After the cancellation of Bosom Buddies, the show that gave him his start, Tom Hanks starred in his share of goofy comedies throughout the late eighties and early nineties. While Big and Turner and Hooch are both entirely watchable movies in their own right, Joe Vs. The Volcano is the one that stands as one of the all time must download movies.
So, what makes this one so much better than his other early nineties comedies? Well to start off with, those other comedies provided big laughs and a charming leading man, but Joe vs the Volcano provides something more. Not only is this movie funny, weird and unpredictable, it also contains the meaning of life. No joke.
The film starts off with Joe slaving away at a miserable, miserable job. He works in a dismal factory, a disgusting, repugnant block of concrete in the middle of a field of mud, where flickering fluorescent lights, he believes, are giving him cancer. Bo Welch, the set designer for Beetlejuice, created this ugly masterpiece of depression as well as the look of the rest of the film.
Joe, a serious hypochondriac, takes a trip to the doctor's office where he learns that he has a "Brain Cloud". A fatal condition. From here he meets the industrialist played by Lloyd Bridges, who offers him a chance to live like a king for several months, in exchange for his suicide by jumping into a volcano.
The industrialist, played wonderfully in his one scene by Lloyd Bridges, will finance Joe's trip and all the luxuries he can indulge in if he'll go to the Waponi Woo and jump into a volcano. The industrialist uses this island for mining, but the people of the island are fearful of the volcano and believe that it needs a human sacrifice every hundred years lest it blow up and kill them all. The chief, finding nobody among his own cowardly people to do the deed, needs Joe to do it.
From here, Joe is given his life back. He quits his job, he does what he wants with his time, he enjoys himself, and for the first time in his life, he appreciates what a gift it is to have been born. This is the core philosophy of the movie and the meaning of life: Enjoy it.
The look of the film is similarly wonderful. Bo Welch really sends it out of the park on this one. The film takes place in a sort of fantasy mirror universe of our own. Taking cues equally from Dali and Andy Warhol, the film looks like a living dream.
Spoiler Alert: The original draft of the script for this film had the industrialist and the doctor getting their comeuppance in the finale. Honestly, it's better that they don't. While they were scamming Joe, the fact is that they gave him his life back. Whether or not this is with intent, the doctor and the industrialist serve in the story as both the villain, and as Joe's savior.
So, what makes this one so much better than his other early nineties comedies? Well to start off with, those other comedies provided big laughs and a charming leading man, but Joe vs the Volcano provides something more. Not only is this movie funny, weird and unpredictable, it also contains the meaning of life. No joke.
The film starts off with Joe slaving away at a miserable, miserable job. He works in a dismal factory, a disgusting, repugnant block of concrete in the middle of a field of mud, where flickering fluorescent lights, he believes, are giving him cancer. Bo Welch, the set designer for Beetlejuice, created this ugly masterpiece of depression as well as the look of the rest of the film.
Joe, a serious hypochondriac, takes a trip to the doctor's office where he learns that he has a "Brain Cloud". A fatal condition. From here he meets the industrialist played by Lloyd Bridges, who offers him a chance to live like a king for several months, in exchange for his suicide by jumping into a volcano.
The industrialist, played wonderfully in his one scene by Lloyd Bridges, will finance Joe's trip and all the luxuries he can indulge in if he'll go to the Waponi Woo and jump into a volcano. The industrialist uses this island for mining, but the people of the island are fearful of the volcano and believe that it needs a human sacrifice every hundred years lest it blow up and kill them all. The chief, finding nobody among his own cowardly people to do the deed, needs Joe to do it.
From here, Joe is given his life back. He quits his job, he does what he wants with his time, he enjoys himself, and for the first time in his life, he appreciates what a gift it is to have been born. This is the core philosophy of the movie and the meaning of life: Enjoy it.
The look of the film is similarly wonderful. Bo Welch really sends it out of the park on this one. The film takes place in a sort of fantasy mirror universe of our own. Taking cues equally from Dali and Andy Warhol, the film looks like a living dream.
Spoiler Alert: The original draft of the script for this film had the industrialist and the doctor getting their comeuppance in the finale. Honestly, it's better that they don't. While they were scamming Joe, the fact is that they gave him his life back. Whether or not this is with intent, the doctor and the industrialist serve in the story as both the villain, and as Joe's savior.
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