DAILY CALL SHEET: AUGUST 21, 2026

Volunteers (1985) To escape serious bodily harm over unpaid gambling debts, snooty trust fund layabout Lawrence Bourne III hitches a ride on a Peace Corps plane to hide out in Thailand, only to discover his parents have arranged for him to be an involuntary volunteer in the organization's bridge building project. Having learned nothing, Lawrence spends his time teaching the locals how to play poker, unsuccessfully wooing fellow American Beth, and making deals with the region's drug lord. However, as Lawrence begins to develop real human feelings for Beth and various nefarious forces reveal plans of their own for the proposed bridge, Lawrence must decide what kind of person he really wants to be. Volunteers is one of those movies you know you've seen, but can't recall anything about it. Once you rewatch it, you remember why you forgot. Even though it has Tom Hanks. John Candy, the Donger, and the director of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and there's nothing blatantly awful about it, Volunteers just has little of the memorable quirkiness that defines so many of its 1980s contemporaries. It just is.

 

Unsurprisingly, the Church is big on volunteerism. In fact, in March 2025, she held The Jubilee of the World of Volunteering to celebrate those who take time out to participate in humanitarian works. In his homily, Pope Francis told volunteers their generosity and small, free gestures of service offer hope to society, especially in the “deserts of poverty and loneliness.” He went on to say In societies “too enslaved to market logic” where everything risks being measured by interest and profit, volunteering is a “prophecy and a sign of hope” that witnesses to the primacy of gratuitousness, solidarity, and service to those most in need. In short, volunteering is a concrete, visible living out of the Gospel message. And if you're looking for something more Church related than the Peace Corps, the Catholic Volunteer Network (CVN) is a membership organization of roughly 200 domestic and international Catholic (and some broader Christian) full-time volunteer and mission programs who would be more than happy to put you to work.

 

The Octagon (1980) Renowned karate champion Scott James accompanies a date home only to be attacked by ninjas. As Scott is played by Chuck Norris, he beats the living crap out of anyone dressed in all-black, but his date and her entire family are all murdered. Both an earring-wearing Lee Van Cleef and a millionairess whose hobby is assassinating terrorists attempt to enroll Scott in their efforts to track down the ninjas, but Scott wants nothing to do with it as he highly suspects the ninjas are being led by his estranged step-brother Seikura. The two had a heated rivalry as young ninja padawans, but after Seikura dishonored the family, he was exiled and Scott was ordered by his step-father to avoid Seikura for the rest of his life. That may no longer be possible, though, as events will soon force Scott to confront his step-brother at his secret ninja-training facility, The Octagon. This is early Chuck Norris and it shows, but if you ever dreamed of listening to Chuck gruffly whisper his internal monologue for an entire movie, this is the one for you.

 

It's commendable that Chuck didn't want to fight his step-brother, even though Seikura was the world's biggest d-bag even as a child. However, sometimes that kind of thing can't be avoided, especially if you're a Christian. As Jesus said in Matthew 10, "Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s foes will be those of his own household." Now, that sounds bad on the surface, but obviously Jesus isn't promoting family hatred and violence. That would be a bit off-brand. What He was getting at was the inevitable cost of true discipleship. When a person truly follows God, putting His Kingdom first, the occasional conflict with non-believers is unavoidable, even if they're family. So, Jesus wasn't encouraging strife, he was just being honest about the potential cost of following his teachings.