LolitaHayes
Volunteers is one of those films that hits the ground running. Though it may lag a bit later on, it is definitely worth watching, just for the opening scenes.Some of the funniest bits occur in the movie's first 15 minutes. After a great intro montage of early 60's images (Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Kennedy, Hula Hoops, The Alka-Seltzer kid, Khrushchev and JFK) the last images fades, into Kennedy's famous "Ask not what your country can do for you" speech. (JFK also speaks at the Yale graduation later--did this happen? Didn't JFK got to Harvard?) The scene cuts to a seedy bar in New Haven (a mere five years before the Doors would be arrested there at a concert! Amazing how times changed so quickly). Lawrence Bourne III, a Yalie with an upper-crust WASP, Maine accent is gambling , with some scary guys. His girlfriend, a snooty "Smithie" named "Bootsie", tells him "What the hell, Lawrence; it's only money?" before he wins around 11 grand on a bluff. An odd guy named Cicero (Ji-tu Tumbuku) threatens him with a knife, saying he'll kill him and everyone he knows. The guy seriously looks ready to have a stroke. Lawrence still baits him by pretending he can't understand him, then leaves with a backward hand wave and a "Ciao". Bourne and the girl go out to chat with the owner, who is termed "my only Italian friend" by the preppie. He owes this guy from a previous bet and they bet on the Celtic-Lakers game that conveniently takes place at mid-day during Lawrence's graduation. He doubles the bet to $28,000 and loses, as the bar owner and the Cicero watch, all with transistor radio ear-buds, listening in. He is told to get the money by sundown or else. Prior to that, we are treated to a bit of college dorm nostalgia as we see Lawrence's roommate laying outside the door, listening to the couple make vigorous love inside. "Now, now, NOW!" yells the girl and Lawrence's roommate, Kent Sutcliffe (Xander Berkely, upon whom I think Jack Black's "School of Rock" roommate, Ned Shneebly, might be based!) echoes it while pounding on the door. He enters, tells them he needs to get ready and we get a taste of Hanks' dry humor as he pulls out a stethoscope from beneath camouflage net. "Well, then we'd to get down to the actual sex then, hadn't we, Bootsie?" I love it! She is unfazed by Kent's presence and questions Kent about his gear (that she and Lawrence were using for bedsheets!) and asks, "What are you going, the Peace Corps?" He tells her he is and she drawls, "I was JOKING..." Kent obliquely implies that she and Lawrence are selfish, unlike him, as he is "going to Thailand to help people". He mentions that he's leaving that night. SPOILERS: Somehow, Lawrence makes it from New Haven to Maine (a several-hour drive) for a congratulatory dinner at the family mansion, after which he asks his dad, played with delicious, WASP dizziness by George Plimpton, for a loan. To his shock,his father denies him, saying it will build character, and if they DO "break his hips", he'll have to learn to use a walker. It's clear Lawrence got his warped sense of humor from his father. Just then, Cicero shows up and the father talks to him while Lawrence bolts in his Corvette. There is a classic gag, but with a twist, with two lines racing down I-95 to New York with a map that zooms in slowly until it shows the airport map and the Corvette blasts through it onto the tarmac, conveniently close to Kent's plane.Bourne begs Kent to swap places and the roomie reveals his true personality as he finally agrees, but only if he can "have" Bootsie ("Go ahead!" says Lawrence, "Everyone else has!") and the Corvette's title signed over to him. THAT hurts, says Lawrence, but agrees. He boards the plane, slamming the door in Cicero's face, who now clings to the outside of the plane, in a great sight gag. Lawrence turns and looks through the curtain into the cabin. Everyone is swaying back and forth and singing "Puff the Magic Dragon"! Hanks gives his trademark "horrified" look and says, "So...this is Hell!".Everyone here has covered other parts of the film quite well, so I will just echo their sentiments by agreeing that this is an underrated film , and that the other performances are wonderful: John Candy as "Tom Tuttle, Tacoma, Washington" is hilarious as the over-zealous engineer with good intentions but no cultural awareness. Rita Wilson's "Long Island" accent was unconvincing, but her performance as a wide-eyed do-gooder, Beth Wexler, was spot-on. Gedde Watanabe as At Toon, the fast-talking kid who went to an American School in Bangkok, has some of the best lines in the film. At a crucial moment, Lawrence fears for their lives and At Toon mockingly says, "I'm okay. I never had a woman. I built a bridge. I got touched by some fat guys. I've had a FULL life!" One of my favorite roles was John Reynolds (Tim Thomerson) , the crazed CIA operative, who names his Bowie knife "Mike" and gives Beth a VERY suggestive Burmese statue. He is an eerie foreshadowing of another comical, yet insanely right-wing Texan, whom many considered crazy, or at least much too war-happy. When John tells Beth he'll show her a good time soon, he says it will be "Just you, me and Mike". *Shudder*!Anyone who misses the "old" Tom Hanks (and just misses Candy!) should see this film again, back when Hanks was obviously not thinking about Oscars and just having a hell of a good time being hilarious.
Jim Corveddu (PulpVideo)
I'm a fan from the earliest days of both Tom Hanks & John Candy, but this movie never delivers on any of the comic potential both actors had at the time. Hanks and Candy played brothers in the funny Splash (1984), but neither did as well with their characters in this film.I suppose it was the weak script, because they are good comic actors, and Nicholas Meyer is a good director who had already proved that to me a few years prior with Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan, if not in earlier flicks like Time After Time (1979) and The Seven Percent Solution (1976).The identity-switch premise is standard comic fare, and we know that in the end, the Hanks character will take on the identity he is faking and do what that character would do. Likewise for getting the girl.Hanks & Candy could have carried off the predictable jokes a lot better than they did, and the Candy set-up for the brainwashing in the swipe of a screen was so weak I almost missed it. The joke of his babbling communist slogans and rhetoric back at his captors to the point of annoyance is just that: annoying. It too, could have worked better.Rita Wilson was a poor choice as the love-interest. I guess she's okay in minor supporting roles, and I know a few people who liked her as the love-interest in Mixed Nuts (1994), but in this role, her exasperation with life in the jungle jokes, in juxtaposition to Hanks' ease with it, are weakly played and not very funny.There are some spots where the script allows the actors to be funny, but they are few and far between, and often underplayed. I know enough of the tastes of my friends and clients to say there are about half of them who would like this movie okay enough, and half who would wish they had watched something else, like Splash, if they wanted to see Hanks & Candy together.Thus, I would rate this movie as Average (5 out of 10), but just barely. If you find it in a bargain-bin, as I did, you might want to pick it up if you are a Hanks and Candy fan and already have Splash, but I would rather spend my money on the latter if I didn't already have it.
