Review by Ben Bussey
When it comes to Hollywood outsiders, Joe Dante’s in a class of his own. Not unlike John Landis, he seems generally accepted as directorial royalty in horror circles, despite the fact that comparatively few of the films in his back catalogue can really be classed as horror. The vast majority of his most recognised work was done within the studio system, most of it multiplex-friendly blockbuster fare, yet in common with so many of the biggest names in film from the 1970s onwards he got his start as a protege of Roger Corman, and in more recent years he seems to be returning to that somewhat smaller-scale independent level (his 2010 kiddie horror The Hole was underrated, and I look forward to his upcoming Burying the Ex). And yet, whatever budget or genre he’s working with, there’s an underlying quality to all Dante’s work which seems perfectly attuned to cult sensibilities: sly strands of dark and anarchic humour, stabs at mainstream society, and – not for nothing – nods to film history in abundance.
All this said, who else in late 80s Hollywood – with the possible exception of Tim Burton – could have made a movie like The ‘Burbs? Initially it would seem to be nothing more than your standard mass-appeal American comedy; Tom Hanks is the lead, for crying out loud. Yet it develops into something so thoroughly weird and creepy that it’s a little hard to believe it was able to get made in the studio system at all. Much as he would later do with Gremlins 2: the New Batch, Dante here seems determined to please himself by filling his movie with as many quirks, oddities and nerdy references as possible, whilst still delivering something that can be sold to the masses.
Four years shy of Philadelphia, Hanks was still first and foremost a comedy guy at this point. As ever, he’s cast here as your standard everyman, a down-to-earth suburbanite named Ray, who’s taking the week off work (presumably due to stress, although they don’t delve into this). Ray would seem to be living the dream: beautiful house in a beautiful neighbourhood, a bright son, and – oh yeah – he’s only married to Carrie fucking Fisher (regret to inform this isn’t the one in which she spends a great deal of her screentime cavorting in leopard print underwear: that’s the other Tom Hanks-Carrie Fisher movie, The Man With One Red Shoe).
Yes, it seems our man Ray wants for nothing, but there’s just one problem… he’s bored. He spends all his time obsessing over the trivial dramas of life on the street (or rather, life on the cul-de-sac, but that doesn’t sound as cool), of which there is plenty given the colourful characters he lives next door to, including comic relief over-eater Art (Rick Ducommun, a comedy actor I must confess to knowing nothing of), ex-military hard-ass Rumsfield (the eternally badass Bruce Dern), and young headbanger Ricky (a just-shy-of-rehab Corey Feldman). But when a reclusive new family named the Klopeks move in to the uncharacteristically ramshackle property immediately alongside Ray’s, tongues wag and curiosity runs rampant among this bunch of men with nothing better to do. At first they just think the Klopeks are a bit weird; but when another long-standing member of the community mysteriously up and vanishes, they begin to suspect something more sinister may be afoot.
Essentially, The ‘Burbs is a straightforward enough comedy of errors, hinging on larger than life characters who repeatedly find themselves in thoroughly awkward situations due to misunderstandings. Much ado about nothing, then… except (minor spoiler I suppose) it turns out there is something unsavory about the Klopeks after all. Story-wise, the film does tread a rather tricky tightrope, as on the one hand the joke is on the snooty, paranoid suburbanites for treating the local outsiders with such suspicion and contempt; but on the other hand, this paranoia proves justified. Bit of a mixed message for a film which would for the most part seem designed as a satire on middle class snobbery.
That said, somehow I doubt Dante spent all that much time obsessing over the political overtones; he seems way more interested in piling on the references. There’s kind of a proto-Edgar Wright vibe here, as such emphasis is placed on conveying mundane everyday events through a film geek lens: conflicts between neighbours turning into spaghetti western showdowns, the odd new neighbours appearing to have wandered straight in off the set of The Addams Family (or, as it turns out, The Munsters: the film was shot on the Mockingbird Lane set on the Universal backlot). And, in a particularly eye-catching nightmare sequence, we have Tom Hanks caught in a black magic ritual straight out of Mario Bava. (I’ve embedded that clip below because, well, it’s the best bit.)
There’s plenty to raise a smile, then – but, when all’s said and done, not a great deal to really grab you, and bona fide laughs are a bit thin on the ground. Hanks, Dern and Ducommun make for a watchable enough core trio, and Henry Gibson, Brother Theodore and Courtney Gains are agreeably odd as the Klopeks, but the rest of the cast struggle a little: Carrie Fisher is lumped with a pretty thankless voice of reason/nagging wife role, Corey Feldman’s Bill & Ted schtick gets old fast, and Wendy Schaal is given little to do other than look pretty but ridiculous as Rumsfield’s bimbo-ish wife (she’d play more or less the same role in Dante’s Small Soldiers nine years later).
All in all, The ‘Burbs is a perfectly respectable entry in Dante’s already respectable filmography, but I for one wouldn’t call it one of his best. Still, if you are a fan of this movie this new Blu-ray edition from Arrow Video has plenty to offer, including an early rough cut of the movie, an alternate ending, commentary with writer Dana Olsen, a feature-length documentary and more.
The Burbs is out now on Blu-ray from Arrow Video.