In theory this looks like the perfect film, Action, Drama, Comedy, Sadness, a desert island and Tom Hanks. Oscar winning material you may be thinking, but in reality this is a ill thought out, hastily thrown together, totally over advertised flop of a film.
Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) is a work obsessed Federal Express worker. He flies around the world trouble shooting for the mail company. On christmas eve he is called away from girlfriend Kelly (Helen Hunt) to fly over the pacific to work. At the airport, after being given a pocket watch with a photo of his beloved, Chuck calls to Kelly "I'll be right back" This is when you know things are going to go downhill.
The Fedex plane gets into difficulties over the pacific and in an excellent crash scene, the plane goes down. This is one of the only highlights of the film, it really does convey the absolute horror and drama of an aeroplane crash. Chuck manages to survive in a life raft and is washed up onto a deserted island.
The other co-star is "Wilson", a volleyball with a face painted in Chucks blood. He finds "Wilson" amongst the many Fedex boxes which are washed ashore. He opens the boxes to find video tapes, a posh frock and some ice skates, all of which he uses in ingenius ways. The skate as a cutting tool, the net from the dress as a fishing net, this is an interesting part of the film, which makes you question yourself about how you would survive, but from this point it goes down hill.
You see Chuck attempting to remove a bad tooth from his mouth, then all of a sudden it is four years (and about 3 stone!!!) later. Chuck has been transformed into a lithe, muscley native, who spears fish and climbs rocks with ease. He seems to have gone slightly mad with no human contact for all that time, as he converses with "Wilson" and seems to hear him talking back. The only way Chuck has managed to get through the years as a castaway is his love for his girlfriend Kelly, whos picture he has on him all the time.
The way that the film has been produced leaves you slightly baffled. As a film called "Castaway" you expect a lot more of Tom Hanks being a castaway! One minute he has just arrived on the island and the next it is four years later and he is a hardened jungle expert. It seems very rushed and not thought out like it is a race to the end.
Anyway, Chuck, along with Wilson, decide that they must risk dying in the escape than live on the island for the rest of their life. so its life on the open seas. Again, these scenes seem very rushed. They build a boat, float for 500 miles and get rescued by a ship all in about 15 minutes.
When he returns home, Chuck seems to miss his life on the island and be amazed at the ease of doing things at home, but life is not how it was when he left, everything seems to have changed and he has to adapt once again to a new life. The ending is very dissapointing and leaves the film unfinished.
I would not recommend this much hyped film, by the end I felt cheated out of my £4.00 for the ticket.
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Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Production Year: 1945 - Drama - Director: David Lean - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring: Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Stanley Holloway, Joyce Carey, Cyril Raymond
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Cast Awayreunites star Tom Hanks and director Robert Zemeckis in their first collaboration ... more
since the heavy-handed sentimentality ofForrest Gump. Thankfully, this time their film's life-affirming message is delivered with more subtlety, attributable bot...
Postage & Packaging: £1.21 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days...
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since the heavy-handed sentimentality ofForrest Gump. Thankfully, this time their film's life-affirming message is delivered with more subtlety, attributable bot...
Postage & Packaging: Free! Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours...
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Advantages: brilliant acting, great special effects, tonnes of special features, cheap Disadvantages: feels as if special effects are prioty over acting, storyline wasn't as good
![Cast Away [DVD] [2001]](http://picnicb.ciao.com/uk/80615837.jpg "Cast Away [DVD] [2001]")
![Cast Away (2 Disc Set) [DVD] [2001]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78548822.jpg "Cast Away (2 Disc Set) [DVD] [2001]")
Mar 29th, 2001
very helpful by (100%):
