. Famous historical figures like Elvis, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon and John Lennon, are just some of the people that he encounters on his grand and amazing journey.

Director Robert Zemeckis is a magician behind the camera, delivering world-class visual story-telling that truly captures the heart and mind in really spell-binding ways. So much love and passion have gone into its making, and it's one of those rare cinematic miracles, where all parties involved have dedicated themselves fully to create the best experience possible.

Ascended by a beautifully orchestrated music score (together with some great classics from the eras it portrays), it hits all the right notes at all the right moments. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll maybe even feel inspired. For there's nothing in this tour-de-force of a film that isn't absolutely stirring.

It's been almost 20 years since its release now, yet the special effects still hold and look as fantastic as ever. They way they've integrated Forrest into real historical footage, is incredibly well-done and nearly seamless in its crafting. Some things even look more convincing than the wizardry of modern features.

However visually compelling it may be though, it's in the acting where it truly dazzles. Tom Hanks' sensational, award-winning performance, is definitely one of the best, if not the greatest of feat his entire career. I would say it stands between this and his heart-gripping turn as an AIDS victim in Jonathan Demme's Philadelphia.

You certainly can't complain about the supporting cast either. Sally Field, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise and Mykelti Williamson, evoke tremendous pathos and sympathy, with their exceptionally written and terrifically acted characters. Michael Conner Humphreys is really wonderful as well, as Forrest in his younger years.

Cynics may have issues with how far-fetched the story is, but I don't think it matters much in the larger perspective. I'm more than willing to suspend all disbelief, for such a majestically conceived and viscerally powerful piece of drama. And I'm sure that goes for a lot of us.

A movie about love, loss, war and human behavior. About discovering your inner potential and overcoming your limitations, even when everything seems against you and abscent of hope. For within Forrest Gump dwells a ray of pure inspiration, with the message that life is what you make of it. We may not all come to shake hands with the President or amount to champions in ping-pong, but we all possess the power to make the best of what we have. Timeless, magical, moving and uplifting, this movie is a celebration of all that and more!

It's well done and funny. The character, though performed brilliantly by Hanks, verges on obnoxious.

Zemeckis is channeling Frank Capra's ghost on this one. Regardless who you are , this film will surely emit some kind of emotion from you.

Seeing the world through your eyes isn't the same unless you've first seen the world through forrest Gump's eyes. Tom Hanks plays the role of Forrest Gump, a good-natured, down to Earth man with a very low IQ. Summarizing this movie in a review is almost impossible because so much happens in this movie. Forrest finds his first love, he fights in Vietnam, he becomes a Ping-Pong champion, he starts a shrimping business and he runs across the country. And to be honest, that's not even half of what he does in this movie. There is a very small amount of major characters, but that works to the film's advantage. When the audience knows so little characters and their personalities, it makes it easier for a connection to be felt for the characters since there isn't a large amount of major characters with forced characteristics. Robin Wright does a great job playing Jenny, Forrest's one and only love. Mykelti Williamson plays Bubba, a friend of Forrest in Vietnam and the one who is responsible for Forrest starting a shrimping business. He does a good job with his limited screen time. Sally Field plays Forrest's mom and does very well in her role, and Gary Sinise plays the stubborn, but likable Lt. Dan Taylor in his Oscar nominated performance. (He should've won though.) Forrest Gump is a mixture od genres. It's a drama, a romance story, a comedy and in the war scenes, a pretty decent acion film. A large number of historical events are shown in the movie and Forrest ends up being involved in alot of them, which has some very funny results. For example, Forrest ends up being responsible for the discovery of Nixon's spies in the Watergate Hotel, leading to the Watergate Scandal. This film is everything you could hope for in a movie. It's funny, sad, brilliantly written, superbly acted (Tom Hanks deserves that Oscar.) and visually entertaining. This film is a masterpiece and anything but "Overrated."

Possibly the most overrated movie of all times. No big deal. Hanks does what he does best. But I've seen him do much better things than this. It's a good movie and a good story and so on...but just very overrated. I liked though how they edited him into old video clips...that was fun...

So many different places are discovered through Forrest's eyes and has earned the respect of everyone who haas layed eyes on this wonderfully peaceful and simplistic being, it's concept is simple, but it's detail is deep.

Tom Hanks gives a brilliant performance as the title character in Robert Zemeckis's Academy Award-winning comedy/drama FORREST GUMP, but I continue to hold my ground that Will Ferrell and Adam Sandler could have easily done better.

This film is the tale of a man, suffering from mental retardation since the beginning of his childhood, who is sitting on a bench, apparently waiting for his bus, when he decides to tell his life story to anyone who sits down next to him. Routinely, he introduces himself to each new person (some seeming interested, others seeming to care less), and continuing his story from where he had left off with the previous person. Forrest Gump's story tells about Bubba, a man who he met in war and immediately befriended; his "mama", who he references many times throughout the film, especially in the famous quote, "Mama always told me, 'Life is like a box of chocolates: you never know what you're gonna get"; and Jenny, the love of his life who he is intending to visit.

Many say this really should not have won the Academy Award for Best Picture. I don't think I have seen any of the other 1994 nominees, but for now, I beg to differ. Though imperfect in its own ways, this film is a gem, and rarely do I say that. It's one to be watched over and over.

Forrest Gump is a masterpiece! Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) has lived his life being completely oblivious to the amazing and historical things that happen to him. He has met Elvis, met the president, become a pro football star, gone to the Vietnam war, and much more, but all his life all he could think about was the love of his life Jenny (Robin Wright Penn). Jenny is sweet girl but has lived her life trying to cover it up with sex and drugs, but never the less has always been best friends with Forrest and never stopped believing his a wonderful man. Forrest Gump may not be a smart man, but you don't have to be smart to be a great man Hanks is perfect and deserved the Oscar. The story is so sweet and god its hard not to love this movie. The ending is so nice and passionate that i love it. One of the greatest movies ever.

A fantastic, emotional and truly exhilarating film which grabs you from the moment it begins and ends with you refusing to let go. Forrest is the perfect character and Hanks really does him justice. Brilliant performances from all and is able to remain upbeat and heart warming even through the tough times Gump faces. Despite Jenny being a horrible character and a horrible friend to Gump, we end up loving her as much as Forrest did since he's the narrator. Perfect scripting. I also love how Forrest's life is interwoven with real events with really good effects. But is Forrest really the daddy?

An example of a very good film that I highly respect, appreciate, and enjoy, but also one that I do not like that much as most. It's worthy of a high rating, but that's it for me. It's an example of story-telling at it's finest, and Tom Hanks is fantastic, but all the while I remain indifferent. I personally don't see why so many love it as much as they do. Good film, but only good. I still recommend it to everyone. It's one of those films that everyone should see at one point or another.

Excellent acting, excellent story, excellent use of emotion... oh, wait, how about cutting edge technology (Even for 2011), a heart breaking ending, and a brilliant use of dialogue. Forrest Gump, while having a low intelligence, understands stuff in a great manner in which none of the rest of us can... and the irony of the name is that, although the character is dumb (in a good way), the movie is genius (in a great way). Watch this movie, I don't care if you have a deal that is 200$ for this movie, buy it. You'll want to watch it over and over again, it's that good. I liked it, and millions of others did to. You will like it, even if you say it's garbage... deep down, this movie makes you smile.

This is exactly the kind of film that comes from Hollywood every now and then and is destined to win hearts of people all over the world and hearts of academy too, of course. Why? Well, it has all that cheap philosophy about life being like a box of chocolate, which people seem to love quoting, it has Tom Hanks doing his familiar routine and it has all those familiar themes about war, love, peace, grief and other universal themes that has been went through in other familiar Hollywood films since the film was invented. Forrest Gump has actually always been more a film about technical achivements than real story. It is meant to make viewer think that how to hell did they make that scene possible. That is what all the films of Robert Zemeckis are about. Special-effects, more or less. This is kind of a easy film that people usually like to see, but in it's core it is much about nothing. A stunt and a overlong story about Tom Hanks trying to do his best "I am" Tom Hanks impression. Actually this film should be renamed as Many Clothes of Tom Hanks.

A classic!

It's an incredibly charming, well-directed, odd, modern-fairy tale of a man's stupidity as it transcends over the bumbling complexities of life.

Most interesting when Gump's seemingly handicapped perspective is suddenly turned into an advantage as our history's mistakes are ridiculed by his particular common sense.

It's true, ignorance is bliss; and it's humanity's inability to be Forest that's the real tragedy of the film. Although I do find it alarming that stupidity is so strongly reinforced with innocence... what's up with that?

I honestly don't know a person out there who doesn't love Forest Gump. Even though it has seeped into countless classrooms across the world and become almost impossible to avoid at times, it's still a masterpiece among movies. For a movie to be able to be seen so many times and under so many unwarranted circumstances, it just shows you how powerful and universal this really is. It takes the tradition of the Hollywood Epic and totally rewrites it. Robert Zemeckis manages to make this large and vast story such an emotionally powerful and humble one too. Although, a lot of that has to do with the lead character himself. Tom Hanks delivers something of a miracle performance here. He manages to play a mentally handicapped person and have numerous oddball moments without being even close to corny or unconvincing. It's one of those cases in which you aren't watching an actor playing a character anymore, just a person. The supporting cast helps out quite a bit here too; Gary Sinise's Lt. Dan and Robin Wright's Jenny are extremely memorable in their own right. Perhaps what makes this such a timeless movie is the devotion to make it enjoyable to everyone. There is so much to take and love about Forest Gump, it's almost hard to pick out a flaw of any kind.

Forrest Gump is a quirky, witty drama telling the life of 'local simpleton' Forrest Gump. This is not at all overly sentimental or schmaltzy, despite the comments from critics. Overall, I felt it was heartwarming, well-acted, and impeccably written and directed.

The story ponders several decades of life in the existence of Forrest Gump. Now, you should know that Forrest is not really mentally retarded, but he does have and IQ of 75, so he has complications. He can't walk, because it hurts, but it doesn't hurt when he runs. He's a good runner, and later, he plays football for college. In the movie, he is in love with his best friend Jenny, the first person to look past what was wrong with him and see what was really inside him. Since the moment he sees her, he loves her. This was when he was about 12. She was the person to start the phenomenon 'Run Forrest, Run'

After his childhood, we see his early adulthood, played by the typically charming Tom Hanks. He goes to war, because 'there really was nothing else to do' he says. He makes a friend who convinces him to become a shrimper with him. He dies, but Forrest is determined to keep his promise. Still, he constantly thinks about Jenny. After war, he has a medal of honor, and his famous. His platoon sergeant is quite bitter, because he lost his legs.

Forrest and Dan (the sergeant) head off to become shrimpers. They buy a boat, and head in the wrong direction. This is fortunate because all the other shrimp boats crashed in a storm that was the right direction, so they were the only boat left. They made a lot of money, which Dan invested in Apple. Forrest was rich. Rich beyond his imagination. He gives some of the money to his friend Bubba's mom. (his fellow solider)Still, he is thinking about Jenny.

He goes to visit her, and learns she is in a lot of trouble. She became a hippie with her boyfriend, and he abuses her; Forrest sees him slap her and knocks him into a table; he then convinces her to leave. Forrest goes back home, but Jenny is still in trouble. She starts to do drugs, excessive alcohol, and she almost commits suicide.

Forrest is meeting a lot of famous people, evoking pop culture. This is a theme of the movie; how Forrest's accidental brilliance inspires things. For example, he made the yellow smiley face, showed Elvis Presley the 'pelvis dance' and inspired John Lennon to write 'Imagine' just to name a few.

This is when Jenny comes to stay with Forrest. He doesn't ask why, just happy to have her back. If you asked me what I thought here, I would've told you he was a sucker. But, he felt that there were 'as close as peas and carrots again'.
Finally, Forrest works up the nerve to ask her to marry him. She tells him that he doesn't know what love is. He tells her: "I'm not a smart man, but I do indeed know love". Jenny "apologizes" that night, then leaves the next day.

Forrest then runs. He just runs. For three years straight, he runs, only stopping to sleep and use the bathroom. He runs for no reason, accept to make himself feel better. The world doesn't know why. World peace? End hunger? Woman's Rights? Soon, a whole legion of people start running with him. Then, he stops. He runs back, saying simply "I'm tired" as and explanation.

Jenny invites him to her house, and this is where the narration ends; we now know as much as Forrest. It turns out that Forrest has a son, so you must know how that "apology" earlier went. Jenny comes back to live with him, finally agreeing to marry him. This is not the end of movie, not by a lot, but I don't want to ruin the movie for anyone.

Forrest Gump was an uplifting, inspiring, and ultimately touching movie. The performances provided by Robin Wright Penn, Gary Sinise and especially Tom Hanks were superb. I'd like to highlight Hanks' performance for a moment; it was charming, realistic, and one of the best I've ever seen! By just reading the story, It's exactly how I imagined Forrest to act like. I also felt unlike some other movies, there were no parts that seemed to drag, or you wanted to end. There wasn't a single time I felt bored. Also, Forrest's childlike perspective of the world was both fascinating and delightful. The whole movie was fascinating and delightful. The script, direction, and special effects to make the celebrities in the movie look like the real ones was all master-class. All in all life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what your going to get. Same goes for Forrest Gump. 94%

Come on. It's Forrest Gump. This movie is a classic - and its numerous flaws are made irrelevant because of it.