I have absolutely no survival skills.
If I suddenly found myself in a situation where I needed to save my own ass, I would definitely be a dead man.

In Cast Away, Tom Hanks is a regular everyday guy who does indeed suddenly find himself in a life or death situation. When the cargo plane he's on goes down, Hanks find's himself marooned on an uninhabited island.
Lucky for him, he has some survival skills…

Actually, that may be the problem I have with this movie.
He has survival skills…in fact, he has too many.
There seems there's nothing he can't do. Add to that the fact that other things happen which I won't discuss, it just doesn't work out the way I would have liked.

The biggest problem I have with this movie is not necessarily the movie's fault. It's the trailer.
It gave away WAY too much about the movie.
WHY? Why do that? I don't get it.

Well, enough with the negativity. There is definitely a positive here; Tom Hanks.
He really does a great job in Cast Away. He makes it easy to get inside the head of one put in his dire situation. His acting is only surpassed here by the physical changes he put himself through during the filming. Incredible.
Unfortunately he wasn't really given anything all that great to work with.
Still, I wouldn't be at all surprised if there's a nomination in it for him.

Cast Away is directed by Robert Zemekis. I'm sorry but I really think he could have done a better job. Sad but true.

Oh and by the way, the movie also has the rather ubiquitous Helen Hunt. She was fine here, but still not nearly as good as she was in Pay It Forward.
I guess it doesn't matter though…this movie's all about Tom Hanks…