Predictable and Pointless

Rating: Null/10 (2 January 2001)

`Cast Away' (2000)
** Â½ Out of ****
Reviewed by Matt Doolittle
This is a movie about Chuck Nolan or was it Jack I don't know because different people call him different names. At one point he is Jack and the next he is Chuck. Anyway he is married to his job and is about to get married to his girlfriend. He is then called to South America for his job. He gets on a plane and later the plane crashes in the Pacific Ocean. He is the only survivor and he floats on a raft until he finds an island. The island has nothing on it except for the FED X packages from his plane. He later opens them only to find a pair of ice skates, a volleyball and some other seemingly useless items. He lives on the island for 5 years and goes somewhat insane until he figures out a way to get off. By this time the volleyball is his best friend named Wilson and they talk to each other all of the time. He makes it back to his home and he finds out that every one thinks he is dead. Actually they have already had a funeral for him and everything, so he then has to decide how to start his life over.
Although a funny movie it is pretty pointless. The plane crash is no big surprise because he says goodbye so many times that you know something is going to go wrong. Also there is no chemistry between Tom Hanks and Helen Hunt, so their relationship is pretty unbelievable. The volleyball is an attempt to be funny but just gets annoying after a while. Over the period of Tom Hanks' stay on the island he seems pretty crazy but yet he knows exactly what day it is and he practically does Calculus in his head to achieve his plan to get off the island.
Tom Hanks does a good job with his role, but I was a little disappointed with Helen Hunt's character. Although she does a good job with it, there is not much she can do. She is supposed to be a main character, yet she has about 10 lines in the whole movie. This movie is not horrible but is not great either, but if you are one of those people who like happy medians, this is your show.