Eighty Eighties Movies #1: The Burbs (1989)

Welcome to this, the inaugural edition of Eighty Eighties Movies. This blog will be an ongoing series of quick movies reviews based on movies I recently watched, be it for the first time or the thirty first  time. I've wanted to open up to more movie reviews for the blog, but never really found any common idea to cover them. I've tried different ideas, but none really produced the most engaging of content. But that's where I came up with this idea. As an incentive to motivate me to more movie reviews, I thought I'd make it into some sort of project. And the project concept that I ultimately came up with is this. Over the course of the next few months, there will be more regular movie reviews, all based on films from the 1980's. These can range from any genre, and from any year from 1980-1989. Sometimes I'll even watch them on VHS for that added classic feel (though mostly I'll just scour Netflix). This won't be a movie-a-day thing, as I do have other blog projects to cover, but I'll be regular as possible with this particular project. And we kick things off with...

THE BURBS (1989)

Director: Joe Dante
Starring: Tom Hanks, Carrie Fisher, Bruce Dern, Corey Feldman, Rick Ducommun

Our first movie covered for the blog is 1989's dark comedy "The Burbs", which is a film I never really sat down to watch until recently, and honestly, I feel like I missed out on this one. Director Joe Dante (Gremlins, The Howling, Innerspace) gives us a look into the psychotic world of suburbia, where the seemingly normal people may be more insane than the new creeps on the block.

The film stars Tom Hanks as Ray Peterson, a normal, albeit extremely paranoid man, who is taking a week away from work to finally relax. However, instead of calming down, he becomes transfixed with what his new neighbors the Klopeks are up to. Weird explosions in the basement, digging in the backyard, among other disturbing situations. It also doesn't help Ray's situation that his friends Art (Ducommun) and the crazed army man Rumsfield (Dern) continue to push him further into getting involved in finding out what is up with the Klopeks.

When one of their neighbors, mysteriously vanishes, Ray, Art and Rumsfield all suspect that the Klopeks must be a group of murderers. With the threesome causing more trouble than even the Klopeks, Ray's wife Carol (Fisher) suggests that everyone go visit their new neighbors, who consist of Hans, Reuben and Dr. Werner, who come off as extremely creepy with something to hide. This ultimately leads Ray to sneak into the Klopeks house while they're away with focus on finding out just what they're up to. Which all leads into an explosive finale. Literally.

I genuinely liked this movie. The comedy was excellent, with Hanks' Ray going further into madness by the end of the film. One particular scene in the film involving a nightmare sequence of Ray strapped to a barbecue being prodded by the Klopeks and others is a great visual, immediately juxtaposed to the calmness Mr. Rogers following the nightmare. They give you just enough of a creepy vibe to the film without it delving too much into horror, or being too lewd or violent. It's probably one of the best dark comedies made that can actually work as a family film. Also, since I love the aesthetic of late 80s material, I love seeing little things like the box of Freakies cereal, or the old tube TV in Ray's bedroom, which he uses to watch The Excorcist and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

If I had any real issues with the film, I will say Corey Feldman's character felt kind of superfluous. He's a little too much "Eighties dude" for my taste, and really doesn't do much other than be an observer to all the craziness going on. I also wish Carrie Fisher's role was more important as she was great in this film. Also, and this does spoil the end, I do wish the Klopeks were ultimately just innocent and this was all just the results of the neighborhood's paranoia and nothing more. But that would have to explain how Ray wasn't going to end up in jail after blowing up their house, so confirming their evil by the end was still a solid way to wrap this up. It does kind of sour a great moment of energy from Tom Hanks ranting about how they're the real lunatics.

Overall, I'd recommend The Burbs if you haven't caught it. It's a fun plot, moves at a solid 100 minutes. It isn't laugh a minute, but the comedy within is still great, and there's enough intrigue to the mystery to keep you  going. There are a lot of things within that don't hold up all to well, but for a first choice in this project, I think I made the right choice for a movie to review. I give The Burbs a B+.