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Cast Away
EMAILPRINT20th Century Fox Film Corporation
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 32 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 48 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by: William Broyles Jr.
Directed by: Robert Zemeckis
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 22, 2000
DVD: June 12, 2001
Running Time: 143 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for intense action sequences and some disturbing images
Starring Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt, Christopher Noth, and Nick Searcy
Hanks stars as Chuck Noland, a FedEx systems engineer whose personal and professional life are ruled by the clock. His manic existence abruptly ends when, after a plane crash, he becomes isolated on a remote island - cast away into the most desolate environment imaginable. (Twentieth Century Fox)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Beowulf Contact Forrest Gump The Polar Express What Lies Beneath Who Framed Roger Rabbit
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
New York Post Lou Lumenick
A really classic adventure yarn with one of Hollywood's great actors hitting one out of the ballpark. If you're seeing only one movie this season, this is the obvious choice.
Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
It's a startling physical transformation, as Noland goes from flabby desk jockey to lean, mean fishing machine. But even more remarkable is the mental transformation Hanks effects.
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Hanks towers as a near naked, near biblical man. Zemeckis tells his story -- the screenplay is by William Broyles -- with a control magnificent in what isn't shown as much as in what is.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Gregory Weinkauf
Finally, the man (Hanks) has delivered a moving, slightly unhappy, and ultimately hopeful story in which squishy love takes a backseat to the wondrous whirlwind of life. The season's most delightful surprise.
Read Full Review >TNT RoughCut Andy Klein
Zemeckis is more interested here in getting us thinking (and feeling) than in telling us what to think.
Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
A handsomely constructed and executed movie, the kind of effort that deserves appreciation, on its own terms, for what it both dares and accomplishes.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Bold, ambitious -- and ambiguous.
USA Today Susan Wloszczyna
Just be glad that Hanks and Zemeckis toiled mightily to pull off at least two-thirds of a remarkable achievement.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
An adventure movie of extraordinary simplicity and power.
Mr. Showbiz Larry Terenzi
A 25-minute third act is far too short to suffice, especially when the previous two hours are as astute and technically impressive as they are here.
Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
It's mournful and troubling in a way that goes beyond ordinary movie manipulation. It burns clean.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
If there's anyone who can make this ordeal -- and when you're plumb out of characters, it can be an ordeal -- tolerable, and even entertaining, it's Hanks.
Read Full Review >Film.com Sean Means
Hanks gives possibly the most compelling performance of his career.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
At its best, Cast Away, like "Titanic," awes us with its sheer oceanic sweep and its cosmic apprehension of human insignificance.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
Hanks's extraordinary acting keeps the adventure involving even though the beginning is predictable, the middle is uneven, and the finale slips into Zemeckis's patented brand of "Forrest Gump" fuzziness.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
It's a simple message, and it's delivered with a grace and subtlety that's rare in would-be blockbusters.
Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
The middle 90 minutes, which put Hanks alone on an island without voice-over narration or even a musical background, is as risky as anything Hollywood did this year.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
With its weary introductory and concluding passages, it announces itself as the most typical of fare, a real letdown after that stirringly fresh central part.
Boston Globe Jay Carr
The film's most remarkable achievement, in this culture of clamor, simply may be its decision to keep the volume down, drawing us in as opposed to pummeling us, as most films do.
New York Daily News Jack Mathews
The island phase of Hanks' performance is simply amazing.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Here is a strong and simple story surrounded by needless complications, and flawed by a last act that first disappoints us and then ends on a note of forced whimsy.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Ella Taylor
Solid and inspiring will do nicely for Christmas, but it ought not to be good enough for the Oscar nominations that will almost certainly rain upon this movie's adequate head.
Read Full Review >Village Voice J. Hoberman
While "Robinson Crusoe" was a paean to the practical middle-class virtues that allowed its industrious hero (and the nation he represents) to re-create civilization out of nothingness, Cast Away is a far less triumphalist peek into the nothingness at the heart of civilization.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Corliss
The 80 minutes it spends on the atoll alone with Hanks make for engrossing storytelling. The film is less sure-footed back in civilization.
Read Full Review >Variety Emanuel Levy
Meticulous, sumptuous production design, and striking visuals compensate for the lack of dramatic momentum in a film that arguably stretches narrative form to its limits.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine Peter Rainer
At its most basic level, Cast Away is a graceful and powerfully rendered survivalist saga.... And yet there's something generic about Chuck's plight. The filmmakers don't opt for the usual happy-face Hollywood ending, but even the half-smile they provide smacks of inspirationalism.
Read Full Review >Newsweek David Ansen
It’s sad to see such stunning work self-destruct. You walk out haunted by the movie that might have been.
Slate David Edelstein
Hanks and Zemeckis (and writer William Broyles Jr.) are so intent on making an epic of the spirit that they can't bring themselves to acknowledge the comic, narcissistic side of their desert island fantasy. And so on simple, human terms, the picture gets all gummed up.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Comes off as convincing but never compelling. There's a ponderous quality to it, as if it's forever clearing its throat to say something of value that doesn't quite get articulated.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
Too full of its own heavy breathing to work as the primordial storytelling it's aiming for--a so-so adventure story is closer to the mark.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
It will bring joy in a way certainly not intended, as one of the most gloriously and unwittingly silly films ever devised by a major American filmmaker.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.9 (out of 10) based on 48 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Evan T gave it a10:
what an awesome and riveting movie. Its been a long time since a flick help me in total captivity the entire time and gave me goose bumps. A genius movie. outstanding!
Darcy C gave it a10:
This movie is one of the greatest. So emotional to me, the 2 hours past in no time. I love this movie.
Salman H. gave it a10:
Awesome movie, what a great performance from hanks...i could have bear a soundless movie(it was for most of the times).
Paul W. gave it a3:
very superficial. This guy spends 4 years alone in an island and the only things he learn is to fish. I find this unrealistic. In a situation like this anybody would need to find a reason to live, to go deep inside oneself. That is totally missing.
Bit Burn gave it a10:
One of the best movies I've seen in the past 10 years! The storyline is remarkable. What struck me the most is that there was no background music at all when his plane went down and the time spent on his island. Then when he left, the music returned, as he was looking away! A very beautiful movie from start to finish. However, a warning for all you action-packed movies, this one is not for you.
Pat C. gave it a 7:
A modern American Robinson Crusoe, with his man Friday convincingly played by the contents of a parcel that absolutely positively washed ashore overnight. Doesn't have the zing of an epic, but otherwise is believable and absorbing. Life indeed is what happens while you are making other plans. Meanwhile, other people make plans while you continue to live. Good performance by Hanks. He had a ball on the island. Best supporting actor should have gone to Wilson for maintaining an appropriate facial expression and remembering his lines.
Kevin V. gave it a 9:
One of my very favorite movies of the last 5 years, but not for everyone. Requires a viewer predisposed to examine his own values and the direction of his own life. A quiet meditation from a skilled filmmaker (Zemeckis) and actor (Hanks).
