Tom Hanks and John Candy lead us on this shallow, silly tour of an unusually volatile Peace Corp mission to Thailand. Both play wacky charicatures - Hanks as a snooty New Hampshire socialite in the wrong place, Candy a naive simpleton with two left feet - and that extra dash of color ultimately saves the picture from sliding into the deepest dregs.

Though the plot revolves around the construction of a massive wooden bridge to benefit the natives, we spend most of the picture watching Hanks's Kennedy wannabe struggle to emerge from his loathsome, self-absorbed shell, largely inspired by the unrequited affections of fellow missionary Rita Wilson. The pair would actually spark a lifelong romance during filming (they're still together today, bucking the Hollywood norm) but the on-set chemistry doesn't translate to anything special on the screen. Lightly humorous in the spirit of an only-okay SNL sketch, it's inoffensive and flashy but not all that memorable.

I know that many of the early-to-mid 80's movies don't hold up and that I am grading on a bit of a curve here. But wow, this movie is a steaming pile of dung. I don't know how you mess up a comedy where you have Tom Hanks and John Candy, but here is exhibit A. Hanks doesn't do a bad job (although he does slip in and out of a New England accent, sometimes even in the same scene) but we've seen this role played much better by Bill Murray. It really does feel like a very poor imitation of the likes of Stripes and Spies Like Us. I don't even want to waste any more time thinking about it.

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