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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.
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