Joe Versus the Volcano (1990)
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 102m
Director: John Patrick Shanley
Cast: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan
Synopsis:
An average Joe is told by his doctor that he has only six months to live and is hired by a millionaire eccentric to secure the mineral wealth of a South Sea island by appeasing its volcano god with a human sacrifice.
Review:
A curious mix of dystopian vision à la Brazil (the first couple of reels), Brewster's Millions fantasy and Tarzanesque camp. It is by turns numbing, charming and jaw-dropping in its ambition, and seems to be saying something about a philosophy of life, but nothing very original ('live it to the full'). In any event its reach far exceeds its grasp and a more bizarre follow-up to Moonstruck it would be hard to envision, save for one memorable moment: Joe, alone on a raft in the Pacific by night, is silhouetted against an enormous full moon. An interesting failure, but in eighties Hollywood terms that's preferable to some of its successes.
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 102m
Director: John Patrick Shanley
Cast: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan
Synopsis:
An average Joe is told by his doctor that he has only six months to live and is hired by a millionaire eccentric to secure the mineral wealth of a South Sea island by appeasing its volcano god with a human sacrifice.
Review:
A curious mix of dystopian vision à la Brazil (the first couple of reels), Brewster's Millions fantasy and Tarzanesque camp. It is by turns numbing, charming and jaw-dropping in its ambition, and seems to be saying something about a philosophy of life, but nothing very original ('live it to the full'). In any event its reach far exceeds its grasp and a more bizarre follow-up to Moonstruck it would be hard to envision, save for one memorable moment: Joe, alone on a raft in the Pacific by night, is silhouetted against an enormous full moon. An interesting failure, but in eighties Hollywood terms that's preferable to some of its successes.
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 102m
Director: John Patrick Shanley
Cast: Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan
Synopsis:
An average Joe is told by his doctor that he has only six months to live and is hired by a millionaire eccentric to secure the mineral wealth of a South Sea island by appeasing its volcano god with a human sacrifice.
Review:
A curious mix of dystopian vision à la Brazil (the first couple of reels), Brewster's Millions fantasy and Tarzanesque camp. It is by turns numbing, charming and jaw-dropping in its ambition, and seems to be saying something about a philosophy of life, but nothing very original ('live it to the full'). In any event its reach far exceeds its grasp and a more bizarre follow-up to Moonstruck it would be hard to envision, save for one memorable moment: Joe, alone on a raft in the Pacific by night, is silhouetted against an enormous full moon. An interesting failure, but in eighties Hollywood terms that's preferable to some of its successes.