Stars: Liv Tyler, Johnathon Schaech, Ethan Embry, Tom Hanks, Clint Howard, Kathleen Kinmont, Alex Rocco, Peter Scolari, Barry Sobel, Gedde Watanabe, Rita Wilson, Bill Cobbs, Warren Berlinger, Kevin Pollak, Chris Isaak, Steve Zahn, Tom Everett Scott, Giovanni Ribisi, Charlize Theron, Chris Ellis, Keith Neubert, Tracy Reiner, Claudia Stedelin, Robert Torti, Sean Whalen, Jonathan Demme

Director: Tom Hanks

Summary: An American rock group called The Wonders are catapulted to fame with the hit song 'That Thing You Do'.

Set in the 1964 and steeped in Americana, this Tom Hanks's directorial debut chronicles the meteoric rise--and equally quick demise--of a music group called the Wonders. The talented musicians start out playing in neighborhood joints. However, that changes after they meet a shrewd record executive (Hanks), who advises the boys on how to dress, act and sing. Soon their song, "That Thing You Do," hits number one, and the group is on top of the world. Unfortunately, the song is the Wonders's only hit. And that's just one reason why the group's collapse happens so quickly... In addition to Hanks, the film features Tom Everett Scott, Steve Zahn and Liv Tyler.

WIN DVDs by rating this DVD

Average User Rating:

WIN DVDS by being amongst the first to review this DVD. Reviewing DVDs earns you bonus entries and lets you WIN DVDs!Please login before reviewing this DVD. If you're a new user, register for free and enter to WIN FREE DVDs!

Tom Hanks's debut as a writer and director is a lively, affectionate account of the shooting-star career of a forgotten (fictional) 1960s pop-rock band called The Wonders--as in "one-hit wonders". Hanks plays the manager of the group, which includes drummer Guy "Sticks" Patterson (Tom Everett Scott) who works the floor at his parents' appliance store in Erie, Pennsylvania; Jimmy (Johnathon Schaech), the talented and temperamental lead singer and songwriter; Lenny (Steve Zahn), the goofy guitarist; and Ethan Embry as a geeky little fellow identified in the cast list only as "The Bass Player". The movie traces their meteoric rise and fall, from cutting their first record, to going on tour with a Phil Spector/Motown-type revue, to the internal tensions that lead to the band's disintegration, which comes when they fail to follow up their smash hit single, "That Thing You Do!" And that song, by the way, is so catchy it would definitely have been a hit in 1964--and deserves to be one today. This delightful movie would make a great double-bill with Allison Anders's wonderful Grace of My Heart. --Jim Emerson

Aspect Ratio:	1.85 Wide Screen, 16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Featurette, 2 Music Videos, 6 International Trailers
Subtitles:	Croatian, Czech, Danish, English, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish
Year:	1996
Release Date:	June 30, 2003
Runtime:	103 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	04141 D V D
Keywords:	That, You, General, Wide, Screen, Thing, Drama
Genre:	Drama