Awesome Movie

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

What I love most about Pee-Wee's Big Adventure, The Pee-Wee Herman Show, and Pee-Wee's Playhouse is the fact that the world he lives in is really unrealistic. His hyper, eccentric attitude is matched with how unrealistically realistic the world around him is. Because, as much as I love the character of Pee-Wee, the thought of having him as a neighbor or as a friend sounds annoying and tiring. He's a literal manchild, spoiled brat who makes a scene if things don't go his way. What makes Pee-Wee so funny is how the other characters react to his antics in exaggerated ways. Pee-Wee's Big Adventure has scenes such as the normal acting "Satan's Helpers Biker Gang", but has a weird after reaction to him dancing to Tequila. It also has scenes of Mickey, the escaped convict, react to Pee-Wee's weird antics by going along with a disguise plan in the middle of a highway checkpoint. These are things that would never happen in real life and it works because Pee-Wee is never annoying to these characters. He makes up for it in the most unrealistic ways he can, and we end up loving him for it.The reason why I bring up all of what makes Pee-Wee enjoyable in other movies is because it never worked here. Pee-Wee lives on a farm, away from suburban townsfolk, and has a fiancee that loves him. There is a scene in the movie where Pee-Wee literally harasses and causes a scene because he wants a pickle from a busy storekeeper. He literally cheats on his fiancee with another woman and sees no wrong in what he did. Even the circus people he meets are nowhere close to being as weird or interesting as Pee-Wee, and end up being more normal than he is, which makes the movie set in a realistic world where Pee-Wee is not an enjoyable person to be around.The romance subplot just feels so out of place for a Pee-Wee story. It was funny for Dottie to be in love with Pee-Wee in Big Adventure because he has no interest in girls because he's a literal child. Two women love Pee-Wee and he returns those feelings at the same time, and it's so weird and out of place.People openly show their annoyance with Pee-Wee, which does not help the audience view Pee-Wee any better. There is a rule in storytelling. If there is an annoying character, make them annoying to everyone else, but never the viewer. What makes Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck so endearing is how unrealistic the rest of their universe is whenever they do annoying things. When there is too much to compare to Pee-Wee's manchild behavior in a real world where I know I would want to avoid him, I can't help but want to stop watching. Almost no one likes him in this movie.Pee-Wee Herman is supposed to be a static character who never changes in the end of his stories. Of course, he'll learn some moral, but overall, he stays the exact same in the very end. This is shown in Big Advnture, his two Broadway shows, and every episode of Playhouse. Here, it feels way too out of place for him to learn any lesson about his character. Overall, the film reminds me about how annoying and not entertaining he would be in real life. I don't want to be reminded of that. I want to enjoy his character, not hate it.The guy literally cheats on his future wife and starts a tantrum over a pickle.

I'm amazed by the negative reviews, this movie was outstanding! I think you have to appreciate Pee Wee humor, but if you do, then I think you'll agree this movie is brilliant, just like all of Paul Reubens' humor.One thing to note, I had not watched Pee Wee's Big Adventure when I first saw Big Top, so maybe my expectations were different. And I had to watch Big Top (and Big Adventure) a number of times in order to catch and appreciate all of the subtleties.Here is a perspective that might help: Pee Wee's movies basically show things from the standpoint of a little kid describing his world once he grows up. For example, a child might imagine that he will have a bicycle that can fly and do all sorts of "cool" things that in reality are impossible, but he doesn't have the cognitive skills to think about whether things like this are possible. He just makes up his story the way he wants it to be. Pee Wee's movies bring those types of childhood dreams to "reality" on the screen, with a bunch of unique grown-up humor and some often strange but appropriate music mixed in. Taken from that perspective, these movies are absolutely brilliant.

Pee-wee's Big Adventure was an unparallelled cinematic delight. It brought to attention the previously unknown Tim Burton, who provided the perfect starring vehicle for oddball comedian Pee-wee Herman (in real life Paul Reubens).The mingling of Burton's kitsch aesthetic with Reuben's bizarre persona turned out to be a perfect match. Big Adventure had a very simple story to go from. Pee-wee wanted to be reunited with his beloved bike. And that basic premise was all it needed. Burton infused the film with a beautiful colour scheme, oddball delights and kooky curiosities, all played to the hilt by the irrepressible Pee-wee.Pee-wee's Big Adventure turned out to be a surprise box-office smash hit, cementing Burton's place among Hollywood's brightest and eccentric filmmakers.It took three years for a further instalment to arrive on the big screen. In the interim, Pee-wee got his own TV show, Pee-wee's Playhouse, and dominated the ratings as the host of one of America's most popular children's shows. Reubens took time out from the show in 1988 to make one more film, Big Top Pee-wee.Big Top came about a year before Reuben's career was damaged after he was caught masturbating in an X-rated movie theatre. The character was effectively retired after that, and although there is talk of a new Pee-wee Herman movie in the making, I'm still not entirely sure it will ever happen.In the meantime, we do have two of his adventures to fall back on. But after seeing Big Top, you wonder if you really want to see another one. Because the Pee-wee Herman you see here is not quite the one you remember.It seems that Pee-wee has done a bit of growing up. Where in the first he was content to potter about his pastel coloured mansion playing with Rube Goldberg breakfast making contraptions and copiously caring for his customized bike, here Pee-wee has settled into an almost normal life.Don't forget...I said almost! Pee-wee's now a farmer. He cultivates hot dog trees, tends to cows that produce chocolate milk, and he even has a talking pig, Vance as a business partner!He even has a personal life now. He's engaged to prim schoolmistress Winnie (Penelope Ann Miller), and lives in a normal town. Unfortunately, he's forced to share it with some not very nice townsfolk.But one windy day, fate blows a circus right into Pee-wee's backyard, all filled with curious kooks. First there's ringmaster Mace Montana (Kris Kristofferson, excellent). His wife, Midge, 2 inches tall, with a voice much bigger than she is. And best of all, Gina (Valeria Golino), the beautiful acrobat and star attraction, the woman Pee-wee falls for.I think the reason Big Top Pee-wee isn't as successful is because it doesn't have a director who's perfectly attuned to the material. The joy of the first film was Tim Burton provided an eccentric outsider's take on life. But this film's director, Randal Kleiser doesn't have that quality. He doesn't occupy Pee-wee's headspace the way Burton was able to.And the more Pee-wee tries to fit in to our world, the more apart from it he seems. He has no place in our world. He lives in one of his own rules and devisings.Also with foreknowledge of what was to come for Reubens, you do get a bit uncomfortable watching him 'nail' Winnie, engage in a bit of two-timing, and the film even implies that he loses his virginity to Gina. With him still hosting a children's show at the time of the film's release, that makes it seem all the more unpalatable.There are occasions where Big Top shows some of the similar quirks that made the first film so endearing. Like Pee-wee's farm animals sleeping in beds. Pee-wee plucking a worm from an apple to feed birds. And all the animals gathered around a table for breakfast. Danny Elfman also provides another whimsical film score to enjoy.But Big Top never really ignites. It never bursts out with the joy and exuberance that Burton brought to the first one. There is a good cast, but they somehow look a little awkward trying their best to connect with someone as alien as Pee-wee.Kris Kristofferson probably comes off best by playing the sincerity perfectly straight. But the one real shining light is the underrated Valeria Golino. She brings a passionate charge to the role of Gina. She brings Pee-wee down to earth, but is wise enough not to leave him there for too long. Because she knows he's always at his best when filled with childlike whimsy. She reminds us of the Pee-wee we once knew.Big Top Pee-wee never inhabits the bizarre, unreal world that made the first film such a treat. I think Pee-wee has become too domesticated. If there is to be another Pee-wee adventure, he can't be kept on a leash. He must be allowed to flourish. That way we can enjoy the company of the Pee-wee we remember so well.

I love Pee Wee's Big Adventure, the one in which Pee Wee Herman travels to Texas and California in search of his stolen bike and I bought the DVD for that adorable and funny movie! I saw this sequel and it's just horrible and I think the only scene that was funny was the scene with Pee Wee feeding the worm to the baby bird even though it was so obvious it was candy, one of those gummy worms. Anyway this movie is not funny and is a major snore fest and I can see why the professional movie critics who I don't always agree with hated this movie. I very strongly agree with them on this one and I have read that even Paul Ruebens (Pee Wee Herman) has admitted he wasn't to pleased with this movie!