Starring: Tom Hanks, Helen Hunt, Nick Searcy
Directed by: Robert Zemeckis
Studio: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
Video: 1.85:1 anamorphic/enhanced for 16:9, 1080p HD
Audio: English DTS-HD 5.1 Master Lossless Audio; French, Spanish Dolby 2.0 Surround
Subtitles: English SDH, English, Spanish
Extras: Audio commentary with Director Robert Zemeckis and crew; trivia track; search content; personal scene selection; theatrical trailers
Length: 144 minutes
Movie & AV Rating: **** D-Box Motion Quality Rating: ***
Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) is a FedEx systems engineer who lives an organized existence. Both his work and personal time (including that spent with his beautiful fiancée Kelly Frears (Helen Hunt) are efficiently managed and scheduled. However, Chuck’s structured life comes crashing down, both figuratively and literally, when his FedEx transport plane falls from the sky. Chuck survives the horrific plane crash only to find himself marooned on an uninhabited island. With seemingly no hope for rescue, Chuck must learn to adapt to his new life where his only friend is a volleyball that he has named ‘Wilson’. This is a very thought-provoking movie that shows that isolation can be as much a challenge to human survival as searching for food, water and shelter. Tom Hanks was well deserving of his Best Actor Academy Award nomination for this film as he wonderfully displays the emotions and struggles of his character. Highly recommended.
The high definition video quality of this Blu-ray DVD is very good. Images are crisp with exquisite detail. Blacks are uniformly deep throughout the movie. Colors are vivid and rich with well-saturated hues. Other than some film grain in the opening and closing scenes of the film, picture defect mastering is solid with no major flaws or compression artifacts. The overall audio quality is also very good with the English DTS 5.1 track. The soundtrack has a nice balance among all of the discrete channels. Dialogue is intelligible and properly emanates from the center channel. The surround channels are moderately utilized for ambient sound effects and the music score, plus include some split rear effects. The low frequency effects channel is tight and punchy.
“Cast Away” is compatible with the “D-BOX” Motion Code™ System, meaning that if you have the necessary D-BOX equipment, your movie viewing experience will be enhanced by adding both motion and vibration to your chosen seating. Approximately ten percent of vibration effects are subtle in this movie, the plane crash scene is intense, and is by far the D-BOX highlight. I felt the turbulence of the wind as it ripped the plane apart as well as the impact of the plane as it smashed into the ocean. Overall, I would rate the D-BOX quality for “Cast Away” as good.
— Calvin Harding, Jr.
