Volunteers (1985)

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Tom Hanks stars as a snobby college graduate who escapes gambling debts by joining the Peace Corps on a bridge-building mission in Thailand. But when he discovers that struggle for control of the new pathway will make the local village the center of bloodshed, he and his Corps friends decide they must undo the work they have done.

Volunteers is a very un-funny movie. It’s like director Nicholas Meyer (Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan, Time After Time) was forced at gunpoint to make a serious story into a comedy. There’s intrinsic comedy in Hanks’ character being a fish out of water, but other than that, Volunteers falls flat on its face in almost every other attempt to work up a chuckle. Hanks and co-star John Candy have a few decent moments early in the film — something the film could have built on. But instead, Candy and Hanks are separated for the majority of the film, with not much of anything funny to react to.

Despite the star power of Hanks and Candy, fully capable supporting players Rita Wilson and Tim Thomerson, a great director like Meyer, and even a noteworthy score by James Horner — Volunteers just doesn’t work as a comedy or a drama. With Gedde Watanabe, George Plimpton, and Xander Berkeley.