Dom Robinson reviews

Distributed by

Universal Pictures Video

Cert:

Cat.no: 8301797

Running time: 123 minutes

Year: 2004

Pressing: 2005

Region(s): 2, PAL

Chapters: 28 plus extras

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1

Languages: English

Subtitles: English

Widescreen: 1.85:1

16:9-Enhanced: Yes

Macrovision: Yes

Disc Format: DVD 9

Price: £19.99

Extras: Booking The Flight: The Script, The Story, Waiting For The Flight: Building The Terminal, Boarding: The People of The Terminal, Take Off: Making The Terminal, In Flight Service: The Music of The Terminal, Landing: Airport Stories

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Director:

Stephen Spielberg (1941, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, Always, Amistad, Catch Me If You Can, Close Encounter of the Third Kind, The Color Purple, Duel, Empire of the Sun, E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial, Hook, The Indiana Jones Trilogy, Jaws, Jurassic Park 1 & 2, Minority Report, Poltergeist (uncredited), Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, The Terminal)

Producers:

Laurie MacDonald, Walter F Parkes and Steven Spielberg

Screenplay:

Sacha Gervasi and Jeff Nathanson (based on the story by Andrew Niccol and Sacha Gervasi)

Music:

John Williams

Cast:

Viktor Navorski: Tom Hanks
Amelia Warren: Catherine Zeta Jones
Frank Dixon: Stanley Tucci
Enrique Cruz: Diego Luna
Officer Delores Torres: Zoë Saldana
Mulroy: Chi McBride
Thurman: Barry Shabaka Henley
Gupta Rajan: Kumar Pallana

The Terminal sets an interesting premise.

Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks) has a problem. His country, the Republic of Krakozhia, has suspended all rights to travel using passports issued by his government, while at the same time the US government have revoked the visa that would allow him to enter the USA. Hence, he's stuck at the airport, courtesy of a military coup that took place while he was in the plane.

He's a stranger in a strange land, confined to the terminal, unable to go outside or even on a plane home until the situation is resolved. While there, he refuses to leave when he gets the chance, he teaches himself English, manages to find an abandoned section of the airport to sleep in and works out how to get free quarters from the luggage trolleys when they're returned to their point of collection, all culminating in having a long-lasting effect on the staff in the airport.

Frank Dixon (Stanley Tucci) is about to get promoted to running the airport and there are some great two-handers between him and Hanks as the latter comes to terms with his situation. They certainly have a stronger bond than the one Spielberg wants us to root for... which leads me on to say that it's just a shame they had to bring in Catherine Zeta Jones as a snobby air stewardess who's so in love with herself because she can't act to save her life, and her interaction with Hanks is where the director doles out the schmaltyness. Things start to drag and you wish they'd shorten them. Did Richard Curtis have a hand in writing this script(?)

Oh, and since her character says she's 39, and the IMDB (Internet Movie Database) claims the actress is 36, is this her being truthful?

This movie behaves like Groundhog Day with Viktor trying to find a way out of the airport, and certain things happening over and over again, day by day, until he can break that loop and move on, with a touch of Quantum Leap and Back to the Future in terms of achieving goals to further their position.

Hanks is very convincing as Viktor, with help from make-up to give him a non-American look. Where it falls down, though, is that airport staff would surely not just leave someone unable to speak English, nor understand his situation, to his own devices without getting a translator to talk to him? They even state they'll get one to help someone else about halfway through the film so why not Viktor? In the UK we have services like 'Language Line' that could get someone on the phone within a few minutes to talk to him so presumably there's similar in the US.

It also could do with being a lot less contrived, but clearly Spielberg doesn't seem to mind that, as the film ends up being less about Viktor and more about forcing human beings to take a look at themselves and how they carry out their actions.

I can't see why The Terminal received a 12-certificate. The BBFC state: "Contains moderate language and sex references", but there's no more than you might find in a PG-rated film, and certainly no occasional f-word, where at least one would grant you a '12'.

Finally, a note for Dreamworks who released this DVD via Universal. As a regular reviewer of DVDs and a lover of films, I don't like DVDs that have copyright logos and "Do Not Duplicate" stamped across the screen all the way through the bloody film. I wasn't planning on duplicating it, I was planning on watching it and enjoying it, the latter of which I wasn't fully able to do. I will bring this up every time I review one of your DVDs with such a stupid and patronising message in the middle of the screen, you ignorant people, particularly where the "Do Not Duplicate" interferes with the subtitles. They're even worse than a TV channel's onscreen logos! (see here for more info about these)

There are no problems with the picture, in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, but it's a little hard to appreciate the visuals with onscreen logos burning into my TV screen, thankyou very much Dreamworks! The sound is in both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1. I chose the latter of the two, as always when I get the option, but here it makes little difference as it's a straight drama with only functional sound.

The extras, on disc 2, which also have the copyright logo stamped all over them, are as follows and are all in anamorphic 16:9:

• Booking The Flight: The Script, The Story (8 mins): Airports are mini-communities, spake Spielberg. Screenwriter Sacha Gervasi tells us he wrote the script after copying the lives and the outcome of sitting in a few airports for several days at a time. Jeff Nathanson said he wanted to do a story about immigration, and according to the IMDB he's also completed a script for Indiana Jones 4. Come on Spielberg - get on with that one instead!

• Waiting For The Flight: Building The Terminal (12 mins): The building of a very convincing set. It certainly looks a lot bigger in the movie than the compressed soundstage on which it was built and it helps that they used an huge airplane hanger in which to do this.

• Boarding: The People of The Terminal (31 mins): Three sections here. Hanks talks about being Victor, CZJ talks about being Amelia, and the third part, "Viktor's World", looks at those he meets along the way including the excellent Stanley Tucci.

• Take Off: Making The Terminal (17 mins): Another look at the set and how it was used, including how any impromptu suggestions could be immediately implemented because there's no daily setting up of things - it's one set, used every day throughout the shoot. There's also much other general waffle about the making of the movie. Yes, it does start to go on after not too long.

• In Flight Service: The Music of The Terminal (6 mins): John Williams gets his chance to speak.

• Landing: Airport Stories (5½ mins): Everyone has an anecdote about the time they were in an airport. Various cast and crew members recount here.

• Photo Gallery: 59 pics to look at.

So, with 80 mins of extras and a load of pics to view, the supplementals are okay but nothing that you'll return to repeatedly, even if you're a massive fan of this film.

Subtitles are in English only for the film, while the extras are in English, French, Dutch and Bulgarian, there are 28 chapters and the menu features music from the film, replaying it over and over a few times before starting the film again whether you wanted it to or not.

FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS
OVERALL

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2005.

DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.

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