The 'Burbs

I generally do not like the movie format and category of the black comedy. Usually, they become so dark that they cease to be funny or entertaining to me...a good example of this is "War of the Roses". There have been some that I enjoyed though and this is one of them. I usually like the ones that only really edge towards the dark side a bit and I would say this one does that. It kind of goes into horror at times, but still remains funny unlike another black horror/comedy "Parents" with Randy Quaid. This film features a new family moving into a very old and not so attractive house. These newcomers are under immediate scrutiny and suspicion as they move in the middle of the night, do not do anything to really fix up the place, and are generally strange looking when some of the people in the neighborhood pay them a visit. Tom Hanks character is not really suspicious at first till his crazy neighbor and a paranoid one convince there is something up with the new family in the burbs. You get many funny scenes as these guys try to find proof that the new family is as strange as they look and are in fact up to something as the poodle a man who lives in the neighborhood shows up dirty and the neighbor ends up missing. The movie plays out rather good and is funny for the most part, at times it becomes a bit to dark as most black comedies tend to do. The cast is very funny and I think this is like the only movie I have seen Carrie Fisher in besides the Star Wars trilogy. Bruce Dern to me steals the show in terms of comedy followed by the neighbor who deduces the bone is human. Not sure of his name or any other movies he has done prior to or since this one. Even Corey Feldman does a rather good job. So all in all this is a nice trip to the burbs.

It is so ironic that Tom Hanks' first name here happens to be Ray, because from the moment I started watching this, it reminded me of the darkness behind the sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond". The neighbors are as darkly freaky as the rest of the Barone family with Hanks a definite variation of Ray Romano and Carrie Fisher as uptight and irascible as Debra Barone. Add in such odd characters as Gale Gordan's grumpy old man, chronically high teen Corey Feldman and Bruce Dern's redneck. This is suburban hell, and there appears to be no escape. When Hanks, Dern and another neighbor snoop on the newcomers, they spot someone who looks like Eddie Munster and Lurch's love child with what appears to be a body bag, they suspect foul play. Then, grumpy Gordan disappears, furthering the mystery. The three men begin to get spooked out, and from there, things just weirder and weirder, starting with a dream sequence that make Tevye's nightmare seem like having tea with Mr. Rogers. With neighbors like this (which includes "Laugh-In" actor Henry Gibson as a rather strange doctor), who needs cul de sacs? I've had my share of strange or annoying neighbors over the years, but at least I could find things to laugh about. I found minimalistic things to laugh at here, and the whole black comedy theme is truly overdone. Perhaps on paper, the script seemed funnier, or overtime it has just been weighed down in bad taste. The late 1980's and early 90's had a slew of strange neighbor comedies with suburban themes, and a good majority of them are truly bad. But this one is even worse, because it seems to pride itself on thinking that it is much funnier than it is, and in retrospect that smugness is what kills it.

I saw "The Burbs" in 1989, in a theater, with a lady. After about half of the film was done we turned to each other and said, "You really want to see this all the way through?" We walked out. I've been watching movies for about 50 years, all the way back to Gene Autry and Roy Rogers as a kid. I've walked out of only one movie in my whole life, because I generally try to identify with what the writer and director were trying to do. I walked out of "The Burbs", it is that bad. It is dark and dumb. It is not interesting. It puzzles me to this day that some actually think this is a fine movie. Just wanted to add a comment to try and give a balanced perspective. The other film I gave a "1" to is "The Blair Witch Project", but I at least was able to watch it all the way through. Maybe that's because it was at home on DVD.

Great cast with a one joke premise that works. Dante is the key ingredient here and he doesn't take the easy road. Hybrid genre films are tough and this film was met with negativity from the critics, the fans are the ones who gave life to this cult gem. Dark, weird and Dante, if you can't jump on the same page you'll miss a great film.

The Burbs is an oddball comedy, and you can hardly call it that, but it's quite dark too with it's cannibalistic themes, but as I see it, is patently a misfire, where it borrows a little from other films. This is not the first time, we've been around this course of story. We suspect our new neighbors aren't what they seem scenario, where they're cannibals if to add some spice, and dark spice at that. When people, animals, start to go missing, there goes the neighborhood. Paranoid neighbors, Hanks, and his real paranoid eccentric neighbor, (a marvelous Bruce Dern) are determined to get to the bottom of this. Just check out Hank's "C'mon, you want to f..k with me, I'll take you on" expression on the cover. The Burbs, sadly wastes some bloody good actors, though we're glad to have them in this mess of suburbia, where in the end, The Burbs don't add up to much, in a sort of ho hum way. Courtney Gains is great as the head weirdo, Hans, the best thing about this flick, but you can't forget Dern either.

"The 'Burbs" is writer / co-producer / actor Dana Olsens' deliberately warped invention. The idea is to remove the picture perfect outer layer of average American suburban life and reveal what potential insanity could be bubbling underneath. In so doing, he also makes fun of suburbanites who seem to make it their business to know everybody elses' business. Tom Hanks stars as Ray Peterson, your typical 'burb dweller, who ends up severely stressed out when his nutty neighbors - Bruce Dern as ex-military man Mark Rumsfield and the late comedian Rick Ducommun as nosey instigator Art Weingartner - spur him to action. They keep hearing weird noises, and seeing weird things, concerning the newcomers to the street, the Klopeks (Henry Gibson, Brother Theodore, Courtney Gains), and wonder just what the hell is going on inside the Klopek house. To make matters more interesting, their elderly neighbor Walter Seznick (Gale Gordon) goes missing. Could the Klopeks be responsible for his disappearance? Ray tries his best to be rational and skeptical, but finds himself drawn in more and more by his kooky comrades and the things he witnesses. Acting as a genuine voice of reason is his understandably frustrated wife Carol (Carrie Fisher). The whole thing becomes rather over the top, but then a sense of anarchy to his stories has always been filmmaker Joe Dantes' ("Piranha" '78, "The Howling", "Gremlins") strong suit. Olsen and Dante have fun with the dark comedy aspect to this yarn, and there are some quite funny bits along the way. Viewing the whole circus from the sidelines is neighborhood teen Ricky Butler (Corey Feldman), who tries to convince his peers that the goings on here are better than any movie they could watch. Among those who really get into the spirit of the material are production designer James Spencer and composer Jerry Goldsmith. Hanks is terrific, and much like the legendary Gene Wilder, proves to be a master at freaking out in a comedic way. But the whole cast is great, with Ducommun often going to town on the scenery. The cast is filled with familiar faces: Wendy Schaal, Dick Miller (Dantes' good luck charm for many years), Robert Picardo, Franklyn Ajaye, Rance Howard, Nicky Katt, Kevin Gage, Patrika Darbo. Olsen himself appears as a cop. While the story is ultimately rather predictable, it does keep you watching, and amused - and may make you wonder what goes on behind your own neighbors' doors. Seven out of 10.

I was pretty excited for this movie since the plot summary about a suburban family worried that their reclusive and mysterious neighbors might be a cannibalistic cult sounded intriguing. However, what really resulted was just a comedic mess of overzealous and overly excited characters, corny and annoying acting and a slow-moving story. Because of the forced humor that succumbed most of the movie, any suspense and thrills of the mysterious-neighbor plot device was lost. Rick Ducommun was one of the nosy suburbanites and created much of the annoyance and damage to the course of events, as did the childish, clownish and ridiculous Bruce Dern. Corey Feldman tried to pull off a bad boyish teenager look, who really didn't do anything in the film, and Tom Hanks acted like he was overly frustrated much of the time during the movie. I actually thought the mysterious neighbor characters had the best acting and chemistry. There may be a tidbit of thrilling moments in and there, for example, the part where Tom Hanks sneaks into the neighbors' house at night to try to find incriminating evidence. But, don't let the horror genre label fool you - this movie is just a poor attempt at black comedy that even kids won't find funny. Grade D---

Weirdness can work in sketch format. This is because there is no setup or explanation required for what is going on; the humour is supposed to be instantaneous. We see something that is weird on screen, and we laugh because it is weird, also in the knowledge that whatever's on screen will go away shortly. There is potential for comedy to be found in the premise of "The 'burbs", but unfortunately the script fails to extract any of it. I know the ineptitude of the film can be traced directly back to the quality (or lack thereof) of the script, because director Joe Dante is capable of crafting great entertainment given the right material ("Gremlins", "Innerspace"). There are also a number of usually reliable performers here struggling with the weakness of what they are given. The paucity of the end result that reaches our screens can be explained by the approach that the script tries to take. This is a feature film, so some attempt should have been made to flesh out the main character, to make the audience relate to him. You have a basic plot here, USE IT! USE IT TO AT LEAST HALF OF ITS FULL POTENTIAL PLEASE!!! There is no need for the humour here to be instantaneous like a sketch show, because we're working from a much broader canvas where the plot can even be established before the humour arrives. The 'sketch' analogy that describes the approach of the movie presents various problems which dog the film throughout its running time. In a sketch, we laugh because something is weird. In a film, we expect the comedy to originate from the situation that has been presented to us. Too often in this film, we are shown things that are strange, and are expected to laugh because of this, despite the fact that their importance to the situation is TOTALLY arbitrary. The situation would still be the same if they weren't there, they're just thrown in to make us laugh. I would say though, that if you can't develop the situation competently enough so that it makes us laugh on its own, without the aid of cheap gimmicks, then comedy isn't your forte. That's a message to the writers... Also, as I said, we laugh at a sketch because we know it will be over shortly. It should be obvious that the funny parts of the sketch are not strong enough to be sustained over a longer period. One of the worst things about watching "The 'burbs" is that if you don't find the 'awkward' weirdness funny (as you can surmise I didn't), you know that the execution period won't be mercifully brief, unlike a sketch. It was an awful moment when I realised I had to sit through this unfunny tosh for AT LEAST another hour and twenty minutes... If you like the idea of stupid events that don't sit well with the overall plot of the film, then you might like this. The rest of us will just scratch our heads in wonder at why anybody might enjoy a comedy that is otherwise laugh-free.

Tom Hanks is now considered a great actor. After the huge successes of "Philadelphia" (1993) and "Forrest Gump" (1994) (along with two Academy Awards), every film he's in is a hit. But, back in the 1980s, he made a string of pretty bad comedies ("Splash" and "Big" are exceptions and I have a soft spot for "Bachelor Party"). But does anyone remember "Volunteers"? "The Man With One Red Shoe"? And the one we're talking about now? It's pretty mediocre. A strange family moves into a picture perfect neighborhood in suburbia and people come to believe they're murderers. Basically this is a satire on suburban living but it doesn't say anything new or different about it. The cast is great, it has beautiful production designs and a fantastic score that is very clever---but it has a bad script. The jokes are there but they aren't funny--after a while it becomes a chore to watch this movie. I was dozing off during the last half! The only thing that keeps this watchable is the good acting by the cast--especially Tom Hanks (who is always good), Carrie Fisher, Henry Gibson and Bruce Dern. Also it's the late Gale Gordon's last movie. It's always great to see him and he was always funny, but he looks terrible here. Sadly he was suffering from cancer. So, this isn't unbearable just not very good. A few lines do work, but it's not worth seeing. Go rent "Splash" or "Big" instead. One of the few bombs director Joe Dante has done.

This is a great example of what Tom Hanks was doing in his former career of a comedic actor, before he returned to serious acting. The story follows three incredibly nosey suburbanites, spying on their new neighbours the Klopek's as they expect them to be murderers. Winning performances all round, but especially from Hanks. He is well supported by the likes of Carrie Fisher, as his wife, and ex-army man Bruce Dern, with Henry Gibson giving his usual solid performance. A greatly funny movie which leaves you wondering why Hanks ever turned his back on comedy.