Volunteers (1985) * *

Directed by:  Nicholas Meyer

Starring:  Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, John Candy, Tim Thomerson, George Plimpton, Gedde Watanabe

Volunteers is a comedy that reunites Tom Hanks and John Candy following their successful pairing in 1984's Splash.     Those expecting a film as funny as Splash will be disappointed.     Candy receives second billing, but he and Hanks have few scenes together.     In fact, Candy isn't in the film much at all, so he tries to bring his trademark genial good humor to an unnecessary character.     Hanks carries most of the load, but he is burdened with a script that still needed more time to bake. 

The film feels like a quickly rushed project attempting to cash in on the success of the Candy/Hanks pairing.     The actors try their best, but we're left feeling that the film had no real reason to be made.    I'll venture onward with a plot synopsis.     The film opens in 1962 with Yale graduate Lawrence Bourne III (Hanks) owing $28,000 to local gamblers.     Desperate not to get his legs broken, he asks his father for help, but is quickly rebuffed.     Hanks flees Connecticut and races to New York, where his roommate who has joined the fledgling Peace Corps is boarding a plane bound for Thailand.     Lawrence trades places with his friend by offering him his snazzy sports car and off to Thailand he goes.  

Lawrence is seated next to Tom Tuttle (Candy), who throughout the movie refers to himself as "Tom Tuttle from Tacoma, Washington".    He is red-blooded American who enthusiastically believes in mom, apple pie, and the American way.    Lawrence's attentions are soon diverted to Beth Wexler (Wilson) and after hitting on her, she invites him to get out of her life.     Since Hanks and Wilson are the male and female leads, they are bound to become lovers by movie's end and Volunteers offers no surprises there.

The Thai villagers really don't know what to make of the Peace Corps volunteers.    One villager (Watanabe) helpfully speaks English and calls Bourne "asshole" in an affectionate sort of way.    Soon, all are in agreement to help construct a bridge over a nearby river, which is also of great interest to a local opium dealer, the local Communist guerilla army which kidnaps Tuttle, and the CIA.    Their interests are, shall we say, mutual.    Bourne is coerced into assisting the opium dealer with a plane ticket home and enough money to cover his debts once the bridge is completed.

I don't know if the film was intended to be a spoof of The Bridge on the River Kwai or an homage.   We pretty much know the fate of the bridge early on and everything that happens leads up to the inevitable conclusion.     The characters act ridiculous without really being funny.    Hanks projects a wannabe suave Ivy Leaguer with a thick New England accent, but he really is left dangling out there trying desperately to be funny.     Candy undergoes a transformation while being held captive into a red-blooded Communist, but that doesn't work either.    In fact, Candy's entire character seems like an afterthought.     Maybe that is why he announces himself as "Tom Tuttle from Tacoma, Washington" so often: to remind us that he is still in the movie.    Watanabe's function is to point out what Hanks, Candy, and Wilson are doing and saying wrong when communicating with the villagers.   

Oddly enough, the brief segment in 1980's Airplane! spoofing the Peace Corps is funnier than anything in Volunteers.     With the talent assembled, there could've been a decent comedy here, but everyone is adrift in a film that doesn't know what it really wants to be.