MEDIOCREMOVIE.CLUB
  • Reviews
  • Side Pieces
  • Shane of Thrones
  • Podcast
  • About
  • Archives
  • Game of Thrones Fantasy

Pee-wee's Big Holiday

8/15/2016

7 Comments

 

D+
​1.44

Paul Reuben's oddball character takes some time off, gets in some wacky scrapes.

Directed by John Lee
Starring Paul Reubens, Joe Manganiello, and Alia Shawkat
​Initial Review by Chris Cook

Picture
In the 1980s, Paul Reubens brought us the character Pee-wee Herman. From the Tim Burton-directed Pee-wee’s Big Adventure to the Saturday morning hit Pee-wee’s Playhouse, he delighted us when we were younger. There were the colorful Playhouse characters: Chairry, Conky 2000, Jambi, Laurence Fishburne as Cowboy Curtis. We screamed when the secret word was spoken. We all wanted his bicycle. We remember the bar top dance to Tequila and are well aware that the Alamo has no basement (I’ve been there, it really doesn’t).

And then we got Big Top Pee-wee and the infamous adult theater arrest. Was Pee-wee Herman gone for good? Fast forward to 2010 when we saw the release of a new Pee-wee Herman Show, a stage version of the Playhouse show, and now in 2016, a new original film on Netflix, Pee-wee’s Big Holiday.

​Rowan Atkinson’s character Mr. Bean had a bad movie about going on a holiday, but I still find his character hilarious. After watching the latest Pee-wee movie, will my view of his character be different now that I’m older? I don’t know.
 
I’d like to share part of a review posted on the Pee-wee’s Big Holiday Wikipedia page. It says: “The simple story is a little short on laughs, but there’s plenty of sweet wackiness for Pee-wee Herman fans to enjoy.”
 
Simple story is correct. Short on laughs? Yes, very much so. And there was plenty of wackiness, which most of it I didn’t care for. Is this what I was questioning before? Am I not a Pee-wee Herman fan anymore?
 
First off, does Paul Reubens age? He must have that Ralph Macchio thing going on. The simple story consists of Pee-wee residing and never leaving (But didn’t he have a Big Adventure?) in the small town of Fairville. He works as a cook, his band breaks up, and then he encounters a chance meeting with Joe Manganiello, the True Blood/Magic Mike actor playing himself. Joe invites Pee-wee to his birthday party in New York and, after hearing the comment “live a little” (which sort of becomes a theme to the movie), Pee-wee decides to take a holiday and leave Fairville.
 
This is where the film becomes a parallel of Big Adventure. He’s on the road and meets a bunch of wacky characters: a trio of female bank robbers, a farmer with nine daughters, a bus-full of hairstylists, a lady with a flying car (played by Diane Salinger who portrayed Simone, the lady that wanted to go to Paris in Big Adventure), Grizzly Bear Daniels and an Amish community. (I liked the line about how it would take five hours to go two miles.)
 
When bands release singles, they are typically accompanied by a B-side. If we were to call Pee-wee’s Big Adventure a single, I would call Big Holiday the B-side. Most of the jokes fell flat, the gags (introduction of the farmer’s daughters, signing the waver at the snake place, releasing the air from the balloon [although it was a little funny how all the Amish were doing it later] got stale and repetitive.
 
Another big issue I had was the lack of nostalgia from earlier Pee-wee material. Sure, he had more wacky contraptions at his house, there was a guy selling gag items, we know that he still doesn’t like snakes, but I wanted more. While he was hitchhiking, how great would it have been if he was picked up by a recently-released from prison Mickey or the trucker who told him the story of Large Marge? After waking up twice on straw, I half-expected to see Jack the hobo sitting next to him (sadly, the actor portraying Jack in Adventure passed in ’03). It did have a few minimal good moments of nostalgia such as the line, “If you take a picture it will last longer,” spoken by the actress who played Simone (she also repeats her line of “Au Revoir” when departing), and of course Pee-wee’s comment that he has “little experience on motorcycles.”
 
When Pee-wee finally arrives in New York, we get a dumb musical number that did nothing for me. He reaches Joe’s building where the party is, but falls down a well. And how he gets out of the well, WTF? And I found it a little ironic we had a bizarre dream sequence resembling E.T. in the opening, being an earlier movie from this round.
 
Pee’wee’s Big Holiday did have a solid script, regardless of whether or not I found it funny. We got a basic “road trip” story and a variety of supporting characters. Compared to his 1985 Adventure, this one simply fell flat and lacked the charm in recapturing the joy of the Pee-wee Herman character. I apparently grew up, but I’ll still give this a C-
7 Comments
Admin
8/15/2016 12:19:21 pm

Reserved for replies to initial review

Reply
Drew
8/17/2016 11:23:22 am

Pee - Wee's Big Holiday was exactly what I expected; bad comedy and a dumb plot. Almost everything was predictable and the lame jokes annoyed me. There was a moment that made me laugh and it was at the Snake store. The literalness of the jokes made me giggle and roll my eyes. The ironic line from that scene was when Pee - Wee commented "That was stupid." How interesting.

Paul Reubens was spry for a sixty - three year old and it appeared he did not slow down. Now, he has been this character for thirty plus years and he plays it so well that if anyone else did Pee - Wee Herman, it would be a let down. His laugh, walk, and overall mannerisms, belong to Herman; thereby Reubens. His continual ability to do this character at a high level speaks to his acting dedication. Even though he has done other characters in both films and video games, he is Pee - Wee Herman.

Despite those things, this film was bad. It made me want to stop watching and play my old Madden game but I did not. It just reeked.

Grade: D

Reply
Jon
8/18/2016 01:04:44 am

This will likely be my shortest review on MMC to date. I'm channeling Bryan. Math, math, math, cycling, gardening, bad at dissection, bad at dissection, and I'm there. Pee-wee Big Holiday is not hateful in any way at all, so I can't give it a D. It's warm-spirited in all things, as the joke is never on anyone, but I use the word joke liberally. I laughed once, at the balloons. Reubens and director John Lee have some of David Wain's The State comedy in him, where jokes go on for longer than they should, getting funny then not funny and then funny all over again (Tell me about it. You can say that again.) except it only worked the one time. Maybe the actors just don't sell it as well.

This is earnest comedy from a character I have no prior connection with. Reubens is unquestionably comfortable in the character's shoes, even under a pancake of make-up. Manganiello is game, and I'm always happy to see the Jump-To-Conclusions actor. As a series of goofy vignettes on Pee-wee's trip to NYC, none of them completely fail, but none of them really succeed either. I was just sitting there, watching patiently, with the one exception. This gets a C-. I've heard a string of great things about Pee-wee's Big Adventure. I think I'll pin this modest failure on Lee.

Reply
Bryan
8/23/2016 09:06:25 am

I'm wasn't sure if I should take offense to "bad at dissection." I spent my morning bike ride to work thinking about it - and I'm ok with it. We can't all look for the childhood trauma in the background of the latter half of the third scene which had a monumental impact on PeeWee's treehouse, later causing him to fall down a well only to relive his nightmares based on the 5th word the bank robber said.

Reply
Sean
8/18/2016 10:17:50 pm

i had looked forward to Big Holiday when it was announced and even mentioned a plan to pick it when it came out and never got around to it until this week. Maybe I knew it wouldn't be good.

Aside from missing the laughs Big Holiday was missing a couple things Big Adventure had that could've helped. A cuter than hot potential love interest in Dottie played by Elizabeth Daily (also voice of Rugrats Chucy) a heel of an adversary in Francis played by Mark Holton who at the time looked like a fat Eric Trump and even a world around him who adored his nature but understood he was a weirdo kid in an adults body. When you surround Pee Wee with a world of weirdos then he loses his magical whimsy and is just one of the weirdos.
C- is fair

Reply
Bryan
8/22/2016 11:53:54 pm

Every step of the way I was hoping PeeWee would get murdered. First by the biker guy, then the bank robbers, next the Amish, followed by the rural dad, and we can't forget the guy in the woods. Alas, PeeWee lives to see New York. This may be the first movie I've seen from start to finish where rooting for the death of the main character is what kept me watching. PeeWee singing was moderately amusing and I genuinely liked when he was hallucinating in the well. This wasn't pleasant. D-

Reply
Shane
9/15/2016 11:04:26 am

Pee Wee brings back memories
But not many laughs
Not great, but not too awful

C

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Authors

    JUST SOME IDIOTS GIVING SURPRISINGLY AVERAGE MOVIE REVIEWS.

    Categories

    All
    2017 Catch Up Trio
    80s
    Action
    Adventure
    AI Trio
    Author - Blair
    Author - Bobby
    Author - Bryan
    Author - Chris
    Author - Cook
    Author - Drew
    Author - Joe
    Author - Jon
    Author - JR
    Author - Lane
    Author - Phil
    Author - Pierce
    Author - Sean
    Author - Shane
    Author - Tom
    Best Of 2016
    Best Of 2017
    Best Of 2018
    Best Of 2019
    Best Of 2020
    Best Of 2021
    Best Of 2022
    Comedy
    Culture Clash Trio
    Denzel Trio
    Documentary
    Drama
    Foreign
    Historical
    Horror
    Internet Docs Trio
    Mediocrities
    Movie Trios
    Musical
    Podcast
    Romance
    Round 3.1
    Round 3.2
    Round 3.3
    Round 4.1
    Round 4.2
    Round 4.3
    Sci Fi
    Season 10
    Season 2
    Season 3
    Season 4
    Season 5
    Season 6
    Season 7
    Season 8
    Season 9
    Shorts
    Sports
    Thriller
    Western
    Women In Men's Worlds

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014

    Click to set custom HTML