Fresh-faced Hanks was a rising comic star at the time and he is absolutely winning as the 13-year-old in the body of an adult, delivering the body language and the excitable, innocent energy of a kid in every scene ...

| Sep 14, 2024

Big is warm-hearted and sweet without ever losing its edge and it engages adult viewers on an intellectual level in a way that few family films do.

| Feb 1, 2023

It remains one of the most technically thoughtful and precisely-controlled performances of [Tom Hanks's] entire career.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 22, 2022

Big is not laugh-out-loud farce. Instead it’s a funny take on a situation that is potentially serious. [Full review in Spanish]

| Jul 7, 2022

[Tom Hanks] put his all into this roll to make it believable.

| Mar 29, 2022

Full of exquisite moments that help the film become both continually hilarious and unforgettably unique.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Jun 28, 2021

Director Penny Marshall doesn't hammer any themes or satire into the film; she, quite shrewdly, keeps Big likeably small. The comedy is natural and unforced, in no small part because of Hanks' wonderfully slapstick performance.

| Dec 26, 2018

Oh, this movie. It's not sad, but it makes me tear up every single time without fail. It's delightfully 80s and Tom Hanks is an adorable heartbreaker.

| Oct 24, 2018

What makes this all work, of course, is Hanks himself, who brings remarkable authenticity and simplicity to the role. He makes being a kid seem as wonderful as it was, and as scary and as confusing too.

| Aug 23, 2016

Hanks, as a stranger in a strange land, gives us equal portions of laughs and insights into the worlds of both adults and adolescents. Big also offers up a very funny satire of corporate ladder climbing.

| Original Score: A- | Apr 3, 2016

The film succeeds largely because of the splendid performance of Tom Hanks -- who is irresistibly funny as "big" Josh.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 28, 2015

Tom Hanks is marvellously child-like as Josh, all restless energy, innocence and real pleasure in the liberation that being grown-up allows him.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 25, 2014

Big may well be a formula fantasy movie, but Penny Marshall's polished direction combined with Hanks's gauche charm make it the best of the spate of body-swap movies turned out by Hollywood in the late 1980s.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 11, 2014

Joyously entertaining, escapist stuff.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 11, 2014

A disarmingly sweet movie.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 18, 2014

...an agreeable yet unremarkable piece of work.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Dec 29, 2013

A funny, bittersweet film that opens as a cautionary tale about growing up too fast, but deepens into a movie about the unplumbable gulf between childhood and adulthood.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 16, 2013

A delightful comedy-fantasy.

| Aug 2, 2013

There's also one absolutely charming moment when Hanks and Loggia leap from key to key to tap out the melody and harmony to "Heart and Soul" on a giant piano in the F.A.O. Schwarz toy store.

| Aug 2, 2013

Penny Marshall brings a logic to the premise that is sustained through most of the movie. And where the other movies snickered at the sexual possibilities in the idea, she faces up to them with both candor and taste.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 2, 2013