The 10 Best 1980s Tom Hanks Movies, Ranked

From 1984 to 1989 Tom Hanks solidified himself as one of the Hollywood elite. Aside from a couple of more restrained dramas in the middle of the period showing his diversity and pre-cursing his later work, predominantly the films of the middle to late eighties highlighted Hanks’ natural gift for comedy.

His characters were always lovable yet flawed creations that pulled at the heart strings while playing relentlessly on the funny bone. For many, Tom Hanks’ body of comedic work during the 1980s was the actor’s finest and most enduring.

Tom Hanks – one of Hollywood’s most bankable actors of all time

In retrospect, some are critical of Hanks’ early output, citing poor box office and poor choices on the actor’s part. But, few of his films returned a deficit (aside from The Man With One Red Shoe), and while The ‘Burbs in 1989 might have performed less than expected, his total gross for that year when you think he also released Turner and Hooch, totalled more than $110 million.

Likewise, Dragnet, The Money Pit and Bachelor Party also scored respectable numbers while Big in 1988 was, at that time, his biggest selling movie. Big’s box office gross of $150 million wouldn’t be topped by the actor until 1992’s romantic hit Sleepless In Seattle.

It seems unfair to expect every Tom Hanks movie of the period to have the success of Splash, Big and Turner and Hooch. It’s also unfair to look at the period purely on box office, just because Hanks became one of the most profitable movie stars of the 1990s.

Tom Hanks in the 1980s

Splash and Big are two of the best eighties movies. But, despite their relatively moderate box office, The ‘Burbs and The Money Pit are another two films that deserve to be remembered among the decade’s best comedies.

Yet, even Hanks himself has been critical of his film choices during the period, saying that since A League of Their Own in 1992 “it can’t just be another movie for me. It has to get me going somehow. There has to be some all-encompassing desire or feeling about wanting to do that particular movie.”

But that’s precisely what made his eighties output so enjoyable – his carefree persona on-screen mimicked his carefree attitude off it. There was an innocence in them that is largely lost on his more dramatic and self-serving later roles.

Hanks says his modern films are “less pretentiously fake and over the top” but I’d disagree wholeheartedly. Much of his later work is governed by his celebrity status. Taking nothing away from some exceptional performances and some wonderful movies, Hanks of the eighties was a unique talent.

Tom Hanks’ best 1980s movies ranked

Despite him claiming, more out of humility I suspect, that he did some “bum tickets” prior to 1992’s A League of Their Own (although he could very well be referring to the less successful and less comic 1986 movies Nothing In Common and Every Time We Say Goodbye), his eccentric comic characters live long in the memory over his more restrained, prototypical and knowing creations seen in the post-Academy Award performances.

I’d take Ray Peterson (The ‘Burbs), Walter Fielding (The Money Pit), and Josh Baskin (Big) over Joe Fox (You’ve Got Mail), his interpretation of Jim Lovell (Apollo 13), and most certainly Robert Langdon in Ron Howard’s poor The Da Vinci Code, any day of the week. And I’d predict, most assuredly, that I’m not alone in that.

10. Nothing In Common

Dir. Garry Marshall (1986)

Hanks stars alongside Jackie Gleason in this comedy about a self-centred advertising executive whose carefree life is interrupted after his parents’ marriage of 36 years comes to an abrupt end.

In what would mark a departure for Hanks into more serious roles, Nothing In Common highlighted the actor’s ability to bring some subtlety to his characters albeit still with comic sensibilities.

9. The Man With One Red Shoe

Dir. Dragoti (1985)

A Hitchcockian mystery-comedy in which Hanks plays the “wronged man”, director Stan Dragoti isn’t wholly successful in balancing conspiracy thrills with silly comedy but the film just about works thanks to the actor’s natural charm.

The Man with One Red Shoe was actually a remake of the French film, The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe, starring Pierre Richard and Mireille Darc.

8. Turner And Hooch

Dir. Spottiswoode (1989)

Turner and Hooch plays on the buddy cop motif by pairing Hanks’ grumpy detective with a lovable dog in the form of Dogue de Bordeaux, Hooch. It proved to be a huge box office success.

Together, the unlikely pair set out to find the killer of Turner’s friend and Hooch’s owner, Amos Reed.

7. Bachelor Party

Dir. Israel (1984)

A farcical sex comedy from 1984, Bachelor Party has plenty of memorable scenes as a soon-to-be-married man (Hanks’ Rick Gassko) is challenged by his friends to stay faithful on the eve of his wedding.

6. Dragnet

Dir. Mankiewicz (1987)

This part parody, part homage to the Jack Webb-fronted television series of the same name sees Aykroyd star opposite Tom Hanks as two mismatched cops on the trail of a strange cult known as P.A.G.A.N (People Against Goodness And Normalcy).

Aykroyd pens the screenplay (this time alongside Alan Zweibel and director Tom Mankiewicz) highlighting his skills in front of, and behind, the camera. The film is uneven and not everything works but it is great to see two comedy stars of the 1980s partner up.

5. Punchline

Dir. Selzer (1988)

Punchline is notable as the first big screen pairing between Hanks and Sally Field. It’s a more interesting dynamic too compared to their later collaboration in Forrest Gump because here they play a couple of disillusioned stand-up comics; Field’s older and wiser mother of three provides an ideal antidote for Hanks’ wide-eyed wisecracking but deep-rooted insecurity.

4. Splash

Dir. Howard (1984)

Splash proved to be a landmark film in many respects. It gave the silver screen Tom Hanks, introduced audiences to Disney’s then-new outlet, Touchstone Pictures, for the studio’s more mature efforts, and proved Ron Howard was a viable feature film director.

The film boasts a pleasing, innocent escapism that cuts through an eighties cynicism shaped by corporate entities in their lifeless skyscrapers, charmless men in white coats, and characteristic materialism.

Hanks’ chemistry with co-star Daryl Hannah carries the film, their romance founded on fairytale but individualised through a winning combination of Hannah’s minimalist, primal fantasy and Hanks’ ever-distant dream seeping through the machinations of everyday life.

3. The Money Pit

Dir. Benjamin (1986)

2. Big

Dir. Penny Marshall (1988)

A box office smash hit, Big underlined Hanks’ credibility as a leading man and bona fide Hollywood superstar. That he would then endure a fairly static commercial period with a series of flops before 1992’s A League of Their Own shows just what an indelible mark Big left on the actor’s career (including leading him to an Academy Award nomination).

The actor’s mix of deadpan comedy, infantile fragility and open-hearted charm are just some of the reasons he’s so good in Penny Marshall’s 80s feelgood classic.

1. The ‘Burbs

Dir. Dante (1989)

Hanks’ anarchic, over-caffeinated performance in Joe Dante’s wonderful suburbia-in-peril movie is an ideal conclusion to his 1980s output. As paranoia descends upon a cul-de-sac in nowheresville USA, the various neighbours of this sleepy hamlet begin to suspect the mysterious newbies of an assortment of malevolent acts including burying people in their backyard.

Hanks begins as the voice of reason, the counter-balance to the conspiracy theorists. But as events get stranger, even his steady hand begins to shake. The Burbs remains Hanks’ finest film of the 1980s; an underrated satirical gem that possesses a rare combination of wit and self-awareness.

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