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Click here to return to the main site. DVD Review
To the disappointment of his wife Carol, Ray decides to spend a relaxing week at home, and soon gets into trouble with his neighbours - a hefty busybody, a freaked-out ex-soldier, and a spacey teenager - as they observe the strange happenings next door at the Klopek’s bizarre residence. When the neighbourhood grouch Walter suddenly disappears, the men are convinced the ramshackle house of the Klopek's hides some hideous clues. Armed with assault rifles, high-powered binoculars and a shovel, they decide to see for themselves exactly what is going on in their new, mysterious neighbour's place... The 'Burbs is a movie I've watched and enjoyed several times since its original release. In fact, I bought a copy about a year ago because my better half said she'd never seen it. At its heart this is a comedy that also has a serious message at its heart. What happens when a foreign family move into your quiet, middle-class neighbourhood and keep themselves to themselves? The answer is that the locals invent all sorts of strange and wildly inaccurate rumours. But what if those rumours are true? There's only one way to find out... investigate the family yourself. We see the movie from the point of view of the locals who add one and one and make five. Small events get blown out of all proportion, until sane people start to believe and react in insane ways. The movie only works if we can get behind the three main male characters (played by Tom Hanks, Bruce Dern and Rick Ducommun, who sadly died last year (2015)). The three characters mix well and it's easy to see why they start to get paranoid. Although, to be fair, Ducommun's Art Weingartner does most of the egging on and the majority of the wild ideas come from him. The filming took place during one of Hollywood's writers strikes and for that reason, because the movie's writer wasn't allowed to contribute anything on set, a lot of the scenes were improvised. The "Uncut" in the title is a little misleading. This is the same release as was shown in cinemas, the "uncut" was meant to entice people to buy it who had seen the cut version of the film that was broadcast on TV. The only extra is the Teaser Trailer (1 min, 30 sec). This is a poor release when compared to the 2014 UK reissue which included a commentary by screenwriter Dana Olsen, a newly commissioned feature-length documentary and a work print which includes temp music and deleted scenes. This is still a great movie and if you don't already have this in your collection, now is the time to add it. 8 Nick Smithson Buy this item online
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