One of the Best!

Rating: Null/10 (15 November 2004)

A wonderful film from beginning to end. It's intelligent, insightful, hopeful, and incredibly written and directed. (Coming out of Hollywood, it sorta makes you wonder how it ever got made.) The timing of its release is the only thing that prevented it from being recognized by the Academy. With the exception of the casting of James Woods who, IMO, can't act worth a damn and overacted his role to the point of embarrassment (has he ever bothered to take note of how people REALLY talk to each other?), the acting was nothing short of brilliant - thanks to Zemeckis, no doubt. John Hurt's performance is one for the ages ("Wanna take a ride?") as was David Morse's. Matthew McConaughey's character was a bit ambiguous for my tastes, but it was probably less his fault and more Sagan's. And Jodie Foster was superb from beginning to end, as usual.
Whatever you do, do not miss this wonderful film. A solid 9 of 10. (Would have been a 10 of 10 were it not for the inclusion of Woods.)
Mr. Gorsky