Pee Wee’s Big Adventure & Ed Wood
Reviews by Paul Preston
Welcome to Today I Watched…, a series of posts documenting my new challenge – watch a movie a day for the rest of my life. Keep coming back to TheMovieGuys.net to find out what I watch each day…and get my take on it.
When I see a movie that’s a new release in theaters or on demand, I’ll give it a proper review in the “Reviews” or “Home Viewing”, otherwise, I’ll write about it here.
May 25, 2017 – Hired Gun – catch the review of this one-night-only Fathom Events doc that will no doubt be on demand soon in the REVIEWS category of TheMovieGuys.net.
May 26, 2017 – Baywatch – catch the review of this early entry in the worst film of the year race in the REVIEWS category of TheMovieGuys.net.
May 27/28, 2017 – Pee Wee’s Big Adventure & Ed Wood
The great New Beverly Cinema picked a Tim Burton double feature for the holiday weekend and seeing both of these films again was fantastic.
I wasn’t that young when Pee Wee’s Big Adventure first was released, but for some reason I didn’t remember much of it so this viewing was like taking it in brand new. Sure, I remembered Large Marge (hard to forget) and phrases like “I know you are, but what am I?”, but I, for some reason, forgot the Texas jokes (gold) and the goofy morning breakfast routine (I remembered there was one, but I forgot all the giddy details). Being surrounded by the world’s biggest champions of whatever’s on screen, the New Beverly Cinema audience, doesn’t hurt either. Every film should be so lucky to play in front of such adoring fans.
Seeing Ed Wood was a similar experience – I don’t think I had seen it since its theatrical run. Now, if you hang around The Movie Guys, when we were making The Movie Showcast every week, you hear enough Ed Wood quotes out of Adam and Bart to equal the Ed Wood running time at least twice over, so it was good to see those lines out of the original actors. I think Ed Wood is Tim Burton’s masterpiece, outrageous but never subject to the excess to which some of Burton’s fantasy film’s fall victim. It’s about madcap characters, but the movie isn’t madcap, and that’s the key. In fact, the film has an inate sadness about it that permeates all the lunacy, even underlying Ed Wood’s unending optimism as the world’s worst filmmaker.
I also took away a strange by-product this time out – I was inspired. Ed Wood just doesn’t give a shit about what anyone thinks of him and he’s undeterred in his goal to make art – plays, movies, scripts, he loves it all. They’re gloriously awful, but there was something in his conviction this time out that was…inspiring. Naturally, I aspire to a higher level of art whenever the hell I finish that script I’m working on, but kudos to Ed Wood, Jr. for getting his films DONE. That’s more accomplishment than most.
It’s hard to believe Ed Wood only received two Oscar nominations, but it won them both – makeup and Best Supporting Actor for Martin Landau. The cinematography is worth a nod, as is the brilliant script, Burton’s direction and Johnny Depp’s classic performance. Ed Wood is about the cinema and firmly embraces and glorifies the medium to celebrate it. The big screen experience was worth it but if you’ve never seen this movie, even on a TV screen, it’s a must.
PEE WEE’S BIG ADVENTURE
Directed by: Tim Burton
Release Date: August 9, 1985
Run Time: 91 Minutes
Rated: PG
Country: USA
Distributor: Warner Brothers
ED WOOD
Directed by: Tim Burton
Release Date: October 7, 1994
Run Time: 127 Minutes
Rated: R
Country: USA
Distributor: Touchstone Pictures
