Now Streaming: THE 'BURBS, Where Tom Hanks Never Belonged, Becomes a Nightmare

Look who moved into the neighborhood.

The 'Burbs (1989)
The film is now streaming, free w/ads, on YouTube; it is also available on Blu-ray from Shout! Studios, which, frankly, is probably the better option.

Even before he starred in 1993's Sleepless in Seattle and Philadelphia, Tom Hanks was identified with cities, rather than suburbs.

This is rather odd to me, since he was born in Concord, California, described as a "major regional suburban East Bay center within the San Francisco Bay area," some 29 miles east of San Francisco. Nonetheless, after starring on TV's big-city sitcom Bosom Buddies from 1980-82, Hanks became a big-screen star thanks to his leading role in Ron Howard's NYC-set Splash, and after that, I always associated him with cities, for some reason.

Of course, my pet theory was smashed by Richard Benjamin's The Money Pit (1986), in which Hanks and Shelley Long buy a house in desperate need of repair on Long Island in New York, and my pet theory was blown to smithereens by Joe Dante's The 'Burbs, which I somehow missed during its theatrical release in 1989.

Written by Dana Gould, the film unites Tom Hanks and Carrie Fisher together in marriage as Ray and Carol Peterson, a happy couple living in a pleasant cul-de-sac neighborhood in the fictional Hinkley Hills. Ray has declared that he will enjoy a very restful 'staycation' in the neighborhood, rather than traveling elsewhere.

From there, we meet Ray's neighbors, including military veteran Lt. Mark (Bruce Dern) and his wife Bonnie (Wendy Schaal), a young man working on his house (Corey Feldman), and the boisterous Art (Rick Ducommun). Having a bit too much time on their hands, the men, especially, become obsessed with the mysterious new inhabitant of a formerly abandoned, now dilapidated house, watching as their new neighbor(s) engage in suspicious behavior.

Suspicious to them, that is. Nothing the new neighbors do is particularly egregious, but the men are quick to make assumptions and jump to conclusions. Even the initially dismissive Ray becomes increasingly obsessed with the neighbors.

Note that the suburban neighborhood is all-white -- not unusual, even in the late 1980s in the U.S. -- and it's the men who get obsessed, often behaving like little boys, as director Joe Dante establishes, for example, when Ray is sick and does not come out to play with Lt. Mark and Art, whose body gestures slump like disappointed children as they walk sadly away.

Early on, Dick Miller and Robert Piccardo, members of Dante's unofficial stock company, appear in a funny bit as garbage collectors, which clearly signals where the movie is heading. Indeed, the hijinks escalate throughout the picture, and Dante's cartoon energy as a director does likewise, becoming more frantic and wild as Ray, Lt. Mark, and Art take matters into their own hands and try to get to the bottom of the large mystery that has moved into their neighborhood.

Tom Hanks' first role as a father came as his career was reaching new heights on the strength of Penny Marshall's Big (1988). After this movie's relatively disappointing box office returns, Hanks would turn increasingly to dramatic roles in a richly varied career.

What makes the movie solid, though, is Hanks' everyman comic presence, which gets more and more twisted as he's pulled along by his neighbors and his behavior becomes more and more erratic. He's surrounded by a talented cast, and guided by Dante to the hilarious conclusion, where he really loses it.

Speaking as someone who grew up in a suburban, cul-de-sac neighborhood, I felt a great connection to the premise, which may be why I avoided seeing it until now. After all, I lived it; why did I need to see it dramatized?

Happily, Joe Dante and Tom Hanks proved why I needed to see it: The 'Burbs is far darker than I would have imagined, coming from a major Hollywood studio. It's also far more funny than I expected, and far weirder.

Now Streaming celebrates independent and international genre films and television shows, as well as films from earlier decades, that are available on legal streaming services.