Cast Away

December 10, 2004

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 143 min Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Ok, what the heck was 20th Century Fox thinking when they released the trailers and descriptions for this movie? I’m going to spoil it here since it’s in every ad and description you see for the movie anyway. They basically let the cat out of the bag and say he’s trapped on an island for 4 years. Well, there goes the suspense of wondering if he’ll get off!

Cast Away

I gave them benefit of the doubt and tried to go into the movie with an open mind hoping they were swerving us or that the movie followed a timeline which made that bit of knowledge just not matter. But it did. The movie unfolds exactly as you would expect and consequently to me the spoiler ruins it. I would’ve enjoyed this movie alot more if I were watching him on the island wondering what is going to happen. Not only do I know what’s going to happen, they even told me WHEN it’s going to happen. Thank you 20th Century Fox!

In case you’ve been under a rock, in this story Tom Hanks plays Chuck Noland, a troubleshooter for FedEx. Whenever a FedEx location anywhere around the world is having trouble absolutely positively getting their packages there overnight, Chuck is called in to fix it. One fateful night he jumps a plane to Malaysia that never quite makes it’s destination and crashes into the pacific. Everyone on board dies except for Noland who washes up on the beach of a deserted island.

Hanks, as usual, is outstanding. He has no living creatures to interact with, and he’s not exactly a survivalist. He learns how to live on the island via many mistakes and hard painful lessons. Tom dropped a ton of weight between the time they shot the scenes when he first arrived and the scenes set 4 years later. He’s completely believable, and this is yet another Oscar worthy performance. He’s starting to make them look effortless which will actually probably cost him nominations much like Robert DeNiro.

However, even the masterful performance of Hanks cant pull this movie up above 3 stars. If the suspense of not knowing what was going to happen were there, it might’ve been a different story. But as is, since you know what’s coming the movie seems a little slow, you’re just waiting for it to unfold as you know what’s coming. Although there are some scenes that are disturbing this also has enough of a chick flick element with the lost relationships while he’s gone to make it a pretty good date movie. Bottom line, I think Fox ruined a good movie with the trailer.

Posted by Billy Bob | Filed Under 3 Stars, Drama, Geoffrey Blake, Helen Hunt, Jennifer Lewis, PG-13, Theatrical, Tom Hanks, Valerie Wildman