10 Insane Movies Way Deeper Than They Look

In fairness, you can't really be blamed for having low intellectual expectations for a film called Joe Versus the Volcano, in which the titular protagonist (Tom Hanks) learns he's dying of a rare disease, and so accepts a financial offer to become a human sacrifice by hurling himself into a volcano on a remote Pacific island.

From its title to its poster and its trailer, Joe Versus the Volcano looks like a broader-than-broad screwball rom-com, yet considering it's written by Oscar, Tony, and Pulitzer-winning writer John Patrick Shanley (Moonstruck, Doubt), we probably should've expected more from it.

And indeed, it's far from your run-of-the-mill multiplex rom-com, likely explaining why it underperformed at the box office.

Beyond its more obvious observations about living life to the fullest, Joe Versus the Volcano is also a fascinating meditation on mortality and how we in the western world process death - especially if we're given advance knowledge of it.

Moreover, it has a lot to say about capitalism: Joe works a soul-destroying job at the start of the film - one he quits upon receiving his diagnosis - and is ultimately agreeing to jump in a volcano to appease a wealthy industrialist (Lloyd Bridges) who wishes to mine the island for manufacturing materials.

For a film that sounds so thoroughly silly, it has so much more going on beneath the surface.