Roger Ebert's Journal: "APRIL 25, 2008--Every year I keep meaning to include 'Joe vs. the Volcano' in Ebertfest, and every year something else squeezes it out, some film more urgently requiring our immediate attention, you see. The 1990 John Patrick Shanley film, starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, was about a wage slave in a factory where dark clouds lower o'er the sky; he is told he has a Brain Cloud, with only five months to live. How this leaves him to become a candidate for human sacrifice in the South Seas follows a long and winding road, in a film that was a failure in every possible way except that I loved it."
Roger Ebert, Vince Keenan, me, and Judy. That's about all I know who feel this way.
15 comments:
You can add my wife Rosemarie to this list too, Bill. I adore the movie to this day.
I believe there was a singing group called We Five. Now we have a movie appreciation group that we can give the same name.
This is one that keeps slipping by my to watch list. I can't recall how my blushing bride feels about it (that may be why I still haven't seen it).
One of the worst pieces of dreck I've ever had the misfortune to (partly) sit through. It gave me the worst headache I've had at the movies since Eraserhead and reaffirms the long-held belief that Ebert has taste in his butt.
Jeff M.
And my wife, which makes five--six?
I've never seen it.
I enjoyed it a lot. It's the only Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan film that I liked.
It's one of my favorite movies.I love its gentle, whimsical sensibility. That and the scene where Hanks catches the shark. Cracks me up every time. mtm
I knew Jeff M. hated this one. But because of it, I own good luggage.
There sure was a We Five. Their big hit here was "There'll Never Be Another You."
Nope, Cap'n. It was "You Were on My Mind" that the We Five did. "There'll Never Be Another You" was The Seekers (or possibly The New Seekers).
Jeff
I think it's slightly too smart for the mainstream. Slightly. Somewhat more enjoyable than people give it credit for.
VG
My wife LOVES this movie. Nevertheless, I remain with her.
Jerry House
I'm a fan of this movie, too. I have no particular reasons, beyond Meg Ryan being cute (and using the word "flibbertigibbet"), Tom Hanks being genial as usual, Abe Vigoda playing a Polynesian chief (!?!), and Robert Stack describing the "Brain Cloud," which I think is a very real, if not generally fatal, disease. (I get them now and then, and indeed I am willing to consider the possibility that a Brain Cloud affects my judgment of this movie.)
Rusty
This might be my problem, too.
I enjoy the movie a lot also, though it's been a long time since I've seen it.
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