FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

jfgibson73 I recently re-watched this movie, not having seen it for probably 20 years. It was just so off the wall, I couldn't help but like it.In this story, Pee Wee lives on a farm and knows enough about agriculture to perform successful cross breeding experiments. When he interacts with the people of nearby town, we get the impression that the action is set in the 30's or 40's. The schoolhouse is one room, the cars are classic models, and the general store looks like a Cracker Barrel restaurant. That was another touch I enjoyed. The townspeople are elderly and reserved, so as to provide the Pee Wee character lots of folks to play off of.The plot involves a circus blowing into town during a big storm. Pee Wee invites them to stay on his farm, and they begin working on a new show. There are two sources of conflict: Pee Wee starts to fall for an acrobat, even though he is engaged, and the people in the town don't want the circus around. The way it works out is that Pee Wee and his fiancée break off the engagement and both find new partners. As far as the circus, Pee Wee gives the townspeople magic hot dogs that turn them into children who are then happy to come to the show. I thought it had lots of great humor, and even though it didn't all work or fit together consistently, I was glad I revisited it. Better than I remembered.

DAVID SIM Pee-wee's Big Adventure was an unparallelled cinematic delight. It brought to attention the previously unknown Tim Burton, who provided the perfect starring vehicle for oddball comedian Pee-wee Herman (in real life Paul Reubens).The mingling of Burton's kitsch aesthetic with Reuben's bizarre persona turned out to be a perfect match. Big Adventure had a very simple story to go from. Pee-wee wanted to be reunited with his beloved bike. And that basic premise was all it needed. Burton infused the film with a beautiful colour scheme, oddball delights and kooky curiosities, all played to the hilt by the irrepressible Pee-wee.Pee-wee's Big Adventure turned out to be a surprise box-office smash hit, cementing Burton's place among Hollywood's brightest and eccentric filmmakers.It took three years for a further instalment to arrive on the big screen. In the interim, Pee-wee got his own TV show, Pee-wee's Playhouse, and dominated the ratings as the host of one of America's most popular children's shows. Reubens took time out from the show in 1988 to make one more film, Big Top Pee-wee.Big Top came about a year before Reuben's career was damaged after he was caught masturbating in an X-rated movie theatre. The character was effectively retired after that, and although there is talk of a new Pee-wee Herman movie in the making, I'm still not entirely sure it will ever happen.In the meantime, we do have two of his adventures to fall back on. But after seeing Big Top, you wonder if you really want to see another one. Because the Pee-wee Herman you see here is not quite the one you remember.It seems that Pee-wee has done a bit of growing up. Where in the first he was content to potter about his pastel coloured mansion playing with Rube Goldberg breakfast making contraptions and copiously caring for his customized bike, here Pee-wee has settled into an almost normal life.Don't forget...I said almost! Pee-wee's now a farmer. He cultivates hot dog trees, tends to cows that produce chocolate milk, and he even has a talking pig, Vance as a business partner!He even has a personal life now. He's engaged to prim schoolmistress Winnie (Penelope Ann Miller), and lives in a normal town. Unfortunately, he's forced to share it with some not very nice townsfolk.But one windy day, fate blows a circus right into Pee-wee's backyard, all filled with curious kooks. First there's ringmaster Mace Montana (Kris Kristofferson, excellent). His wife, Midge, 2 inches tall, with a voice much bigger than she is. And best of all, Gina (Valeria Golino), the beautiful acrobat and star attraction, the woman Pee-wee falls for.I think the reason Big Top Pee-wee isn't as successful is because it doesn't have a director who's perfectly attuned to the material. The joy of the first film was Tim Burton provided an eccentric outsider's take on life. But this film's director, Randal Kleiser doesn't have that quality. He doesn't occupy Pee-wee's headspace the way Burton was able to.And the more Pee-wee tries to fit in to our world, the more apart from it he seems. He has no place in our world. He lives in one of his own rules and devisings.Also with foreknowledge of what was to come for Reubens, you do get a bit uncomfortable watching him 'nail' Winnie, engage in a bit of two-timing, and the film even implies that he loses his virginity to Gina. With him still hosting a children's show at the time of the film's release, that makes it seem all the more unpalatable.There are occasions where Big Top shows some of the similar quirks that made the first film so endearing. Like Pee-wee's farm animals sleeping in beds. Pee-wee plucking a worm from an apple to feed birds. And all the animals gathered around a table for breakfast. Danny Elfman also provides another whimsical film score to enjoy.But Big Top never really ignites. It never bursts out with the joy and exuberance that Burton brought to the first one. There is a good cast, but they somehow look a little awkward trying their best to connect with someone as alien as Pee-wee.Kris Kristofferson probably comes off best by playing the sincerity perfectly straight. But the one real shining light is the underrated Valeria Golino. She brings a passionate charge to the role of Gina. She brings Pee-wee down to earth, but is wise enough not to leave him there for too long. Because she knows he's always at his best when filled with childlike whimsy. She reminds us of the Pee-wee we once knew.Big Top Pee-wee never inhabits the bizarre, unreal world that made the first film such a treat. I think Pee-wee has become too domesticated. If there is to be another Pee-wee adventure, he can't be kept on a leash. He must be allowed to flourish. That way we can enjoy the company of the Pee-wee we remember so well.

Tommy Nelson "Pee Wee's Big Adventure" is one of the funniest, most entertaining family films I have ever seen. Because of that, this movie is really disappointing. When something claims to star Pee-Wee Herman, it only works if Pee-Wee has the spotlight. In this, many scenes featured only circus characters, and all too often, Pee-Wee was playing second banana. The movie itself was very strange. Mr. Herman now owns a farm where his animals cook breakfast every morning, and he has a talking pig sidekick. Where in the last movie, and the new at the time kid's show Pee-Wee was like a little boy and didn't like girls, here he likes them too much. This movie has Pee-Wee humping a woman, making sexual innuendos and possibly losing his virginity. It's not a good movie, though it does have the occasional laugh. Kids might like it, chances are adults won't.My rating: ** out of ****.

Lance I think this is a hilarious flick. Pee Wee is back and in an entirely different setting. It's weird because it's almost like Pee Wee set back 50 years ago or something.Anyways, this is indeed a bizarre little comedy. We have a talking pig, a tree that grows cocktail weiners, and believe it or not the longest on screen kiss in cinema history! That's right and it's all here in this here Pee Wee flick! About that kiss scene... when I was young I'd always forward right through that scene because it bored the heck out of me, but of course I didn't catch the humor in it back then. Nowadays I consider it one of the funniest scenes in the film. I love how the music stops and the kissing continues and then the music starts again. Fantastic.Speaking of the music, Danny Elfman is back and contributes a terrific circus like score and it fits beautifully.It's a good funny family film... but let me tell ya, the adults should love it just as much as any kid would.