Delayed Reaction: Volunteers

Premise: A Yale graduate joins the Peace Corps. to avoid a gambling debt.

 

I think we forget how close we were to losing Tom Hanks to a career as a Freddie Prinze Jr. or Jason Bigs. He feels inevitable now, but he was getting pulled in other directions in the early days. We knew right away that he was a leading man, but who's to say he wasn't a Steve Guttenberg or a Mark Harmon? His early successes were a fantasy RomCom (Splash) and an R-rated comedy (Bachelor Party). His career could've easily been endless The Money Pits until he turned into "Respected Character Actor Tom Hanks, star of your parents' favorite CBS procedural". Big is what set him apart and opened him to that legendary 90s he had. So, it's fun seeing a movie like Volunteers from before we know what Tom Hanks was.

 

I enjoyed Volunteers, but most of the fun of it was how unformed the Tom Hanks narrative was at that point. This is an actor that directors weren't quite sure what to do with. They knew he was charming, but maybe he's an asshole too. Is he funny because of how big he can get or because of how well he talks down to people? Should he be in on the joke or out of it? I like this flavor of Tom Hanks, which has real "Five Timers Club" energy. We don't see it often, because Hollywood figured him out a lot more soon after this, and it leaned toward more earnest characters.

It's funny how I prefer Tom Hanks on screen with Meg Ryan over his actual wife Rita Wilson. She's good in this and, like everyone, has chemistry with Hanks on screen. I'm not dying to see them work together again though.

 

John Candy was a nice x-factor in this as well. He is off in his own movie for half the time, and I was ok with that. It's depressing to think about all the comedy that was lost with the deaths of Belushi, Candy, and Farley. Candy does get my absolute favorite joke in the movie, when the army is approaching singing the WSU fight song and he says "I'm not proud of that". That's just a wonderful bit of setup/payoff right there.

 

Too often, I reserve the Strongly Recommend verdict for instant favorites rather than movies that are just a good time. That's what Volunteers is. It's not perfect. You could certainly go after it for some dated cultural depictions and jokes. But, it's a good time with a strong core trio.

 

Verdict: Strongly Recommend