Pretty Good ( contains story + spoilers)

Rating: 8/10 (29 January 2001)

Castaway is a good movie. I just came back from the cinema with my friend and we both liked Castaway. Both of us like Tom Hanks, so this was not surprising.
The story : The FedEx-worker Chuck Noland ( Tom hanks ) is very lucky with his girlfriend and with his job. But after a plane crash he is the only survivor and comes to an island anywhere in the Southern Pazifik. But he finds none on that island. He tries to manage himself with the few things he has : a volleyball ( named Wilson, that is almost as lovable as the mouse of The Green Mile ) , a pair of skates, a few videotapes, a rubber boat and some clothes to wear. There is no plane finding him on that island, because they thought that they are 100 miles north of him. He stays on that island for four years, and then he constructs a raft out of wood. He takes his volleyball and a door of the plane to get off there. On the sea he loses his friend Wilson, but then he is rescued by a ship. Arrived in Memphis, again, he gets to know that his ex-girlfriend has a husband, since she thought that Chuck was dead. Delivering a package that he has not open yet, he finds himself at a crossroads, where he has to make a choice between going west, north, south or east and to start a new life there.
Tom Hanks is as good as always , maybe this will be his third oscar ( none can understand why Saving Private Ryan was not ). But my personal fav is Russell Crowe for Gladiator.
The ending of Castaway is a bit too long , I think, but the scene with the crossroads is good and meaningful. Maybe it is a cliché , but who cares? I don´t !
There three two bad things in this movie : the sudden impact before the plane crash, the lines "Four years later" and "Four weeks later". They do not belong there were they belong. I think it was a bad idea to film at first the first 10 days on the island, and then the last week. I should have been more lengthy. But there are also some good moments : the loss of Wilson, the ending, and the crossing ship. This is definitely not Tom Hanks´ best movie. All his ´big films´ are better ( Saving Private Ryan, Sleepless in Seattle, Forrest Gump, Philadelphia ). But it is a good one.
All in all, I rated this movie 8/10 and recommend it to fans of Tom Hanks or to guys who liked "Six Days Seven Nights" ( although that has been more a comedy ).
If you have any questions, feel free to ask them.