Joe Versus the Volcano *** (1990, Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan, Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack, Abe Vigoda, Dan Hedaya, Ossie Davis) – Classic Movie Review 6172

Writer-director John Patrick Shanley’s 1990 dark-toned romantic comedy, satirising and updating Hollywood’s Forties escapist adventure melodramas, is appealing and engaging, even though it is extremely shakily written by Shanley, the Oscar-winning author of Moonstruck. Nevertheless, the movie is sweet, likeable and fun.

Tom Hanks stars as ordinary Joe, a hypochondriac who has just walked out on his job after been given a short time to live by his crazy doctor Dr Ellison (Robert Stack), who has diagnosed him with an incurable disease.

Lloyd Bridges plays wicked rich old Graynamore, who sends Joe off to the tropical island of Waponi Woo to appease the gods by willingly jumping into a live volcano in a ritual sacrifice. ‘Live like a king, die like a man,’ he says. But, on the way, Joe meets and falls in love with Patricia Graynamore (Meg Ryan).

Throughout the movie is perilously thin, talky and slackly told, yet it still gives a great deal of pleasure largely thanks to Hanks’s winning charm, Meg Ryan in three roles (DeDe / Angelica / Patricia), scene-stealing star cameos from the Hollywood veterans Lloyd Bridges and Robert Stack, and the good-looking, high-quality production from Steven Spielberg at Amblin, with beautiful retro designs by Bo Welch.

Shanley’s jaunty mood, lustily jovial tone and a zesty spirit are his movie’s other stocks in trade. The ideal star romantic team of Hanks and Ryan look unbelievably young and sweet here, and they re-teamed effectively for the much more popular and well-known Sleepless in Seattle and You Got Mail.

Also in the cast are Abe Vigoda, Dan Hedaya, Ossie Davis, Barry McGovern, Amanda Plummer, Jayne Haynes, David Burton, Carol Kane, Jim Hudson and Nathan Lane.

It is shot by Stephen Goldblatt, produced by Steven Spielberg, Frank Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy and Teri Schwartz, and scored by Georges Delerue.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6172

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