"I call it... the hot dog tree, because... it's a hot dog tree." - Pee-Wee

"It's Abraham Lincoln! May I have your autograph, Mr. Lincoln? I'm a big fan." - Woman

"Well, my chin's banged up pretty bad... I think my ribs are broke... an' it feels like I punctured a major organ, Andy... but I'm circus." - Mace Montana

I went to see this in the theater, and I actually have the original poster hanging in my childhood bedroom. Not that that should be a big endorsement of this one. I'll go ahead and start off by saying that this is certainly no PEE-WEE'S BIG ADVENTURE. Not even close. But if you like Pee-Wee, well then you'll probably like this. Paul Reubens, Kris Kristofferson, Penelope Ann Miller, Valeria Golino, and cameos from Dustin Diamond (pre SAVED BY THE BELL) and Benicio Del Toro in his first big screen appearance in BIG TOP PEE-WEE!!!

So, for some reason, Pee-Wee has moved away from the suburbs of California, and not to his Playhouse either... I'm guessing he wanted to get away from all the glory after becoming the subject of a major motion picture in his last movie. So he moves to the sticks and buys a farm. Not only that but he has a talking pig named Vance as his best friend. He has a whole farm full of animals (like a cow that gives him chocolate milk) but not many other friends in town. As a matter of fact, besides his fiancee, everyone else is a bunch of old dicks.
So yeah, he has this school marm fiancee, and she's a terrible cook. He goes to see her everyday, but she pretty much prick teases him. Then him and Vance usually head into town to get a sandwich from the general store and deal with the old men and women in there who hate him. This particular day he rolls into town, a huge storm is coming up... Like tornado in WIZARD OF OZ style storm. No one will give him a ride, so him and Vance huff it home to secure all the animals in his cellar. Once the storm finally subsides, he comes out to a circus exploded all over his farm.
So this circus is ran by Mace Montana and he has a tiny little wife that fits in his hand and a dog boy and a sad clown and a bearded lady and the whole nine. They hang around for the day getting the circus trucks back together and decide they want to put on their show at whatever town Pee-Wee lives in. By the time they get to town, the oldsters tell them to get the hell out of there. Pee-Wee tells them they can chill on his farm for a while, so they decide to put together a new show. Pee-Wee falls in love with one of the circus chicks and blows off his fiancee one day to hang with her instead. He gets busted and his fiancee dumps him and then the new chick does too when she finds out he was playing the two-timer.
So the fiancee gets over Pee-Wee quickly and he finally talks "Gina" into forgiving him. They put together a cool show, but Pee-Wee can't seem to find anything to do in the circus and he desperately wants to be a part of it. I forgot to tell you that him and Vance were scientists that grew crazy giant plants with their weird chemistry lab/greenhouse. I thought maybe they would make Mace's chick a regular size woman for a short amount of time but they didn't. I'm sure Mace would be psyched about that. Anyway, the townspeople still don't want a circus but somehow by feeding them his genetically modified weiner dogs- Pee-Wee transforms them back into kids and then they are psyched for the circus and all is well. And then suddenly instead of the 10 or 12 old people speaking for the town, there are a ton of kids everywhere. Its a little bit of a stretch, and more for kids than his previous movie, but it has a few good moments. Would I recommend it? Ah, if you've never seen it, but it doesn't have near as much rewatchability as BIG ADVENTURE. word.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Bad/Awesome Flixxx Review: Big Top Pee-Wee (1988)