The ‘Burbs (1989)

“I’ve never seen that. I’ve never seen anybody drive their garbage down to the street and bang the hell out of it with a stick. I-I’ve never seen that. ” – Ray

Number of Times Seen – at least twice (cable in the 90’s and 14 Sep 2017)

Brief Synopsis – Three neighbors suspect that something mysterious is going on in a house down the street, so they decide to investigate.

My Take on it – This is a film that is too wacky, weird and quirky for its own good.

It works only part of the time but just goes places where it just loses everything it tries to achieve beforehand.

The cast itself is quite good and I would have expected more from some of them.

I liked the camaraderie of Tom Hanks, Rick Ducommun and Bruce Dern and they were able to take things to the crazyiest extreme.

Hanks, of course does a fine job here like he always does but what’s so interesting is the fact that it is impossible to guess that this is the man who will win two back-to-back Oscars just 4 years after this film came out.

Carrie Fisher is really wasted here as Hanks’ wife and isn’t really given enough to do here.

Corey Feldman was a great choice tho as the teenager who gives us all a play-by-play as to what is happening.

The biggest problem with this film is that after about 30 minutes, things really taper off and it’s extremely easy to lose interest in what is happening and not care about what will happen to any of the characters.

Bottom Line – Wacky idea that only works part of the time. Hanks, Ducommun and Dern work well together to make this crazy to the extreme. Fisher is unfortunately wasted in her role.  Feldman is great in his role as a sorta narrator or play by play man. The main problem is that after 30 minutes, it’s quite easy to lose interest and not care at all about what will happen to any of the characters.  Hanks does a fine job as always, but there is no way one would be able to guess by his performance that he was just 4 years away from his first Oscar win.

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – At the time the movie was being filmed, Corey Feldman and Michael Jackson were close friends. While the King of Pop did not visit the set, his famed chimpanzee Bubbles was a frequent guest, but had to be confined to Feldman’s trailer while he was filming. After shooting, Corey would return to his trailer to find that the chimp had defecated and spread the mess around the interior. This problem repeated itself and became such a distraction that Joe Dante eventually banned Bubbles from the set. (From IMDB)

Rating – BAFTA Worthy

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