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The Terminal

This article is more than 19 years old
Cert 12

Steven Spielberg's been on a real run of form lately - the last 20 minutes of AI apart - but he comes a cropper with this sentimental tale that aims for pathos and comedy and falls well short on both counts. Tom Hanks is the man flying into New York from "Krakhozhia", who becomes a stateless person on arrival as a civil war means his country is no longer recognised by the US. So he ends up living in the airport while learning English with remarkable speed and endearing himself to staff for reasons which remain a mystery. Cue loads of product placement - there are as many burgers here as in Super Size Me - two winsome affairs, one of them between Hanks and airline worker Catherine Zeta Jones, which is as credible as it sounds, and, as usual, a horribly overdone John Williams score. I once spent three days living in Chicago's O'Hare airport but it wasn't quite as dull as this.

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