Cartoons run the world!

Rating: 7/10 (25 September 2006)

I have to give more credit to cartoons for my cinematic education than I tend to like to admit. If it hadn't been for my early love of Warner Bros. cartoons, I probably never would have seen many of the films from the '40s that I have, and almost certainly wouldn't have entered my longtime infatuation with filmmakers like Welles and Hitchcock. 'The Simpsons' got me to watch more current classics to get their injokes, and now 'Family Guy' has brought the trend up to the newest films. So, that's why I watched 'Cast Away' when it came on television, though I otherwise had no other interest in it. And once again, I have to thank cartoons for broadening my horizons just that bit farther. I won't rehash the story of 'Cast Away,' since it's surely been done enough on this site and even if it hadn't it's pretty much in the title! I will simply say Tom Hanks has done another surprising job while staying within the confines of his nonacting (the only time I've seen him be other than 'Tom Hanks as...' was probably 'The Road to Perdition'), and that's fortunate since he has the responsibility of carrying most of this film himself. The story is another 'Robinson Crusoe' kind of affair, with a volleyball standing in for Friday. If I have any issue with this movie, it's that it didn't follow more truly the formula of such films: too much in-society, not enough cast-away. And that's IF I have an issue with it... This is not a great film. The direction is utterly straightforward and the writing is only as good as it needs to be. The ending is a little much after what is a fairly simple concept tale, but I'll leave it at that. So, see 'Cast Away' if you've nothing better to do. At the very least, it'll give you a leg up on the latest parodic cartoons. At the most, it's a decent enough picture that won't make you feel like you've wasted the last hour and a half...like 'Coyote Ugly.'