The Volunteer

Promising premise and opening shortly descend into unduly protracted tedium.

A blas Hanks redeems this string of sexist, racist, comic clichs with winning charm. It's funny.

A little melancholy may blend with the laughter ''Volunteers'' draws at the expense of those earnest days when a President was urging people to ask what they could do for their country.

Hanks is excellent and has a way with funny lines that marks him as one of the better droll comic actors, if given the right material. Here, writers Ken Levine and David Isaacs have provided the actors with solid jokes.