The 'Burbs (1989)

November 23, 2014 2:26 PM

An overstressed suburbanite and his paramilitaric neighbor struggle to prove their paranoid theory that the new family in town is a front for a cannibalistic cult.
posted by troika (10 comments total)

Tom Hanks' mouth is huuuuuge when he screams at that bone!
posted by Literaryhero at 2:53 PM on November 23, 2014

I was amazed when I made the connection that this movie features a live action Francine from American Dad.
posted by Servo5678 at 5:16 PM on November 23, 2014

Hanks has had a lot of fillings

The product placement for breakfast was impressive; everything from Spic n Span to Aunt Jemima

Corey Feldman has never NOT been annoying and he could have been cut from every scene without making any difference to the movie

Pizza dude is code for weed dude
posted by Ik ben afgesneden at 6:52 PM on November 23, 2014

The product placement for breakfast was impressive; everything from Spic n Span to Aunt Jemima

Fun product placement fact: Rick Ducommun, who plays Art, was co-founder of the influential Canadian skateboard company Skull Skates. One of Feldman's party bros is conspicuously wearing a Skull Skates t-shirt.
posted by Sys Rq at 7:09 PM on November 23, 2014

The product placement for breakfast was impressive; everything from Spic n Span to Aunt Jemima

I am surprised to discover that Freakies cereal was a real thing.

And yes, there is a lot of good Tom Hanks screaming in this movie.
posted by capricorn at 6:58 AM on November 24, 2014

Grown-ups acting like children on a suburban cul-de-sac...What better movie to watch over and over and over when you're 11 years old and living on a suburban cul-de-sac? So naturally I watched this more times than I can count when I was growing up, and still watch it at least once a year (watching in advance of this post was either the second or third for calendar year 2014).

Last year I really wanted Tom Hanks to be nominated for Captain Phillips, since it was a given that Bruce Dern was going to be nominated for Nebraska, and then we could have had a Ray Peterson vs. Mark Rumsfield faceoff.
posted by doctornecessiter at 10:09 AM on November 24, 2014

I watched this again, and found myself thinking it might have been stronger if they'd ended with Hanks' character being carted off to jail, and not with the trunk full of skulls reveal. It's a great movie, though. Very funny, and with a fun performance by everyone, but especially Hanks.
posted by codacorolla at 9:20 PM on November 26, 2014

Yeah, the ending is a huge cop-out. You get that big Tom Hanks speech summing up what would appear to be the entire point of the film, and then it's like, NEVER MIND! YOUR FOREIGN NEIGHBOURS WHO KEEP TO THEMSELVES PROBABLY REALLY ARE MURDEROUS SATANIST MONSTERS, SO YOU CAN GO AHEAD AND KEEP ON KEEPIN' ON WITH YOUR XENOPHOBIC SELF! GOODNIGHT, EVERYONE!

The ending seems like it was tacked on after the fact, along with all the other Cory Feldman stuff, which is pretty obviously only there for the purposes of narrative exposition and Poochiesque youth-orientedness.
posted by Sys Rq at 8:11 AM on November 27, 2014 [1 favorite]

Yeah, I was watching that thinking "Last minute focus group dissatisfaction, huh?"
posted by codacorolla at 8:52 AM on November 27, 2014

According to this list, the Klopeks were always supposed to be revealed as evil serial killers at the end.
posted by fimbulvetr at 10:04 AM on November 27, 2014