Six Days Seven Nights (1998)

Directed by Ivan Reitman. Starring Anne Heche, Harrison Ford, David Schwimmer, Jacqueline Obradors, Allison Janney, Temuera Morrison. [PG-13]

Magazine editor Heche takes a South Pacific vacation with fiancé Schwimmer, ends up marooned on an island with pilot Ford after his single-engine prop plane crashes with her onboard. There, they work to survive, try to get rescued, bicker a lot, fall in love, and so forth. Rather anemic romantic-comedy-adventure has lots of beautiful scenery (including curvy Obradors, a dancer who keeps Schwimmer plenty entertained while worrying about the dire fate of his betrothed) and modest chemistry between the stars, but they can’t mine too many laughs out of the unfunny formula script, which also tiresomely adds an action sub-plot involving pirates, and drags on too long after they finally get back to civilization (that can’t possibly be considered a spoiler). In fact, these two make castaway island survival seem easier than the Swiss Family Robinson! It’s tempting to think that with Reitman as the director and Ford as the co-lead, how bad could it be? Well, not a disaster, but a thoroughly unexceptional and inconsequential affair (they were only a year removed from Father’s Day and Air Force One respectively, after all). Danny Trejo and Cliff Curtis have bit parts as pirates.

40/100