Plot: What’s it about?
Let’s face it here…when you think of Tom Hanks, most of us will never associate him with Joe versus the Volcano. It’s just not feasible or practical in any way, shape or form. But this movie may be a little better than it’s box office proves, for several reasons. First of all, it’s not that bad of a movie. Admittedly, I had never seen it until it’s release on DVD. It’s one of those movies that I’ve seen in the video store (back when I actually went to the video store) dozens of times, but when it came to a Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan movie, I would inevitably pick up Sleepless in Seattle and be content with my so-called decision. Well, that just might change after viewing this little film. Written and directed by John Patrick Shanley (who also wrote Moonstruck), it’s an offbeat film that was rather enjoyable to watch. Sporting a good cast and what’s probably the most important aspect of the film is that it first teamed up Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Though they’ve only made three films together (and most likely people will remember the latter two), I feel they will go on to make some more together, as we all love seeing them on screen.
Tom Hanks plays Joe, aptly enough. Joe is essentially a drone who goes to work every day at a job that he hates (as does all of his co-workers). His overbearing boss, Waturi (Dan Hedaya) doesn’t make life any easier for him either. Somewhat of a hypochondriac Joe soon finds out that his health troubles are the two hemispheres of his brain acting up. They are forming a "brain cloud" and though he will feel great for a few months, he will not live another year. Joe treats this as an epiphany of sorts and quits his job feeling free and having a newfound respect for life. To make matters more interesting, Joe is then greeted by Graynamore (Lloyd Bridges) who offers Joe a very interesting deal. The deal runs down like this: Joe gets to live like a king for the last few months of his life on an island inhabited by a tribe and, of course, a volcano. To appease the tribe, Joe must sacrifice himself by throwing himself into the volcano. Odd, but then again he figures that he’s going to die anyway, so why not make the best of it?
In somewhat of an offbeat role for Hanks, he certainly went on to better things. Don’t get me wrong, I rather enjoyed this movie and it’s nice to see Hanks when he did movies for $20 million a pop. Ryan is great as well, portraying no less than three roles in the film. This is the classic definition of a movie that is underappreciated by the masses and, hence, it did terrible at the box office. But don’t feel too bad, we know that Hanks would go onto win two Academy Awards in the next five years and that Ryan would use this as a launching pad to do another "umpteen" romantic comedies. Give Joe and his Volcano a chance, you just might like what you see. I did.
Video: How does it look?
It’s usually a given that when Warner puts out a feature film on DVD, that it will feature an anamorphic transfer. This might not have been true in the early days of the format, but for the last few years, it’s been the standard. Recently I’ve noticed on some movies like The Outlaw Josey Wales and 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick 2.0) that a phrase has been imprinted on the back of the DVD box. It reads "All new 2001 digital transfer…" granted, every title isn’t like this, but to me it just says "We’ve spent an extra amount of time on this transfer and made it the best it can be". I could be wrong, but after watching the film, I have to say that it looks pretty darn good for a film some 12 years old. I noticed no artifacting whatsoever and the detail is sharp as a razor. The opening scenes with Joe in his job are purposely dark and muted, but once he starts his journey the colors seem to explode off the screen. Black levels are on target and flesh tones are accurate. Warner, I hope you give this same treatment to some of your future titles this year (GoodFellas, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Amadeus to name a few)!
Audio: How does it sound?
The soundtrack has also been remixed for Dolby Digital 5.1. Now it’s not impressive as the video, but it does sound pretty good at times. The movie isn’t that old, but parts of it do sound "manufactured" which is more of a hollow sound to it almost saying "I’ve been remixed!!!" In any case, the sound is nothing to complain about, nor is it anything to write home about. The surrounds are used, though sparingly and the dialogue doesn’t suffer from any distortion. Still, something about the whole mix left me feeling a bit uneasy. Maybe if I didn’t know it was remixed I wouldn’t have noticed (or cared), but I did and I do. Still, there’s nothing wrong with it and it more than serves it’s purpose here.
Supplements: What are the extras?
Warner would like to make you think that this is a special edition of some sorts…think again. I do give them credit for the amazing video presentation and the remixing of the soundtrack, but the only real supplements are in the form of a music video, a 5 minute featurette (that they label a documenary on the box), some cast bios and a trailer. That’s all you get folks…nothing more.
