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Tom Hanks's 8 Most Underrated Movies. Fight Me on Number 1.

Posted October 23, 2026 • by movie guru

Friday, October 23, 2026

Everybody's seen Cast Away. Everybody's cried at The Green Mile. These eight scored just as well or better, and the crowds kinda wandered off.

Number 1 is a Hanks performance people forget. I think it's his best.

  1. 8Elvis poster
    Elvis (2022)7.5
    Hanks gets weird in a sidekick role, and it still works.
    It's Austin Butler's movie, sure. Critics shrugged (beats 59% of movies), but audiences beat 82%. A 7.5 movie.guru score and $288.7M worldwide says the weirdness sold.
  2. 7Big poster
    Big (1988)8.5
    Big has fewer IMDb votes than Elvis. That's a crime.
    98% on Rotten Tomatoes, a reported $18M budget, $151.9M worldwide. And yet 264,249 IMDb votes, about 1,200 behind Elvis. The piano scene deserves better from the internet.
  3. 6Sully poster
    Sully (2016)8.2
    A thin story stretched long, and still an 8.2.
    The event is short and the movie knows it, so there's padding. Audiences didn't care: CinemaScore A, $243.9M worldwide on a reported $60M. My take is lower, 7.5.
  4. 5Philadelphia poster
    Philadelphia (1993)8.1
    Critics undersold Philadelphia. Audiences got it right.
    Critics beat 64% of movies, audiences beat 91%. Hanks and Denzel Washington carry a serious, important story, and it still pulled $206.7M worldwide on a reported $26M.
  5. 4Apollo 13 poster
    Apollo 13 (1995)8.9
    Apollo 13 is better than Cast Away. Not close.
    Apollo 13 scores an 8.9. Cast Away scores a 7.5. Cast Away still has 698,518 IMDb votes to Apollo's 344,229. Half the crowd for the better movie.
  6. 3Captain Phillips poster
    His highest-scoring movie here, and it gets half the love.
    9.0, the only Elite score on this list. Barkhad Abdi matches Hanks scene for scene. The Green Mile has roughly three times its IMDb votes, 1,592,283 to 523,875.
  7. 2Bridge of Spies poster
    Bridge of Spies (2015)8.8
    Spielberg and Hanks made a gem. Nobody bought tickets.
    8.8 movie.guru score, Metacritic 81, Mark Rylance quietly stealing it. Just $72.3M domestic, the lowest of every Hanks movie on this list. People saw a lawyer drama poster and stayed home.
  8. 1Road to Perdition poster
    Road to Perdition is Hanks's best performance. Period.
    Audiences gave it a B+ CinemaScore and the site lands at 7.7. My take is 8.2. Hanks goes cold and quiet next to Paul Newman, and Sam Mendes frames every shot like a painting.
Change my mind. Rank these from most to least underrated. Wrong answers will be screenshotted.

$417.86 says someone in the comments types Forrest Gump within four minutes and misses the entire point.

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Current mood: ready to fight about it