Tom Hanks is always wonderful when playing an average joe, and he's never been funnier than in THE BURBS, with a role as a quintessential Everyman. All we really know about Ray Peterson is that he's on a two-week summer vacation from work. We never even learn what Ray does for a living, or where he lives, exactly, but that's a nice touch- this character is designed to represent the typical family man of American suburbia. In THE BURBS, this ordinary man stumbles onto an extraordinary mystery when a strange new family moves in next door. The ordinary man/extraordinary situation device was perfected, of course, by Alfred Hitchcock, and Hitch seems to be the main inspiration for director Joe Dante, who masterfully weaves the darker, suspenseful scenes with hysterical comic touches. An under-rated gem from the early, lighter days of Tom Hanks.
Review of The 'Burbs
