The 'Burbs

 ****

1989. Truthfully despite how I might go on and on (and others around my age of 39) about the 80s and the decade’s influence on my taste in the movies, it was the 90s where I did my serious actual watching. In the summers of my youth, when a VCR was finally affordable and available, I was able to borrow video tapes from my uncle, rent a few, and record a few when I can have the luxury of accumulating allowance to purchase blank tapes. HBO at my grandmother’s house (thanks to my cousin (who lived with her) and uncle (who lived with her)) clued me in on some of the “cool movies” (Repo Man, Mad Max, The Terminator, Alien, Re-Animator, Return of the Living Dead, The Hitcher, Caddyshack, Meatballs, Killer Klowns from Outer Space, Bachelor Party, Revenge of the Nerds, etc.). So I recorded what I could when I could be over there, with my uncle willing to allow it. My mom was none the wiser. I was quite educated! Whenever I get to that review of Return of the Living Dead I will share my initial impression of Quigley’s cemetery dance. But this review is about another favorite of my youth. Let me tell you I had this on quite a bit during the summers of the early 90s. It was like Better Off Dead (1985), a rotation favorite. Well, until someone among my family recorded over Better Off Dead with me finding it gone one day when I went to watch it. But I digress… The ‘Burbs was Dante’s concluding film of the 80s. He’d make arguably one of his best films after this in 1990: Gremlins 2: The New Batch, but I had the great fortune of catching The ‘Burbs (1989) Thursday night. Gosh, it’d been a minute. I guess I haven’t seen this since the mid 90s. It is so ironic that these films like The ‘Burbs were around a lot on the television when I was a teenager yet once I reached that “certain age” they stayed behind. It was kind of similar to a piece I recently wrote on Beverly Hills Cop (1984), about how I could recall watching these films plentifully until that one day when it all just kind of stopped.

Dante’s The ‘Burbs takes place exclusively within a neighborhood where this “old dark house” [natch] sits next door to “on vacation” Tom Hanks (still not quite accepted into the “A Class” of actors right just yet). Hanks’ wife (Carrie Fisher, who I always thought looked mighty yummy in this) wants to go on a vacation to the lake or something but he just wants to lie around the house and be lazy. Hanks can’t do that, however, because he has this impossible neighborhood busybody (Rick Ducommun) just wanting to spy on the creepy neighbors next door (Henry “The Doctor” Gibson, Brother Theodore (with that snarl and tight-lip intact always), and Courtney Gaines (something right out of a Grimm Fairy Tale)). Further hampered by military veteran (Bruce Dern), with all the tools of reconnaissance and motivated by paranoia, who joins Ducommun in the obsessive quest to see if there are any bodies buried on the land of the Klopeks (the previous occupants just were never seen again), Hanks’ vacation is wasted on snooping and spying. While bright lights beam out of the basement of the Klopeks and this big furnace resides in there with these big pipes that can be seen in different areas of the house; perhaps Hanks’ neighbors could be onto something. If anything the Klopeks are presented as foreboding and spooky. When Hanks’ dog digs up a human femur from the yard of the Klopeks, it certainly heightens their curiosity and fear of possible sinister shenanigans afoot.

I’ll be honest in that I think my love for the film has a lot to do with the cast. Hanks was on my radar as a kid after Money Pit (1986), Nothing in Common (1986), The Man with One Red Shoe (1985), Big (1988), Volunteers (1985), Splash (1984), Dragnet (1987), and Punchline (1988). I watched all of these at one point another, and it was clear Hanks was going places. Critics seemed to notice him even if they were not sold completely on his films. They would comment on how the films were a mixed bag but there was just something about Hanks that made them remotely watchable or better off with just him being in them. In The ‘Burbs his everyman just wanting to be left alone yet always seemingly pulled into the “search for those dead bodies of his neighbors” tries and fails to separate and distance himself from the efforts of Ducommun and Dern to get the dirt on the Klopeks. The Klopeks, for most of the film, are just this enigmatic family of males who keep to themselves and quarantine their lives inside the house from their neighbors. Hanks would far prefer just lounging around his home and spending some days wasting away in front of the boob tube but that is an impossibility with Ducommun and Dern always usurping his plans. When Hanks is encouraged to pay a friendly “welcome to the neighborhood” visit by his wife and Dern’s wife (Wendy Schaal; always with big hairspray coif and scantily clad; the quintessential bimbo) to the Klopeks, with the perfect opportunity for Dern to get an inside look and investigate. Hanks finds the wig of a neighbor inside the Klopeks’ house, and because of this provokes him to action. The Klopeks will be gone for the day providing the perfect chance for the trio to trespass and do some digging. The results are catastrophic as a gasline is punctured and a house goes up in a ball of fire!

Ducommun just cracked me and my brother up when we’d watch it back in the 90s. It was certainly a summer favorite. Ducommun eating up Fisher’s breakfast meant for Hanks, inexplicably cutting a powerline to remove the threat of the intruder alert on the Klopeks’ property which results in quite a “shock”, needling Hanks to go up to the Klopeks’ house to knock on the door (resulting in a hole in the wall releasing a horde of bees, targeting them! Dern and his waterhose save the day!), and gaining support from Dern and Feldman (with a vocabulary soon to be shepherded into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies in the early 90s). Feldman, for his part, is the happy-go-lucky audience for the neighborhood’s antics. All smiles and untethered energy, Feldman is always asking the guys (or “dudes”) what they’re up to, always wanting to be informed of what is next on their agenda in regards to the Klopeks. Dragging his girlfriend on his home’s balcony to watch the action on the street, Feldman clearly has time on his hands and an enthusiasm in the activities of his neighbors…it really is at an absurd degree. He definitely “loves his street”. He’s fun as the remaining cast is. There is an unbridled energy in the direction that mirrors Feldman. I think you can just tell that the cast is in good spirits. I never felt a single actor or actress just wants to be anywhere else. Fisher isn’t given a great deal to work with but her chemistry with Hanks (even when they fuss back and forth about going on a real vacation and staying away from Ducommun and Dern, it is harmless and not all that volatile) is ideal for the film they inhabit. Hanks, Ducommun, and Dern are quite a team, too. You just don’t see Dern in films like these very often, and his flag-saluting patriotism, with all the toys including the walkie-talkie (“Red Rover, Red Rover…”), spy equipment, surveillance tools, and military persona is played to the hilt. Dante appears to just let his actors go. I read that because of the writing strike the actors were given carte blanche to ad lib, and I think that includes few restraints in sending up the black comedy they find themselves in. It is reactionary, physical, and cartoonish. Mixed in this is gallow’s humor, Looney Tunes, horror comedy (The Exorcist, Ride with the Devil, and Texas Chainsaw all show up late one night on Hanks’ television, leading to his nightmare involving being sprawled out across a giant BBQ grill as Satanists organize a ritual sacrifice!), satire (on suburbia), and even homage (wonderful use of Leone when Ducommun and Hanks make their way towards the Klopeks’ door with closing shots of the eyes of the likes of Dern, Schaal, and even a neighbor’s feisty poodle!).

A strange “gurney ride” out of an ambulance as Gibson tries to use a hypodermic on Hanks, Dern’s poodle shit dilemma, the bad paneled floor at the entrance of the Klopeks’ house always causing those who walk upon it to fall through, Hanks’ allergic reaction to Klopeks’ offered treats, Dern falling off his house with Feldman and his band of buds clapping at his “sound landing”, Dern’s feud with the neighbor’s poodle, Brother Theodore’s growly back and forth with Dern, Hanks’ anxiety around the Klopeks and disgruntlement with nagging Ducommun, and Ducommun’s story with Feldman about a local loony with the “peculiar smell from his house” that rattles Hanks; the movie is a trunk of treasures for those with interest in just another street that seems to unfold over a manner of days its fair share of off-the-wall activity and banter. The direction by Dante never fails to tell us that this is all in good fun. On the Universal Back lot, The ‘Burbs indeed must have been quite a hoot for those involved in the production. I remember Siskel and Ebert commenting on it with a brief review seemingly indifferent about it. It was treated as one of those films, among many offerings in theaters, that would come and go with little fanfare. It has always been around, on videotape or on cable. The satellite channels and DVD. It benefits certainly from the presence of Hanks and Fisher in it. But I think the entire cast will leave their mark on those who watch. I myself think it is a premium channel dandy just waiting to be rediscovered. It has the quirky side of suburbia, the mystery of just whether or not the curious neighbors are or aren’t boogeymen, and developments that show an escalation resulting from having a lot of time and being too damn nosy.

This was part of Starz Encore's lineup for the summer. I'm glad I had the opportunity to reacquaint myself with the film after such a considerable length of time.