The 'Burbs

Director Joe Dante has mined the horror/sci-fi vein to good effect in such films as Gremlins, The Explorers, and Innerspace in the past. Now he turns his attention to a different area of weirdness: the suburbs. Tom Hanks (Big) and Rick Ducommun star as neighbors in a suburb where better homes and gardens is a way of life. When a strange family moves in next door to Hanks, the two suspicious suburbanites begin to imagine all sorts of bizarre goings-on. Their paranoia is fueled by the fact that the neighbors never come out, and--horror of horrors--there's nary a hint of a lawnmower or sprinkler in sight. Obviously, they're murderers, cannibals, or worse. Enlisting the aid of Bruce Dern and Corey Feldman, the intrepid quartet launch a full-scale investigation. The 'Burbs has some wonderful satirical moments--due more to Dante's elfin playing with camera angles, than to any inherent humor in the script. But in the end, the elaborate plot falls under the weight of its own ridiculous twists and turns. Libraries with large fiction collections may want to consider this; for others not a necessary purchase. (R. Pitman)