Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2.fluke 9/24/84; site vax4.fluke.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!whuxlm!whuxl!houxm!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!fluke!moriarty From: moriarty@fluke.UUCP (Jeff Meyer) Newsgroups: net.movies Subject: Review of VOLUNTEERS (Some Spoilers) Message-ID: <2545@vax4.fluke.UUCP> Date: Sun, 18-Aug-85 01:33:38 EDT Article-I.D.: vax4.2545 Posted: Sun Aug 18 01:33:38 1985 Date-Received: Tue, 20-Aug-85 06:15:25 EDT Distribution: net Organization: John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc., Everett, WA Lines: 56 Folks, I may not be the person to listen to about this movie. I came in with quite a few predjudices for the creative staff of _Volunteers_. Nicholas Meyer, besides doing nothing but good work in his Big-Screen projects up to now (I didn't see _The_Day_After_), has done a lot of good work for Trekdom and the Sherlock Holmes mythos. Also, with our common last names, I've felt tempted to pass "Nicholas Meyer" off as another one of my numverous aliases, but have restrained myself so far. Also, the writing team is Ken Levine & David Isaacs, two of the hottest comedy writers for TV around. And, of course, John Candy, who has two or three screen personas which can toss me into hysterics when done correctly (and he uses them to full effect in this film). Nevertheless, about twenty minutes into this film, I was feeling a bit uncomfortable. I had walked into _Volunteers_ expecting a rip-roaring don't-stop-at-anything gag fest, and instead it seems to be more of a character interplay comedy, i.e. the gags are not so much from funny lines given by broadly-played comic characters, but funny lines from borderline-comic characters. Instead of having a feeling that ANYTHING could happen around the next plot corner, you realize that the plot has been restrained by SOME reality. The casting is really quite good; I doubt, after seeing this, that there is a better comic actor in Hollywood for playing a irresponsible high-class young man than Hanks. Likewise, Candy (as Tom Tuttle, from Tacoma, Washington (Washingtonians like myself will probably find the referals to Tacoma and Washington State hilarious)) plays the flag-waving spud so well ("Go Peace Corp!") that I couldn't think of anyone else in the role. But the comic style of the movie seemed different; it may be that the broad humor you usually find the two main characters (Candy is being advertised as sharing the fame with Hanks, but is actually not in the movie that much) playing is twisted slightly. And then it hit me. _Volunteers_ is a updated Bing Crosby/Bob Hope Road movie, with Hanks playing both Crosby and Hope's roles (He's a coward and a wisecracker, but he also has a lot of sophisticated charm...). And if you can see it as that, I think you'll enjoy it a lot, especially after the first half-hour, which tends to drag a little. Besides Candy's dandy (sorry, I must be reading too much USA Today review clips from the ads) comic performance, credit MUST be given Gedde Watanabe, who plays Hanks' interperter and general sidekick, and may have most of the really funny lines in the movie (with his high, accented voice, even an cast-off joke can be pretty humourous). Between Watanabe, Candy and Hanks, the last half hour goes very well (oh, I almost forgot... it's about several Peace Corp people in Thailand. Sorry...), and I would give it a go-see recomendation, as long as you're not expecting Ultra-Zany comedy. "...we do our part -- what's your problem?" Expect the Unexpected. He does. ---> Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer John Fluke Mfg. Co., Inc. UUCP: {cornell,decvax,ihnp4,sdcsvax,tektronix,utcsri}!uw-beaver \ {allegra,gatech!sb1,hplabs!lbl-csam,decwrl!sun,ssc-vax} -- !fluke!moriarty ARPA: fluke!moriarty@uw-beaver.ARPA