THE ‘BURBS was one of two 1989 comedies starring Tom Hanks. Drawing poor reviews at the time; it’s now a cult item, the reappraisal bumped to positive. The other one was Turner & Hooch, which did twice as well; today’s it’s just a trivia question, “What was the other cop & dog movie in 1989?”  Like a couple of Hanks efforts from the period—Volunteers and Joe Versus The Volcano—that didn’t raise much dust but are now well regarded, once-besmirched ‘Burbs is considerably better than its ‘meh’ reputation.

“I think the message to, uh, psychos, fanatics, murderers, nutcases all over the world is, uh, “do not mess with suburbanites”. Because, uh, frankly we’re just not gonna take it any more.”

The ‘Mayfield’ bunch— ‘Ray Peterson’ (Hanks, 32), hoping to take a stress-free vacation week at home, though sweet-natured if Ray-taxed wife ‘Carol’ (Carrie Fisher, 32) would rather they go camping, a wise idea in retrospect. ‘Mark Rumsfield’ (Bruce Dern, 52) is on the well-armed side, a former soldier who favors military togs, quirks that his sparkling wife ‘Bonnie’ (Wendy Schaal, 33) figures are something that goes with the lawn & garden, which she tends to tend in skimpy attire: there could be coyotes in Hinkley’s hills, but is a purring cougar just down the block? At least that is the hope of ‘Ricky Butler’ (Corey Feldman, 16), teen-slacker and merry burbserver. All put up with—yet pay attention to—pestering doof  ‘Art Weingartner’ (Rick Ducommun, 35) who joins Ray and Mark in warily checking out the newest neighbors, who have moved into the Place’s one dilapidated dwelling and gone past reclusive into suspect. The ‘Klopeks’ are more than a little strange: ‘Werner’ (Henry Gibson, 53) is a ‘doctor’ of some mysterious sort, doglike ‘Uncle Reuben’ (Brother Theodore, 82) defines ‘hostile’ while tonsorial & dentally challenged young ‘Hans’ (Courtney Gains, 23) looks like a werewolf startled in mid-transformation. And what the unholy heck is in their basement and the back yard? Satan stuff?

The opener zoom shot from outer space fixes ‘Hinkley Hills’ in Iowa. But its ‘normal’ American town, and ‘Mayfield Place’ cul-de-sac could be anywhere in the suburban twilit zones we know & love/hate/fled to/escaped from in the likes of Poltergeist, House or Edward Scissorhands, where Comfy lives a badminton swat away from Certifiable. Luckily for the script conceived by Dana Olsen (he knows us), direction of same was in the aptly twisted hands of Joe Dante, a renegade Jedi Master of chills with chuckles: the defense submits Piranha, The Howling, Gremlins, Matinee and “It’s A Good Life”,the second-best episode of Twilight Zone: The Movie. To ensure that the creepcom flow is kept in harmonic step  scoring was assigned to Jerry Goldsmith, his soundtrack a master class in how & when to use a cue without stepping into cutesy-poo.

A few bits woof but on the whole it’s quite clever, often laugh aloud funny. Though Hanks has the largest part as the harried straight man of the piece, he smartly doesn’t dominate an ensemble effort (because, like Ray, he’s a decent fellow). Dern riffs on his intensity persona but, as with Tom, is too professional to mug it out of proportion. Fisher is a warm and calming presence. Feldman seems to be having a ball. Ducommon risks pushing obnoxious but stays just inside the line. Schaal is a delight, by not going the ‘dumb blonde’ route and overplaying the sexiness she makes Bonnie likable, thus more desirable. Gibson readily has Werner’s vagueness be unsettling, and Gains, aided by that perfect makeup, is just right being all wrong as missing link Hans. Those who recall the hilarious, truly nutso guest shots on TV that Brother Theodore made back in the 60’s & 70’s will revel in every moment Uncle Reuben is on screen. All hail the inspired insanity of Theodore Isidore Gottlieb, 1906-2001.

“I hate cul-de-sacs. There’s only one way out, and the people are kind of weird.”

$36,602,000 earned on home turf (34th place) backed by $12,500,000 taken abroad was enough to paper the $18,000,000 cost. 101 minutes, with Gale Gordon (83, last feature film), Cory Danziger, Dick Miller, Robert Picardo, Franklin Ajaye, Rance Howard and Nicky Katt.

Where do you have to move to to get neighbors like these?