Review of That Thing You Do! (1996) by Mickey M — 27 Jul 2008

"The One-ders," later named "The Wonders," are a garage band with big dreams, and they become a reality. But can they go through with what every band eventually goes through?

The movie pretty much nails the 1960s. From the sets to the wardrobe, you pretty much feel like you have been transported to to the era.

Then there is the characters -- none of which I could identify with. There was no depth to them in my opinion, and they all seemed pretty one-dimensional. The script was pretty much the same way.

The performances from the cast were fine, but they were handed a pretty weak script that just didn't give the cast the opportunity to shine. None of them stood out in my opinion, even Tom Hanks, who also directed.

There was some drama in this film, but nothing really stood out. In my opinion, the way the break up of the band near the end of the movie was handle wasn't that good. Maybe if there was a little more emotion in the fight that lead up to the break up, I would have been more into it.

When it came to scenery, nothing truly stood out. The performance scenes were handled fairly, but they were edited poorly at times when combined with shots of the frenzied audiences.

The only thing that stood out was the authentic soundtrack, all of which were original tunes as far as I could tell. It's too bad that the producers were not able to put actual hits in this film to make it more authentic.

This film is probably good enough for a rental if your first choice is unavailable. Personally, I don't think this will become an addition to my collection.