Strong adventure saga

Rating: 9/10 (26 December 2000)

"Cast Away" reteams the star and director of "Forrest Gump" (Tom Hanks and Robert Zemeckis), and the final result: a terrific adventure film that's just a few notches down from "Gump". Hanks plays a FedEx employee who hitches a ride on a FedEx plane that's flying over the Pacific Ocean until disaster strikes. Flying through a severe storm, the plane suffers major damage and crashes in the ocean. The Hanks character survives the crash, and washes up on a deserted island. It is here where he does everything he can to stay alive, and it's not an easy task. "Cast Away" was shot in two parts. When they finished filming the first part, they stopped making the movie for a while so Hanks could lose 40-50 pounds to make it look like his character had been stranded on the island for years. This will guarantee Hanks his fifth career Oscar nomination for sure. He's brilliant in "Cast Away". It took alot of guts to lose all that weight. The other familiar face in the cast is Helen Hunt, who has a nice small supporting role as Hanks' girlfriend. In between the two parts of making "Cast Away", director Zemeckis went off and made this summer's hit film "What Lies Beneath". "Cast Away" is much better than that film. It brings Zemeckis back to full form (in addition to "Forrest Gump", some of Zemeckis' other great films include a trio from the '80s: "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", "Back to the Future", and my personal favorite, "Romancing the Stone"). "Cast Away" has just a few boring spots, but it moves at a brisk pace. It's an exciting adventure. Plus there are a few funny spots (the scenes where Hanks talks to the volleyball made me laugh a couple of times). A very good movie.
***1/2 (out of four)