The Terminal A Movie Review	MPAA Rated - PG-13 It's 2:01 Long A Review by The Dude on the Right

"The Terminal" stars Tom Hanks as Viktor Navorski. As his luck would have it he gets to the United States, only really wanting to make a quick trip, but he’s stuck in the international terminal because of a jack-ass security honcho, Frank Dixon (Stanley Tucci). It seems Viktor’s country has gone through a government uprising, and now Viktor’s visa isn’t any good and he can’t get on a plane to get back to his country because his government isn’t recognized by the U.S. Without knowing any English, Viktor must now figure out how to live in the airport. And we find out the Viktor is quite the resourceful guy, finding the free crackers and mustard for cracker and mustard sandwiches for awhile, and then finding a way to make some cash returning luggage carts, only to find our jack-ass hinder him in any way possible. But things begin to change when Viktor begins to learn English. Eventually he befriends some airport workers, and then falls in love with Amelia (Catherine Zeta-Jones), a flight attendant.

And so, day after day goes on, Viktor finds more ways to make some dough, he tries to figure out how to work the Amelia thing, but mostly he is just waiting for the chance to fulfill his dream, much to the dismay of Frank.

What made this movie great for me was it’s simplicity in a complex situation. Viktor really doesn’t understand what is going on, other than there is trouble in his home country and he can’t leave the airport. Yet he makes the best of every difficult situation, persevering to the point where the entire airport staff loves him. But what else make this movie great, and it scared me at first, was Catherine Zeta-Jones. Yes, she’s pretty, but for a change, in this movie, she seemed real. She has feelings for Viktor, but is torn between what is a good man, and the scumbag men she is used to being with. And the movie didn’t get sappy with this plot as it could have easily done; instead it moved its focus back to Viktor and his quest.

This is a great drama/romantic comedy that doesn’t overdue the sappy love story. All of the characters are fabulous, the set really takes you into an airport terminal, and Tom Hanks is great as the loveable Viktor.

Now, before I wrap this up, and I know this might be politically incorrect to say, but I think every immigrant who intends to live in this country should have to do what Viktor did, and what my Grandma did, and that is to learn English, and oddly enough, Viktor did it in a way similar to my Grandma – in "The Terminal" Viktor buys two of the same books, one in English, one in his native language, and he uses the one in his native language to teach him English. My Grandma always told me stories of how she would study the Polish dictionary compared to the English dictionary because she was so proud to be in this country that she wanted to learn the language. She also wouldn’t teach us Polish, other than a word here or there, because she simply said "If you want to move to Poland, I’ll teach you Polish, but in America, you speak English." I believe she really meant this, although, to this day, I still wonder if it was so she and the aunts and uncles could talk about us while we were in the room and we wouldn’t have a clue. Oh well, I digress.

"The Terminal" is a great movie. Spend the money for a nice evening, buy a big bucket of popcorn, and your girlfriend with think you’re swell. It’s 4 ½ stars out of 5 for "The Terminal."

That’s it for this one! I’m The Dude on the Right!! L8R!!!