Castaway Redux

Rating: 8/10 (4 July 2004)

Warning! Spoilers contained within.
This film is a Spielberg entertainment-machine of a movie. It's smart and clever with more product' placements than anything since "Minority Report", which ironically warned of the intrusion of advertising in our lives. The Indian actor Kumar Pallana playing the janitor, who once appeared on "The Ed Sullivan Show", is the funniest thing in the movie. His juggling tricks during the formal dinner are hilarious.
This film has a weak first half. It is all Tom Hanks with themes similar to his 2000 release "Castaway". With this film he is a stranded in an airline terminal instead of an island, bonds with a can of Planters Peanuts instead of a soccer ball, and deliveries an autograph instead of a Fed Ex package. There are several bits in the movie which are way too contrived: the carpentry miracles Hanks performs and the photocopies of his handprints among others. Hanks is good as the foreigner without a country and Spielberg is such an accomplished filmmaker that they come through with another entertaining film. This is not a great film, but it makes for a reasonably enjoyable two hours.