Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985)
Grade: 50
"Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" was a surprise summer hit in 1985. Kids loved it, leading to a lengthy Saturday morning television run for star Pee Wee Herman. But while the TV show was only twenty minutes and tightly structured, the film version has only a thin plot that must cover ninety minutes, leading to inconsistent humor and an episodic storyline.
Pee Wee Herman's prize possession is his eyesore neon-red bicycle. After it is stolen, Pee Wee searches nationwide for it. He runs into various characters that are almost as eccentric as he is. There is a chase scene involving Godzilla and Santa Clause. There is a happy ending.
For those who have escaped American eighties culture, as well as episodes of Murphy Brown, I will attempt to describe the character of Pee Wee Herman. He is nerdy, pre-adolescent, asexual, and uninhibited. He makes curious faces, has a goofy laugh, and has no visible means of support. When standing, his arms jut at odd angles from his body, as if imitating a tea kettle. He has no clue about what impression he is making, and has no qualms about turning people he dislikes into enemies. He is naively trusting when it comes to meeting strangers.
While kids embraced the film, the intention was to make a comedy that adults would enjoy. But the supporting cast of chums and antagonists are all cartoonish, especially a gang of look-alike bikers that share the same two emotions of joy and anger.
The best thing about this movie is the soundtrack by Danny Elfman, which bounces along merrily. Burton's direction is hit and miss, much as we would expect a movie to be if a camera simply follows Herman around. It is sometimes funny and always a little odd.
http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews