I finally have gotten around to seeing The ‘Burbs by director Joe Dante. It was put out in 1989.
I can really relate to Ray Peterson (Tom Hanks). For his vacation he just wants to sit around, watch the ball game, drink a couple hundred beers and maybe smoke some cigars.
I actually just took a vacation where I hung out in my back yard. While I didn’t watch the ball game, drink a couple hundred beers and smoke some cigars, it was a fantastic vacation.
The Burbs 102 minutes and Rated PG.
The total cast includes: Tom Hanks, Bruce Dern, Carrie Fisher, Corey Feldman, Rick Ducommun.
It’s good to see Corey Feldman young again. He’s pretty funny in this role.
Bruce Dern pictured here is top notch in this film. He’s captivating in each scene.
Here’s a nice comprehensive link to a site that gives a good analysis of the movie: the ‘burbs | about
The 1980’s fashion in this movie are pretty fun. Boxer shorts with tights. Black leather jacket with studs on the lapels and sholders. It’s always fun to remember where we came from.
Carrie Fisher(Carol) is cute in the ‘Burbs.
Rocky (my wife) just pointed out, that no matter what the neighbors are doing, you know that the punch line will be that they are doing nothing out of the ordinary. I suppose that comes from seeing 16 years of movies since this movie. A movie like The ‘Burbs comes up with a good idea and then it’s redone in tons of different ways.
Here’s how the plot lays out: Walter, a missing neighbor, is thought to be killed by these mysterious neighbors. The theory is that the Clopeks offered up Walter as a human sacrifice in a Satanic Ritual. As Ray ponders this more and more, he is inundated with scarey satanic movies on TV. In a dream sequence, A Stihl chain saw rips through his wall(they even had product placement back then). Ray is strapped to a large grill by Satan-like creatures and is sacrificed. He gradually falls prey to the belief that these neighbors are satanic killers.
Ray and his friends have a plan. His wife Carol doesn’t let him come out and play. So his friends create a plan… slipping a note, “I know what you’ve done,” under their door, ringing the doorbell and running. Ray thinks the neighbors will suspect him because he placed a note under Walter’s door.
Vince (the dog) comes across a femur bone from underneath the fence of the satanic neighbors. The trio believe the bone is that of Walter’s.
The neighbors throw the note over Ray’s fence – scaring Ray even more. Carol enacts a plan to go over to the neighbors and invite them over for dinner. She is the person of reason in this film.
The campy-ness of the movie starts to really take off at this point. Falling through old porch floor boards, echoey booming door knocker.
Hanz, Ruben(Hanz’s uncle), and the Doctor, Ruben’s brother all have the other neighbors over for tea. Ray finds Walter’s toupee, which he stuffed through Walter’s mail slot.
Ray is determined to find Walter’s dead body in the neighbors’ house. Ray sends his family away and he and his friends conspire a major strategy to infiltrate the house. Art tries to cut the electric to their house, shocking him off of the electric pole sending him crashing int a shed. Art does manage to cut the right electric cable.
They make it over the fence. They try finding bodies by digging some holes in the backyard. They find nothing. They break into the house by breaking out a window pane. Ray and Art make their way to the basement. They find a massive furnace, the thermostat goes to 5000 degrees. The whole house is wired with batteries. “This is no ordinary furnace,” Ray says. Ray and art suspect they have created a crematorium.
The sinister neighbors come upon their house and see that their house has been infiltrated.
As Ray continues to dig in the neighbor’s basement, Walter comes back. Walter was at the hospitol, for having heart palpitations. Ray digs too deep and hits the gas line. He blows up the neighbor’s house. Ray was still in the house when it blows up. He, however, makes it out. However, he is quite injured.
Ray Peterson is in a world of trouble. Destruction of property, vandalism, trespassing, etc. And Walter believes Ray gave a ransom note for his dog.
This movie represents a lot of the condition of modern day society. People’s lives are so unfulfilled that they begin making up extreme scenarios that aren’t really there.
Ray has a good speech where the moral of the movie comes out. The people in The ‘Burbs are the lunatics, not the people who act differently. It’s the people that obsess about their lawns.
The Doctor tells a scarey story that there was a skull in his furnace of the previous neighbor. They wouldn’t sell the house to them, so the doctor killed the Knapps.
It turns out that the the trunk of the scarey neighbors was filled with human bones.
Rocky admitted that she was wrong about the end of the movie. The neighbors really were evil.
Ray comes to the realization that his wife is what is most important to him.
And that’s it. Happily ever after.
Rocky points out that the movie didn’t really bring much to the movie world. There wasn’t a lot of unique perspective. The moral was weak. The story wasn’t particular special. She kind of felt that those were 102 minutes that she will never be able to get back.
To me, it does seem like more of a movie I might catch on a Sunday afternoon. It wasn’t partularly great, as far as I was concerned. I’m not unhappy I saw it. But I wasn’t overly taken by it. It was ok. I guess I could have gone my whole life without seeing it.