Tom Hanks expressed frustration with critics in a recent interview following the release of his critically and commercially disappointing film Here.
Hanks joined Conan O’Brien on his Conan Needs a Friend podcast on Sunday. Here, which marked a reunion between Hanks, his Forrest Gump co-star Robin Wright, and director Robert Zemeckis, premiered in theaters nationwide on November 2.
During the conversation, Hanks discussed how he gauges his films’ reception, describing three “Rubicons” he considers.
The first is whether or not viewers love the movie initially, and the second is how the film holds up when revisited a year and a half later.
“Then the critics weigh in—that’s Rubicon No. 3, and that’s always up-down,” Hanks explained to O’Brien. “‘We hate it, we like it. This is the worst thing… ‘Oh hey, oh hi Tom, I saw you in a movie. It was cute.’”
Hanks joked about handling negative reviews, saying, “That’s when you ask the wife, ‘Hey, honey, could you take the revolver out of the glove box and hide it somewhere, because I think…’”
Hanks continued with a pointed rant about critics, recalling a particular reviewer who panned his 1996 directorial debut That Thing You Do!
Hanks shared his frustration with the reviewer, saying, “Let me tell you something about these c—s—-ers who write about movies,” and then asked O’Brien if he could use that language on the podcast.
He recounted how the critic’s initial review advised Hanks to avoid working with TV veterans, critiquing the film as too reminiscent of television production.
Years later, the same critic praised That Thing You Do! as a “cult classic.” Hanks remarked, “All you need is 20 years between now and then, and it ends up speaking some words.”
Critics had harsh feedback for Here as well. The official description for the film reads: “Here is an original film about multiple families and a special place they inhabit.
The story travels through generations, capturing the most relatable of human experiences.” However, critics on Rotten Tomatoes collectively gave the film a 36% “rotten” score based on 112 reviews.
The RT Critics Consensus notes, “While it’s heartening to see director Robert Zemeckis return to humanistic storytelling, Here’s stagey conceit and overabundance of spectacle rob it of emotional resonance.”
Among the harsh reviews was one from Odie Henderson of The Boston Globe, who wrote, “Couple the broad acting and cliché-ridden screenplay with the fixed-frame format, and Here comes off like a bad sitcom, or even worse, a school play made by a bunch of fifth-graders who decided to tackle Eugene O’Neill and Death of a Salesman.”
The film also struggled at the box office. A Miramax film distributed by Sony’s Tri-Star Pictures, Here earned just $4.8 million from 2,647 North American theaters in its opening weekend.
By Wednesday, The Numbers reported that the film had grossed $6.2 million domestically and nearly $200,000 internationally, reaching a total of $6.4 million worldwide against a production budget of $50 million, not including additional costs for prints and advertising.
