Hey folks, Harry here... and at this moment, I wish there were more screenings happening of 13 DAYS to see how it is holding up right now.... A couple of years back, I was harping on about how CAST AWAY and 13 DAYS were the two movies coming out this year to watch for at Oscar time.... and now, CAST AWAY is soundling like a very good movie, but perhaps not Best Picture material.... and CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON, TRAFFIC, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM and TWO FAMILY HOUSE are all seeming like stronger films.... But 13 DAYS is still hidden from view.... a surprise.... a super hit.... or a bomb? I don't know and I can't tell ya.... predicting off of scripts is a fun game to play sometimes... but I'm still hoping 13 DAYS delivers along with this one.... or else... how am I suppose to keep my Nostradamus style reputation? heheheh.... Here's Crispy with a look at the film... beware of spoilers....
Howdy Harry,
Just got back from a screening of Cast Away (that is how the title is arranged) in Newport Beach California. Judging by the simplicity of the review sheets we were given (personal info, rate the movie, five or six lines of comments, get up, go home) and the complete feeling of the film, this movie is pretty wrapped up, and I can't see much editing work being done from this point on. The industry guys were probably just noting audience reaction to some of the images and jokes to help edit complete trailers. You'll probably end up getting a few of these reports, as the screening audience was pretty big, but I thought I'd contribute a couple words of my own. Edit freely of course. I may ramble,
I quickly went back and looked over the previous screening reviews to see what early problems there were; identifying which errors had been rectified in the latest version, but there really wasn't much early criticism...The movie is quite done now, titles, music sounds original and complete, continuity seems good. Just some color matching to do and one of the most dramatic views of Tom Hanks after the plane crash is an obvious CG shot that apparantly is not fully rendered yet, but I have no doubt that it is just an incomplete effect, not a poor one. The CG was otherwise transparant in this film, which is a nice change from the flashy but obviously unreal effects that seem to be in every film now.
I got a little restless at the beginning, I think this could be trimmed a bit, everyone knows the premise, that Tom is going to be stranded on a island, and there is a lot of character buildup, and personal backstory creation for Tom's friends that seems a little over dramatic. I was relieved to see Tom board the plane in route to his own personal episode of Survivor. Looking back, the span of time on the island didn't seem long enough relative to the scennes in the civilized world. The movie wasn't overlong by any means, so if they subtracted anything from the beginning or end of the movie, they would surely need to pad the island scenes a bit to increase the sense of time- really should feel like a little epic in the middle of the movie...
The jet crash was extremely well done. I agree with earlier comments- it is grittingly realistic. This the first of many occasions in the movie where the large audience was audibly wincing with distress at the imagery before them.
Island stuff was great- clever use of an inanimate object as a character, a source of much of the humor on the island. Some pretty good cinematography to describe Hank's solitary situation- there are a couple of shots that pan 360 degrees over a large area so you can see the entire island is empty. The island itself should have been a lot smaller and lonlier- maybe a South Pacific version of Fargo. I think at times Tom was a little too well provisioned; with all of the hype about the weight loss, I was actually let down. Don't expect to see a Raging Bull level trasnformation.
I don't want to go into the last half of the movie, to save some folks from spoilers, but I was a little let down. Maybe that's all I'll say about it.
I gave it a "very good" on my review sheet because I enjoyed it. Robert Zemeckis is a successful director and tells a completely engaging story. I was worried that it might get boring watching someone wasting away on an island alone, but Zemeckis managed to maintain a high level of interest. This is no Forrest Gump by any means- it will not be as successful mainly because of the non-island portions that kind of hang heavy on the rest of the film- it would have been nice to begin and end on stronger scenes.
I wish I had more to say about this film, but there really wasn't a whole lot to criticise, and I would prefer to let the good parts be a surprise. The most important thing I can say then is, very simply, go and see it when it comes out, it is a fun movie.
Thanks!
Crispy
