Not having seen "Forrest Gump" for decades, the online cynicism really started to take hold with me; the American mythology, evil Jenny memes and the obedient simpleton messaging; it put me in a weird headspace for this particular rewatch. But here's the thing: it's just so well-made.

No one in this move feels out of place and most of the humor lands as intended. It's not hard to see why this movie swept the Oscars and ticket sales; we're talking Hanks and Zemeckis here, it was a '90s dream team. I'll admit I kinda checked out during the cross-country running scenes, but I was right back in when Haley Joel Osment showed up (it's all heartstrings from there).

If there's anything about the movie that doesn't work for me, it's the people around Forrest; most of them end up either sick, ruined or dead, and I had a real problem with that. Jenny fares the worst here, and she honestly deserved better. I hate her father with the power of a thousand suns.

I get all of the criticism over the years, I guess I just don't agree. This is by any measure a good movie, and my rating would probably be higher if I wasn't so sick of hearing about it. My brain tends to lump this in with "The Lion King" for that reason.