Joe Versus The Volcano

With Bridge Of Spies opening last weekend, I thought I would take a look back at an earlier Tom Hanks/Steven Spielberg collaboration, the highly under appreciated and forgotten gem Joe Versus The Volcano.

Hanks stars as Joe Banks, a former firefighter who is now a clerical worker at a dreary medical supply factory. The stress brought on by firefighting has made Joe a hypochondriac. He spends his lunch breaks going from doctor to doctor who find nothing wrong with him. Finally, a new doctor for Joe, Robert Stack, finds that he has an incurable disease called a "brain cloud" and has about six months to live. This gives Joe a new lease on life and the courage to quit his job, tell off his boss, Dan Hedaya, and ask out a shy secretary, Meg Ryan.

He is also approached by a mysterious billionaire, Lloyd Bridges, who offers Joe millions to be a human sacrafice. Bridges is after some minerals on an island named Waponi Woo, which means little island with big valcano. Tha Wapani's are willing to give him the minerals if he can give them a sacrifice for their angry volcano. With only six months to live, Joe agrees and decides to die a hero.

He flies to Los Angeles and is greeeted by the billionaire's daughter, Ryan again, who takes him to the ship heading for Waponi Woo. The ship is captained by her sister Patricia, yes, Ryan again. Joe and Patricia don't hit it off right away, but after a storm wipes out the ship, the two save one another and fall one another as well.

What some call odd or wacky, I sometimes see as originality. Joe Versus The Volcano definately falls into that catagory. I think it might have been too silly for most mainstream audiences, but it had me laughing the whole time.

This is my favorite Hanks' movie. It gives him a chance to be goofy. Something he was really good at in his earlier roles. This was also his first film with Meg Ryan, and I think it's their best teaming. Ryan shows a lot of range in her three different roles. Bridges plays the role of the eccentric billionaire with the same zaniness he brought to films like Airplane and Hot Shots. Hedaya is great as Joe's miserable boss. And Ossie Davis is very good as a kind chauffeur who helps Joe plan for his trip. And I should mention Abe Vigoda is the Waponi chief. That's worth the price of admission alone.

Spielberg executive produced this one with screenwriter John Patrick Shanley in his directorial debut. Shanley had won the Oscar the year before for Moonstruck. Unfortunately he didn't direct again until Doubt 18 years later. It's too bad because he has a lot of talent. He did crank out some great screenplays in between the two films though.

It's Hanks and Ryan at their best.