Meg Ryan Movie Review: **^ Ithaca (2015)

 This movie is about a young man, Homer Macauley (Alex Neustaedter) who works as a delivery person with his bike.  Problems is he delivers telegraphs from the war department informing people of deaths in the war.  He works for Tom Spangler (Hamish Linklater) and with Willie Grogan (Sam Shepard).  His own father (Tom Hanks) has recently passed away but visits his mother (Meg Ryan) as a ghost.  His younger brother (Spencer Howell) is precocious and about town, his older sister (Christine Nelson) has a boyfriend, and his older brother (Jack Quaid) is off to war.  Everything falls apart when Grogan the telegraph operator get the message that Hoer's brother has been killed in the war.  The telegraph operator dies.  And Homer gets to deliver the message to his mother.  Fortunately a fellow soldier beats him to the home to tell his mother of the loss.  

I really didn't care for this movie.  I couldn't see what was the point.  Meg Ryan directed and it is baed on a book, The Human Comedy by William Saroyan.  

Tom Hanks Movie: ***^ Joe Versus the Volcano (1990)

 Joe (Tom Hanks) is down and miserable.  He is in a rut job, he has no relationships, ha has a boss from hell and he is hypochondriac.  All his money goes to paying doctor bills.  Finally the doctor tells him he has six months to live due to brain fog.  

This sets him free.  He quits his job, and asks his coworker, DeDe (Meg Ryan) on a date.  They have a good time, but when he mentions he has terminal illness the date ends.  She can't go with him as she needs her job.

Then he meets Graynamore (Lloyd Bridges) who offers him a job to jump into a volcano.  For this his last six months will be great and no lack of money.  He accepts.  

He meets Angelica (Meg Ryan) who is Graynamore's daughter.  She is nice.  She gets him from the plane to the boat that will take him to the island.  On the boat he meets another daughter, Patricia (Meg Ryan).  The are off on a sail boat to the island with the volcano.  He has four larghe trunks.  The sail into a typhoon, and the ship is lost.  However Joe saves Patricia, and his luggage.  They float on top of the luggage.  They finally spark a romance and kiss.  Joe tells Patricia what he is doing, going to jump into a volcano.  They are finally rescued by the island natives.  Joe is still determined to jump into the volcano.  However they confess their love and the island ruler marries them.  Patricia decides to jump in with him, and the volcano spits them out.  Somehow the luggage is also spit out and they have a make shift boat in which to sail into the sunset.  They also discover the doctor that told hm of his dying was actually Graynamore's doctor and that Joe was being played.  

This is a movie with a ridiculous plot that somehow works.  Meg Ryan playing three roles also seems to work.  

Movie Review: ****You've Got Mail (1998)

 You've Got Mail is a Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan romance, which gets off to a horrible start, as Joe Fox (Hanks) is a large book store magnate and putting Kathleen Kennedy (Ryan) who owns an independent book store out of business.  Unbeknownst to each other, they are falling in love as on line pen pals, while hating each other in the real world.  Will Kathleen Kennedy ever be able to forgive Joe Fox?  I enjoy this movie.  Both Hanks and Fox make likable characters, albeit Joe Fox is misunderstood.

Musical Movie Review; ****^Anastasia (1997)

This is one of my favorite animated musicals.   This film boasts an all star cast.  Meg Ryan portrays Anastasia, and Kirsten Dunst plays the girl Anastasia.  However they do not provide the singing parts.  Liz Callaway sings for Anastasia.  John Cusack and Kelsey Grammer plan the two who discover her.  Christopher Lloyd plays the evil Rasputin.  Bernadette Peters plays the grandmother's cohort, and Angela Lansbury the Queen mother, or Anastasia's grand mother.  I love the song "Once Upon a December."  "Journey to the Past" is also wonderful.  And the story of finding yourself, and then maybe that is not the thing you really want to do.  I think the Rasputin character may be over done.  He is always falling apart and putting himself back together, and it gets old after a time.

Movie Review: Sleepless in Seattle (1993)

This is a classic romance, and refers in several instances to another classic romance, "An Affair to Remember."  In this movie, Sam Baldwin has lost his wife to an illness.  His son Jonah (Ross Malinger), several months later is worried about him, and calls a late night talk show therapist.  He then puts his dad on the line, who goes ahead and describes his relationship with his wife.  At this point, every woman listening has fallen in love with him, and it leads to a letter campaign.  In the meantime, Annie Reed (Meg Ryan), a reporter also heard the broadcast live.  She doubts her own engagement to Walter (Bill Pullman).  She decides to pursue the story, as there is so much interest.  She even flies to Seattle from Baltimore, and sees him from afar.  He sees her as well, but they don't meet.  Of all the letter sent to them from around the country, Jonah picks Annie.  He makes arrangements for them to meet on the Empire State Building on Valentines.  However Sam refuses to go.  Jonah's friend helps him purchase a plane ticket, and he goes on his own.  So Sam follows, and fate is fate.
Good love story, but it does seem a bit far fetched.  But love always wins out in the end.  Even the fiance is OK with things.  Go figure.