Tom Hanks Career Timeline

For my 500th post (yes, 500!) I didn't want to make just some random post of something funny I found online, and instead decided to provide another installment in my longest original series.  I've given you the career timelines of Adam Sandler, Eddie Murphy, and Jim Carrey and now I give you one for a legend: Tom Hanks.

Like all my other graphs, there were data points for all of Hanks' films from IMDB, but I was surprised to see a large data set missing from Metacritic.  I can understand some of his earlier, lesser known films, but the omission of Splash, A League of Their Own, and even Turner & Hooch were shocking to say the least.  In fact, Metacritic only had one Hanks film pre-1993 (Big). Rotten Tomatoes didn't have reviews on a few earlier films for Hanks, but that's been the norm with these so far.  With these missing data points in mind, comparisons can really be seen starting with Sleepless in Seattle.  From that point on, there are 3 datum (finally able to use that Biology education for something!) for every film.

As I was collecting all the scores from newest movie to oldest, it took me until Tom's first starring gig, Mazes and Monsters, to find a score under 5 on IMDB.  In fact, only 3 of his films from 1990-present failed to score above a 6:  Joe Versus the Volcano, The Bonfire of the Vanities, and Larry Crowne (5.9).  His 90's films have an astonishing track record, as even his "worst" film averaged a 6.73 (You've Got Mail).  With the exception of some earlier films (excluding Splash, Big, etc) and the Da Vinci Code movies, Tom Hanks has achieved a steadily stellar film career.  Films like Forrest Gump, Saving Private Ryan, and Cast Away speak for themselves. The Toy Story films didn't hurt either.

This was my largest film set so far, so click to see in all its glory

Eddie Murphy Career Timeline

While we're on the subject of actors who have seemed to decline over the years (see: Adam Sandler Career Timeline), I decided to focus on Eddie Murphy.  It's the general consensus that he made far superior films early in his career then released a bunch of family friendly flicks; there is no way in hell Daddy Day Care can compete with Beverly Hills Cop.  But what do IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, and Metacritic have to say about it?  Much like before the three sources don't agree but show a lot of the same trends, namely a peak in Murphy's early carreer, a decline, and a relatively constant period before increasing for the recently released Tower Heist.  Check it out below, and click for the full version.

I omitted the Shrek series since they really aren't Eddie Murphy movies and would skew the results

Adam Sandler Career Timeline

After talking to my brother about how Adam Sandler's career has gone from good to bad, I decided to make a chart to demonstrate.  I used ratings from IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, and Metacritic user reviews.  Surprisingly, his movies haven't gotten steadily worse according to those sources, instead being relatively constant over the years (obviously a few ups and down in between).  IMDB users aren't exactly the best judge of character, and Rotten Tomatoes considers critic reviews which have never been too fond of any (funny) Sandler flick.  Metacritic users, however, share relatively the same opinion as my brother and I do, though the decline isn't quite as sharp.  But seriously, there is no way Jack and Jill is going to touch Billy Madison/Happy Gilmore/The Wedding Singer.  Without further ado, here's the chart:

Click for full-size

I'll be doing more of these for other comedians/actors, so stay tuned! Any requests?