Pee-wee's Big Adventure
Director: Tim Burton
Year Released: 1985
Rating: 2.0
Developmentally retarded Pee-wee (Paul Reubens) - who lives in a Michael Jacksonesque world of toys and gizmos and laughs at everything - has his souped-up bike stolen; in a panic, our dorky hero gets bad advice from a mystic and is convinced the bike is in a basement at the Alamo (never forget it). While the Pee-wee's Playhouse TV program was rich with double entendres and truly bizarre moments, this is significantly toned down for the general populace and also flimsy as a feature - one of the appeals of the show, too, was its cast of talking things (the genie, the chair) and inside jokes to keep things consistently screwy, while Reubens' antics and schoolyard comebacks are the sole 'attraction.' It's hard to see "Pee-wee" and not think about the sexual oddness of the real-life Reubens (though Pee-wee's orientation is undefined, bordering on asexual); it's hard for me to look at his shrunken suit and not think of Thom Browne.
