Ultimate 2000s Blogathon: Cast Away (2000) by Riley on Film

Our next guest is Riley on Film who takes a look at one of Tom Hanks’ most popular films, Cast Away, a 2000 film that kicks off this decade in a fantastic way. Head over to Drew’s to check out the full review!

Drew's Movie Reviews

Our first week of the Ultimate 2000s Blogathon continues with Damien from Riley on Film and the DRP, or The Damien Riley Podcast. Also, along with Darren, he is co-host of the Talking Stars Podcast. Damien specializes in horror film but is always up for discussing films of any genre, as evident by his recent request for me to challenge him with several comic book films to watch. Check out all of his sites to fully experience Damien’s love of film. Tor this blogathon, he explains his love of the Tom Hanks classic, Cast Away.

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Cast Away is the original “Survivor.” It takes an ordinary man (Tom Hanks) and maroons him on a desert island. This is Hollywood stripped down, minimalized. A Vast majority of the runtime is one man doing things with no dialog. When there is dialog, it’s to a silent, imaginary friend named “Wilson”…

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Valentine’s Marathon: Splash (1984)

Sorry for taking a little while to get back to the Valentine’s Marathon.

The next movie is Splash! Ultimate 70s blogathon has just started up and as I go and rewatch my 70s choice, I was thinking about last year’s blogathon and a few movies that someone else chose and I hadn’t seen. Luckily Splash landed on Netflix recently so I got a chance to check it out.

Let’s check it out!

Splash (1984)

Director: Ron Howard

Cast: Tom Hanks, Daryl Hannah, Eugene Levy, John Candy, Dody Goodman

A young man is reunited with a mermaid who saves him from drowning as a boy and falls in love not knowing who/what she is. – IMDB

I think about this movie and I start wondering about how I’ve never actually disliked Tom Hanks, in fact, I usually like a lot of his films but then, I also never seem to watch a lot of them or do I make any deliberate move to see his films and then they always turn out to be surprisingly entertaining (or of late, quite grim and intense like Bridge of Spies). I have been meaning to catch up with a lot of older movies of late and Splash is just the start of it all. Splash is a fun little movie, in fact I think that it was fun mostly because I love movies like this where someone who doesn’t understand the human world enters it and then learns about it and in turn does a lot of funny things. Do I think that the romance between the two characters were incredibly unforgettable? I wouldn’t say that but the journey through it was fun enough and it had a lot to do with what was scripted for the mermaid here to do.

Taking a look at the cast here, its a pretty nice one. For one, I always liked to watch older Tom Hanks movies because they were more light-hearted and much more fun to dive into. Splash is absolutely no exception as he plays Allen, a man who honestly doesn’t really know much about loving someone but somehow this unknown beautiful creature that is incredibly forward pops up in his life and suddenly, even her weirdest things makes him curious and feel love. In that sense, both Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah give off really fun and genuine performances for their characters. There were awkward and funny moments and that was really where all the charm was. I’m going to say right now that I don’t think I’ve actually seen John Candy in anything until this movie and his role wasn’t really significant but he’s a fun character and same goes for Eugene Levy as Walter Kornbluth who tries to prove the existence of mermaids in any way possible, many times making a fool out of himself.

Overall, I don’t really have a lot of thoughts on Splash. I thoroughly enjoyed the film and had a lot of fun watching it. The love story was pretty cute but the comedy here definitely stood out more than the romance. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that since its some fun comedy and that works well for my preferences. I actually thought that the mermaid here worked so well. It was pretty believable and not to mention the star here does go to Daryl Hannah in her role as Madison who has some really hilarious scripted parts.

Ultimate 90’s Blogathon: Sleepless in Seattle (1993) by Life of this City Girl

We are wrapping week 2 of Ultimate 90’s Blogathon with an entry by Natasha from Life of this City Girl. She’s here with a review of Sleepless in Seattle, a great follow-up with another Meg Ryan movie from last year’s When Harry Met Sally. If you haven’t been to Life of this City Girl, she does book, movies and TV series reviews. Remember to head over to give her some love after you’re done here!

Movie Review: Sleepless in Seattle (1993)

Hey everyone! Natasha here from Life of This City Girl. I’m so excited today to share with you a review I did for two of my favorite bloggers’ 90’s marathon. Thanks Kim and Drew for letting me take part! (and also making me watch this again)

I chose Sleepless in Seattle because 1) it meets the criteria and 2) I’ve really always been meaning to watch this film again. I’m not even going to pretend that I’m one of those girls who don’t love a good romantic comedy – I love them and I’m not afraid to admit it. The older ones are undeniably better than the newer ones, both in dialogue and acting, so it is always a real pleasure getting to them.

Sleepless in Seattle is really dialogue heavy. I like a film where the characters talk and there is sense to the chatter so for me to end up being frustrated with the amount of conversation going on, it must be quite intense. Some of the comedic timing seemed off and misplaced, and the parts I’m sure was created as jokes weren’t funny at all. It could have been the whole me-being-born-in-the-wrong-decade thing, and I simply don’t get the way they made jokes back then.

I also feel like I have to mention the amount of stereotypes the film bludgeoned into its’ watchers that I was none too pleased with. It was a given that these females were desperately looking for a husband – not someone to share a life with, just a title to change your name and status and follow the neat path the world set out for you. It is also downright insulting to all the wonderful single fathers out there that there is this constant insinuation that if you are a man, you need a woman with you to properly raise a kid. We all know it is not true! The director used a sledgehammer laced with zero subtlety informing us that women cry for romantic movies and men like action movies. I retched. Metaphorically, but I retched.

Apart from that, I found the film quite fun. Sleepless in Seattle is innocent and sweet. No kissy time even. The kid is adorable and I generally prefer movies without children. Rosie O’Donnell is one of those amazing women who emits sarcasm with perfectly pleasant facial expressions. It is a great attribute and gave me some good laughs during the film.

Sleepless in Seattle is not my favorite nineties film by far, but I can see why it is considered a classic. I also always have a good laugh about the fashion back then. I’m glad to report that everyone had better hair in the nineties than they did in the eighties, because that was bad, and although the clothes weren’t completely yet where we needed them to be, everyone was looking so much better. I am still really glad I didn’t have to wear all those bulky suits they forced women to wear when we started entering the workplace in earnest.

The ending was naturally very cute and I enjoyed it, but sheesh, I wish we lived in a world where you’d be alive after meeting a random stranger in New York and immediately take his hand and go frolicking into the sunset. If he also looked like young Tom Hanks, I’d be so on board!

To sum this up I enjoyed this film more than just a bit. I wouldn’t rate it as first on a 90’s list or as a romantic comedy, but it is fun and sweet.

Thanks again guys!

Thanks to Natasha for a great review on Sleepless in Seattle! 🙂
Be sure to head over to Drew’s Movie Reviews on Monday for the next entry!

Podcast: The Random Chat Show is Split on Bridge of Spies & Lots More Random Stuff!

This week’s The Random Chat Show, we’re talking about Bridge of Spies. With Academy Awards just a few weeks away, we decided to talk about an Oscars nominated film. Basically, we’re all have a different feeling about this one. Before that, we get into a little Tom Hanks movie trivia. We have some fun random news to share and Melissa has a DIY. Lots of awesomeness to share with everyone.

Hope you enjoy! 🙂

Happy Saturday! 🙂

Bridge of Spies (2015)

After a slight break with a whole backlog of posts needing to go up, I’m back on the 2015 reviews catch-up.  My new goal is to work on Oscars nominees that I can get to.  If I don’t get to everything, the Best Picture nominees have the first priority as long as I can get my hands on it. Its a bit limited but I’m trying.  I have two more lined up in the next two weeks before Oscars swings around!  First up is Bridge of Spies!

Let’s check it out! 🙂

Bridge of Spies (2015)

Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Alan Alda, Joshua Harto, Amy Ryan, Austin Stowell, Will Rogers

During the Cold War, an American lawyer is recruited to defend an arrested Soviet spy in court, and then help the CIA facilitate an exchange of the spy for the Soviet captured American U2 spy plane pilot, Francis Gary Powers.-IMDB

I love a great thriller now and again. I’m even okay with espionage sort of films because they can be really intriguing.  The deal with Bridge of Spies which made me hesitant to start it was the fact that its about war and hints of politics. Call me ignorant but I’m not one to love the reality of it all and it hits me really hard.  Going into Bridge of Spies, the possibility of me liking is not quite as high as the general public.  For starters, my husband loved this movie. I’m more of a meh.  There is no doubt that Steven Spielberg does a good job with the directing and Tom Hanks pulls a great performance.  Those are expected factors.  The breakthrough role here is Mark Rylance who is on trial as a Russian spy and yet he is such a cool cat. If you watched it, whenever he says “Would it help?”, it just changed the whole dynamic of the scene.  He turns into a character that seems to have such depth without even saying a whole lot.

I took a few days to ponder over Bridge of Spies.  As you can see, I do praise this movie for being good.  The directing, the acting and even the story is good.  The script was well-written.  Except I can’t help but to hesitate in saying that I fully appreciated it, because I didn’t.  I know what is good but maybe its the length or the pacing or just the war and politics that didn’t grab me because I tried to watch this two times and I had to force myself to stay awake.  When I woke up, I was into the story right away but then I felt it a little tiring all over again.  The best part of the movie was the beginning and the ending.  Everything in the middle was good but maybe just not tight-knit and thrilling enough.  With a long movie, this one had to stuff in scenes that jumped from different places and honestly, I felt it was hard to follow since they never dwell long enough in one place to make it something I cared about.

 The best aspect for Bridge of Spies was that it did capture the devastation of the East and West Germany/Berlin Wall and the touchy time that everyone dwell in.  Even the urgency and danger of the situation was highly evident when Tom Hanks’ character was in negotiations.  Other than that, it did well to highlight the selfish political choices and the contrast of what using an untrained citizen would make in the broader spectrum.  Tom Hanks character Donovan was a good man and really was simple.  He didn’t want to be in this but he made choices he thought was right and he was a very perspective man who stepped out of his comfort zone literally to do just that. Tom Hanks embodied that character really well.

Overall, Bridge of Spies is a good movie.  The directing and the cast was great, especially when we talk about Tom Hanks and Mark Rylance.  The devastation and the desperation of the place and the situation was both captured really well also.  However, I can’t help but feel that something didn’t pull me in completely.  Maybe its the length being tiresome or simply the pacing was a flawed.  The better way to word it would be that at its high points, it was tense but at its low points, it was lacking the thrills. However, I do blame it a little on my lack of interest in war/political based espionage thrillers. I do think that Bridge of Spies is worth a watch!

Have you seen Bridge of Spies? What did you think of it?

Sleepless in Seattle (1993)

When I tell people that I haven’t seen Sleepless in Seattle, they usually give me a surprised look.  One reason is that I am a huge fan of Meg Ryan and two its because this one is relatively popular.  I get it, I really do but I had TV restrictions when I was a kid and this hit right in that time frame of my life where I was in elementary school and it wasn’t really my dad’s sort of movie, so no, I never saw it until now.  Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks was a good pair in You’ve Got Mail and I’d really like to see how they did in this one.

Before I move on with the review, I’d like to direct your attention to MovieRob who has his Monthly Genre Grandeur with April’s genre being romantic comedies. Maybe you have seen a romantic comedy or you love the genre, you should send him a review and join in! I will be sending one over to him soon once I decide which to watch.  For more info, you should head HERE!

Okay? We’re good to go? Did you follow him so you can at least read up his awesome reviews?

Awesome! Lets carry on with this review 🙂

Director: Nora Ephron

Cast: Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks, Ross Malinger, Bill Pullman, Rosie O’Donnell

After the passing of his wife, Sam Baldwin (Tom Hanks) and his son, Jonah (Ross Malinger) decide to move to the West Coast to try to have new beginnings and move on.  However, having moved for over a year, Jonah sees that his father hasn’t moved on and doesn’t sleep so on Christmas Eve, he decides to call the local radio station and ask for the help of Dr. Marcia Fieldstone.  Reluctantly, Sam is dragged into this and as he pours his heart out about his marriage, women who are listening to this fall in love with him and he is nicknamed Sleepless in Seattle.  One of these women is the engaged Annie (Meg Ryan) who lives in Baltimore.  Although she is happy with her fiance Walter (Bill Pullman), she feels drawn to Sam and tries to get to know him better despite their distance. She writes him a letter in hopes that they could meet on top of the Empire State Building on Valentine’s Day.

I have no idea what Sleepless in Seattle  was about but see that reaction up there? That is how I kind of looked like when I was watching it and Tom Hanks gets the name of Sleepless in Seattle.  Plus, it had an extensive relating to An Affair to Remember which I only watched afterwards to understand better what they were trying to talk about.

All joking aside, Sleepless in Seattle was a good romantic comedy.  I can’t quite decide if I like You’ve Got Mail or this one more when I finshed but I have a feeling that I may like this one a tad more even though some parts didn’t quite make much sense (like the scene up there) but then rom-coms are really about making sense, its about the feel-good factor. Agree? Thought you would 😉 This flick is really the essence of defining love because its about magic, fate, destiny and all that stuff.  Whether you believe it or not, I do and I eat that stuff up.

Sleepless in Seattle has a charismatic cast. You already know that part, right? Tom Hanks is a phenomenal actor and even though him and Meg Ryan don’t really have many scenes together per se, they both carry each side so well.  Its pretty entertaining to watch them both carry themselves through this flick.  Meg Ryan’s Annie struggling between wanting and resisting the urge to know Sam more while Tom Hanks’s Sam tries to move on with a lady that laughs in a creepy way.  Plus, the little kid was just so hilarious. And how can I forget Rosie O’Donnell! She’s been poking through all of these movies I’ve been watching and she is just the most awesome part of the movie because she brings this energy and wit.

As a fan of romantic comedy, I have to give a round of applause to Nora Ephron for writing and directing a lot of them.  She knows how to put together a fun, heartfelt and especially romantic love story.  Sure, there is nothing epic about her stories but it always leaves me feeling warm and fuzzy and thats what feel-good movies should do 🙂

Another Meg movie scratched off the list, Paul S! Which next?

 Which do you prefer for Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan pairing: You’ve Got Mail or Sleepless in Seattle? What did you think of this?

 

You’ve Got Mail (1998)

Half way through this week and its full of Burlington restaurant reviews and pictures, etc. I wanted to get in a quick movie review to shake things up a bit.  So I decided to go into my tablet and continue working on all the movies I had there.  I was in the mood for some Meg Ryan so here we go…You’ve Got Mail was pretty much my only option.

Director: Nora Ephron

Cast: Meg Ryan, Tom Hanks, Greg Kinnear

Kathleen Kelly (Meg Ryan) owns a little children’s book store which she had passed down to her from her mother.  However, a business threat appears when Fox Books decide to move in down the block  where they still discounted books with larger variety and more accessibility.  Before Fox Bookstore opens, she met Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) who didn’t reveal his identity immediately until later on.  With this, they both provoked each other to be their worst selves as Kathleen fights to save her business.  On the side, she also has an unknown identity online friend who she pours her heart out to in emails until Joe realizes that the rival she saw in Kathleen was actually the same charming woman he was talking to online.

Destiny, fate, love-hate relationship hidden behind an unknown relationship sort of story seems to be very normal and cliche.  This movie has a lot of cheesy and generic moments but for me and the amount of romantic comedies I’ve watched in the last 5 years, everything gets predictable after a while.

What really did it for me in this one was the actors themselves.  The cast was fantastic.  Meg Ryan is charming as always in the role of Kathleen Kelly.  I love her casual and carefree but slightly shy and fear of expressing herself type of character.  We see her character progress until the guidance of her online friend how to stand up for herself.  The character’s emotions and passion for her career made me get attached to her side of the story.  Meg Ryan is definitely an actress I adore.  I’ve said it before in my movie review back in February of French Kiss.  I think even I started falling in love with the characters she plays, the charm that she carries is just amazing.

I’ve rarely seen Tom Hanks doing romantic comedies and after looking at his list of movies that he’s done, he hasn’t really done any except for Sleepless in Seattle.  I only remember glimpses of that movie since I saw it when I was younger.  Tom Hanks playing Joe Fox made me want to punch his face whenever he engaged into a provoking conversation with Meg Ryan’s character for a good part of the movie.  Then when he communicates with her via email, suddenly he turns into this sweet man.  I call that really good acting.  He made me grow to like his character as we learned a bit more about the life of Joe Fox and as the story progressed.

Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks has such attractive chemistry between the two.  Every time they are on screen together they drag you into their argument or conversation.  Its really pretty awesome how they are just so good at what they do.  Most of the time, good chemistry in a romantic comedy is what makes it a success.

To me, You’ve Got Mail may not be the most original rom-com that I’ve seen, but it sure was fun to watch.  The chemistry between Meg Ryans and Tom Hanks is almost incomparable to any other on screen couple and it leads this flick to be considered a success for me .  It made me crave to want to watch it again even though I had just finished it.

Oh, by the way, this has officially made me go on a mission (my boyfriend laughed at me when I said this) to search up ALL of Meg Ryan’s movies.  For a Meg Ryan fan, I have a lot more of her movies to catch up with.  So the mission is on! If I ever manage it all, I’ll do a marathon or something. Anyone want to join in?

I’ve already talked about Meg Ryan before but Tom Hanks! I’ve actually seen a lot of his movies, not all but some. What is your favorite Tom Hanks movie?

Christmas Marathon: Polar Express (2004)

After an extremely late night partying on Christmas eve with my family and finally getting back to sleep at around 3am, which is extremely late for me, my boyfriend and I both sat down to watch this beautiful flick.  One of the two we always leave for Christmas Day to see.  While he has decided to nap a bit to continue our feasting tonight, I’m taking a moment to sit down and write this.

Before that, I’d like to talk about the how the belief in Santa.  A child’s belief in Santa may be naive but it keeps that childhood happy spirit going.  It gives them hope and joy to find surprises.  Its magical how a little belief can make the little ones so happy.  Every year I watch my boyfriend’s niece and nephew open their presents.  When they were younger, they would have my boyfriend disguise as Santa Claus and play out the whole Santa Claus scene, now we just scurry them off into another room and have all the women make lots of noise to cover up the guys moving everything up and pretending that Santa visit. Its just amazing to see their faces light up when they walk into the living room and see a surprise pile of gifts for not only them but EVERYONE in the room.

This movie ties in exactly to that feeling, the idea of believing.

POLAR EXPRESS (2004)

Director: Robert Zemeckis (A Christmas Carol)

Cast: Tom Hanks, Eddie Deezen, Nona Gaye, Peter Scolari

Its Christmas Eve and we zoom into a little boy (Tom Hanks) and his family.  We learn through a conversation with  his parents and his younger sister Sarah that he doubts Santa’s existence.  In the middle of the night, he hears a loud sound and goes outside and there he sees a magical train called Polar Express.  He is invited by the Conductor (Tom Hanks). Unsure at first, still he decides to board the train that is supposed to reach North Pole.  There he meets a little girl (Nona Gaye) who believes in Santa and thinks its the most wonderful experience to go and Billy (Peter Scolari), a little boy who feels lonely and scared.  During the path, they meet have obstacles to get to the final destination to actually witness Santa’s liftoff to start his night long task of delivering gifts.  Its a story of belief, faith and trust.

A movie that amazes me every time because of its values that it tries to carry out.  Even as an adult now, its so crucial to believe and have faith and trust even though it can be hard at times.  Especially when we have something as imaginary as Santa Claus, who appears to accomplish the impossible.  However, this flick attempts to bring this whole idea alive to show that when you believe, thats when you will feel and sense certain things that could fade away.  It shows us that belief can easily be forgotten if we don’t hold on to it.

Aside from that, this one has beautiful animation and a wonderful plot to add to all the characters they introduce.  The majority of the characters don’t have a name and we only know them for the roles they do.  Tom Hanks voices 6 of the characters and does a phenomenal job at it.  He can be a palette of different emotions portrayed on all the characters.  There was a bit of singing and music everywhere which helped lift up the mood.  One word on the director though, he’s also the director of another movie I watched for this Christmas marathon.  Also starring one actor voicing multiple parts in an animation, called Disney’s A Christmas Carol (you can click HERE to see that). He seems particularly skilled at doing Christmas movies and using this one actor multiple parts concept.  Very fun and unique way to arrange the voices of an animation.  Plus the animated characters actually sometimes resemble a bit of the actor voicing them.

One of my favorite characters in this has to be the Conductor of the train.  That character seems to be so insightful.  I’d like to quote a few that I liked:

“Seeing is believing, but sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can’t see.” -Conductor, Polar Express

“The thing about trains… it doesn’t matter where they’re going. What matters is deciding to get on.”- Conductor, Polar Express

Was the belief of Santa a part of your childhood?