Laughs erupt when Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan fall in love and fall in lava in Joe Versus the Volcano, a colorful, stylish laughquake written and directed by Moonstruck Oscar winner John Patrick Shanley. As Joe, Hanks adds to his phenomenal string of successes that includes, Splash, Big and Turner & Hooch. And Meg Ryan follows up her starmaking When Harry Met Sally…with three roles, playing each of the women in Joe’s life. When we first meet Joe, he has the white-color blues. Every day is Monday, the boss is always in a bad mood and the cumulative stresses convince Joe he has a terminal condition called a “brain cloud.” So when a zany jillionaire pops up and offers him a fleeting taste of the good life, Joe leaps at the chance. All he must do in return is leap into a volcano. But funny things happen on the way from the urban isle of Manhattan to the remote tropical isle of Waponi Woo… Out of the corporate frying pan. Into the fire. Is Joes doomed to be the last of the red-hot lovers? Not if the forces of courage, love and comedy have their way.
DVD Features:
Documentary
Filmographies
Interactive Menus
Music Video:Eric Burdon, “Sixteen Tons”
Other
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Theatrical Trailer
Joe Versus the Volcano is a true early-1990s cult film. This fantasy-comedy was the first pairing of Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, yet it polarizes viewers like a Blue Velvet or Happiness. As the only directorial effort from John Patrick Shanley (the Oscar-winning writer of Moonstruck), it is something special, and it’s hard to resist the film’s feather-light heart tugging. Joe Banks is having the life sucked out of him at a dead-end job. Miserable in his gray surroundings with stark fluorescent lighting, Joe dreams of being brave again. A visit to the doctor reveals that he has a “brain cloud.” It’s fatal, but he’ll be fine for a few more months. An eccentric millionaire, Samuel Harvey Graynamore (Lloyd Bridges), hears of Joe’s predicament and comes to him with a proposal: The people of the Pacific island of Waponi Woo need a human sacrifice to appease their gods. Why not live like a king for a few weeks, then throw yourself into a volcano? (Graynamore needs a sacrificial victim to offer in exchange for permission to mine the island for a rare mineral.) Joe accepts Graynamore’s lavish proposal and on his journey meets three romantic possibilities (all played by Ryan). Joe embraces life; so does the movie. It’s packed with smile-inducing supporting performances by Bridges, Ossie Davis, Robert Stack, and Dan Hedaya; playful songs (“Sixteen Tons,” “Ol’ Man River,” Presley’s version of “Blue Moon”); and amusing scenes (such as Joe buying luggage). Add the daring, imaginative production design of Bo Welch (Edward Scissorhands), Hanks and Ryan’s chemistry, and Georges Delerue’s romantic music and you have a film to fall for. –Doug Thomas
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March 10, 2010
#1
WOW! Another movie with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in which they have the exact same conflict as they did in “Sleeples in Seattle”. There was no point in making another “Sleepless” with a different location. I hated this movie. Don’t see it if you have already seen “Sleepless in Seattle”, it’s a waste.
March 10, 2010
#2
This is absolutely the worst movie I have ever seen. It deserves no stars, but this rating system won’t allow me to give it less than one star.
March 10, 2010
#3
In school my english teacher forced my class to watch this movie. No one liked the movie, even after we analyzed it. If you sit back and take in everything in the movie you will find the movie has many symbolic features in it. Pay attention to the crooked road in the beginning. That figure, the crooked road, pops up in many places like: when the lightening strikes the sailboat, on the wall of Joe’s home, and the path on the island.
But like in my title, Joe Versus the Volcano would mainly go over all of our youths’ heads. But it would also seem unusual or even like a low-budget film to those who are passive viewers.
March 10, 2010
#4
Joe V. Volcano begins as a compellingly dark movie: depressing, irreverant and hilarious all rolled into one.
Then, just as the movie begins to take off, it makes the most successfull suicide ever seen in a hollywood movie. Meg Ryan shows up time and time again as DIFFERENT CHARACTERS.
Yes, I know Meg Ryan can’t act. Of course you know Ryan can’t act, but for some reason, the director is so unaware of the fact that he asks her to expose her worst traits: mugging, pretending to be sad by holding a frown for a solid 8 minutes straight and diving into every happy moment with her patented syrupy googly eyed grin. You can almost hear the thoughts in her head “I am supposed to be happy in this scene.” “Don’t forget to laugh here because this part is supposed to be funny.”
If you think Meg Ryan is so cute you can forgive her and you want to see the magna cum laude of the Joey Tribbiani school of acting, this film is for you. Otherwise stay far, far away.
March 10, 2010
#5
This is the lamest and silliest of the Hanks/Ryan vehicles, not worthy of either of their talents.
Contrary to what one viewer said, Meg Ryan CAN act when she has decent material to work with, (I can remember when she played Betsy Stewart Andropoulos on “As the World Turns”), but this movie is NOT it. I’ve seen TV sitcoms that are better than this movie.
I think of movies with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan to be akin to old movies with Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. Not QUITE that good, but almost. I consider these two to be this generation’s Hepburn and Tracy.
If you’re looking for a GOOD Hanks/Ryan movie, go with SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE or YOU’VE GOT MAIL instead.
If I could give JOE… 2-1/2 stars instead of three I would. Three is too generous.