Rating: 
Summary: Don't know Why Tom didn't get an Oscar
Review: "Castaway" is a great movie. For most of the movie Tom Hanks is by himself and he is able to do. Hanks is able to deliver a powerful performance about how a person is able to surivive the worst situration. I will never understand how Tom didn't win the oscar for that year.
Rating: 
Summary: Knew too much going in
Review: I was surprised to read after seeing "Cast Away" that it is almost three hours long. I didn't squirm as I usually do while watching a movie of that length. So that speaks well for the movie. However, I didn't think it was a super wonderful movie either. Roger Ebert complains in his review that Zemekis and company revealed too much of the plot in the trailer for "Cast Away." I concur with Ebert, although I may have come by my prior knowledge by reading reviews or talking to people who saw the movie. The ending was a good idea with our protagonist meeting the woman who sent the FedEx package at the beginning of the movie (classic envelope pattern). But it wasn't filmed well (with Hanks standing in the middle of a dusty Texas intersection, pondering which direction to take next). I wish it had been more like the ending to "Heaven Can Wait" when the man and the woman started talking, and it was clear they were going to hook up.
Rating:
Summary: Tom Has Done Better.
Review: AMERICAN SWEETHEARTS was directed by Joe Roth (Angels In The Outfield, Streets Of Gold) and co-written by one of the stars themselves - Billy Crystal (Monster, Inc., When Harry Met Sally, Analyze This). For me it was a great treat watching Billy. Billy has this sarcastic criticism about the Entertainment Industry - and life overall - that is so close to things I have said about people, places and things that I often wonder if he is following me recording my thoughts! He is hysterical! Now - as far as the film goes....it has a pretty big cast - John Cussack (16 Candles, Say Anything, The Grifters) and Cathrine Zeta Jones (The Mask Of Zorro, the new Chicago, The Haunting) do a great job as the 'Hollywood Couple' gone wrong. Except for the public eye and the personalities on camera - off camera they are 'oil and water'. Cathrine character is support by the hysterically funny and often underrated Hank Azaria (The Birdcage, Godzilla, Anastasia) as her Cuban lover. He is a scene-stealer! Here's another talent that needs o be given a chance. Through it all, Billy Crystal's character, the publicist (who also has a sidekick - cleverly and meekly played by Seth Green (all three Austin Powers films)) needs the help of Cathrines'sister played by (with an impressively timid performance) of Julia Roberts (Pretty Women, Steele Magnolias, Erin Brochovich). Quite a cast, right? Needless to say, enter the eccentric performance of the crazy director (of Catherine's and John's newest film the general public has been dying to see); Christopher Walkin (Brainstorm, The Dead Zone, Mouse Hunt) There is comedy, slapstick, farce and more. A good story and silly premise make for a very entertaining movie for all! Again, I mention that Billy Crystal has some of the best lines - like - '...oh look, there's the buffet..." and many many, more! Stanley Tucci (A Mid Summer Nights Dream, The Pelican Brief, Road To Perdition) gives a fantastic performance as the typical Hollywood Producer gone panicked. The DVD extras include the usual trailer and previews and there is also a special section with deleted scenes where there is a limited on camera commentary with director Jo Roth. The bad part is that it is the only commentary on the DVD. It would have been nice to have the commentary on the whole feature film - this was a big disappointment to me. Overall I loved the movie. This is something to own! (9-2-02)
Rating: 
Summary: First guy kicked off the island... please?!
Review: This movie has a good thirty minutes which are entertaining and interesting. Then Tom Hanks takes off solo. Now I acknowledge that Tom Hanks is a good actor, but an hour of him on an island is enough to make your skin crawl with anxiety to either rescue him to get other actors on the screen or kill him off. Sadly, by the time he gets back to the real world, the story sinks into a mire of sap that will threaten the loss of your ocular mobility from over rolling of the eyes. I would assume that the intent of the film is to leave you with a wonderous sense of his spiritual change during his time of isolation, but instead, he just became a boring and slightly unbalanced twit.
Rating:
Summary: Pensive
Review: This is a painstakingly contemplative film. It really makes you think about life and what life has in store for you. It's bit extended, but the closing is the vantage that should satisfy, to some degree, the emotional roller coaster that this film puts you through. It's in these closing scenes that Hanks really shows his talent for conveying emotions better felt than spoken.
Rating: 
Summary: A Tom Hanks showcase
Review: Cast Away is the story of Chuck (Tom Hanks), a FedEx delivery worker who finds himself stranded on a desert island after his plane goes down. On each end of the movie is the story of his life back in the "real world"; however, that story is somewhat undeveloped and underemphasized. Before the crash he had just proposed to his fiance, and upon his return he finds that she is married with children (and on a side note, either time moved faster on the mainland or else his loving fiance was married and pregnant in less than a year after his disappearance). I felt that subplot should have either been left alone or else dealt with in a more elaborate way; the ending left the movie feeling incomplete. However, the heart of the movie involves Chuck's time on the island, and it is simply Hanks at his best. Chuck is alone, trying to survive; every little task could mean the difference between life and death. For Hanks, this means he must display the gamut of emotions about seemingly trivial matters with no other actors to help with the illusion. I know of no other actor that could have me to the point of tears when a volleyball starts to float away from him. No offense to Russel Crowe, but how he won Best Actor for playing a stoic, monosyllabic gladiator over this performance is one of life's great mysteries. For fans of great acting performances, this one is highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Buy it NOW!
Review: There is no need to talk about this film, I just watched it again today and I loved it all over again.
Set aside 2 1/2 hours of your day and buy this film today!
You will not be dissapointed.
-Great acting
-Great story and emotions
-Great score
Have you bought it yet?
Rating:
Summary: Have Seen Better Volleyball...
Review: Not volleyball games... just a volleyball by itself sitting on a shelf in a box. AND THE WINNER OF THE BEST ACTOR IN CASTAWAY goes to ... the Volleyball. After all the reviews praising this movie, I was stunned when I sat through this mess and didn't find anything worth my time, much less my ticket. Oh, GOD, I love you so much and I want to spend my life with you, but HEY GOTTA GO fix another FEDEX shipment. [Oh Yeah, It's Christmas Eve and the grand high POOBAH of Packaging has to zip off to another place to fix a shipping center. Hey, if you ain't fixed it by now much less by Dec 1, you are in deep, deeep Doodoo.]
I nominate this movie for the WWTT award... What WERE They Thinking. Just so there is no doubt about what I think, I have seen cowpies with more personality than this movie. Wheew, what a stinker!
Rating:
Summary: Best of the marooned films
Review: I have seen a lot of "Robinson Crusoe" type movies in my lifetime. Most of them are usually quite dissapointing in the aspect of realism. Not this one. Too many of these island survival films feature unlikely creature comforts; like gorgeous native girls treating you like a king, or building a 5-room tree house with only a pocket knife. This movie remains primitive, gritty and realistic throughout. It is not a "how to" survival movie, but just shows one man's plight that living alone on an island is not only unglamorous, but could lead to ones insanity. Tom Hanks does a swell job here, including achieving weight loss to show a malnourished effect of island hardship.
Rating:
Summary: Better than Gilligan
Review: This was a great idea with a great actor that just kind of never gelled. The scenes of Hans on the island got more and more out in left field, and what started as an interesting look at the survival of modern man in a primative world became a study of frustration and weirdness in a man with no outside contact. The end left you wanting...not for more, or for your money back, but just wanting something more satisfying. Don't go in with high expectations. 2 1/2 stars
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