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

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

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

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

This setup isn't exactly what you'd call plausible, but the follow-through is consistent and clever.

| Aug 2, 2013

Big, which has been directed by Penny Marshall with verve and impeccable judgment, drops a child's innocence into the corporate rat race as if it were a depth charge.

| Jul 29, 2013

When Marshall brings Hanks and Perkins together, she discovers a grace and lightness in their relationship that transcends the pinched thematics of the script.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 29, 2013

Not a major movie but a pleasing one.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 16, 2013

As far as the movie's message is considered -- if only grown-ups could be more like kids -- Jerry Lewis did an infinitely better job of plugging it in the 50s.

| Apr 1, 2008

Unspools with enjoyable genuineness and ingenuity.

| Apr 1, 2008

The consummate '80s film about kid-dom and growing old too fast.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 7, 2007

Marshall, Hanks, and his co-stars seldom put a foot wrong.

| Jun 24, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 3, 2004

For any other full-grown actors who try their hands at fidgeting, squirming, throwing water balloons and wolfing down food in a huge variety of comically disgusting ways, this really is the performance to beat.

Full Review | May 20, 2003

This is mainstream Hollywood filmmaking at its best -- packed with intelligence, humour and pathos.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 17, 2001

As a crowd-pleasing comedy it works. But it really could have been so much more.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 1, 2000

What's great about it is that it shows how wonderfully full of toys the world of adults can be. And though this may fall under the heading of tiny, perhaps even fatuous, revelations, it does send you out of the theater with a lighter step.

| Jan 1, 2000