HOT: Volunteers

This was a pretty important film for Tom Hanks, not particularly on the film standpoint, but the fact that he co-starred with his eventual wife, Rita Wilson.

Anyway, the second film in a row where Hanks teams up with John Candy.

In Volunteers Hanks stars as Lawrence Whatley Bourne III, who is just graduating college and has rung up a pretty substantial gambling debt. After trying desperately to get his father to pay off his debt, Bourne bribes his college roommate into switching places and letting him join the Peace Corps.

Bourne, after his father pulls strings to keep him there - despite his pleads to leave, is paired with Tom Tuttle (Candy) and Beth Wexler (Wilson) to help build a bridge in Southeast Asia.

Wexler, after the finding the truth about Bourne, cannot stand him - and how easy he has connected with the natives. But after some coaxing and a little help from At Toon (Gedde Watanabe), an English speaking native, he manages to get her to fall for him.

Tuttle, meanwhile, gets lost in the woods and is brainwashed by a local Communist force to finish the bridge. Bourne also makes a deal with a local Opium drug lord to finish the bridge to make it easier for them to transport their drugs.

Once they realize that the locals just may be better off without this bridge it might be too late.

Again, I watched this film a lot when I was younger so it has some sentimental value - and after re-watching it I still enjoyed it, but not as much as I probably did before.

For one, I was not a huge fan of the snobby Hanks' accent, but I got past it. Also, three major villains and not one of them was that villainous.

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