Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985)

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

The Tequila dance scene in the biker bar is my all time favorite scene from any movie. The casting of this movie was excellent, everyone in the movie was great.

Somebody has stolen Pee Wee's bike, and he must get it back. Like Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, this isn't just any bike. It's his prize possession. No, it doesn't float or fly, but it might as well in his mind. An obnoxious, spoiled rich kid (just as child-like as Pee Wee, but not in a good way) covets the bike, but Pee Wee won't part for it for all the money in the world. When it all of a sudden vanishes, Pee Wee becomes desperate and that is where his adventure begins.The music of Danny Elfman becomes practically a supporting character as Pee Wee goes on the road, hitchhiking and meeting all sorts of strange characters along the way. It all ends up in Hollywood where everything comes together, turning kiwi into a celebrity of this. But in this situation comedy, it's the individual sequences that stand out, and boy, are some of them unforgettable! Of course, the most famous is his meeting up with grim woman truck driver Large Marge, played with joyous dark wit by Alice Nunn. Future "Saturday Night Live" star Jan Hooks is hysterical as a tour guide in the Alamo.Also popping in is none other than Elvira, appearing as a rather tough biker chick. Pee Wee gets to save his butt by doing the big shoe dance. An escaped convict nearly makes Pee Wee his bride, a truck stop dinosaur comes to life, and heroic Pee Wee shows his love for caged animals in a burning pet store. Practically ruining a Hollywood studio, Pee Wee shows that underdog can be the hero, and most especially that bullies never win.This all comes from the mind of the very inventive Pemberton, here making his feature film debut and what an opening sequence he creates with kiwis start of the day in his very extraordinary kitchen. Salesman score becomes almost the march of the bicycles, and long after this movie is over, you may be humming that music in your head. Of course at this time, Pee-wee Herman was the star of his own television show and while he only had infrequent appearances in films afterwards, his feature film debut would go on to become one of the great comedy classics of the 1980s. It is one that you can continuously watch over and over again and always find something to laugh with.

This was a fun film I watched when I was a kid back in 85. I never liked the TV Show as much, but then I bought this movie on VHS and now own it on DVD - hope to buy the Blu-Ray in the near future... Anyway, Pee-Wee is one of those classic cheesy films that makes you want to get up and dance towards the part when Pee-Wee was in the bar doing his last dance request! Anyway, the movie is fun to watch on how he has a awesome bike and tries to save it from bad guys and founds out it ended up in WB Studios and they turned the bike adventure into a movie and made Pee-Wee a star of his own film in a film! I just wish the film they made in the end of this movie was real as a 2nd movie adoption. However, it is a fun film for kids and adults at heart who enjoys this for many years to come!

This may have been a tale about Pee Wee's "big" adventure, but everything about it said "small" to me. It's like the saying goes - "Small things amuse small minds" - And, yes, so, indeed, does this movie.It sure seemed to me like everything in this garishly loud, flippantly gay movie was being shown to me as if I were all still in kindergarten.Wearing mascara, face powder, and even lipstick, Paul Reubens' Pee Wee Herman character (with his slight frame and decidedly effeminate mannerisms) came across to me like some sort of frustrated transvestite who would've obviously been much more comfortable wearing 6" stilettos and a frilly dress.The small-minded mentality and eccentric humour that prevailed throughout Pee Wee's Big Adventure was strictly hit-n-miss stuff which only worked to its advantage about half the time.For the life of me, I cannot fathom Reubens' Pee Wee character being as popular as he apparently was back in the 1980s. At best, I found his often-bitchy shenanigans to be only marginally amusing, for the most part.As well, I find it hard to believe that this film of flighty nuttiness was actually directed by the heavy hand of Mr. Gloom & Doom, himself, Tim Burton.