Finally it's here, a two-and-a-half hour FedEx Commercial

Rating: Null/10 (19 August 2002)

I personally hold the opinion that Tom Hanks is an over rated actor. I must admit that I haven't seen the Road to Perdition (it's not even out in Australia yet) a performance that apparently may change my mind. He has put in one truly great performance in his career, that being Philadelphia, his other major triumph was Forrest Gump, which was only really a good performance in a great movie. I personally liked him better in his earlier roles such as Joe versus the Volcano and the Burbs, back before he'd developed as an unmistakable presence in a film. The success of this film depended almost entirely on how the audience responded to Hanks. According to the poll I just voted in, the response was nothing short of remarkable. Not just that it made so much money, but also that no one seemed to notice that Wilson the volleyball seemed to have more of a personality than did Hanks' character. (OK, That one is a blatent lie, but I had to use it)
It's all the more remarkable if one considers that the entire film is one big commercial for Federal Express. A kind of cross between 'The Postman' and 'Robinson Crusoe'. They spend the first 20 minutes or so telling us how reliable the service is. Then we learn that the mail is so securely bound as to not become redundant and useless when it falls out of a plane into salt water and floats there for a few days. The real clincher is the film's final scene when Hanks' character actually delivers a package that he has been saving over the four years that he has been stranded on a desert island for.
Federal Express: Not even we can deliver this film from mediocrity.