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Overall Rating
  Awesome: 23.23%
Worth A Look: 37.42%
Average: 23.87%
Pretty Bad: 10.97%
Total Crap: 4.52%
11 reviews, 89 user ratings
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| Terminal, The |
by Brian McKay
"A rather enjoyable piece of complete and utter fluff"

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Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks are back in feel-good mode for THE TERMINAL, a movie so completely contrived that those with lesser skill than a Hanks or Spielberg would simply not be able to make it fly. In fact, the entire plot hangs upon a flimsy paper-clip chain of contrivances - but hopefully, you'll be having so much fun with another winning performance by Hanks and deft directorial touches by Spielberg that you'll be happy to spend two hours inside this whimsical rendition of New York's JFK airport.Hanks plays Viktor Navorski, a tourist from the fictional Soviet splinter-state of Krakhozia (not to be confused with the neighboring state of Crackwhoresia). Navorski finds himsel in a terrible dilemma when his government it overthrown in an overnight coup, resulting in bloody civil war and a breaking off of all diplomatic relations with the United States. What this means, in a nutshell, is that he is not permitted to enter the United States (beyond the confines of the International terminal), nor is he allowed to fly back home - a predicament that is made as clear as mud to the barely English-speaking Navorski by officious airport Customs superintendent Frank Dixon (Stanley Tucci). Navorski is informed that he must remain in the terminal until his situation can be resolved by the State Department - only nobody seems in any hurry to resolve it. Anxious to have Navorski out of his airport nevertheless, Dixon tries more than once to trick Navorski into leaving illegally so that he can be arrested on the outside and become someone else's problem - only Navorski is smart enough not to take the bait.
Instead, he takes up residence in a closed off section of the airport that is slated for future remodeling, and manages to stay alive by getting quarters from returning abandoned luggage carts and doing other odd jobs and favors throughout the terminal. He eventually befriends a motley crew of airport workers, becomes something of a local celebrity to the masses that work in or pass through the terminal, manages to strike up a romance with hot but annoying flight attendant Amelia Warren (hot but annoying Catherine "it's a fucking Z, already" Jones), and even becomes something of a local hero when he uses his translation skills to defuse a potentially violent situation.
When you overlook the layers of contrivances (would they really make this guy wander the terminal for nine months, especially when they could have arrested him on any number of technicalities, including being gainfully employed without a work visa? And where is all of the media coverage?), The Terminal is a film full of humor and warmth that gets most of its steam from Hanks' charismatic performance. Hanks is a gifted actor who gives Navorski a rich yet subdued multi-layered personality, and is the epitomy of patience and ingenuity in the face of his trying circumstances. Most of the supporting characters are also quite fine in their roles (although Zoe Saldana, who plays the Trekkie customs officer Torres, is way too hot to even set foot in the same building where a Star Trek convention is taking place). Stanley Tucci seems to take particular relish in the part of the ladder-climbing customs superintendant, playing the character as an officious putz without actually being an outright bastard.THE TERMINAL is more concerned with giving us some healthy laughs and the occasional moment of warm fuzzies than presenting a realistic scenario or bulletproof plot - but in light of its aspirations, it can be qualified as a success.
link directly to this review at http://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=10087&reviewer=258 originally posted: 07/07/04 13:19:51
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USA 18-Jun-2004 (PG-13) DVD: 23-Nov-2004
UK 03-Sep-2004 (12)
Australia 09-Sep-2004
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