Isn’t it weird how, as time has progressed, our civilization has seen a decrease in violent crime inversely proportional to its paranoia towards other people? I mean sure, we as a country seem determined to have a mass shooting every month, but every time a big report crime comes out, it turns out that we’re actually a lot better off than we were in the past and there isn’t a murderer lurking on every street corner. So why are we more afraid of other people despite having no basis for it? Is it the fault of terrorism? The nature of media coverage these days? The anonymity of the internet age dissolving traditional forms of human contact and conversation? Or are we just animals, and animals are inherently fearful of potential threats to their territory and and resources? Take your pick.
Such is the basis for The Burbs, directed by Joe Dante, who is perhaps better known for Gremlins, Gremlins 2 and the infamous cult classic Small Soldiers. Tom Hanks plays Ray Peterson, your average suburbanite living the average American dream in Hinkley Hills. Ray’s got it all: a wife (Carrie Fisher), a kid, a dog, a collection of wacky neighbors that do wacky things to each other, everything except peace of mind. You see, about a month ago a new family moved right next door to Ray, going by the name of Klopek. No one has ever really seen Klopeks, never really talked to them, but what Ray and the people of Hinkley Hills do know is what they’ve seen. Strange lights coming from the basement, mysterious noises late at night, and a whole bunch of other stuff that seems really sketchy. Normal social etiquette would recommend not giving a shit and leaving people to their own affairs, but that’s not how they do it in this neighborhood folks. These Klopeks are up to something, and it’s up to Ray Peterson and his motley crew of husbands with too much time on their hands to figure out what it is and stop it once and for all. You don’t mess with the ‘burbs, baby.
The Burbs has a certain charm to it, a bit like Tim Burton if he focused on comedy rather than The Cure, and Joe Dante is a man familiar with comedy (He directed two episodes of the original Police Squad! after all, and the Gremlins series is no stranger to Looney Tunes-style gags), but it’s not funny in the same sense that The Naked Gun or Caddyshack are funny films. Rather it projects this aura of absurdity that you get caught up in, this atmosphere of buffoonery and coincidence that has been connected with your ‘typical American family’ since the days of Ralph Kramden and Lucille Ball. It’s not so much the jokes they tell as it is to watch things they try to accomplish snowball out of control. Hell, ‘character A jumps to conclusions and thinks neighbor is a murderer’ was already a pretty well-worn formula by the time Dante decided to play around with it, which only solidifies the sitcom comparison.
Like I said though, it’s never quite reached the point of being laugh-out-loud funny to me like other comedies of the era, and beyond that it never really captured my imagination like those comedies as well. So unfortunately my mind is blanking on anything to actually say about it. Cast is pretty good I guess, Tom Hanks puts in some fine work and Rick Ducommun’s Art Weingartner treads the fine line between comedic sidekick and arrogant prick pretty well. I’ll recommend it on the basis of being a decent bit of entertainment, but it’s not something I’d go out of my way to see again. Besides, I think I’ve had enough of Neighborhood Watch people to last me a lifetime.
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