My Hanx Movie Challenge

Great thinkers since the dawn of time have been wondering what the meaning of life is; why are we here? What is our purpose?

I have long since come to terms with the fact that I don’t know the answers to these questions and indeed never will.  If I have the people I love in my life I need very little else (with the clear exception of food, water, shelter, carers, hoists, wheelchairs, electricity, medication etc. etc.!!)

I think that one of the issues that I struggle with the most is purpose, especially since my disability made me unable to continue working five years ago.

Life is gift and although the tree of life hit me repeatedly with the manky stick, I adamantly refuse to believe that my life is purposeless and that I cannot contribute positively to my families lives, my friends lives and to society.

I try to be a good family member (even if it’s just showing Mum the correct button on the remote for the billionth time).  I try to be a good friend (sometimes most of the time I talk too much, sorry Lucy, sorry James).  I try to contribute to society by doing voluntary work and promoting knowledge sharing and awareness online through my blog, Facebook, and Twitter.

However… (here’s the fun part!!) …

I REALLY enjoy setting myself challenge and tasks and aiming to successfully complete them.  They are challenges that probably seem pretty pointless to anyone other than myself but they give me a larger sense of connection and purpose.  Purpose is important.

My previous self-created challenges include:

1.       Learning how to ‘loom’ some complex designs even though my hand function is severely reduced – I loom in a slightly different manner and vastly slower than most but with good results.

2.       Everything I have stitched, designed, glued, weaved, needle-felted and hooked has been a challenge due to the degeneration of my condition. See some results here.

3.       The Goodreads book challenge (link).  This time I completed my challenge of reading 30 books in one year, only just though. (35 next year??).

Well the true purpose of this blog is to tell you about my new challenge to myself and it is an awesome one because it combines my love of movies, my OCD list making and my love for a fantastic actor.  Tom Hanks.

I recently saw ‘Sully’ and loved it.  Chesley Sullenberger is a true hero and only Tom Hanks can do justice to his life saving actions.

It got me thinking about how I feel I have grown up watching Tom Hanks on screen and have loved everything he does…Splash, Big, Joe versus the Volcano, Forrest Gump, The Burbs, The Da Vinci Code, Saving Private Ryan, Captain Phillips, Toy Story…

It wasn’t until I looked up his film list that I realised that I have almost literally grown up watching his movies as his film debut was 1980, the year of my birth.

 So, without further ado ladies and gentleman may I present to you, my own creation, my:

HANX MOVIE CHALLENGE

Challenge tasks:

1.       Create a list of all Hanx films. Only including those where he is credited as an actor (including tv movies – more challenging to get but aim high!!), not including production only or tv series’.

2.     Collect ALL the movies on the list on DVD, no time limit (may take a while!) All movies must be in DVD format and legally obtained (obvs!) and can be second hand (most will probably come from searching charity shops).

3.       When task 2 has been completed then have a major Hanxathon by spending days watching every movie in sequential order as per year released.

4.       Continue adding to the Hanx collection every time a new movie is released fitting task 1 criteria.

 My task 1 list:

FILM	YEAR	CHARACTER NAME
He Knows You're Alone	1980	Elliot
Mazes and Monsters (TV Movie)	1982	Robbie Wheeling
Splash	1984	Allen Bauer
Batchelor Party	1984	Rick Gassko
The Man with One Red Shoe	1985	Richard
Volunteers	1985	Lawrence Bourne III
The Money Pit	1986	Walter Fielding
Nothing in Common	1986	David Basner
Every time We Say Goodbye	1986	David
Dragnet	1987	Streebek
Big	1988	Josh
Punchline	1988	Steven Gold
The Burbs	1989	Ray Peterson
Turner and Hooch	1989	Scott Turner
Joe Versus the Volcano	1990	Joe
The Bonfire of the Vanities	1990	Sherman McCoy
A League of their Own	1992	Jimmy Dugan
Sleepless in Seattle	1993	Sam Baldwin
Philadelphia	1993	Andrew Beckett
Forrest Gump	1994	Forrest Gump
Vault of Horror I (TV Movie)	1994
Apollo 13	1995	Jim Lovall
Toy Story	1995	Woody
That Thing You Do!	1996	Mr White
Saving Private Ryan	1998	Captain Miller
You've Got Mail	1998	Joe Fox
Toy Story 2	1999	Woody
The Green Mile	1999	Paul Edgecomb
Cast Away	2000	Chuck Nolan
Road to Perdition	2002	Michael Sullivan
Catch Me If You Can	2002	Carl Hanratty
The Ladykillers	2004	Professor G. H. Dorr
The Terminal	2004	Viktor Navorski
Elvis Has Left the Building	2004	Mailbox Elvis
The Polar Express	2004	Various
The Da Vinci Code	2006	Robert Langdon
Charlie Wilsons War	2007	Charlie Wilson
The Great Buck Howard	2008	Mr Gable
Angels and Demons	2009	Robert Langdon
Toy Story 3	2010	Woody
Larry Crowne	2011	Larry Crowne
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close	2011	Thomas Schell
Cloud Atlas	2012	Various
Captain Phillips	2013	Capt. Richard Phillips
Saving Mr Banks	2013	Walt Disney
Bridge of Spies	2015	James B. Donovan
Ithaca	2015	Mr Macauley
A Hologram for the King	2016	Alan
Sully: Miracle on the Hudson	2016	Chesley 'Sully' Sullenberger
Inferno	2016	Robert Langdon
The Circle	2017	Bailey
Toy Story 4	2019	Woody