Charlie Wilson's War/Philadelphia/Apollo 13

Triple-bill of Tom Hanks films. 'Charlie Wilson's War' (2007), based on the book by George Crile, tells the story of how one congressman who loved a good time, one Houston socialite who loved a good cause, and one renegade CIA agent who loved a good fight, conspired to bring about the largest covert operation in history.

In the early 1980s, Charlie Wilson (Hanks) is a womanising US congressional representative from Texas.

With the help of maverick CIA agent, Gust Avrakotos (Philip Seymour Hoffman), Wilson dedicates his political efforts to supplying the Afghan mujaheddin with the weapons and support required to defeat the Soviet Union.

However, Charlie eventually learns that military victory can only be achieved at a great price.

In 'Philadelphia' (1993), Hanks's Oscar-winning performance as a gay man dying of AIDS brought the modern disease to mainstream Hollywood.

Hanks plays Andrew Beckett, a lawyer who is fired when his boss discovers that he has AIDS.

He then engages the services of homophobic lawyer Joe Miller (Denzel Washington) to take his company to court.

Finally, in 'Apollo 13' (1995), the space mission, manned by astronauts Lovell (Hanks), Swigert (Kevin Bacon) and Haise (Bill Paxton), starts out as a routine spaceflight which generates little media interest.

But all that changes when an oxygen tank explosion cripples the ship and prompts the immortal line, 'Houston...

We have a problem'. Now Lovell and his crew have to struggle to keep going, while at Mission Control their colleagues Kranz (Ed Harris) and Mattingly (Gary Sinise) do everything they can to bring them home.