Volunteers | 
| Director: Nicholas Meyer
Actors: Tom Hanks, John Candy, Rita Wilson, Tim Thomerson, Gedde Watanabe
Studio: Hbo Home Video
Category: DVD
List Price: $5.98
Buy Used: $0.99
You Save: $4.99 (83%)
New (44) Used (61) Collectible (1) from $0.99
Rating:  17 reviews
Sales Rank: 7960
Format: Anamorphic, Color, Dvd, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
DVD Layers: 1
DVD Sides: 1
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 107 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.1
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: D92983D
ISBN: 0783114982
UPC: 026359298325
EAN: 9780783114989
ASIN: B0000399WD
Theatrical Release Date: August 16, 1985
Release Date: February 29, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In a desperate attempt to escape the bookies to whom he owes a lot of money, a playboy enlists in the Peace Corps and is sent on a mission to Thailand. Far from being an altruist, however, this capitalist is soon turning a profit and starts improving the desperate conditions around him, much to the chagrin of the idealists who volunteered. An underrated farce.
Amazon.com
Before Tom Hanks was an Oscar-winning megacelebrity, before he became a serious and only sometimes comedic actor, before he won that second Oscar, he starred in both romantic comedies (Splash) and lowbrow comedies (Bachelor Party). More lowbrow than romantic (though he did end up marrying costar Rita Wilson), Volunteers is set in 1962, back when the Peace Corps was all the rage. Hanks, speaking with an unfortunate accent meant to represent aristocratic wealth, plays a compulsive gambler, recently graduated from Yale, whose father suddenly refuses to pay his debts. To escape some particularly shady characters, he joins the Peace Corps and boards a plane headed to Southeast Asia. For a comedy made in the '80s, there is less of a reliance on (Asian) stereotypes for punch lines than one would predict, though the movie is far from being politically sensitive. And speaking of politics, the politics of the movie are all messed up, ending up as a huge indictment of the Peace Corps as a corrupt tool of the government, despite some kind words at the end. Perhaps the biggest drawback of the movie, though, is its 107-minute running time; there's just too much emphasis on plot. Whenever costar John Candy appears, everything picks up, making you wish he was the star and the movie was about his character, Tom Tuttle from Tacoma, Washington. Ultimately, Volunteers ends up a better legacy for Candy than Hanks. --Andy Spletzer
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| Customer Reviews: Read 12 more reviews...
Classic January 3, 2009
Eric Vasilik (Cedar Knolls, NJ USA)
Back in the day, before Tom Hanks starred in serious and dramatic roles, he did more comedic roles. This is one of my favorites. Tom Hanks plays a rich boy, snob on the run from a large gambling debt, who switches places with his college roommate on his way to join the peace corps. He is paired with Rita Wilson and John Candy on his journey. John Candy is fantastic as always, playing overly outgoing goofball. A role he plays perfectly. Also, Gedde Wantanabe is hilarious. In my opinion he steals most of the scenes he is in. Great cast, funny movie.
 Terribly funny February 7, 2008
James D. Crabtree (Guantanamo Bay, Cuba)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This movie has it all... the upper-crust socialite, the super-patriotic and single-minded engineer, an idealist do-gooder, a Chinese warlord, a CIA agent, a foreign kid who's picked up American slang, Commie agents... the list goes on and on. This has always been one of my favorite movies and I like watching it every once in a while, whenever I feel like laughing at the Peace Corps. "We were never crazy about the bridge anyway."
ok February 6, 2008
Keilli L. Brathwaite (Nassau, Bahamas)
i love tom hanks and if you do too this is him at his best, so you should own big too, if not go get it
 John Candy is always funny January 13, 2006
Christopher Hivner (Dallastown, PA USA)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
"Volunteers" was a comedy that has some laughs but should have had more considering the talent involved. Tom Hanks, John Candy, Rita Wilson, and Tim Thomerson star and do their best with the material. Hanks plays a rich Yale graduate who is in trouble with gambling debts. When his father refuses to pay, he escapes by getting on a Peace Corp plane. Wilson and Candy play people who actually volunteered for the Peace Corp and Thomerson is the government representative in Thailand. The movie's biggest problem is too many plotlines and not enough time to work them all out properly. But John Candy is funny as he always is as "Tom Tuttle from Tacoma" and Thomerson turns out to be CIA and nuts (his knife is named Mike and he holds conversations with it). The volunteers build a bridge that it turns out is wanted by the US government, the communists and a local drug lord. John Candy gets brainwashed by the commies, Rita and Tom fall in love and eventually the bridge gets blown up.
Volunteers isn't a great movie, but it has some laughs and is better the second time you watch it.
Two thumbs up from a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer December 21, 2005
A. J. Greep (Brooklyn, NY)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Being a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer myself I find this film hysterical. The first time I saw it, in fact, was while in Peace Corps at a training session with fellow volunteers. We couldn't stop laughing the entire time! It's just ridiculously overdone - and wonderful because of it :)
Sure, it's campy and the jokes are predictable, but it was never meant to be a high-brow film. The jokes are often over the top and half the plot is totally unrealistic, but it's funny nonetheless - perhaps moreso if only because of these things.
I highly recommend this movie - John Candy and Tom Hanks always shine as a comedic pair and this movie is no exception. Hanks' cluelessly priveleged character coupled with Candy's overzealous patriotic naivety is a perfect comedic match-up.
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