This movie is listed as #21 of Tom Hanks' most successful movies by box office numbers and I don't get it. Personally it is one of my favorites from him. It is not your usual Tom Hanks movie which is why I like it even more. Hanks, like always, delivers a great performance. He plays pretty much a bad guy but one you can sympathize with as he isn't intentionally evil. He's a victim of the circumstances and times he grew up and just wants to provide for his family. The movie uses the action scenes well as this isn't a revenge movie as such. Action is there when it is needed and not as a means to an end. It is mainly about the characters, about the relationship between father and son. Or fathers and sons for that matter. Jude Law's character is really creepy and we have the great Paul Newman in one of his last physical roles on screen. The film did age really well due it not being CGI and you will be able to watch it ten or twenty years from now and still enjoy it. It looks believable because of all the old cars they used and the set dressing. Hall even got the Oscar for Best Cinematography. Like I said, the movie deserves more recognition.

Tom gives a superb performance in a rarely seen role of a bad guy who has some good traits.

A solid period piece revenge movie. It's great to see Tom Hanks have a darker role.

"He murdered Annie and Peter!" "There are only murderers in this room. Michael, open your eyes! This is the life we chose, the life we lead, and there is only one guarantee: none of us will see heaven." "Michael could." "Then do everything that you can to see that that happens." Goddamn it, Sam Mendes coming fresh off his American Beauty hype was the *perfect* pick for this movie full of against-type casting! Tom Hanks as a murdering mobster and peak hotness Jude Law as a greasy, balding and long-nailed assassin, ***and*** a pre-Bond Daniel Craig as a stupid and selfish mob boss's son? For such a sad movie, it also had an amazing amount of humor. "Could I have had more?" "You'll never know." -- "I'm glad it's you." ***Fuck,*** it still hits hard 23 years later! Man, two movies in a row ending tragically while water is involved, Sam Mendes? Why you gotta do us like this‽

Despite an outstanding cast (Tom Hanks, Jude Law, Daniel Craig and Paul Newman's final screen appearance), under-explored setting (organized crime in the depression-era midwest) and very solid inspiration (it's directly and admittedly influenced by Lone Wolf and Cub), this never quite congeals into anything more than a dull, formulaic revenge picture. Hanks, usually the beating heart of a film, is chained down by a dry, emotionless turn as a distant father figure whose young family is virtually obliterated by an out-of-control former colleague. On the path to revenge, he tries to reconnect with the onslaught’s only other survivor, his twelve-year-old son, but the two have such a faint rapport that the inevitable payoff lands on a flat note. Craig and Law are worthwhile in their roles as quirky, irredeemable psychopaths, but get so little screen time it's tough to develop an appreciation for the nuances of either. For the majority of the run time we're just tailing Hanks, at his most wooden, as he systematically wipes out the opposition. Bland, redundant, over-long material that misuses its many blessings.