Joe Versus the Volcano

Good message, decent movie, albeit really odd

That pretty much sums up this 1990 film starring Tom Hanks as a miserable man stuck in an uninspiring job. After learning he's going to die in six months, he accepts an offer to live it up for a couple of weeks and sacrifice himself in a volcano on some nondescript Pacific island.

Right off the bat, the movie tips off that it's more fantasy than reality. There's a great message about not selling your life -- your dreams -- for whatever pathetic wage they're offering at the local factory or whatever the case. But the final act fizzles out in Giligan's Island cartooniness.

Meg Ryan co-stars in a three-pronged role.

GRADE: C+

Bare with me here, because things are hazy.

I distinctly remember renting this at our old small town independent pre-Block Buster video rental establishment. Back when it stopped selling porn (for a few years) and devoted the back room to Betamax and Laser Disc before they moved on to a bigger building.

I remember riding my bike there with my father when I was ten. I remember seeing the poster in one of the two small windows. I remember the other new releases on the shelf, and I remember renting this on VHS with a Beta Danger Mouse.

And then I remember thinking it was a drama because of the start of the film, cracking up about the luggage, cracking up about the actual volcano climax, and that is about it.

But I guess the point is that I remember laughing, and that is what matters.