HOT: The 'Burbs

I first saw this film when I was younger and it sort of freaked me out. I don't think I have watched it in its entirety since then until I just recently watched it. This review/synopsis will have a ton of spoilers, so read only if you have seen or don't want to see.

Tom Hanks stars as Ray Peterson in The 'Burbs. He is married to Carol (Carrie Fisher) and live on a cul-de-sac in a suburban neighborhood.

It's your typical neighborhood as everyone is always in everyone elses business and the gossip runs pretty wild. But, nothing is too over the top and everyone, for the most part, gets along. One of the neighbors that the rest of the neighbors deal with, but don't really get along with is Walter (Gale Gordon), who has a dog that goes to the bathroom on people's lawns.

A new family, the Klopeks, move into the neighborhood and they are a big odd. They keep to themselves and really don't fit in with the rest of the neighbors. One night the rest of the neighborhood, including the Petersons, Lt. Mark Rumsfeld (Bruce Dern) and Art Weingartner (Rick Ducommun) head over the Klopeks house to introduce themselves. They meet Werner (Henry Gibson), Reuben (Brother Theodore) and Hans Klopek (Courtney Gains) and the suspicions of the men in the group grow even more after meeting them.

Once Walter goes missing the neighbors step up their snooping around, and Ray even believes he sees the Klopeks digging in the back yard of their house during the night.

When the Klopeks head out for a meeting at the local university, Mark, Art and Ray break into their house to do some more snooping around. When they venture into the basement they find a huge furnace that can get to as high of 5,000 degrees.

Stuck in the basement, and looking for dead bodies, the Klopeks discover the basement light on and call the police. While digging, Ray hits a gas line and the house explodes into flames. But, Ray is able to escape with only a few minor injuries.

While in the ambulance, Werner Klopek jumps into the back thinking Ray has seen skulls of the people they have killed in the basement. Werner tried to kill Ray and as they are fighting, Ricky (Corey Feldman) discovers a ton of bones in the back of the Klopek's trunk.

After rewatching it the film is actually pretty enjoyable. We've all seen this type of neighborhood, or at least have heard of it, the one where everyone is so gossipy and they are always looking at someone else as having issues. But, here the people actually did have issues - and the neighbors made themselves crazy and broke the law just to prove it.

The characters in the film were outstanding. I enjoyed all of them, especially Ray and Ricky.

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HOT: Man with One Red Shoe

This is an odd, yet fun little CIA film.

I watched this many times when I was younger, but I hadn't seen it in awhile - and it was still a pretty decent watch.

Hanks stars as Richard Drew in The Man with One Red Shoe, a violinist who gets mistaken as a CIA operative.

Cooper (Dabney Coleman) and Ross (Charles Durning) are competing for the deputy director position at the CIA. Ross currently holds the position, but has messed up a handful of times and Cooper is doing all that he can to take over.

Ross comes up with a brilliant plan to throw Cooper and his team off of his track - knowing Cooper has bugged his house he tells Brown (Edward Herrmann) about a special CIA operative coming off a plane. What Cooper isn't told is that Brown is actually supposed to find some Average Joe, not a real operative.

At the airport, Brown waits by the escalator searching for his fake operative and sees a man wearing one red shoe - Richard Drew.

The rest of the film is Cooper and his team tracking Drew, and believing that every little thing he does, whether it's playing his violin or even going to the dentist, there is something behind it.

Drew, meanwhile, has no idea he is being tailed - he is a violinist in an orchestra, along with his best friend Morris (Jim Belushi) and Morris' wife Paula (Carrie Fisher). Drew and Paula also seem to have an affair going on before Drew meets Maddy (Lori Singer). Maddy is apart of Cooper's team and is trying to get even closer to Drew to figure out what he knows.

The film is a fun, little romp filled with lots of hilarious shenanigans - mostly supplied by the various team members on both sides.

After watching Splash, Lori Singer felt like a carbon copy of Daryl Hannah. Plus, I had no idea that this was the same person that was in Footloose. They look almost nothing alike.

Anyway, a pretty decent film that still made me laugh at times. And it's funny to see what happens with Drew just because he happened to wear one red shoe.

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