He's a stranger in an even stranger land... Suburbia

Ray Peterson (Tom Hanks) is a regular guy living in a regular suburban neighborhood and it is his week off from work. Ray plans to just lounge around the house for a week, drink a couple hundred beers and smoke an occasional cigar...outside, but his plans are quickly disrupted due to his curiosity of his strange new neighbors the Klopeks as he and his buddies Art Weingartner(Rick Ducommun) and Mark Rumsfield (Bruce Dern) who live on the same street are determined to find out just what the hell is going on in the Klopeks (Henry Gibson, Brother Theador and Courtney Gains) basement.

There are many clues that make Ray think his new neighbors are killers such as he sees them digging in their back yard at night, the strange noises coming from the basement, The old man who is a neighbor to them all goes missing, they never come out of the house and their last house burned to the ground. Rays wife Carol (Carrie Fisher) thinks Ray is loosing his mind and heads off with their son to the lake for the week. Ray becomes obsessed with the Klopecks and when they leave town for a few days Ray, Art and Mark decide the best way to get to the bottom of the mystery is to go to the source...the Klopeks house. They begin by digging in the back yard and come up with nothing. Next they break into the house and end up in the basement where they find a giant furnace that goes up to 5,000 degrees just as the Klopeks return home. Will Ray, Art and Mark discover the truth about the Klopeks in time? As all of this madness is going on, Marks neighbor Ricky Butler (Corey Feldmen) is home alone for the summer painting his house and gets involved with helping the guys with their mission. Corey Feldmen also starred in another Dante film years before this one known as Gremlins, and was directly the cause of the gremlins outbreak in the movie.

The Burbs is a true late 80's comedy at heart, and it's a great one at that. There are too many memorable scenes in the movie to cover in one review. Some of the great scenes are when Ray dreams he is invited over to the Klopeks for dinner only to find out he is the main course. Another great scene is when Ray, Mark and their wives are invited into the Klopeks house and we get to meet the strange Klopeks as Art is caught trespassing. The scene where Art and Ray are reading books on black magic in Rays basement is hilarious, and in this scene is one of my favorite quotes from the movie "I'm telling you these people are Satanists. As I sit here, they are satanists. Look, look, the world is full of these kind of things - black masses, mutilations. Mutilations. The incubus, the succubus - I'm tellin' you, Walter was a human sacrifice." Art is one of the best characters, confirming all of Rays suspicions and egging him on.

My all time favorite director Joe Dante directed the Burbs in 1989 which is just another on the large list of excellent films Dante has been involved with. Dante is responsible for such classics as Gremlins, Piranha, Rock n roll High school, The Howling to name a few. One thing I love about his films which he brings to a lot of them is the theme of something strange happening in a normal setting, or in the Burbs case, normal street. Gremlins had a similar theme as a normal small town is overrun with little creatures and a box of Gremlins cereal can be seen in the Burbs as a great little nod to the fans.

The Burbs was filmed on the famous back lot of universal Studios where they shoot a lot of Tv shows and movies, The Klopeks house in the film can be seen in many others and is an iconic old house. The show Leave it to beaver was filmed on the same lot and was also called Mayfield Place. You can take a tour of the street during a visit to Universal Studios.

Rick Ducommun who plays Art and his brother started the legendary skateboard company skull skates which can be seen on Ricky Butlers friend Steve Kuntz' shirt. The excellent actor Dick Miller can be seen in a lot of Joe Dante's films plays a garbageman in this one and is really funny.

The Burbs deserves a good DVD release instead of the bare-bones release we got back in 1999. A commentary would be great with some interviews and behind-the-scenes footage, maybe someday. The DVD does include the alternate ending which is just as good as the theatrical.

The Burbs is my all time favorite comedy and even serious horror fans will get a kick out of it, it may not be a straight up horror film but it does present some elements from the genre. All of the acting is great and the quotes are endless. For some reason this film was not a big hit at the box office and since has become somewhat of a cult favorite. If you are a fan of comedies from the 80's you really can't go wrong with the Burbs.

Review by Jason

Rating: A