Rating: 
Summary: Tom Hanks with Robert Zemeckis produce an emotional film.
Review: "Cast Away" entertains one of man's worst fears: being absolutely alone in a place of heat with almost no drinkable water for possibly the rest of his life. Chuck Noland(Tom Hanks), a Fed Ex employee must live this after his plane crashes in the middle of the Atlantic. The film begins on a crossroad in Texas. The title "Cast Away" and not Castaway appears on the screen which means that Tom Hanks does not only become a Castaway but that he is Cast Away from civilized society. A Fed Ex truck turns the corner and picks up a package from an artists barn that is home to a workshop which creates wings as a form of art(This film is full of symbolism). From here we arrive in Russia in which we discover Noland giving a speech on the importance of time. Life for him revolves around time and it is the perfect job for him because Fed Ex is "The World On Time". He makes it home and has Christmas dinner with his girlfriend Kelly Frears(Helen Hunt). After dinner he must leave Kelly to return to his job. In the air there is a large storm, the plane loses pressure and crashes into the Atlantic. Chuck opens the life raft and becomes the only survivor of the crash. He lands hours later on a desolate island where he will have to make his home. He eventually adapts to his surroundings by drinking coconut milk and making a fire which will allow him to have hot food. His only friend on the island is a personified soccerball named Wilson. Tom Hanks is the type of actor who's acting can make you care about something as inanimate as a soccer ball. He carries this entire film by being on screen by himself for the majority of the film. The character of Kelly Frears is only on screen for about 15 minutes but you can feel her presence throughout. Starting off, this DVD has a crystal clear picture with an aspect ratio of 2.35:1. The commentary features insight from Robert Zemekis and many members of his crew. There are barely any quiet moments. The extras are composed of special effects vignettes, multiple documentaries, a storyboard to film comparison, and two theatrical trailers and many T.V. spots. This is a film to own and everytime you watch, you will notice more interesting things about it.
Rating: 
Summary: It's better than you think
Review: This movie is to Tom Hanks what the Cable Guy was to Jim Carrey. In Cable Guy everyone expected another Ace Ventura and instead got a wonderful black comedy. Unfortunately in most people's minds Carrey wasn't supposed to do black comedy and this truly remarkable performance was ignored and the movie floundered. In Cast Away Tom Hanks leaves his gosh-golly everyman and becomes an time obsessed FedEx manager named Chuck Noland. Through circumstances he becomes stranded on an island in the South Pacific. For almost an hour we share the island with Chuck and a ball named Wilson. While it might sound odd it is really very captivating and entertaining. In a stock movie the Hanks character would have been found and lived happily ever after, however in Cast Away the ending is intelligent and much more interesting. The DVD extras are on a separate disk and are complete from trailers through interviews to featurettes. The interview with Charlie Rose is curious but gives you an idea of the time and effort it takes for even Tom Hanks to develop a project and get it filmed. It is curious because throughout the interview Rose appears unprepared, careless, and inept which makes it almost painful yet peculiarly intriguing to watch. People will say of Cast Away that it wasn't Hanks at his best or that the story was flawed. Personally, I think that Hanks was brilliant and the storyline was original and refreshing. To dismiss this film is to dismiss both a well crafted and entertaining movie and a superlative performace by Tom Hanks.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific movie
Review: As his screen credits add up, it seems apparent that by the end of his career, Tom Hanks will have amassed one of the greatest film resumes in history. He is that good and so are his movies. This one, although quite different from others, is really very good, with another convincing performance by Hanks. I could not believe how emotional the scene with 'Wilson' was. Anyone who has seen it will understand what I mean. There are a lot of great scenes in this movie, none better than Hanks when he is experiencing all these new things for the first time. There is a full circle to the movie that is easy to miss. But the movie goes past that circle just enough and allows a new beginning. I loved Crowe in Gladiator but I do think Hanks deserved his third Oscar. It was a mesmerizing performance and the truly amazing thing is that for most of the film, he had no other actors to react to. He was mostly on his own. Great film.
Rating:
Summary: A positive review combined with a minor rant on the menu
Review: Let me rant first, and then explain my 4 star rating. I watched this on DVD, and I experienced something that is becoming more and more common on DVDs: an irritatingly slow appearance of the menu. When DVDs first came out, I thought it was just incredible that you pop them in, and almost immediately would get the menu that would allow you without delay to access the features you wanted. If you wanted to watch the film immediately with no delay, that is what you did. More and more, however, DVDs are packing pre-Menu material. With CAST AWAY, you get the Interpol warning, followed by previews (that you can close out of), and then, before the menu itself finally comes into view, a slow loading picture of Tom Hanks face that only gruadually fades away to reveal the selection menu. But even then, when you click on your option, it again only very slowly takes you to the feature you want. What I ended up doing was bookmarking the opening credits, so that if I ever wanted to watch the movie again, I could bypass all this nonsense to get right to the film. I wonder if the DVD makers understand what a pain this all is? I wonder if they understand that one of the greatest attractions of DVDs is the fact that DVDs give the viewers what they want. I want widescreen, not full screen. I want to get right to the film. Not watch a bunch of previews and plodding menu graphics. Remember KISS: Keep it Simple Stupid. Some DVDs now even give you nonoptional advertisements and previews. They are ruining a very good thing. Now, the movie. The makers of CAST AWAY did a great job given the fact that this is basically a movie where almost nothing happens, and, what is more, almost nothing could happen. ROBINSON CRUSOE dealt pretty much with the same story. But the difference between it and CAST AWAY is the fact that ROBINSON CRUSOE is very much a novel of ideas. Because it if very difficult to discuss many ideas in a movie without much dialog, that was not really an option for CAST AWAY. The challenge to the filmmakers, therefore, was to flesh out what was necessarily a bare bones plot. They achieved this by chopping the movie into four parts: 1) the prequel to the arrival to the island (including the very exciting plane crash sequence, easily the best part of the movie and one of the best plane crashes I have seen), 2) Tom Hanks's time on the island, the longest segment in the movie, 3) his escape from the island, and 4) his arrival home. The last part was a lot longer than what one might have expected, but because there had been very little action in the film, it was necessary to give it balance. The one real shortcoming in the film is the difficulty of coming up with much dramatic action. The strength in the film is the fact that they did such an incredible job of overcoming so many of the limitations. Tom Hanks was great, as usual. One of the more interesting aspects of his role was the fact that in the first part of his time on the island, he is a bit blobby. Definite gut. Near the end of his time on the island, he has really shaped up. Must have taken a few thousand crunches to get those abs! Great work (out) Tom! One mark at how very, very good he is was shown in his relation with "Wilson", a volley ball upon which he painted (in his own blood) a face and with whom he developed a relationship. Now, on one level, this was very, very silly. But Hanks played it to the hilt, and at the end, when Wilson and Tom are parted, you feel his intense grief at losing his only friend. The rest of the cast really didn't matter. This was a one man movie. But, for what it is worth, the supporting cast was solid enough. There was, however, one major star of the movie other than Tom Hanks, and that was the island itself. Just a great locale. Dramatic, beautiful, and yet, just forbidding enough, it was the perfect costar for Tom Hanks. So, not a perfect movie, but nonetheless a very good one. And if you enjoy Tom Hanks's work, as I do, it will provide a couple of hours of great entertainment, IF you can get past the opening menu. By the way, I have had a couple of friends ask me if I thought Hanks rather than Russell Crowe deserved the Oscar. I gave them a two part answer, which I will repeat here. First, while I thought he deserved the Oscar more than Crowe (I am a HUGE Russell Crowe fan, and I definitely thought he deserved the Oscar for THE INSIDER, but THE GLADIATOR, while good, is not one of his very best roles), I thought the Oscar for best actor should have gone to someone who was not even nominated: Jamie Bell for BILLY ELIOTT.
Rating: 
Summary: Cast Away this movie.
Review: Pretentious update of *Robinson Crusoe* that re-teams director Robert Zemeckis and Tom Hanks. (Call it *Gump 2*.) Actually, WHAT the movie says isn't nearly as pretentious as the LENGTHS Zemeckis goes to say it -- it takes 2 1/2 hours for him to make his simple points. (I.e.: "You never know what's coming your way", "Don't give up hope", etc.) As if the blandness of this New Age piffle wasn't enough, we're submitted to what amount to a 2 1/2 commerical for Federal Express and Wilson's Sporting Goods . . . which makes it even more difficult to take this movie very seriously. For instance, it takes, inexplicably, 30 minutes to establish that Tom Hanks works for FedEx. One half-expects to see a web address printed at the bottom left of the screen. ANYWAYS . . . the movie finally gets going when Tom's plane crashes somewhere over the Pacific. This sequence is actually an extraordinary piece of moviemaking, and earns the film 2 stars instead of 1 in my rating. However, this bit of bravura is followed by a tedious Survival 101 clinic: for about an hour and a half, we watch Tom Hanks Learn How to Build Fires, Learn How to Spear Fish, and Learn How to Build a Meaningful Relationship With a Volleyball. The filmmakers mistake this as somehow inherently dramatic. It's not -- it's boring. Finally, Tom manages to return home 4 years later, only to discover that his fiancee (Helen Hunt) has, quite sensibly, gotten married to someone else. And how does our hero take this added insult to injury? With holier-than-thou resignation and mealy-mouthed epigrams cribbed from whatever New Age self-help tome from Oprah's Book Club is popular at the moment. The movie ends with Tom Hanks standing at a crossroads (I'm not making this up) in some fly-over state somewhere, with an enigmatic, ghostly smile on his face. Deep, man. Deep.
Rating:
Summary: A Triumph of the Human Spirit!
Review: This was an amazing movie -- Hanks is clearly one of the most talented actors ever (The Green Mile, Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan), and his versatility is unparallelled. Beautiful scenery, a very realistic plot, and masterful editing make this movie outstanding. If you're looking for fast-paced, predictable, "cookie-cutter" Hollywood fluff, this movie is not for you. But...with a little imagination and an open mind, you may appreciate the movie for what it was intended: Cast Away is hilariously funny, crushingly tragic, occasionally shocking, and above all, a celebration of the triumph of the human spirit against all odds.
Rating: 
Summary: Hanks survives; Zemeckis 3 for 3 since "Gump"
Review: Picture a young school-kid who has made a model of Camelot using wood and styrofoam. Picture the child as he or she happily walks to school, proud to turn his work into his history class for the eventual top grade. Now watch as fate intervenes as the child trips on an uneven curb, sending his model crashing to the ground. The child cries and sobs...and then looks up to see the model is still VERY much intact. The only thing the child DIDN'T super-glue to death were the little action-figurines used to portray the inhabitants of Camelot...and a tip of Arthur's tower is slightly smashed. It's fixable...but why go to the trouble when 99 percent of the project is very much okay and ready to present and will knock the socks off of all the other kids who used a simple shoebox to present the Round Table room??? This is the case for director Robert Zemeckis. Even though he sometimes stumbles, his stuff is still fun to watch. And it's because of beautiful special effects a very real(and VERY Oscar-worthy) performance by the ever-dynamic Tom Hanks, and a(mostly) smart script. CASTAWAY is the story of Chuck Noland(Hanks), a systems-engineer for the FedEx company(methinks FedEx had to be paid a TON to both sponsor the film and portray one of their delivery jets crashing and losing thousands of packages). He's obssessed with time and things going the way they're supposed to. His marriage is what it is: Chuck and his wife Kelly(the overrated Helen Hunt in an underrated performance) see each other in short bursts but are very happy with the agreement they have and actually SMILE at each other during their day-to-day meetings. Then comes Christmas Eve and Chuck's leaving his wife again. He's off to personally escort a few packages(God knows WHY he has to do this but the script demands it for plot-movement) to their destinations by Christmas Day. This scene comes complete with ill-fated dialogue and the totally clichéd, "I'll be right back", spoken to Kelly(or yelled-to to be more accurate) by the equally ill-fated Chuck. I remember actually yelling at my T.V. set that you NEVER say that in a movie(see "Scream" and you'll know why) but what the heck do I know??? Once aboard, the pilots decide to avert a major storm by flying AROUND it...so much for THAT idea. The plane crashes into the South Pacific faster than a Randy Johnson-fastball and Chuck is outcast via a raft from said plane to a deserted island with no technology, no islanders, no Jurassic Park dinosaurs, and NO WAY TO GET HOME. From here on, we get to watch Noland stumble around the island trying to obtain food, water, and shelter as well as an idea for how he's going to get off the island and get back to his life...all of which takes four years. Now, before the nay-sayers comment that "this could have been really good" and call it BAD, I say that this could have been really BAD and I'm calling it good. It's actor Hanks and director Zemeckis's time and patience that pulls off the impossible(in their first re-teaming since "Forrest Gump"). Noland turns desparate as you see him go through the stages of becoming a survivor(fear, anger, acceptance, etc.), befriend a volleyball(which he paints a face on with his own blood and even goes so far as to implant "hair" using twigs and what-not), create fire(in a hilariously bittersweet scene), and spear fish and crab for edible goods. I've read both sides of the debate on this film and I'm caught in the middle. I think this movie is successful. Robert Zemeckis makes a film that touches you not so much on an emotional level(not even the stupid volleyball evoked a sniffle when we witness its fate), but on a philosophical level. Before Hanks hits the island, he's a hurried man who rushes everything and yells at the top of his lungs. After the island, he's transformed into something humbled. You would think he would have trouble accepting his new life after he gets back home...but by now, it's so easy to him. Chuck has survived the hell of isolation and pain by himself. He makes his decisions without sadness, without angst, and with much acceptance. It's the primitive equivilant of "2001: A Space Odyssey". Yes, the film's point is EXTREMELY heavy-handed: "time is important so make the most of it" and blah, blah, blah...but Zemeckis has such a wonderful way of softening the hand that's slapping you in the face(just like he softened it for "Gump" and the soft-spoken "Contact"), that it's easy to take. His use of sound and the decision to use no music score during the island-scenes was the perfect choice. In my opinion, scoring the island-scenes would have dumbed the film down. Not a great film, not a horrible film. "Castaway" is a good film that shows you one man's accelerated journey through life in which he learns the true meaning of becoming a mature human being. (A couple of notes here: the "winking-whale" effect comes off as silly and why doesn't search-and-rescue follow the trail of loose-drifting packages since most seemed to end up on the isle with Chuck???) --Matt
Rating:
Summary: great flick....dvd does it justice
Review: a great movie, especially in the dvd format. DVD brings the spectacular tropical island to life and the sound is magnificent. The movie itself is great, and Tom Hanks does an amazing job as the only actor for a long period in the movie.
Rating:
Summary: ok movie...what happened to the ring???????
Review: ok, there are sooo many stinking reviews about this movie...it is a good flick..not a great flick, not the worst one of the year..but it is good. you all know the plot...but there are some things that are wrong with the movie that have not yet been pointed out...what happened to the ring he gave her in that package?? did she keep it? throw it away?? there was 0 mention of that. also, he goes back and gets with the girl in the truck...he goes down the path of nothing to canada, as she says it...which is where she lives. you can tell by the background at the end and the long paved road behind him...he is facing her place. he is impressed with the logos on the back of her truck, is lonely, she flirted with him...come on, it is obvious. for those of you that thought this movie was boring...you should have watched it by yourself and not all of your guy friends so you could make fun of the movie together! it is a moving movie, the part where he kisses helen hunt is moving...unless you are too macho to admit that. i don't see the big deal in not opening that one package..he opened all of the others and did not return those....i say he should have opened it...could have been his way off the island...look how much the ice skates, video tapes, and the other stuff did for him! good flick, but not best picture...gladiator all the way!
Rating:
Summary: A Great Movie and a Good DVD, Except for the Commentary
Review: I loved Cast Away and bought the DVD the day it became available. My only irritation with the DVD is the commentary, which is quite maddening because you have some Foley putz ( and a Lighting guy) droning on and on about how they made sounds and lighting effects in post production. I'm not kidding. Robert Zemeckis' part of the commentary, I'm willing to bet, does not add up to ten minutes of conversation. Nothing of great importance as to character and plot is discussed, you just have to listen to that Foley ... go on and on about the importance of sound. I was so pissed that I actually yelled out to the recording, begging the sound schmuck to shut up. Disc two has a lot of good extras, so you still get your money's worth, but the commentary is the lamest I have ever heard; I can't imagine listening to one as bad as it on another DVD anytime in the future.
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