This movie is good on so many levels it's not funny...
At the shallowest levels it allowed our first glimpse of the funny yet romantic chemistry between Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. The rest of the cast is amazing and funny as well. Abe Vigoda as the half Jewish, half Polynesian chieftain, Dan Hedaya as the mindless and oppressive boss, Lloyd Bridges and Robert Stack and of course Amanda Plummer in yet another totally bizarre roll as the enigmatic Dagmar.
If you look even deeper the movie shows us that our self actualization should not be based on some slavish work-a-day existence. The whole movie is one big metaphor. The volcano represents the "system" in which healthy, productive and basically good people are sacrificed in the name of keeping that status quo. Joe and DeDe show that with their love and faith in each other (and in a good set of steamer trunks) they survive being sacrificed to the system and are in turn rejected by it.
If you want to get scary deep you might even derive an anti-semitic message from the movie given that the Waponies are half Jewish and sacrifice people to the system (but offer up no sacrifices themselves). I hope this is not the true message of the movie since it's actually one of my favorites but that's just the way my mind works.
At the shallowest levels it allowed our first glimpse of the funny yet romantic chemistry between Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. The rest of the cast is amazing and funny as well. Abe Vigoda as the half Jewish, half Polynesian chieftain, Dan Hedaya as the mindless and oppressive boss, Lloyd Bridges and Robert Stack and of course Amanda Plummer in yet another totally bizarre roll as the enigmatic Dagmar.
If you look even deeper the movie shows us that our self actualization should not be based on some slavish work-a-day existence. The whole movie is one big metaphor. The volcano represents the "system" in which healthy, productive and basically good people are sacrificed in the name of keeping that status quo. Joe and DeDe show that with their love and faith in each other (and in a good set of steamer trunks) they survive being sacrificed to the system and are in turn rejected by it.
If you want to get scary deep you might even derive an anti-semitic message from the movie given that the Waponies are half Jewish and sacrifice people to the system (but offer up no sacrifices themselves). I hope this is not the true message of the movie since it's actually one of my favorites but that's just the way my mind works.