When I think of Joe Dante’s The Burbs (1989), I think: “agreeable,” “workman-like,” “adequate,” and “meh.”
Maybe there was a tone problem.
Rick Ducommun, who has the disagreeable task of playing the nosy neighbor, drives the plot by nattering in a high-pitched whine that works on the nerves like a dentist’s drill.
Tom Hanks, who’s no slouch, can’t seem figure out how to play a moment: Jimmy Stewart-style put-up everyman? Preston Sturges-type reluctant hero? Ernie Kovacs in a bathrobe?
And that single quote instead of an apostrophe in the poster isn’t helping.
Deborah M. Staab usually writes about 400 words and then has a cup of coffee. Her Cine-meh House is a regular series of movie commentaries. The pithy musing focus on old, forgotten, sometimes really bad movies from the 1980s, a time when she and her brother watched many a film while their Dad snoozed in the aisle seat.
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