The Remake: Penny Marshall's fantastically entertaining comedy about a young boy who wishes to "be big" and re-appears in the body of an adult male (Tom Hanks). Generally regarded to be the king of the age-changing/body-swap comedy genre, Big works so well because of Hanks' excellent performance, as well as the rather edgy approach to the subject matter, especially with regard to Hanks' sexual escapades with a co-worker (Elizabeth Perkins). Big ended up with two Oscar nominations, for Hanks' performance and the screenplay. The Original: Big was loosely inspired by the previous year's Italian comedy, 1987's Da Grande. Though the shell premise is the same, much of the plot is quite different: in the original, there's no Zoltar machine, the romance is with his schoolteacher rather than a fellow employee and he works as a babysitter rather than a toy tester. Which One Is Better?: Reviews are tough to come by due to the original's obscurity, though the consensus seems to be that the remake takes the premise and does something vastly superior with it, injecting a lot more nuance into the admittedly superb concept.
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
