Alan Smithee Esq.
A man-child on an epic quest to reclaim his prized bicycle. Full of some of the strangest and most brilliant characters you'll ever see. It's quirky in the best ways and it's humor is wonderfully off-beat and bizarre. Needs to be seen for the opening breakfast scene alone...and just gets better.
franciscollobet
The master of Italian Neorealism was undoubtedly and definitely Vittorio De Sica. He created important masterpieces such as "Ladri Di biciclette" or "Umberto D.". The master of parody is undoubtedly and definitely Terry Jones (along with the rest of the "Monty Python" team, of course). He created important masterpieces such as "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life" or "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". Tim Burton clearly understands both of them, and that can be seen in his comic masterpiece "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure".In "Ladri Di biciclette" De Sica delivers the story of a man, Antonio, who needs his bicycle to work, during the post-World War 2 financial crisis in Europe. With the help of his son, Antonio looks for the bicycle until despair, and asks a "psychic" woman for help. One of the aspects that made "Ladri Di biciclette" a great movie was the transformation of the protagonist of the story. At first he was angry at his wife for asking the "psychic" woman for help, but then, at his desperation does it. As if nothing really matters anymore.In "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" Burton makes a homage to this classic masterpiece. It is the story of a man, Pee-Wee (Paul Reubens, he's actually credited as "Pee-Wee Herman") who loves his bicycle more than anything else in the universe. One day it gets stolen. He looks and looks for it, but doesn't find it anywhere. He goes, and asks a "psychic" woman for help. At the end he finds it at "Warner Bros. Pictures" and causes a mess inside the studio.The film is both, a tribute and a parody to De Sica's work as a director, but that's not what makes "Pee-Wee's Big Adventure" great. What does make it great is that Burton shows love and inspiration to the original cinematic source material. One of the things that many great filmmakers, since Hitchcock, to Bresson, have taught us through history is that you can't compare different kinds of art. But De Sica and Burton belong to the same art, and both of them transcend with their films. The movie also makes a very intelligent homage to Federico Fellini, and his "mockumentary", "I Clowns". When it comes to art, very few people are better than Vittorio De Sica. When it comes to making a perfect imitation of art, Tim Burton is by far the best.
William Corden... read 'em and weep
I just watched this movie again after first seeing it in the late 80's. I enjoyed it then and I enjoyed it even more last night. Reubens had the Peewee character polished to a quirky perfection in the TV series and I used to love watching for the wonderful messages it gave out. Such a pity the scandal engulfed him, and thereby the character, as I'm sure it would still be going strong even with all the years that have passed. It's a sweet plot about Peewee having his beloved bike stolen and there's some fabulous lines throughout the movie that have you just plain giggling. It's a sure sign of great comedy when it still produces laughs in this iphone addicted world. I find myself saying "This is so stupid" and it is , but it's a nice stupid and in the end you feel like a little kid yourself.
