Tom Hanks couldn't keep doing sitcoms the rest of his life...but sometimes I really miss that guy, you know?

Charlie Wilson's War, while in most ways fantastic, diverts its audience more than it gives them things to think about, although it certainly does both.

The script is a crowd pleaser with many laugh-lines. I was reminded that writer Aaron Sorkin's comedy often plays best against darker tones, which is one of the reasons Studio 60 had so many tomatoes thrown at it.

There are also some in-jokes for Sorkin fans. Someone keeps trying to sell Hanks on the idea of a TV drama set in Washington. There's a Gilbert & Sullivan reference. The Indians in the Lobby. And somebody breaks a window.

All this may not mean much of anything to most of you, but I scarfed 'em down like they were doughnuts.

Two of the three name stars are problematical, but I don't think it's really their fault. In a way I almost found myself wishing for Robin Williams to have taken the title role, I think because with Hanks, you always get a nice, safe, comfortable performance.

With Williams, you never know. Give him a good director and script (which this had) and he's worthy of Oscar nominations. But...

As for Julia Roberts...I'm going to assume it was Mike Nichols who directed that her hair and make-up should be done in such a way as to make her resemble a drag-queen version of herself. I'm not even sure it was the wrong decision, the part she's playing-a wealthy Texas woman-is the sort of lady who often looks like a drag queen version.

But Hanks and Roberts use their not-inconsiderable star power, and Hanks especially proves himself, as ever, a talented actor.

Meanwhile, Philip Seymour Hoffman steals the movie so brazenly he might as well be carrying a gun and a mask. You get the feeling he must have had the most fun anyone's ever had in a black comedy version of

the true story of how a playboy congressman, a renegade CIA agent and a beautiful Houston socialite joined forces to lead the largest and most successful covert operation in history

Ned Beatty shows up to remind us that pretty much any time he shows up, you know you're in good hands.

Hot movie star of the year Amy Adams plays Hanks' administrative assistant; she's sexy and funny...as all seem to know by now.

I won't be surprised, however, if there's some blowback from feminists about the place of Adams and other women in this film.

Emily Blunt (above), for example, who shows up, drops her pants, opens her blouse, and disappears.

The natural defense to such accusations might be that the story is, after all, set in the time of Swatch. And is about a congressman who habitually hires pretty young women, bright-eyed and twitchy-tailed as cheerleader coeds, as his office staff, on the grounds that:

"You can teach 'em to type, you can't teach 'em to grow tits."

But that's one thing. You're telling a man's story, you've got to tell the truth. The way the camera lingers longingly on their asses is another, the fact they're identified in the cast list only as "Charlie's Angels" one through four quite another.

They are--as you scroll down, in order: Shiri Appleby

Rachel Nichols (no relation AFAIK)

Wynn Everett, on the left; Mary Bonner Baker...who is the daughter of former Secretary of State James Baker III...on the right, oh yeah, on the right.