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Let me just set the stage for my recent viewing of Big after not seeing it since it was on cable tv in the 90's. I'm on a red eye to California. Sipping on a Brooklyn Summer Ale. Looking for something to watch on the in-flight movie menu. Really despise watching blockbusters and the like on a tiny, 11" screen. Avengers. Nope. Star Wars. Nope. Big... Big? Hmm. Yeah why not? Did the nostalgia of 1988 and lanky Tom Hanks get the best of me? You bet it did.
Unlike the Old and Young switcheroo craze that was going on around this time (see Vice Versa, Like Father Like Son, 18 Again, etc.) this was an individual switcheroo, kind of like that segment in Twilight Zone the Movie where the group of octagenarians at the old folks home become kids again. Except this is the other way around and there's no Scatman Crothers running around giddily exclaiming "Kids! Kids! Haha!"
Rather than get into a lengthy review about the story and yadda yadda, I'd rather just point out some key moments/observations that hit me seeing it this time around. Always interesting the perspective change when viewing a movie as an adult.
1. Tom Hanks at the peak of his early comedic career, smack dab in between such classics as Dragnet and The 'Burbs, and only five years before his Oscar winning performance in Philadelphia.
2. The inner city setting that the big-version of Josh has to endure is pretty darn scary and gritty. The pay-by-the-hour sleeze-tel room with gunshots and screams right outside the window and some hostile pimp banging on the door. Hanks barricading the door and getting under the covers really takes you back to being a vulnerable kid in a place like that.
3. Robert Loggia is the best damn boss you've never had. The way he takes to Josh and his kid-like antics is a joy to watch.
4. John Heard is the worst damn co-worker everyone has had. At some point. Typically a role with this level of dickyness would be reserved for say a Paul Gleason. But Heard does a great job, and we would later see him tapping into this menacing side in 187.
5. The dynamic of the Josh-Susan relationship is actually really interesting and unique as a love story. Throughout the film Josh gets more mature and Susan sort of reverts back to her younger self. The inevitable ending really hits hard.
6. That Zoltar machine. I recall as a child something similar to that at a Ground Round restaurant and yeah it was just as creepy as the one in the movie.
7. Josh and Billy's "Down down baby" song. It's like some strange paddy cake rap that apparently Hanks' son learned at camp. You can't help but embarrassingly recite it in your mind long after the movie is over.
