I brought this DVD from America on ebay and as such it is a special edition 2 disc set, as far as I know it is being released in this country at the end of October in this format.
The film is a long (nearly 2.5 hours) and drawn out affair that is definitely not for action movie fans! But stick with it and you will be partially rewarded!
It stars Tom Hanks as Chuck Noland who works for an american courier service Fed-ex which involves going on many a long plane journey and leaving his wife Kelly (Helen Hunt) home alone. On one particular plane trip something goes wrong (it is not conclusively explained what) and the plane ends up ditching in the water killing everybody on board except for our hero Chuck who ends up being washed up on a remote island. Due to radio failure ans a change of course potential rescuers have no idea where the plane came down. The story is basically about his fight for survival and I really cannot say much else without giving the whole story away! All I will say is you WILL believe Wilson is real and watch out for the scene with the ice skates and the rock!!
I was not overly impressed with the film except for the acting of Tom hanks which is superb as always. It is very slow but has a few good moments and does have you rooting for him a little, but I didn't find anything in it to get my emotions rising. It was just a case of sit back and watch and dont expect to get too involved, watch the events unfold and find when it is finished.....oh, that was okay, is that it?
The film itself not being over impressive the 2 DVD set more than makes up for it. It is jam packed with extras! On disc one there is an audio commentary from the director Robert Zemeckis and crew which is pretty enlightening at times. Disc two has tons of features like Interviews, featurettes, survivalist documentary, trailers, TV spots, storyboard to film comparison, concept art gallery, special effects vignettes (these are particularly good) etc etc. There is loads on these discs and I cannot claim to have watched them all but what I have watched has really made me think a little more about the film.
I am a DVD virgin as I have only had my player a month but I am very impressed with this set and feel it uses the DVD format to the full. It took me a long time to commit to DVD but if this is the shape of things to come I am glad I did.
Overall I would give the film 3 stars, it is definitely worth watching but dont expect too much, the DVD set though I would give five stars.
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Production Year: 1999 - Drama - Director: Dick Maas - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring: William Hurt, Jennifer Tilly, Denis Leary, Michael Chiklis, Francesca Brown
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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]")
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