Lawrence Bourne III (Tom Hanks) is a blueblood, snooty Harvard senior. However, he has a taste for women and gambling, racking up an enormous debt to the local mobsters. Lawrence, ever a macho man, decides to go "double or nothing" on a national basketball game that will be played during his graduation ceremony. Lawrence loses and the mob sends the usual henchman for his hide. Appealing to his equally snobby father (George Plimpton) for a loan gets him nowhere. His only recourse is to ask his erstwhile roommate to switch identities with him, with Lawrence hopping a plane to Thailand as part of the Peace Corps and escaping the mob. It works, although Lawrence has to fork over his porsche to seal the deal. Once on the plane, however, Lawrence has second thoughts. Everyone is singing inspirational songs and looking forward to bringing cheer and good works to the Thai people. As he gets off the plane, Lawrence literally goes down on his knees and begs the leader to send him back. But, its no, no, no. However, things look up when a good-looking fellow Corpswoman, Beth (Rita Wilson) is assigned to the same village, along with gung-ho engineer, Tom Tuttle of Tacoma (John Candy). However, Beth won't give him the time of day and Tom is a royal pain. What will become of Lawrence, anyways, whose attitude is "its not that I can't help these people, I don't want to!" But, wait, how about establishing a card game or two, for money, with the locals? Things are looking up! This is a funny, funny film that is a winner every time. Hanks and Candy are very humorous while Plimpton is a scream in a brief role as the can't-be-bothered-with-details father. Wilson is touching as the woman who truly wants to help others and is torn by her attraction to a man who is a dirtbag. Gedde Watanabe is also fun as a native lad and the other Oriental cast members do a great job as well. The setting in Thailand is lovely, naturally, and the recreation of the early sixties in fashion and other properties is quite good. In fact, the opening montage of sixties photos, set to "Blue Moon" is very inspiring. In short, if you are stuck with an evening of drabness, get this film by whatever means necessary. You will issue "three cheers" for a flick that will never fail to provide some genuine laughs and nostalgia.

Volunteers (1985) is quite a comedy. It can't be taken too seriously, but it does have that deeper aspect as well - it's how do we know, when those who are developed don't want to be developed. Volunteers say we don't.Tom Hanks isn't as convincing as he is in his later movies, but it's his teamwork with late John Candy that really gives a spark to this movie. What a comedian we lost when we lost John Candy! I would recommend Volunteers for those who enjoy clever but simply ridiculous comedy. It's the level of exaggeration that makes this movie as funny as it is. I must have watched it at least four times, and John Candy has really made me feel great every time.

before they started winning oscars, struggling actors such as tom hanks and robin williams used to be... SURPRISE!! funny! volunteers is a great example of a movie that refuses to take its leading actors seriously and is all the better for it. this is not a "star vehicle" but is rather an irreverant tongue-in-cheek romp. it takes its cues from saturday night live, sctv, monty python, and cheesy off-broadway one-act plays. in return, it is spoofed by one particular hollywood blockbuster to follow, austin powers goldmember. mike myers must have been as impressed with the "reading the subtitles" joke, as well as the "asian guy on the toilet/being chased by sumo wrestler" schtick. but rather than beat the jokes to death, volunteers assumes we are smart enough to catch them on the fly. i bought this in a $5.00 dvd bin, and was reminded why i liked the movie so much in the first place. it is never particularly mean to any of its subjects, including the primitive thai villagers, the communist revolutionaries, yalies, jews, liberals, conservatives, or any of the other fringe elements put into play. as a result, volunteers doesn't insult me as an intelligent movie viewer. by the way, i had forgotten how humorously effective was the "lawrence's bar" scene where the local musician plinks out an oddly romantic version of "as time goes by" on an asian sitar. volunteers is the sort of movie actors must do just for fun. y'know... when they're not too busy trying to win oscars.

Tom Hanks is fantastic...the rest of the cast adds strong support. This film made me laugh so hard throughout. John Candy is great, Rita Wilson is wonderful, and the native characters add authentic flavor to the film. Honestly, anyone who doesn't appreciate the acting ability of Tom Hanks in this humor-filled picture is missing a lot. This is the kind of film you could watch a few times to fully appreciate all the underlying gags and subtle jokes. Terrific film!!!!!