The 'Burbs (1989) Director Joe Dante flourished best in the 1980's.........where he established himself as a wickedly funny fantasist........ he specialized in turning Americana settings upside down with wry infusions of cartoonish sci-fi and horror........("Gremlins", "Innerspace", "Explorers" the 'Good Life' segment of "Twilight Zone- The Movie")
"The 'Burbs", on the surface anyway, seems close to Dante's signature work.......suburbanites driven to lunacy by their suspicion that their eccentric new neighbors are monstrous killers.
Minus any actual monsters or aliens, the film comes off like a funhouse variation of the classic early 'Twilight Zone' TV episode, 'The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street'.
The Dante cartoon-like characters here are three arrested development neighbors (Tom Hanks, Bruce Dern, Rick Ducommun) who've worked themselves into a hysteric frenzy over the creepy new next door neighbors (Henry Gibson, Brother Theodore, Courtney Gains).
In keeping with Dante's affinity for fantasy, everyone lives on the Universal Studios backlot reproduction of a suburban street.........yes, it's the same street everyone's visited hundreds of times.....in episodes of 'Leave It To Beaver', 'The Munsters' and countless other TV shows and films.
And fittingly, the cast and crew of 'The 'Burbs' had to stop filming to make way for the
tourists aboard the Universal Studios tram tour......
Any fun? Sure thing. Since the film shot in the middle of a writer's strike (with re-writes, fix-ups and script polishing strictly outlawed), Dante encouraged his actors to improvise.......which indeed they do.......with such sweaty intensity, they carry on as if they're 10 seconds away from a nervous breakdown.
In the midst of the escalating chaos, Carrie Fisher wanders in and out of the film as Hanks' wife, functioning like an exasperated day care worker who's been forced to wrangle adult-sized babies.
Dante does excel, however, in the casting of his knockoff Addams Family-type villains, taking full advantage of the inherent strangeness of Henry Gibson and Brother Theodore.......(we fondly recall Brother Theodore, a would-be combo comic/performance artist, from his unhinged appearances on talk shows. He enjoyed leering at starlets sitting next to him, growling, "How would you like to become Theodora?")
With no creatures or aliens to fall back on for his big finale, Dante has to orchestrate an exhaustive Looney Tunes slapstick finish, putting his actors through all manner of Wile E. Coyote physical punishment that would kill real human beings.
And that takes us to most disappointing part of the film, since you realize all the noise and pratfalls were designed to distract you from the film's mundane, severely disappointing ending. Anyone waiting for Dante to pull the rug out from under this story with a twist worthy of the film's overall craziness.........nope, never happens.
But Hanks, Ducommun and Dern bust their asses to wring fun out of what they were handed.......and on the voltage of their inventive energy, they make it work most of the time.......and turned the movie into a well thought of, well recalled cult favorite.
Special kudos to composer Jerry Goldsmith's score, which more than keeps up with and matches this fractured suburban fairy tale..........2 & 1/2 stars (** 1/2).......this definitely does
not fall into our category of 'Movies-fun-to-remember-but-a-chore-to-watch'.......'The 'Burbs' is still a hoot, after all these years.....
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